The beginning of a slow sunset, the other day at 5pm. The sun stays up until after 6pm now!
As it is getting light a little later now, it feels like Spring could be around the corner some where. Today on my way to class Melody and Abigail walked part of the way with me. (Abigail was on her way to the ice slides, so Melody decided to follow her.) The sun was shining bright and the birds were singing, It was -8, but compared to the colder weather we have been having, it really felt like signs of Spring.
This has been a slow blogging week. Tuva was such a wonderful trip that it seems hard to bounce back from such highlights.
I have now had a week back at my classes. I went to speak with the head teacher on Monday, and was most disappointed to hear that I can not even have a single individual class this semester, despite the fact that they said at the end of last semester that they would really try to take this preference of mine into account. I have been offered the chance to check out some classes with a group of Chinese students. They are not as advanced as me, but they do work hard. Their accents are very difficult to understand, but then I still get the chance to talk with the teacher. It looks like I have to make the best of an imperfect situation. I have decided that I will probably take 6 classes a week with them: 2 x writing practice; 2 x literature; 2 x theoretical grammar. Theoretical grammar is a little more of a linguistics class, which while I enjoyed it today, I feel that I still need to concentrate on my grammar in my conversation. I will have to see how this works out. Please remember me because I feel that I still need to master some of my core grammar and I am not sure that these classes will meet all my needs.
We had student club again tonight. We chose to run with a Valentines Day theme, which the young female students seemed to enjoy. Lena chose some verses about love from the epistles and made some decorative love hearts as a Valentine from God. It gave us a good chance to share from our own stories about the love we have received in our own lives. One of the Chinese students came and says that he has an Evenki friend who he will bring the next time. This student and I were talking in a lunch break, and he told me that he is very interested in learning more about the carpenter's son. Now, I'm not going to pass up a chance like that, am I? No photos of the student club yet. I don't like shoving a camera in the face of people with whom I have a fledgling relationship.
3 comments:
We are also noticing the longer days and more light, and while it is more likely to be +8 rather than -8 I still find myself thinking it feels springlike instead of a cold Melbourne winter's day! Such are the signs of acclimatisation I suppose.
I'm sorry you're not feeling greatly enthused about your Russian classes, and hope that you will learn even in spite of the situation - it's often how education works...does Melody get to study Russian?
Melody has lived in Russia altogether 2 years longer than me. She studied it for her first two years and then again for the first 15 months here as a family. I think it would be good for her to take some more lessons, but she is not at the moment.
I guess she still gets plenty of opportunity to use it and keep it practised. Reading newspapers, watching TV, talking with people...all good ways, but not always easy with a two year old in the house!
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