The Nicest People I Know

On my last day of class, I passed out my cell phone and email address so my students could keep in touch. During the holiday, I was rather touched to receive text messages from several of them. Many wrote on Dec 25th because they know this is "American" or new calendar Christmas and they wanted to wish me well. I was impressed that they a) remembered Americans would be celebrating Christmas on this day b) thought of me, even though I was no where near Vladimir at the time and c) sent me some very long messages wishing me well.

Here are some of their notes: "Hello Nicole. Merry Christmas. May all your dreams come true." "Nicole hello. Merry Christmas. I wish you a happy holiday, successes in your life and the best in the world for you. I wait our new meeting." "I am sorry Nicole that it is night, but I want to congratulate you with Christmas! I wish you patience, good luck! You are one of the best teachers! Don't miss about house! Believe in yourself and your will succeed! Urrah!"

And even on New Years - "Hello Nicole! I congratulate you on the New Year! May you have happiness in the year ahead!"

As you can see, holidays are important in Russia, and everyone shares in celebrating them. Our winter break was a good two weeks (it might be the most relaxing I've ever done in the past ten years). The New York Times even wrote a funny article about it a few days ago which you can read at http://nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-Russia-The-Long-Holiday.html