Ending the Semester

Turned out to be a very emotional experience as I said goodbye to all my classes. On the last day, we have a party where I pass back exams and we eat/talk/hang out.

My conversation class was first, choosing to throw a dinner party in the kitchen. During some of our lessons, we've discussed art, food and music (appropriately, looking through books of impressionists and others, eating, and listening to various American genres during these times). My class sat me down and told me that to reciprocate my generous sharing of culture, they'd prepared a traditional Russian meal, which I should enjoy with them and remember always. So, there we sat, surrounded by caviar, pyrogs with meat, fruit salad, a special holiday salad with fish and beets, and a rather dangerous holiday beverage from the Ukraine known as "medavohoo" (approximate pronunciation). Several hours, a few candles, and many glasses later, our evening was complete. As one student told me, "Nekolye, celebrating the new year is a process".

The next day began with my 545 PM class of about 8 girls, who thoroughly embarassed me by standing up and clapping when I walked in, and giving me a terribly cute string of stuffed angels with "LOVE" across them. My 730 PM adult class showed up with a nesting doll and lacquer box, then dragged me to a local cafe where they insisted on buying dinner and defended me from the dubious advances of the very drunk married man at the table next to us. The next day brought more eating and cafe-ing, plus a pair of real rabbit fur gloves to protect me from 'the Russian winter' (which has yet to appear).

The worst was grading written exams, because I'd be sitting there, exasperatedly staring at the last page wondering why they couldn't have written a few more sentences on the essay and then come across a scribble at the bottom that said "Nicole, I love you" at which point I generally become useless.

Here's a picture of our conversation class.