Possibly my last post from Orion!

Hello!

It's been a week, and it's not been spectacularly eventful for Orion, but then I guess still unusual as compared to life back home.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had classes, which were all right, we had 4th form twice in a row and on Wednesday they metaphorically threw our lesson plan out the window and insisted on playing games. Handily they were pliant enough to be happy playing a matching game with flashcards, then Go Fish with the same flashcards, then flashcard-themed charades (which over here is called krokodil, which I find super-cute).

Vicky and I fell ill again on Thursday. I spent all of Friday sneezing like crazy. We both started to feel a little better on Saturday but then there wasn't much to do as there were lots of visitors from a Moscow school on a day trip here. Apparently they took photos of Vicky while she was ironing toddler Sasha's underwear, I do wonder where those pictures will show up! I avoided such paparazzi and did most of my ironing duty at home listening to Gecko. If you would like you ears to be treated to what they describe as "Acoustic/Reggae/Samba/Indie/Hip Hop/Soul/Afro-beat/Punk/Fruit Juice" then be my guest and follow that link over to their Facebook, you won't regret it.

We started a 2000 piece puzzle, which it turns out is too large for our kitchen table, and then continued working on it while sharing a couple of cans of orange- and grapefruit-flavoured beer. As well as European drinking rules, we enforced the rule of drinking every time you match two pieces together, and for saying any version of the verb 'find'. I feel that as students we have an inherent talent for turning even the dullest and most innocuous activities into hilarious drinking games, it's just a shame I get tipsy on only 1 can of 7% beer now. Shocking.

Despite my insistence that I have the creative talent of a slug, I've found I have a bit of a knack for designing and making cute felt hair-clips, brooches and Christmas tree decorations. So far we've had two craft workshops with the school kids, and today we had a session with the kindergarten. I'd forgotten quite how exasperating kindergarten can be, when they're all asking you to cut things out at once, or they're getting fed-up and frustrated because they haven't got the motor skills to make their hands do what their heads want them to. I like seeing what the kids think up to make out of felt - the boys like making decorations that look like the birds and pigs from the Angry Birds game, which is hardly festive but I'm happy to see them getting involved and not casting craft off as 'girly'. I made a charming little owl brooch for Vicky which was so nice I made a copycat one for myself, I'll update this blog with pictures once I'm home.

Home! I'll be home this time next week! I am so excited, I've been enthusing that as soon as I land on British soil I want to take out a Union Jack flag and wave it about while singing Rule Britannia or God Save The Queen or something. Possibly a party hat and one of those party whistles that blow out and make a 'ff-twee!' noise wouldn't go amiss either.

Hence, I think this might be my last post from Orion, unless something truly remarkable happens, or I come up with another silly song parody, or I drink too much beer and get let on the internet.

Farewell!