Getting Better

The clock is ticking! Only a few days left.....it's quite sad. But I will have you know, I am finally getting better. If you have forgotten, I have been a bit under the weather. For pretty much the entire time I have been here. I have the immune system of an infant. Last week it got pretty bad. I had a high fever. So high that it got to the point of hallucinations. Once you start seeing freaky faces on your laptop, you know it's time to see a doctor. So I went. I, Marci Allen, went to a doctor. Truly ground breaking. From what I could gather (you know, the whole language barrier thing) nothing is too serious. Which is great new. But they gave me this medicine to take. You know....with the technology we have today, you would think it would be possible to create a cough syrup that doesn't want to make me projectile vomit. It tastes awful. Katie has to force me to take it just like my mom. There are few things in this world that taste worse than this medicine. Maybe...bacon, fish, and poop. Other than those things...this cough syrup takes the cake. But hey, at least I am getting better.

Things continue to improve with me and Sieva. Remember I mentioned he is making progress. He sat on my lap, then said I love you. The last time I went to his class he...wait for it....kissed my cheek!! Amazing. Sieva, you have shown tremendous improvement. Bravo. Then there's Vlad....while Sieva is loving me, Vlad is trying to murder me. Every time I walk into that class he attacks. Punching, biting, slapping, throwing objects, twisting, spitting, choking, you name it. My arm almost got broken off by a 6 year old. If I wasn't leaving this week, I believe he would come out victorious in one of his attempts.

Even though I have to fight for my life, I am really going to miss these kids. 

Last week I went to the Hermitage for the last time. Sveta took me and Megan. What an awesome day. The Hermitage has so many amazing exhibits. It would take decades to see everything! I saw some pieces from Da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo. Those were definitely the high lights. It's so incredible to see the things you learned about as a child. We all learned about these artists in elementary school, but never did I think I would be staring at an actual painting or sculpture by one of them. It was such a moving experience. 

My favorite piece was this sculpture...

It depicts a story of a friendship between a boy and a dolphin. One day the boy was swimming and got stabbed by a shark. The dolphin swam him to shore where they died together. Beautiful.

Saturday was our last day with Sveta :( I wish everyone I know could meet Sveta. She is the sweetest, nicest, most genuine person I have ever met. She has made this experience better than I could have ever hoped. She took care of us and treated us like her own kids. Sveta is very positive and happy. Her smile is contagious. I could go on and on about how awesome she is. Sveta, we love you and you will be greatly missed. 

That's all for me this time. A bit shorter than normal. I apologize if I am becoming less and less interesting. Life is just becoming more and more normal here! It's my home. But for only a few more days...what an adventure this has been! Peace and Love :)

Little Child

The count down begins. My days are numbered in this great country. Tis bitter sweet indeed. I will be sad to leave this place I have come to call my home, but I know I have a home waiting for me back in America. But before I go I've got to catch up on my blogging! And this one is going to be riddled with my ADD brain. So hold on to your butts! Speaking of butts....(I just couldn't think of good segue from talking about cute kids to what I am about to say so this will have to do). Speaking of butts....I saw some. Let me elaborate. As me and Syd were walking home, Syd looked up at one of the windows in the apartment building. "Are those people naked??" I looked. Yes Sydney, yes those people are naked. Fantastic observation. If being naked wasn't shocking enough, it looked like they were in their kitchen. Because everyone eats dinner naked. Russia never ceases to surprise me.

Did I mention Russia is cold? The rumors are true....if you eat ice cream outside it will actually warm you up because the temperature is much colder than the actual ice cream. There you have it Mythbusters. So it's cold. And it has been snowing pretty much every day. What happens when you mix cold and snow?? ICE! Lots of it. Me and Court were walking to the metro early one morning. It was snowing, it was cold, it was slick, do you see where I am going with this? We both slipped at the same time. Courtney chose to do the slip, crouch, catch your self using your hands method. My body, however, had a different routine in mind. Instead of Courtney's not-so-outwardly-clumsy approach, I slipped, my leg went straight up in the air at which point my back was parallel with the sidewalk, and then the inevitable smack on the sidewalk, flat on my back. I swear you could hear a pull whistle just like the cartoons. Then, cue lady and child enter scene. The woman made a noise like "ohhheeww" and rushed her child passed us. Your welcome lady. I just gave you a performance. You should be thanking me for the story! We had a good laugh, after I got caught my breath again. I haven't fallen again, but I can't walk outside with out doing my "slipping-but-playing-off-as-dance-moves."

Last week was bazarro week. Instead of Tyoma loving me as he usually does, he decided to play love games. He is so moody. One day he led the class in mutiny! He started spitting and blowing raspberries at me, which proceeded with the whole class following in his footsteps. What have you done, Tyoma!! It was...unpleasant. I had to win his affection by playing hard to get. He's 4 and he's givin me the rigmarole. Step 1) I had to pay extra attention to the other children so that he would see how loving I could be. Step 2) I wouldn't go to his class so that he would miss me. Step 3 and final step) Win Tyoma back. It works like a charm. Is our relationship dysfunctional? Maybe...but he's just so freakin cute.

On the other spectrum, while Tyoma was giving me the cold shoulder, Sieva, the boy who refuses to love me, made some progress. Instead of the usually greeting (spitting on me, licking me, pushing me, suffocating me, attempted murder) Sieva sat on my lap. I looked at Courtney in awe. I had to whisper and not move a muscle because I didn't want to disturb what was happening. It's like when you see a deer in the wild and you don't want to scare it off. "Pssst. Courtney. Looooook. Do see what I'm seeing??" It only lasted a moment but it was enough to make me happy. The following day we made even more progress. He said "I love you." I've waited a long time to hear those words....I feel like I am observing an experiment. "Dairy Log, Day 24: The subject seems to be responding well to the treatments. His once manic uncontrollable behavior has become calm and sweet. I do believe there is hope for the subject to love." You will love me Sieva, I will make sure of it.

In other news (there's no smooth way to introduce this story) my washing machine shocked me. I got out of the shower and felt something stab my leg. Repeatedly. I thought there was a sharp edge on the washer so I ran my finger up the edge. No sharp edge, just an electric shock. The only thing I can compare it to is when me and my friends would taze each other, ergo, it was painful. We should probably get it fixed....instead we duct taped the crap out of it and left a note for the next group that says "Good Luck." That should suffice.

I can't believe my time is almost up....you are going to keep hearing a lot of this but I have had such a great experience over here. Much different from Thailand but a great experience none the less. I feel like I have grown so much and learned more about myself. If you want to do some soul searching, live in another country. It has been truly life changing. I thank all of you for your support and kind words you have given me while abroad. This isn't goodbye yet...but the end is near. A few more short adventures and then on to America (for a moment or so). And now....you know the drill....Peace and Love :)

Please Mister Postman

Sorry I have been terrible at updating my blog. I have been a bit under the weather as per usual. I have been sick probably 3/4 of my time here. It's astounding. Alright, back to business. I realized I failed to mention Thanksgiving in my last post. So let me talk about that for a moment.

This will be a Thanksgiving to remember. Even though I wasn't with my family, I was with a group of amazing teachers. We were each other's family this year. Everyone helped make something for our exquisite feast. Our vegetarian feast that is. I guess that's what happens when your head teacher is a vegetarian. I don't eat meat, NO ONE eats meat!! Haha I actually wouldn't have cared....to each his own! It was so odd making my dishes for dinner. I felt so grown up. I had just a tiny taste of what my mom must go through. Just a bit though. Her work was mine times a thousand. In the morning I made my favorite frozen fruit salad dish (Thank you Angeline!). However, I needed some ingredients. So, just like my mom, I went to the grocery store Thanksgiving morning in a frazzled state. It was cool though. I was at the store, in Russia, it was Thanksgiving, they were playing Christmas music (all be it a dance party remix of We Wish You a Merry Christmas. Russians love their remixes), it was snowing outside, it just felt like the holidays. Nothing picks up your spirit than the holidays! The whole day was fairly chaotic. Everyone trying to squeeze into our small kitchen to make their dish. Our kitchen was a clown car. I don't know how we managed to have all of us cooking in there. A Thanksgiving miracle perhaps. I thought our meal turned out quite nice. No where near our mothers' standards but we made do. We all said what we were grateful for. I spoke about ILP. I really am grateful for ILP and what it had done for me. It changed my life. The greatest thing that happened to me was the day I stumbled on a chance to go to Thailand to teach English. That got the ball rolling and look at me now! ILP is such a great program and provides an opportunity of a lifetime. I am lucky to have found it. So Happy Late Thanksgiving to you all!

Now it's time to talk about the children. I always have to throw in my stories. The other day I walked into the Level 5 classroom. These are the 11 to 14 year olds. I was greeted by Victor who graciously (mind you, he is 11) picked me right up. Nothing boosts your self esteem than being picked up by an 11 year old. Then Bogdon had to top it. He came over, picked me up and twirled me around. All I could say was, "weeee." Best greeting ever.

I haven't talked about Ludmilla much....she is the Vice Principal at the Old Kindergarten. She is very nice to us, but sometimes she can be a bit scary. And by a bit scary I mean she strikes fear into the children's eyes. I never know what she is saying when she is yelling at the kids but I like to think it's something like "Shut your little pie holes! If you keep up this behavior I will cut off each and everyone of your fingers! I will make them into a stew and force it down your throats!" And then the next second she smiles and waves at us. She IS Dr. Jackyl and Mr. Hide. I always see her as this angry, frustrated woman but then she surprised me at times, like when she mimes dancing and singing or stops on her way out from the school to pet a cat and whisper "Dosvidaniya" (goodbye in Russian). When I saw her petting that cat, I saw myself in 40 years....that is my future. Better than the old woman being swarmed by pigeons. They were her minions I am sure of it. Swirling all around her. I was waiting for them to take her up in to the sky and make them her queen. Yup. I will take being the cat lady over Queen of the Pigeons.

It's not a week in Russia if I don't have some kind of wild adventure. This one pertains to Private 1....again. I have had a crazy story on getting to this school before. And I am here to tell you yet another riveting tale of venturing to Private 1. Last week me and Jess set out early in the morning to Private 1. You know it's going to be a good day when you turn on your water first thing in the morning and it's brown. Not just a brown hue. It was poo brown. Like straight up sewage water was coming out of the faucet. Today was going to be a greeeaat day. We were teaching for Syd and Ty. Now last time one of my issues was I got on the wrong bus so this time I made sure it was the right number. Check. Before I continue, know this...this was a frigid morning. This morning made the news because the weather was so bad. Locals talked about this morning the following Monday. It set some records. That's how cold this morning was. Remember that. Because of the weather I just mentioned and because it was still dark outside I could not see out the windows of the bus, ergo, I couldn't tell when to get off. But it was okay because I just had to listen for someone to call out the name of our stop. So I waited. And waited. And waited. And the bus started to turn around. One thing led to another....yadda yadda yadda, and me and Jess wondered around in the storm for an hour. THE storm. The one everyone talked about it. We have to brave that mofo. It. Was. Freezing. The wind was making my eyes water and my tears starting freezing to my face. Me and Jess were laughing the whole time. We had no idea where we were. But alas after many trial and error, we found the school. It was a glorious moment. The chorus of angels sang from the heavens in jubilation. I was raised above the ground by their immortal powers and floated to the door. Or my legs were just numb....no one can be sure. It actually was a fun day. Me and Jess are still laughing about it. And it was worth the trouble because those kids are so stinkin cute. We blew bubbles for my lesson (it's my ace in the hole). I sanitized the straws we were using with hand sanitizer. Liza (she's about 5) put a straw in her mouth, looked at me and said "Vodka." There you have it kids. Hand sanitizer tastes like Vodka. How this 5 year old knows this.....I shall never know.

And to top it all off!! I finally got my package! My dear mother sent it a month ago. I had lost all hope. I was sure that some Russian had jacked all my goods. Chowin down on Poptarts. Enjoying the festive decorations. Putting my thermals on their sweaty, putrid skin, and frolicking around with any other surprises my mom had for me. But Alla took me to the post office to see if she could help me figure out what was going on. First of all, it must be in the job description of a postal worker that you must have the "I hate the world" face on at all times. "You must forget all happiness and merriment. Your life is now a dismal void of tragedy and regret. If someone smiles at you, whatever you do, DO NOT smile back. This is a ruse. All humans are retched miscreants that must pay for their utter existence!" Turns out they sent my slip to the wrong address....so don't give me the poop face. You guys are the ones trying to give my package to Vlaud, the 84 year old retired war veteran who hears voices and thinks televisions are witchcraft. But the important part is I got my package :) Oh sweet sweet victory.

And let me tell you, I am rockin those thermals

There you have it! Apologies for the lack of pictures....hope my story was enough to suffice. Until next time, Peace and Love :)