Wrapping Up 2nd Session

I know we still haven't posted about Hotin Castle, our band friends (who we are NOT following around Europe, for those who may be wondering), or anything else that happened last weekend. Check that. Two weekends ago. It blows me away how fast the time is going. Haley and I will be home in three weeks, which seems so, so soon! After getting mostly over the homesickness part of our trip and really settling in, I'm starting to feel frantic--like there is so much I want to do here still! We've had a fun week, including dancing in the rain, a face-mask seance, break dancers in Kiev, a Michael Jackson tribute (with candles, gloves, sunglasses and all). We went on a walk the other day and discovered parts of Boyarka we didn't know existed. Boyarka isn't a prominent town by any means, but its actually rather large. We went to the forest near the school for the first time. Had we realized it was so close, we would have been going a lot more. It is so nice to run on the trail (ALWAYS with a buddy, Dad) and smell the pine and breathe the fresh air. It beats the track we've been running on by about a thousand times, or more. The only downside of the forest is that some parts are rather sandy. There's nothing worse than running in sand. Bleh. Anyway, the point is, I am so loving it here. I miss home, of course, but it is such a blast to be here with nine awesome girls my age, teaching fabulous kids. Speaking of the kids, it happened. Sigh. Try as I might to not get attached to this new session (mostly because I was bitter about losing the first session kids) it happened. My class is so, so darling. I have another wonderful Dima. There are four boys in my class, and they are all unbelievably sweet. We had our hard days, but we had so, so much fun. Dima is hilarious, and breaks out in wild-man dancing on a regular basis. He gave me his special football bracelet tonight and told me he was going to miss me. Sasha has a temper, but is so great most of the time. Oh man, can that boy DANCE! We had a dance-off so the teams could earn more points for the competition and Sasha ruled it. He surprises me with his tenderness. He comes off as a bit of a punk, but then he says things like, "I will never forget you" and other such things that make me want to take him home with me. DEN! My Den is such a gem. He is one cool cat. He is fluent (all my boys are, really) and said to me the other night, "I wish we could just talk and talk and talk, but I must go to my room." Later, after they did their show that they do several times a week, I was sitting by him and he said, "Now we can talk and talk and talk!" We are pals. He's making me a friendship bracelet. And then there's adorable Matwei! Mat is...ah. So precious. He is a lot more shy than the other boys, but underneath that gentle facade is a goofball as big as the rest. He randomly will make a goofy face and it cracks me up. He's so helpful and always listens in class. On Wednesday we did a "Spectacle" show for the kids, a farewell hoo-ha if you will. The next morning, on our way back from our run, Mat stopped me and said that he loved the show, and that "it was beautiful." He is a tender soul for sure. I have two girls in my class too, but they were pretty much doing their own thing the whole time. Didn't get as attached to them as to my boys. They were cute, too though. One thing that surprised me was how attached I got to all the teenage girls here! There are about eight of them that are all twelve and thirteen. I love Sammy, but when she and her friends get together...whew! It can be a little much teenager-ness. These girls definately have their drama, but so many of them are so, so sweet. Surprisingly so. Liza, Marina, Zhenia, Marta, and the list goes on. Thankfully our boy Zhenia (we had two girl Zhenia's this session, as well as our boy Zhenia from last session) will be here next session, along with Jason Secret (a definate weirdy. His real name is Yegor, and he's pretty sure he's the coolest thing in the camp, if not the world). It was definately a different feeling with this group, but we love them almost as much as last session (last session was hard to beat, so that's saying something). It was interesting with these older kids, because they are on the verge of leaving childhood and entering teenagerhood. I'm praying for them lots that they'll make good decisions and keep being the good kids that they are. Or, in the case of some, wise up and quit being drama dorks. It feels weird to say goodbye to them already. I swear they just got here. Den said he didn't think he could come back for the next session, but that he'd come visit and bring his baby sister so I can see her. Sasha said he "maybe, maybe, maybe" can come back next session, which would be SO wonderful. These kids. Ah.