I've been sick this week so I've stayed home from school and kinda started missing the kids. Maybe I'm crazy but they're the best. I miss their hugs and the funny things they say. I was looking at some of my videos and picked out a couple of my favs for you.
They love them some "Call me maybe".
Z was pouting in the corner because he thought he didn't have friends......but boy was he wrong.
Most days at school I wonder why the kids haven't figured out yet how easy it would be to just full out mutiny. Band together and take us down. I mean....3 teachers vs almost 16 students. They could have us. Easy. They could just storm that prizes box and take what they want. But somehow, we're still in control. Except there's this one class of kids.....I think they ALMOST have it figured out that they've got some wiggle room in how much we can take from them. Some days, we just don't have the power. That's pretty much how this day went and instead of getting frustrated, me and Stevie just laughed, stood back, let it happen, and took some pics to document the craziness that is this group of kids. And somehow I still love em.
I got a package in the mail from the best mother in world, fully loaded with chocolate, brownies and macaroni and cheese. Yay! It was given to me while I was at school and I couldn't resist opening it so....I had share some of my loot since I opened it in front of everyone. Anytime we give the students candy they are stoked. But...their eyes got pretty big when I said candy from AMERICA. It's big stuff you know? It was a happy day. Thanks mom!!
Happy Halloween! Halloween isn't traditionally celebrated in Lithuania, though people know what it is. Some of the younger kids are starting to pick up on it. Anyways we figured we'd have a party since we are an English class and all....gotta teach some culture. I was a bird and Stevie faux hawked my hair. I was the best looking bird around. Well, there was one of the students' little brothers that didn't think so. He's about 1 or 2 years old. He came walking happily around the corner until he saw me with my mask on and I just saw the terror register on his face and then instant tears. So some Lithuanians are still coming around to the idea of Halloween. We got lots of confused, upset, amazed stares while walking to and from school.
But, we let the kids know that they could dress up and bring some food cause we were having a P.A.R.T.Y.
I was pretty skeptical about if any of the students would actually wear a costume....and if they'd even get the concept. But they got it. And their costumes were legit. They put my bird hair to shame. We had a feast of treats and the kids loved it and it was the best. I think Lithuania has some hope yet of bringing the Halloween notion around. Our work here is done. Mission accomplished.
-the hair on those legs. is it a man? is it a woman? what? at least they're being waxed. that's the moral of the story Europe.
- walking innocently down the street and suddenly being quacked at by a grown man. he thought it was hilarious when all three of us ducked for cover. good one.
-my new found talent is pulling the handle off of every door that i try to open. i guess we could blame that on the screws to the handle not being quite screwed in but....it always happens to ME so that excuse is questionable. and going to walk out of my bedroom in the middle of the night to pee and the handle coming off = a bad situation. and being IN the bathroom (which is the size of a tiny coat closet) and being successful at taking that handle off as well consequently trapping myself.....well that's just an awkward story of its own.
-our shower curtain. first of all it sticks to your body if you come within 4 inches of it. my butt has been suction cupped to that thing more times than i'd like to confess to my roommates. second of all, when water and steam build up in the bathroom (as would naturally happen during a shower) it loses all its strength to stay on the wall. those showers where i'm standing there and it just drops to the floor, those are my favorite. and then having to shower hugging the wall so that i don't get water all over the place, that's also my favorite.
-walking into a room and accidentally (but confidently) saying, "thank you!" instead of "hello".
-ignas, one of the students, stripping in class. he just loves it. yesterday i told him if he took his shirt off one more time he would get a strike (if they get three strikes during the day they don't get a prize at the end so its a big deal you know?). well i felt like stripping was a strong enough offense to receive a strike. so in the next class he's begging......"teacher pleeeeeease, i this? (motioning to take his shirt off), one more time??"
-noodles and carrots and hot dogs for breakfast. 99% of the time we get some kind of porridge or cream of wheat sort of mush for breakfast but on the days when they bring out noodles and cut up carrots and hot dogs i just think....really?
awesome
-how nicole's hip do not lie while she's leading the milk song in this video;
-when the students are actually understanding us. it's hard for the new kids to come into a classroom where the teacher isn't speaking one word in your own language and neither are the other students. but when they pick up on something, its glorious. armandas, one of the students is new. he's been in class about a month.
so every day we go through the rules and the students have to repeat them. one day when teacher jaclyn was going through the rules she says "rule number 2, eyes on the teacher". he stops her and says, "what's your name?" jaclyn responds with her name and then armandas repeats the rule back to her as, "eyes on the jaclyn!" he gets it! after one month! love it.
-getting mail. feels like christmas.
-i went running the other day, as i've been trying to keep up while i'm here. it started raining while i was own a side road a little bit outside of the main streets area. an old woman stopped her car and asked if i needed a ride. i opted to keep running but she was very concerned. not sure if her concern was that i was running in the rain or just that i was running at all.....either way, she had my back.
-just about everyone that is able to has a garden and a green house. one of the parents of our students brought us apples picked from his tree.
-figuring out how to watch the office online since netflix doesn't work here. that was a happy day for me. my nonstop office marathons shall continue.
-figuring out imovie. i'm currently working on both a video of my china trip and a video of the lithuania trip. this is going to be good.
-riding bikes. i forgot how much i love it. so santa.....my current wish list is a hair straightener and a bike please.
