Yesterday was the first full day of village activity... And my first day of teaching a half dozen intermediate-level students. It was a pretty good day, all things considered...
There is a wide range of ages here among the kids who are here for 1-week, 2-week, or 4-week (for high school credit) programs-- 7-17. Oddly, at least by my expectations, there haven't been too many "challenging" villagers; however, one young fellow has already made it known that he requires extra attention (there's always ONE).
One of my duties yesterday was working in the village store. That was an interesting experience, as all the villagers here work with faux rubles (they arrive with a Concordia Language Villages passport and exchange dollars for our local "currency."). The store is open during "free time" for an hour in the afternoon and sells sodas, candy, shirts, etc. The kids are encouraged to make purchases in Russian, so it was fun doing business with them!
The 11 young residents of Novgord (our cabin's name) have been great, though they're an eclectic bunch. The youngest, who is 13, is a native speaker of Russian and the oldest arrived here with absolutely no Russian at all. It really is an interesting mix, which is very representative of Lesnoe Ozero itself.
So. On to Day 3...
Пока!
