Merry Christmas!!!!

 

Here's one of my classes singing a classic American Christmas song. I thought you would all enjoy it as much as I did.

 

 Here's Natasha with a red nose on.

 Melayna with some of the kids from Primary for the Christmas party.

 Misha and Natasha just taking a picture for fun.

 Here's one of the primary classes for their Christmas party. They really like to dress up here so it was like having Halloween all over again with a few costume changes. These kids were amazing and I'm going to miss them greatly.

Here's Natasha with a picture of a heart. We were having our Christmas party and having a good time saying our goodbyes and having a few last good memories.

Christmas Parties!!!!!

 This was the last two days of classes. We had Christmas parties and had a good time. Left: Kolya, Dasha, Me and Anya. We were all in the room before class and wanted a picture. Dasha was our native coordinator who would go and do things with us on the weekends and she would also teach us Russian.

 Here's Kolya being "Barman" and trying to open up the sprite bottle. That's little Daniel in the back with the green sleeves and the black shirt.

 This is the afternoon level 3 class. It was pretty much impossible to get a good picture of everyone standing still so here is what I got that is probably best.

 Left: Nellie, Kolya, Anya, Varya, Daniel (Dr. Friday) Front: Daniel (Dr. House)

 Everyone together for the last group huge. I will miss these kids a lot. I was so blessed to have them to teach and to learn from them.

 Here is my morning Level 3 class. They were a little less hyperactive but still a fun group of kids to hang out with. Left: Misha, Alex, Sasha, Me, Nastya, Lida Front: Olianna. These kids were super smart and I could talk to them about pretty much anything and they could understand me easily.

 Here is Level 6. Back Left: Seva, Natasha, Me. Front Left: Misha, Melayna. These were my teenagers who would much rather sit and talk than have an actual lesson which I think helped them a lot because then they were learning the words they wanted to learn and still developing their English. They are very smart and  intelligent for their age. They know English very well.

 Melayna, Natash and Mish getting together for a picture.

 Everyone in Santa Hats. They had a lot of fun at the Christmas party and they will be greatly missed.

I just had to teach them how to make proper beards with their hair. Santa just isn't Santa without the beard :)

Start the Countdown :(

 I have exactly one week left in Voronezh from today so I thought I would share a few more pictures. Hopefully I can get some pictures of the Christmas party before I go home so you all can see the kids. Here's a "Hello" from the students in Level 3 :)

 Left: Lida, Oliana, Alex, Nastya, Me, Misha, and Sasha. This is my morning level 3 class. These guys are so funny and all think I should be an actress because  I sometimes read with different voices when we read the story. I'm going to really miss them.

 Here's some of the snowflakes that we made. These guys taught me how to actually make some really amazing snowflakes. Some of them are pretty elaborate. I was really impressed. We are going to try to decorate the whole school with 100's of snowflakes.

 Here's Anya. She's in my afternoon level 3 class. She is really super smart and super sweet.

 Here's two of my three Daniels. I call the one on the left Dr. House and the one on the right Dr. Friday. They chose their names and it's worked all semester. They were being silly.

 Here is Kolya. For anyone who doesn't know this kid proposed to me and tries to convince me to marry him ever day. He tells me he will take me to China to get married on the Great Wall. He's really funny and speaks English really well. He's trying to find out a way for me to stay in Russia forever and the best idea he has is for me to marry him. He makes me laugh everyday.

 This is Varya. She can be really fun in class and knows a lot of English. One of the students took my camera and started taking pictures of everyone so that I would remember them all when I leave. They are all so sweet.

 Here's the afternoon level 3. Left: Arina, Varya, Dr. House, Kolya, Nellie, Anya, and Dr. Friday. The third Daniel was being shy and didn't wan to be in the picture.

 Here we all are just having a good time. This group of students was a lot of fun to teach and I learned a lot from them. We could just hang out and have a good time and still learn English. They made teaching fun.

 Me and Kolya just being silly. I'm going to miss this kid.

 Here's the third Daniel. It was the best picture I could get of him. Maybe he'll be more willing when we have our Christmas party later this week for the last day of school. We'll see.

 Dr. Friday!!!! This kid is so crazy I love him. He always has this big ridiculous smile on his face. He has so much energy it makes we wonder if he ever sleeps.

 Here they are all playing in the classroom. Arina was trying to explain something to everyone.

 Here's a few pictures of the view from Susie's. The sun was actually shinning today so I couldn't resist getting a few pictures before leaving. I'm really going to miss Voronezh.

Hope you enjoy these and I hope to be able to post a few more times before leaving. Can't believe it's already almost over. I'm excited to come back home again and see everyone but it is very hard to say goodbye. My students keep asking me when I'm coming back and it's all I can do to keep myself from crying and tell them that I probably won't come back but that I will try. I really hope I can see these kids in the future to see how their lives all turn out but if not then I'm thankful to have had the chance to meet them and learn from them. I wouldn't trade this experience for anything in the world. Thank you for everyone who helped me to come here and have this experience of a lifetime.

Christmas Party With Friends

 Here are some of the teachers with Sergey at Susie's apartment getting ready to have some fun :)

 Dressing Chance up as Santa for a party game. We used toilet paper for the hair and beard. Our friends had a lot of fun with the American party games.

 Here's Sergey getting dressed up for Santa as well.

 Victoria flashing everyone a smile at the party.

Here is Susie with Yura and Lilly at her house. They like to come and hang out. Yura graduated from the ILP program a few years ago and speaks really well. He recently married his wife this year and they are living happily in Voronezh.