Last week of classes...

So here I am, two days out from being done here for good. Everything has the feel of winding down, Russian lessons ending (whew), the weather is (still) awful. It is definitely time to go home..

Still, there are some end-of-year experiences that I wouldn't trade for anything. Natalia Petrovna invited us out to her dacha (a small Russian summer house outside of town) and we grilled in the rain and drank wine and met all the neighbors. Dachas are so cute, I'm so glad that we got to go out. Everyone was wearing comfy clothes in their self-made little houses surrounded by their gardens, and it really reminded me of my grandmother's Chalet. NP is such a wonderful woman, I'm going to miss her so much. I'm hoping to make it out there to spend the night before the end of the year, but maybe that is being too greedy. I'm just happy that we got to go at all.

I had one of my last days at the orphanage today. I think we are going to try to go next Wednesday and that will be it unless my grandma wants to go. It was sad, one little boy with a lot of emotional problems bust out of the little fence and came running after us yelling "UNCLE I'M COMING I FOLLOWED YOU!" He really likes Adam... He also called me mom, tried to get us all to leave with his best friend. The woman who was working there today wasn't my favorite either, getting on them about not being polite enough with her, telling me that they are too heavy for girls to carry, etc. She even made fun of my Kostya for being a "mama's boy" because he started crying as we were leaving. I couldn't believe it...he is two years old and in an orphanage.. It's really sad but Russian culture is just brutal on orphans, for some reason they are considered evil. There are even TV commercials showing little kids playing with someone saying "See? They are just like normal "home" children."

Tomorrow is the final staff lunch, complete with gifts and poetry recitations, which I must say I'm not really looking forward to. Still, only one last hurdle of fake niceties at the American Home before the end of the year...