Midterm Break...

Well, we are in the middle of exams and next week I will be heading to St. Petersburg with everyone! I'm super excited. This week has been pretty terrible, due to the fact that my students keep cheating. I was almost reduced to tears in one class. It was my adult class, and all my friends are in that class, so it should have been the easiest oral exam to run. They just couldn't or wouldn't get it, though. I'd try to give someone a chance to find their own mistake and someone else would tell them, either in Russian or English. The whole situation was tense and awful for everyone involved, including the people who weren't cheating (they all had their heads in their hands looking ashamed on behalf of their classmates). It is just so blatant and disrespectful... Plus grading my friends sucked. Blah.

BUT! On the bright side, my friend Sasha (who is one of my all around favorite people here) kicked butt on the oral exam because he worked so fricking hard on it. He even came in on his birthday to do extra practice with me and we ended up having this awesome conversation about war/international policy based on the question "Who is the President of the United States?" I actually used some of my vocabulary from this summer; it's funny how something that was so awful and stressful back then is actually really awesome and enriching here. Anyway, I've decided that Sasha is actually an American who was born in Russia because his ideas and personality are really, really unusual especially for Russian men.

In general Artyom, Boris and Sasha are super awesome. We do all this crazy fun stuff, like last week they took me to an arcade and we bowled and drove in bumper cars and ended up racing around a little playground in the middle of the night. And ice skating is coming up on Sunday.... I feel like I'm finally getting into the Russian part of Russia, and I'm SOSOSOSOSOSO happy that we're friends. I'm still hoping to make friends with some Russian girls, but weirdly the cultural differences seem to be more of a problem there, at least so far.

Anyway, coming up in the next few weeks: I have to run a workshop for Russian English teachers. "What?" you might ask. "Don't they have way more experience than you do?" Well, let me tell you, I asked the same thing. But it sounds like more of an English practice session for them combined with cultural discussions (I will be giving the American weddings powerpoint again) and some new ideas for games to play in the classroom. At least we are going straight to Peter after that if things go badly. Nothing like getting out of town for a couple of days...

This next week we are also having a Halloween party, complete with...limbo and musical chairs? Apparently they demand those games at every party so you can imagine me limbo-ing to the monster mash next Saturday...probably dressed in Candy Land gear. Hmmmm....

Still haven't been homesick, despite having been weirdly out of touch with almost everyone for a while. This whole year has an unusual feel to it. It's all very formative I'm sure. Anyway, I'm thinking a lot about what I want to do next year, and more and more I'm thinking that a second year in Russia might be in order....or maybe Spain? I'll see how things feel in a couple of months. LOVE YOU ALL!!!