Because Victoria is so amazing and has a huge impact on my life I've been writing in my personal journal daily, just recording little things that happen, and although it's only been a week since I've been doing this I'm in love with it, it's been amazing realizing what happens on a daily basis here and how each day teaching goes and just little things during the day that happen, special teaching moments, etc. Today I was writing and I decided it might be a good thing to share on here for my friends and family back home.
Today I slipped and fell hard on the ice. It was super painful and embarrassing, I'm like 97% sure my legs flew up over my head like in the cartoons, however, it was not an out of body experience so I can't say for certain if that is true. My hands were in my pockets so unfortunately (and luckily) I fell on my side which means my elbow/knee/shoulder took the brunt of the fall. I couldn't bend my arm for about 30 minutes after that and I was a bit worried. Once I got done teaching and came home I checked and I had a big lump on my knee (I had like two kneecaps), and a bruise had started on my elbow. I had a rock embedded into my hand and Kelsey did surgery to remove it (hopefully I don't get gangrene). Now I'm really sore on my shoulder and my neck hurts. It was awkward and also people just keep walking by and don't pay you any attention here if you slip and fall on ice.
A few days ago I got a packing slip in the mail with my last name in Russian so it was clear I got a package and I was stoked, but unfortunately I had to contact our coordinator here so she could help me figure out how to pick it up, the back was all in Russian and we needed to fill it out as well as show my passport, etc. So she said she'd be free to do it on Thursday so I tried to ignore that it was sitting in the mail waiting for me (I was pretty excited about it), we got to pick it up and I found out it was from my Gammy and she had sent me two pairs of fleece-lined leggings which are going to come in super handy here (I've already been wearing the pair I have under my pants everyday) so I'm super happy that I have more, especially since it's getting colder and snowing more (it's only October!)
Just as a little background for this story - in our classes we have five rules (well six) and the number one rule is "NO RUSSIAN, ENGLISH ONLY!" The kids get in trouble if they're speaking Russian and get sent to the Russian chair, some call others out when they're speaking Russian, some don't realize they're doing it and some just don't care. We try to make the Russian chair a bad thing because then they don't get to participate in whatever fun activity we're doing. Today in class, during one of my lessons, a Russian teacher came in and started speaking Russian to me (happens a lot, I tend to give back the deer in headlights look), I thought I picked up a few words asking me if I spoke Russian when I didn't reply at first (and clearly looked super confused) so I said "Het" (nyet) which means no in Russian and she left. One of my students, Giana, looked at me, almost offended and in shock, and said "No Russian, English only". And she was right, I had totally broken the golden rule. I thought it was really funny that one of my students called me out on it, especially since my Russian is VERY limited.
p.s. I bought a Harry Potter book in Russian for a dollar today - I know, it's super impressive.
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