The days of Spring are near...

Well, much has happened since I've written last. I'm not sure why I decided to write tonight after all this time since it's late and we are leaving tomorrow for Spring Break except that I just can't seem to go to sleep right now. Maybe I'll regret it tomorrow, but as for now, here it goes. A new post finally...

So, as usual, I have been teaching my 5-6 year old kiddos, and they are doing well. We just got done doing a unit on toys, and if they don't have it by now, I just don't know... They've got to be toyed out for as long as we worked on it. It's just difficult to know how long to spend and expand on something when the kids are gone so much. On average, we probably are missing about 7-8 kids a day. It's so different than what we're used to in the States.

We had a Spring/women's day performance just recently. Unfortunately, the things we said about spring are not quite accurate...

March is busy as can be
shaking snow from bush and tree
March is busy night and day
Shooing wintertime away

and

The days of spring are here
Warm sunny days are near
Birds in trees, flowers and bees
The days of spring are here.

Yet, the kids did really well, and I even have a video and some pictures on facebook if anyone's interested in watching it. Oh, and the flowers... I love the tradition of flowers in Russia. They are so beautiful, and I feel like it's something that we don't do as much of in the US. For international women's day, celebrated on March 8th, I received so many flowers that I desperate enough to grab a water bottle I found by our apartment's community ash tray (aka jam jar on the window seal on 2nd floor) to use as a vase. I recieved and assortment of gorgeous tulips, roses, and orchids. Oh, and an interesting fact: In Russia, an even number of flowers is only used for sad occasions, so instead of receiving half a dozen or a dozen, I would receive 7, 9, or 13.

Some more news, I lost my wallet a few weeks ago on the train back from a little town outside of Moscow. Kristin, Leah, and I went out of Moscow to experience something new on a long weekend. We got lots of pretty snow pictures; I got a pleasant surprise from a pigeon on my glove; we jumped on a bus that we weren't quite sure where it led to; we saw a grave yard and pretty churches; and we met some really nice Russians. Yet, on my way back, my wallet either got lost or stolen on the train, and unfortunately, I did not realize it was missing until two days later when I was trying to buy lunch at school.

Once I realized my wallet was missing, I started panicking, so I know that the Russian teachers I work with that don't speak English were thinking I was crazy at first. However, once it was communicated to them what happened, they were sympathetic and Olga, my superivsor and one I don't know what I would do without, helped me block my bankcard. I also cancelled my US bank card.

Well, a few days passed, and someone called the school saying that they had my wallet at the train station. So, the next day Hannah and I went to the station and attempted to get it, not without accidently getting on the train without a ticket, which caused problems later when we needed to leave the station but couldn't scan out.. Luckily, there was a really nice woman that let us go out wither her VIP card :) Well, our attempt was a failure in finding it, so later on one of our Russian contacts, Yuri, went to the station and got what I thought would be my wallet, but when he called me to his room to get the wallet, all that was left was all my cards rubberbanded together. I guess someone was wanting a new wallet? It was strange, but at least I got my cards back, right? Oh, but now I have my new card and no money was taken from the account, so that's quite the blessing!

Another recent occurance is that for a few weeks, we thought we weren't going to get to go on Spring break after we had already bought plane tickets. It's a long story, but basically it has to do with new laws reguarding foreign teachers that are in the works and some miscommunications. Luckily, it got worked out, but it wasn't until three days before leaving that we learned that we could go... Needless to say, we are really excited now about going. Moscow takes a while to get warm, as I mentioned earlier, so we are really looking forward to getting some sun and seeing some locations of some pretty amazing Biblical history in Egypt.

The Lord's been teaching me a lot too. I knew He would when I came here, but it's of course not what I expected at all. Things haven't been as easy as I had hoped in being able to share my faith. Most of the time I think "God, I don't know what You wanted me here for. It's not at all like I expected. This language barrier is hard as ever. I miss my family and friends. I miss my comforts. I want to run more than 4 or 5 miles a week instead of doing The Biggest Loser Cardio Max workout on Youtube , etc. etc.:P." Ha, but then I think about all I have been through and all that I can already see He has done to change me, and even though some of it has been painful and eventhough I haven't always liked who I've been here in Moscow, I know that some of this stuff I have had to go through so that later He can show me more and by His grace use me. I realize that this is somewhat vague, especially since I have not been a very faithful updater, but I just wanted to stay that despite my shortcomings, the Lord's at work someway here. I ask you to keep praying for me and the other American teachers here and for the new relationships that we have made. I have three more months here, and I just can't bare the thought of simply coasting through the rest of it. I have met some people that I care too much about for that to be the case. I don't want to be the only one changed through my time in Moscow.

So I leave you with two quick stories...

One of my children does not quite get the concept of Mr. and Ms. Well, he had Jeff as a teacher before me, being that I moved to the preschool later in the year, so everytime he talks to me he calls me "Mr. Rebecca." I proceed to say, "Donya, Miss Rebecca." He follows by saying, "Mr. Rebecca" just about everytime... Maybe he'll learn someday :)

And one more story! One Russian custom is that if you step on someone's foot, they are to step on your foot so that there is no conflict betweenthe two of you. Well, Yana one of my little girls accidentally stepped on my foot, so she stuck out her foot for me to step on it. It's not always something that peple worry about, so it took me a second to realize what she was doing. Once I did, i lightly stepped on her foot and crouched down to hug her and tell her how sweet she is. After she gave me a huge hug, she gave me the sweetest litttle kiss on the cheek. I sure do have some sweet kids... It's times like this that I love teaching.

Okay, I guess that's about it!

Love you guys,
Becca