Day 12: Sleepy Friday Like A Sunday

Missing a visit with my darling Zhanna and Roma and Igor back in Mironovka this weekend was mitigated by the fact that I was in town to be able to see Dasha sing at a concert today.

That statement requires some backstory. Here goes: I got a call on the road from Zhanna. She wanted me to come visit them since Roma and I were on vacation. I figured, why not? My coordinator was on vacation at the end of the week anyway and most of the teachers and people I work with are traveling for seminars or personal holiday this week. When I called her, my coordinator seemed fine with the idea.

Unfortunately, spontaneous travel decisions on the road aren't always the easiest to deal with for the people whose job it is to keep track of all these other people bouncing around the country. There was some discussion as to whether or not I should be travelling so much from my site. In the end, I decided it would be better not to press the issue. If someone was concerned, I figured I should be too. It's just hard. I miss my family so much. I was really looking forward to Zhanna's amazing cooking and seeing Natasha's little Maxim. He's the same age as me, Ukrainian time, since he was born a week before I got into country! I hope I can see them around New Year's.

And the second necessary piece of info is that Dasha is a 7th grader at my school. She's something of a celebrity in Kuibyshevo and sings at all kinds of events and contests. We've been hanging out a bit. Generally her grandmother tries to force me to eat and then we watch old videos of Dasha singing. Anyway, she called me on Monday to let me know about the concert today. And actually, there are plans in the works for us to sing together. Her featured songs are "Strong Enough" by Cher and "My Heart Will Go On" by Celine Dion. Two great lung busters for sure. It's funny, though. "Am I strong enough to live without you?" she sings to a roomful of teachers to celebrate Teacher's Day. "I quit crying long ago, because I know - you've got to go," she sang to the gathered social workers today in honor of Social Worker's Day. It kind of cracks me up inside. But you've got to love it at the same time. The other thing is, Dasha is really talented and hard-working. It's fun to hang around with her.

So I'm happy that I got to go be a zritel (spectator, that is) at the concert. It is definitely one of those steps in the right direction.

I also got a couple of packages from my grandma today full of children's books. It's awesome. I can't wait to put them in the library at school. There are some excellent short stories in there too, perfect for listening comprehension work, and fairy tales for us to act out and play around with. This is just what I needed for my after-school English clubs. Thanks Grandma!!!