Traditional American Dance

BLOG 21
October 14

I loved today. My regional manager didn't come like she was supposed to... I'm ok with that, but apparently she's the one giving the Kazakh language test tomorrow, which makes me more concerned than I originally was. I'm not concerned necessarily about my particular level... but with giving a decent impression to my manager :) From what I understand, this test is just a formality... the test I will want to do well on is the one at the end of our service. So my class went well. I had to give some unruly boys threes in front of the whole class to publicly embarrass them, which I don't like doing - but that's the extent of my power and frankly, it worked. I'm still working on my lesson for tomorrow, surprise! I can't wait until I get better at this... or just have accumulated so much stuff that I don't have to make every piece of material.
After giving a lesson, we did a little bit of Kazakh, and had lunch. Then, Laura, Anna, and I chatted in Kazakh... with the help of Aigul. It was really nice practice, just to say what we would normally say in English in Kazakh. Then we had English Club! Our play is really coming together. It's an extremely basic version of Cinderella... but it's super cute. Unfortunately our Cinderella was absent today... so in order to not get any girl's hopes up, I filled in. I made up a goofy version of the electric slide (added in some turns and arm motions) for the ball scene last Wednesday (on the spot). The kids remembered it for the most part, and the new kids caught on quickly. The music is the most hysterical part... they do the ballroom line dance to Jai Ho (Slumdog), it's utterly baliwoodtastic. Elias, super English Club kid, absolutely loved being the Prince - he really hammed it up (and said his one line, "SHwho are you?" every 2 seconds, obviously not understanding what he was saying). And we had a little king, who was so into character and took his one line seriously (ssss...on, I vant to you get married). He practiced and practiced. Then decided at the Prince's wedding, he should say it again haha. I love these kids.
After the Club, we were able to use the internet... then I needed to show my lesson plan for tomorrow to Simbat. So Denise and I walked half an hour to her house, to only find that she wasn't home. So... back we walked. It was a nice day though once the sun came out. Then the plan was for me to go to Laura's and help with baking a carrot cake for Aigul's surprise Goodbye Party. Once home, I helped my host mom dig up and clean potatoes... then decided to head over to Laura's, forgetting about committing to a dance party with Echo's sister yesterday. Apparently, at School 33 there is a fall dance on Friday... and Echo's host sister, Anar, wants to learn how to dance! (How cute) Anar reminds me of Elana... on every school committee possible... super involved with everything she can get her hands on. She is very excited about the dance and somehow plans on doing, not one... but two costume changes throughout the dance (beat that Elana haha)! Her dresses are poofy and iridescent - one orange, and one purple.
So, on my way to Laura's I got the message that I needed to go dance at Echo's. It was hilarious. She was very serious about learning how to dance haha. Echo and I were like... uhh? So we danced. Then I jokingly started the baliwood line dance and Anar (Echo's sister) loved it! We did it over and over again... then she wanted to add on (not suprised seeing as it is only about 4 dance moves). "Nina, teach me more of that Traditional American Dance..." haha - uhh yeah about that dance lol. She kept talking about the wall beeing a huge crowd of people - which was cute that she really wanted the spot light haha. She arranged our formations and kept wanting to dance to the same song? I don't know maybe she really liked that one. It's like she was expecting the "Americans" to just be born as awesome dancers. After about 40 minutes we weaseled our way out - even with Anar insisting we stay longer. She ended up just scheduling an additional dance practice day for tomorrow.
We continued to Laura's to back some carrot cake for Aigul's party! The batter was promising, but ended in a disaster. In short, we were baking half in a microwave with a cake setting, and the other in a fire oven in a pot hahaha. Not surprised it wasn't working out. It was getting late and I hadn't eaten all day so, I felt bad but had to dip out in the middle of a catastrophe. Anna, Echo, and Laura stayed and hopefully we will have some sort of dish for the party tomorrow!