Day 42 ~ Rachmaninov and Kremlin Talks

13. August ~ A Lovely day!

Today was the best day I’ve had all week, and at work so far! Recently I’ve been getting sad realizing that I am going to be leaving soon, I hate leaving places and changes, and I am not looking forward to saying goodbye to Olga and the children. It’s even more bothersome when I think that I may never see these people again. It’s not my intention to never see Olga again, but you never know what will happen.
Despite my sadness, when I arrived the children were already outside and getting ready to go for a walk with Alla, my favorite staff member! They greeted me with hellos and waves, and I soon felt a whole lot better. I thought wow, these kids really are great! I quickly put my bookbag away and joined them. Alla said she wanted to go for a walk to the Rachmaninov statue in the Kremlin. I was up for anything, and it looked like a nice morning, wasn’t too hot.

Alla was eager to talk to me, and while we were walking she asked me what kind of music I liked to listen to, asked if I liked classical music. I told her I did, and she was soo happy, said very good and was just happy. She talked to me about Rachmaninov and how he died in New York and I should go and see the place where he died. She said, he was born in my city and died in yours, that we’re connected. She said she was very proud that she lived in Rachmaninov’s hometown. I thought that it was very neat how proud of this she was.

Our walk took us along the river where I actually hadn’t been before so I was very happy. We went by the great big theater that had very soviet looking architecture, down along the boat docks and up again by the Kremlin walls. We walked through the Kremlin and to the statue and sat down for a while.

Our conversations continued, she asked me if I had any siblings, if I was an Aunt. I asked her if she had any children, she said yes, a daughter who was in her late 20s. She also asked me if I had a boyfriend, where I lived and about college. She told me that in Russia it is very hard to buy a house, very expensive; I told her it’s the same in America too.

While in the Kremlin Alla was telling me that in September when the city has it’s 1,150 anniversary it will be presented with new bells in it’s bell tower. Alla told me that there hasn’t been a new bell for 400 years. If you look up in the bell tower a few are missing. I thought that was an interesting fact. The Kremlin area is like a beehive, all these people hurriedly working, with a deadline fast approaching. Over the 6 and a half weeks that I have been here I can see the improvements they are slowly making on the Kremlin and the changes around the city. I am sad I won’t be here to actually see the celebrations.

We then walked to the area where I have lunch ironically, there is a huge play are outside so we sat there for quite a while as the children played. Alla and I continued talking about food we like and the differences in American and Russian foods, and what the Religion of the US was. I told her that America doesn’t have an official state religion like Russia does, but many. That certainly was a more difficult thing to explain.

Overall Alla kept saying how it was such a perfect day, one that she wanted to keep in her memory and never forget. It was sunny and the clouds for the most part were big and white. The children loved the play area and didn’t want to leave but we had too. Overall this was the best day of conversation at the Orphanage! Alla thanked me for being able to practice some English with me, and I said the same with Russian. She’s such a wonderful lady! After I left work I decided to walk the same way that we just had, this time with my camera and take pictures.

The clouds looked really neat. There was a huge band of dark ominous rain clouds coming, yet the other half of the sky was pretty clear with a small band of white clouds, it looked pretty awesome. I got all of my pictures, and as I walked into the cafeteria place for lunch it started to rain!

Since those two really hot days the weather has been interesting. I will wake up and it will be cool and a bit cloudy, the sun may not be out and it looks like it will rain, but then soon enough the clouds clear and the sun comes out and the nice big puffy white clouds make their appearance.

Usually when it rains it never lasts all day, and it always clears up. It’s actually quite nice. So, I had lunch with the guys, including Colin. It was a nice lunch, we sat and talked. After Steve and Adrian left Colin and I sad and talked for the remainder of the time until I had to go back to work. It was a very nice conversation about our work, he too worked in an orphanage, but his kids were older than mine. So we talked about Orphanages and what are plans are for the next couple years in school and such. While we were sitting inside it started to downpour really bad outside, but by the time I had to leave it was nice and sunny again.

I decided to walk to work and on my way I ran into Yuriy, from that barbecue that I went to a couple of weeks ago. We talked for a few minutes; it was nice to see him!
When I arrived at work in the afternoon everyone was kind of just chill and relaxed. It was a short afternoon; I was only there an hour. Everyone just seemed tired. Masha, the new girl, came over and wanted to sit on my lap as we all watched cartoons on TV. Alla, the staff member, was asking me some vocabulary from the television show. Francesca has been sick for a couple of days, and today she wasn’t feeling that great so the staff practically made us both go home to rest. They told us we should go and get some rest.

When I got home I read a lot of my book as I was waiting for Olga to come home. Unlike Olga, she got home really late, 8 o’clock and started rushing around to cook because I told her that I was going out at 9, although I had decided against it. So, anyways, she sticks a whole chicken in the oven to bake. It was lying in flour I think and had some spices on top of it. We then took Beesha for a walk. We saw his girlfriend Carrie today, and they walked around together, they didn’t really play like they did last time. I took some pictures while on the walk, including my very first picture with Olga, so check it out!

We came home and Olga finished preparing dinner. When the chicken came out of the oven it looked so good. It was cooked to a perfect golden brown and you could tell it was crispy. It was the best looking chicken ever. I don’t know how she does it! Well, I was pretty excited for the chicken, it was delicious! We had potatoes and salad with it, yummy!

After dinner we had tea and during tea I brought out my computer so Olga and I could look through my pictures because I plan on giving her some. It took two hours, and she choose a lot of my flower pictures, all the ones with the animals, and a bunch from the village. She also wanted pictures of my mom and Kevin that I had on my computer. So, I am glad that I can be giving that to her before I leave. It was getting really late so I just went to bed

It was such a nice day, one of the best the whole trip! Tomorrow will be my last day at work, very sad!
Love, Sasha!