Русский? (Translation: Russian?)

I freaking love my job, even if it makes me lose sleep, spend long hours at my computer, and induces emotional eating/snacking. Nevertheless, I love what I get to do, the people I work with, and what we accomplish. Every summer we run two camps that brings over Russian, Ukrainian, and Chinese students over for a few weeks. They spend a little over a week in Utah going to English class in the morning and field trips in the afternoon. Then they go to Southern Utah, Arizona, Nevada, and California for the next week and hit up all the sites and fun places.
Last summer I taught everyday and went on half the field trips. This summer I have more responsibilities so I'm only helping out a couple of days. Oh how I miss it!! Right now we are in the midst of the Russia/Ukraine camp.

I waited to the last minute to plan things to teach for this morning but it all worked out...that's kinda what happens with ILP. My boss wanted me to teach about candy making and I know nothing about candy making but this morning I threw together some stuff at Smith's before I drove to Draper. We made candy sushi, sounds good, yeah? They had to listen to my directions and follow the steps. I also asked them a bunch of questions while they were doing it so they had to converse in English. Win. Win. Win. We smashed rice crispy treats flat, rolled a swedish fish inside, and used a foot roll up for seaweed to seal it all in. I then sliced pieces so it actually looked like sushi. It was super fun and I think everyone felt pretty Japanese by the end of it. We also played "Do you love your neighbor?" Big hit!
I love summer camp because I get to meet new people/kids and get to see the ones that came last year too! My friend Larissa from Ukraine brought me this dish and some Ukrainian chocolate (delish!!!). She is so sweet!

We ate at a buffet (real sushi this time), went to the Sweet's candy factory, the copper mines, and back to the school. As I was singing along to N*SYNC I looked in my mirror at all the beautiful Russians in the back seat and thought about how lucky I am. Isn't that what the American dream is all about...Getting to do what you love, and driving a bunch of foreigners around while jamming to old boy bands..? It is to me! After we got back I waited with some of the boys for their host families to show up and I pulled my longboard out. Holy crap were they excited to ride my piece of junk board, it was so funny. I told them they could borrow it but they couldn't imagine taking it home, haha.
I had to take some of the Russians to the store to get groceries, shoes shopping, and then to pick up some sympathy flowers. It took forever but I took the little 7 year old girl Dasha, to get some awesome Polly Pocket toys to take back to Russia. She exclaimed, "I just love America" in the store and won the hearts of all its patrons. Her parents don't speak English well so communicating was interesting. They would often say things and look at me so I would smile or give a little nervous laugh because I didn't know what to do. I think that somehow translated to them thinking that I had some type of clue about what was going on. So they would talk and then look at me waiting for a reaction. Russian sort of sounds like people are arguing or angry so I just nervous laugh and look foolish. Kinda like this:

For the next hour and a half they would say things in Russian and look and me waiting for a response. It was awkward but I smiled and tried to use context clues to figure out what they were referring to. Everything worked out and I got them home safe and sound. They were so cute and grateful about all that I did for them, and it wasn't a big deal (even if I spent 11 hours with them today).
Man, I love summer camp, meeting new people, seeing new sites, and eating at buffets for free. I just wish I knew at least how to say one thing in Russian so I didn't look like a complete idiot. But just you wait...come Chinese summer camp, I'll be slinging all types of mandarin around! I love my job :)