Laughing and coughing

I had fun at the orphanage yesterday. It was Mary's last day and she had brought some treats. I decided it would be a good day to do a little etiquette lesson so the kids could earn their treats. :) They know "please," "thank you," and "give me," but they don't know complete, polite sentences. So we practiced, "May I have...?", "Here you go," "Thank you," and "You're welcome" in the proper order.

Other than "Thank you," the other three phrases can be represented by one word in Russian. The kids just wanted to say "please" all the time, so we had to practice several times to get them used to using "here you go" and "you're welcome" as well. It was fine, though. I think the counselor was even impressed because they were speaking and learning something useful.

The group gave Mary a craft they had made, and they all signed it and wrote their address.

Today I woke up with a cold, and I was glad I had a busy day so I wouldn't have to think about it. My lessons all went pretty well. I was regretting having planned listening activities since I was losing my voice, but I think it was good practice for the students to fine-tune their listening skills.

My beginners made me laugh today. One middle-aged woman has trouble keeping up with her younger colleague, but she really tries. I don't laugh at her mistakes, but sometimes she laughs at herself and then I laugh too. Today she said something weird like "play the bills" instead of "pay the bills." I was just going to correct her when she was finished with the sentence, but the girl next to her was already giggling, and pretty soon we were all laughing until we were crying. It was good comic relief.