And God said, “Let there be light”, and there was light. God saw that the light was good and he separated the light from the darkness. God called the light “day” and the darkness he called “night’. And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
And God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters to separate water from water.” So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse and separated the water above it. And it was so. God called the expanse “sky”. And there was evening and there was morning—the second day.
And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. God called the dry ground “land”, and the gathered waters he called “seas”. And God saw that it was good.
(Genesis 3-10)
Well, I believe if it were not for mornings and evenings, we would never know what a day’s value is. If it were not for the skies and the oceans we would never be able to breathe the air that’s in between them. And finally if it were not for the land we live on we would never be able to tell how a river differs from the ocean.
Seems like the only possible way to learn and comprehend is by comparing things solely. Black is not black if it’s the only color we have ever seen. Pink is not pink unless we know there are also its multiple shades and hues as well as such dyes as orange, peach, red, purple, crimson and many others. Joy loses its ‘joyness’ (forgive my English) if one has never experienced pain—and so I guess we should be thankful for it because only by going through it we can be appreciative of what happiness we do have.
I never knew I loved teaching Russian so much until yesterday when my two students left Petro. I used to spend three or four times as much preparing for a Russian class compared to the time I spent preparing for an English one. All my resourcefulness seemed to evaporate each time I started making up exercises on Dative and Genitive cases. And only goodness knows how glad I was when Erica asked me the “ chto novogo” question and I let myself go on answering it for at least fifty minutes even if in English it would have been the regular ‘not much’. So if you have ever wondered about who the worst Russian teacher in the world is—then nice meeting you. My name is Diana.
And now as I sit typing this into my computer I think it’s about one of the best jobs I have ever had. I think of designing engaging lessons and I can’t wait for that last moment on Monday morning when I would call myself names and rush to Russian textbooks because this is what I am so used to doing. Because these students were also my friends and I miss them so much now I couldn’t even imagine I ever would. Oh well, here I go crying again and will it ever stop? Seems, it was Emily Dickenson who said “that it will never come again is what makes life so sweet”, she was a smart woman, Emily Dickenson. I agree with her on this one. I only wish we could go and ride those horses or go shopping one more time or wait until summer and do the dirty Petro beaches and listen to Andy’s funny dacha hands stories. Man, I’d better stop right here. Because at the moment it’s just too sad to keep on going. I only wonder how come I am so blessed to know pretty much all the best people in the world? I love you friends, all of you.