I went to Margaret's class today to talk about Canada, and made one of her students feel like a complete idiot before I even made it into the classroom... for real. The trip there involved taking the trolley bus and a tram across town - the tram got stuck for some reason, and I was fifteen minutes late. She called to make sure I was on my way (and that everything was alright), and I didn't hear anything about a student meeting me at the tram stop. So, when a weird-ish looking dude started talking to me in Russian I gave him a go-away-stop-talking-to-me look, assuming he was some strange Russian man (he looked like a strange Russian man) and high tailed it to the school. His classmates laughed at him and I apologized but still, he didn't talk or take his eyes off his cell phone for most of the class. Oops.
The class was made up of approximately 15 grade niners, most of whom had some pretty decent English skills. I talked a bit about Canada first (population, geography, weather, food, hobbies, work, school, economy etc.) and then they asked some questions (What do teenagers do for pocket money? What sports do people play? What do you like about Russia? etc. etc.) After about 20 or 25 minutes of talking, and questions and answers from all (and to all - I had questions too - such as, why don't any girls play soccer? I was answered with giggles - maybe the question, "Is cheerleading popular in Canada?" provides some illumination. One of the girls really asked me that), the real show began.
Because I was their "honoured guest" (so sweet), they had prepared something of a show for me. It began with a home-made video of their school... during which a small troupe of four maybe sixth or seventh graders made their way into the classroom. Next up was a dance routine to none other than Jingle Bells. I am not even kidding. One of these sixth or seventh grade girls got up in front of the class and did a cheerleading routine, full of hip swivels, wrist flicks, leg kicks, jumps and bendies (don't pretend like you don't know any of these moves) to a super annoying version of Jingle Bells. It went on for way too long, and sitting behind all of the other students, I looked around to see if anyone else thought that this routine was totally weird... but none of the other students seemed to be fighting the same impulses that I was (like laughter, strange looks, the desire to get up and make her stop.) Next up came her brother, who sang a song about how school is boring. In Russian. In English class. The final show was by far the best - one of the students brought her cello in and played very well - it was normal and it was nice. Not that abnormal isn't nice but the other acts were just plain WEIRD. Especially the Jingle Bells one. Afterwards, the students all gave me their addresses and Margaret told me that they hoped that I might find them some pen pals in Canada ... sure! Why not. So... anyone? Anyone looking for a 15 year-old pen pal? I'm thinking I'll drop them off at a school in Winnipeg when we get home.
Margaret had called me on Tuesday and asked if I was interested in visiting the city's most prestigious pottery operation after the morning's English class... and I said sure, why not. So, after class we had a bite to eat in the school's small, empty cafeteria (a watery pickley potato soup, mashed potatoes and cabbage salad - I passed on the fish and hot-dog-sausage), and then a woman from the pottery place showed up to accompany me back to the pottery barn for a tour and visit. Natasha was very nice, and even though her English skills were so-so, we made it work. The walk from the school to the small production place was interesting - we saw a drunk man in the middle of something (and having some trouble) in some plants with his pants around his ankles (thankfully I didn't see anything that I didn't want to see), and a group of maybe 10 men drinking in a small hut-like thing, saying bad words to us - that's all Natasha gave me. She sort of shook her head and said, "Here, women work and men drink." The drinking looked like hard work to me - warm vodka. Yuck. The pottery place was pretty comme-ci comme-ca - they seem to produce a lot of trinkets, some tacky stuff, some nice stuff... but dust collector stuff. There were a couple of Christmas ornaments that appealed to me but they weren't for sale. We took a quick tour of the place and then had tea amidst a group of women painting these miniscule clay cats and people and trees, which was sort of amusing - all of these women working away and me and Natasha sipping tea and eating cookies.
Tomorrow I'm meeting up with Margaret again - she wants to take me to her favourite museum in town, the Museum of Music and Time - and one of her keener students is coming along. (Am I mean?) She's actually really sweet, and told me that she wants more English practise - she wants to be an interpreter. So sure, why not. Other news? Steve's train ride to Kazan last night only took 11 hours... and he gets to do it again tomorrow night. And his ipod isn't working. But! This is it... it's almost over and we're coming home soon! YAY!
No comments:
Post a Comment