ohb

Penalli blog

A lot has happened over the last few days, though to most of you they will seem insignificant events but think of ants and what they can do.
Today is a Russian holiday, unofficially known as 'man's day' officially something to do with the military and for me it means no work- which is great.
Yesterday was a very weird day. I was in really bad form, I blame the moon. I was getting nowhere with my first class. They're kids and the class being at nine o clock in the morning it is not the ideal way to start any day. I got really stressed and annoyed with them for a number of reasons, none of them particularly valid but it was a case of the last few straws. So, I decided to finish the class a few minutes early, I went into the office to put back their books when I encountered Vassily.
Now, when I first met him I took an instant dislike to him, not least because of his rat like features and his brusque manner but I have at least grown accustomed to him by now and realise he is not as sharp as he first appears though he has a long road ahead of him in the study of politeness and general communication skills.
He took over as office manager of the old office, from Volodya (2) when we moved to the new school. This mainly entails dealing with the classes in other languages and the kids groups. Most of my kids hate him, one of them described him as a rat with no prompting from me, which I found very funny. She didn't know the word rat and in an effort to remain partisan I deliberately misunderstood the animal she was trying to describe until she came up to the board and left everyone in no doubt as to what animal she was talking about.
They have implemented a new system whereby the kids are supposed to have three classes a week as opposed to two with one of them being video. One of my other kids groups, (they are a few thousand words unto themselves) told me that they really didn't have time for another class as they all have about fifty other extracurricular activities, I think Russians are afraid of 'free time' and sandwich as much as possible into everyday from an early age, sleeping little and rushing around all day. So, I relayed this information to Vassily, he didn't really believe me or probably thought that I hadn't asked them, so I asked him to come to the class and ask them for himself. It was one of the funniest things I have ever seen. this group are good craic though extremely hard work as their grammar is non existent, but they did me proud. All of them concocting some bizarre excuse as to why they couldn't attend a third class. Vassily was busy shouting "What's the problem?" and "Quickly, quickly, quickly" in his heavily accented English. These have become catch-phrases in the class now, and after his unsuccessful attempts he turned to me and said "Orlagh, I don't think they can attend a third class", I tried to keep the smug smile from my face as the kids sniggered.
But back to yesterday, he made some snidish comment, though his intonation is so dodgy that it's really difficult to tell if the sentiment is intentional or not. I turned around and told him, that I'd had a really bad class and wasn't sure if i could teach those kids any more. My kids were still in the class room, colouring a chart that we'd decided to make and so he went to talk to them, not before i shed a few stubborn tears, despite my best efforts, he's one of the last people in the world i would ever imagine crying to. So he had a big talk with the kids and they half promised something or other at that stage i didn't really care i just felt like a total fool , but wait there's more.....

posted by orlagh @ 10:40 am