Snow, School, and S'Korea.

It snowed about three or four inches on Wednesday night, and it snowed a lot today too! It made everything fresh, white, and clean in the morning. I was so happy. Muscovites love snow because it makes the city prettier. If it doesn't snow for a long time, the snow that there is turns dark grey or black from the dirty roads. So, people always want fresh snow to cover up the gross snow.

This isn't Cathy's car, but the snow certainly piles up on her van like it did to this car. When Cathy drives to Hinkson, our morning ritual is different than when I walk and take the metro to school. We walk to the van which is about a five minute walk. Then we spend about ten minutes scraping all the snow and ice off the van. Then Cathy gets a shovel, and she digs a pathway so the wheels can easily turn out of the parking space. A parking space costs 2,500 rubles a month at least in our neck of the woods. That is about $75, but you do at least get a guard (and his seemingly rabid and scary guard dog) on watch for you at all times.

The fresh snow has made everything beautiful, so I took advantage of a few spare moments after school and took some pictures.

I like to call this a "snow relocator."

This snow has been relocated to the base of the trees.


Our school is surrounded by various apartment buildings...and of course lovely trees.

The kids definitely love the fresh snow, but guess who constructed this snowwoman? The Russian guards at Hinkson! Isn't her dress just lovely? I love the blue belt. ;) I wish I had gotten a picture of the back of her. She even has her own hairstyle. One of the guards at Hinkson saw me taking a picture; he started laughing, and then said something to me in Russian. I smiled and waved to him. I hope he was saying hello, but I doubt it. Most people don't laugh at you when they say hello. I have a feeling he was saying he created the snowwoman. I would have complimented his artistry if I had understood him at the time.

An icy path in the playground. The kids like to slide down this.

Lone snowwoman stares off into the distance...

My Sorel boots are seriously the best investment I made while preparing for Russia. It was totally worth the price, and let me tell you -- they were pricey. Never are my feet even a BIT cold or damp or wet.

The playground.

The designated snowball zone!

Kevin shaking all the snow off.

The sixth grade challenged the seventh and eighth grade to a fight. It went on forever, and I got several shots of them ramming and tackling each other. They're hilarious. Mr. Clark who was on playground duty said, "I wish I weren't on duty. Otherwise I'd be right in there."

School surroundings...

Hinkson.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!!!

I feel like I'm really getting to know people here at the school now, and I am really excited that there are many different kinds of people at HCA -- young, old, fluent, terribly unfluent, native Russian speakers, native English speakers, etc. Most of the custodial staff is Russian, but we have several Russian teachers who speak English very well. I am so glad they're here. I love to hear them speak to one another in Russian in the teacher's lounge. Occasionally I pick up on a word or two.

One woman, I can't remember her name, is so friendly, but she doesn't speak a lick of English. She is a custodian, and every time she sees me she says, "Privyet!" which means hello. Normally I just smile, but the other day I ventured to return the privyet, and she then said, "Kak vashi dila?" Thankfully, I got that far in my Russian studies and knew she was asking me how I was. I said, "Horosho!" which means good or well. Her face immediately broke into a big smile, and then she put her hand on my shoulder and started spouting all sorts of things in Russian to me. I smiled, but I had no clue what she was saying. I imagine she was rejoicing at the fact that I knew at least a little Russian.

Regardless, I felt like I had a conversation with her...in Russian. I was thinking too...My learning Russian parallels with my nephew's learning to talk. On the phone he can say, "Hi. Wub you. Bye." That's a real conversation. It has a beginning, a middle, and an end. It's the same with the Russian woman...except I am playing the role of toddler. ;)

Speaking of children, I feel like I am really getting to know my students as well. Artyom (Ar-tyohm), one of my seventh grade boys and my only real Russian student (even though he hardly has an accent), has already played a trick on me. Is that initiation? He said, "Miss Beck, you have to play this maze game online. Mr. Brande, show it to her." I knew that there had to be a catch. The game was boring and poorly constructed, so I knew there was some other reason he wanted me to play. I knew...I just knew...it was one of those things where a scary picture pops up and scares you. I was right, and I jumped. I'm sure he told all of his friends, "I made Miss Beck jump today!" But Artyom wasn't malicious in his joke. In fact, he's been very kind and respectful towards me. He's also a movie/TV snob, and he asks me my opinion on movies and TV shows a lot. He asks me "Have you heard, seen, watched?" questions all the time. So, I can't be a complete geek...right??? He asked me, "What is your favorite superhero, Miss Beck?" Wanting to win his favor, I picked a random superhero (as if I cared). "Uh, Batman...Oh, wait, he doesn't have any super powers, does he? Um, Spiderman."

I have started teaching sixth grade. We're reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. I haven't read it. That was the one book I didn't read in my Young Adult Literature course, but I don't think they know I haven't read it. I think I hide it pretty well.

The chaplain at school asked me if I preferred a certain class yet or not, and honestly, I love them all equally. They are each unique in really wonderful ways, and I appreciate so many different things about them.

Sixth grade is good because the kids are still sweet and innocent -- especially the boys (at least as compared to the older ones). They are still babies. Here are a few of them:

These are a few of my Korean sixth graders.

In seventh grade, the boys are trying to be cool and grown up, so they are less timid and smiley.

All of my Korean girls in all grades are very quiet and shy. When they laugh, they cover their smiles. Oh, and they have AMAZING fashion taste too. I feel completely uncool when they are around. They are so naturally hip and stylish. And actually, that's true of the boys too. They are all really snappy dressers. I think it's a Korean pop culture thing.

I know you're not supposed to have favorites as a teacher, but I do have a few favorites already. It's not that I show favoritism towards them; it's just that they melt my heart. (See little boy with peace sign in the picture. He's absolutely precious.)

One of my sixth graders has a quiet voice, a lisp, and an emo haircut. He's absolutely adorable. In the halls, he sees me and says, "Hi, Miss Beck!" in his tiny little voice. So cute. But on the playground? He's vicious! He screams and attacks people with snowballs. It's like he has a completely different personality when he goes outside to play.

Another one of my sixth graders wanted my Gmail account on the first day. She's sweet. Phil said, "Don't be surprised if she comes and gives you her lunch one day. She's incredibly generous." She also came to me after class and wanted me to clarify something in the novel. She loves reading and learning.

One of my Korean boys has a mullet. He is absolutely adorable, and he's really good at vocabulary words. I adore him because he has a mullet and is Korean. The combination just kills me... :) He's in the picture too, next to the peace-sign boy, but you can't see his mullet. Sorry, I'll have to get a better shot to show you.

It's an interesting thing -- teaching Koreans. Eighth grade is reading To Kill a Mockingbird, seventh grade is reading Treasure Island, and sixth grade is reading Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry. Two of those novels deal with African-Americans, and we don't have any African-Americans in our school. Africans, yes - maybe one or two, but they have no idea what the southern African-American culture was like or is like now.

So, these Koreans are reading these books about a culture they've never seen or experienced. To hear southern slang or African-American language in a novel is easy for us southerners to understand, but for them... they get so confused.

"What is 'ain't?"
"What is 'ole'?"
"'No'm?'What is this? Why do they talk like this?"

One of my boys said, "Why they talk like this? They have bad grammar!" Of course, he has bad grammar too. So funny...

One of the African-American characters in the novel sees someone she knows and addresses him as "Brother Avery!" Ho-Jin said, "Whaaaat? She has brother? I am so confused!" I tried to explain that he wasn't really her brother. She just called him that because it's an expression of familiarity and affection.

All these little things we have to talk about. Otherwise they get confused very quickly.

All in all, I have a great group of kids I am teaching. Next week I am teaching a few lessons in the seventh grade. Then the third week I will teach a few lessons in eighth grade. The fourth week I will be teaching all grades all day long for six weeks.

Tomorrow I am going ice skating with Andrea and her Russian friends. I can't wait!!!!!!!

Do Svidanya!