Transportation Holiday

Normally on Friday mornings we teach the crazies from 10:15-12:00. We showed up at 10:00 to set up and Ludmilla, the principal, came in and tried to tell us something in Russian. What we understood from what she acted out was that we were going to have 2 groups of kids instead of 3 and we were only going to have them from 10:00-10:45. Then we would all go outside for a transportation holiday. We had no clue what that entailed, but were not mad that we would be teaching less kids and for less time. 

We did a quick opening and then divided the 15 kids we had in 2 groups and basically just played with them for 20 minutes because we had such short time. Then various adults came and took the kids away and then told us to go outside, so we did. This is what we found. All of the kids were gathered together just like for Maslenitsa.

But half of the kids, the ones who weren't in class that morning had their noses painted red. I still have no idea why.

The celebrations were super emotional. Notice the single tear running down my cheek. Jk. But it was really cold, so my eyes were watering way bad. 

This was the setup that they had. It looked like they were mostly celebrating trains:

They explained something and then all of the kids broke off into smaller groups, so we went around to see what they were doing. Each group was given some chalk. At this point we still didn't know why.

Here is Tioma:

And Sonya. I hope they grow up and get married. For some reason Sonya was sad that day. But isn't she cute?

Andre:

Nikita:

Nikita showed us that we needed to get some chalk and help them draw a railroad track all the way around the school, so we did.

Here is Sasha:

Lonya working on the tracks:

Nikita drew a flower on the side of the tracks:

Lonya and I:

Sasha, me and Nikita showing how strong we are. These boys are really into the muscle poses lately.

Lonya looking happy. A miracle:

Sasha, me, and Nikita:

After we finished drawing the railroad track, we all made a giant train and walked around the school making train sounds.

Me, Samantha, and Jessica at the rear of the train:

The human train. I kept trying to pass Sasha, but he wouldn't have it, so you can see him watching to make sure I don't sneak past him here:

When we finished being a train they started throwing this ball around. Again, no idea why, but it was fun!

Then they passed out flags and pom poms and everyone danced.

Gotta love celebrating transportation!