Apart from going to this art school, later on Mum and Dad found this prep in a sense. Actually, it is the only type of prep I’ve been to since I was in Russia at that age. In Russia, prep wasn’t really part of school and wasn’t compulsory. I think this one was three times a week. It wasn’t like prep here. I don’t remember much of it. It was right across from the art school. Both of them were in the gymnasium. The large building was coloured pink, yellow and green. The front of it had a playground but later on half or it was taken down because they wanted to build a gym over there. This meant that you could only enter the school through the sides gates which was quite inconvenient because it made the walk to school longer. The people didn’t end up finishing the project so it was just this dug up flattened ground useless space that devastated me because used to play on that playground a lot. And the fact that it didn’t finish it was absurd. They didn’t even bother to figure out if ...
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Before we went to the art school, and Mum and Dad trying to find me a box to put my art supplies in like everyone else would have. We could fine a box a first, but Dad found one it the closet up op that wasn’t holding anything important. I was disappointed how boring it seemed, so my parents helped me decorate it with tones of stickers- I think one of them was a purple octopus but I’m not so sure. With black permanent marker I wrote my own name in my crooked, developing writing – Абигея . I don’t think I have this box anymore otherwise I would probably have known I did. But I still have my pictures I drew in art school there. I should take photos of them so I could share them with my friends much quicker. Plus, over the years this folder has accumulated drawings and its quite heavy now and I have to drag it and the papers don’t fit so well and the zipper is a little distorted. Inside the box a I have oil pastels – really oil ones that worked so well and didn’t crumble and stick i...
This is the earliest birthday I can remember- mainly because of the awesome cake Mum made. She made a better one when I turned like three- a turtle cake, which she was really proud of it - because she was talking about it when my sister turned like three- maybe four. Unfortunately, I don’t remember this incredible turtle. But in my eyes, a pink cake the shape of a teddy bear. She put the number 6 on it, and I asked to get the piece with the number six on it applying my birthday rights. Which must have been very inconvenient because usually you serve the birthday girl first and the number six was shaped on the teddy bear’s tummy. It was an awesome cake, I mean it. I don’t think she served me first this time. My birthday was at this amusement park called луна - мания or luna-mania – which meant moon-mania. Anyway, it was so much fun. There is a kid's play area and those games where you squish toys. And my favourite one when I was little when you had to catch the little plasti...
Another place that took us a while to find was my art school. I remember when Mum and Dad were first telling me about maybe going to the art school. I wasn’t happy at first, because I misunderstood it. I asked, what if they teach me to draw a flower differently? Like with a white centre? I didn’t understand that an art school wasn’t for teaching me how to draw, but how to improve my drawing skills. And I can say, I loved my first day at the art school. At first, it was three times a week, I think. And my first lesson was in the plasticine room. Plasticine is like play dough but it isn’t made out of salt and once you make something with it, it will last for years since it isn’t made out of food. I still have some sculptures I made from plasticine. Sometimes it is hard at first, so you have to warm it up with your hands before it becomes mouldable. At first you will get blisters but eventually your hands toughen. I miss plasticine because there doesn’t seem to be a decent a...
I still have more to tell you about children’s centre. Mum and Dad seemed to have a skill that they naturally obtained that hardly anyone it Russia actually had – speaking English. Somehow, lots of Russians had got it into their heads that you can buy a language. Unfortunately, you can’t entirely buy and education and even more unfortunately money can actually play a part in your education. Anyway, people would come to Mum and Dad a lot hoping to buy English – including Natalya Ignatevna. She paid Mum for her time teaching kids at children centre English. I think this mainly happened when my brother was going there, but it might have also been when I was going there too. I can remember when Mum was laying some sort of activity and she said, “cover your eyes”. I don’t remember what game it was, but a lot of kids’ games involve that. Some kids closed their eyes, but Mum repeated cover, gesturing by lifting her hands up to her face. It’s important to learn the difference even if tha...
I still have plenty to tell you about children’s centre. I remember Natalya Ignatevna more probably because I had more lessons with her. Oksana Sergeyevna had bright strawberry-blonde hair and let the kids in singing. She would play the piano, and begin the song. Other kids joined in. I hummed along until I learnt the words. She is a very nice singer, but when you don’t understand what it is someone is singing it can become boring. Anyway, one time I was sitting there playing with my hair, trying to figure out how to make a plait. My friend- I think it was Liza- and I ha a mild argument on how to make one, whether you needed two or three strands or something about plaits. Back then plaits seemed very complicate,d and I ended up using two strands twisting them- but not getting the desired result. Anyway, I don’t remember whether it was Natalya Ignatevna or Oksana Sergeyevna, but she asked me nicely to pay attention and plait my hair later. I was satisfied that I had managed ...
We also played outside a lot too, apart from learning letters. Sometimes we went to the forest with the children’s centre, and sometimes with my parents. Oh an I forgot to tell you on time in kindergarten before, I was frustrated with my teachers for not letting me sit in the san pit but only on the edge as I played. But that is unimportant. Mighty pine tree towered above, reaching towards the sky. They scattered beautiful pinecones, seeping a fresh, cosy wooden smell. I would walk around happily with a bucket. Sometimes I would gather pinecones, but my bucket filled so fast I had to empty it and take out the best ones, then gather more, and sort through those, and so on. Some of them fell closed, because the squirrels never took interest in them, but most were opened. Squirrel had pried them open looking for nuts. What remained was a flower like shell. Unfortunately for us humans, these pinecones were out of our reach. Our teeth aren’t as strong as squirrel’s in that...
I probably was at detskiy sad for about 3-6 months. Mum told me some time later she was concerned that it wasn’t going so well for me. While she worried, she went for a walk outside and ended up meeting another lady. She told Mum about this small kindergarten where her child went. She said it was a very good one. So, with that, my parents decided to check out this kindergarten. Natalya Ignatevna and I It was small, and I loved it immediately. It was called детский сентр – ( detskiy cetrr)- children centre. The atmosphere of the place was full of love. Because it was built on a foundation of love. Two women by the names of Наталья Игнатевна – Natalya Ignatevna, and Оксана Сергеевна – Oksanah Sergeyevna. They built it to help poor children whose parents couldn’t afford to send them to regular kindergarten. Well, we could financially afford to go to normal kinder, but not emotionally. The children’s centre was a unique opportunity hardly any kids had. That is because i...
This may be one of my saddest posts so far, but I think it is necessary to understand why we needed to find somewhere else for me to learn. I was an outsider. I have a vague memory of a group of girls huddled together, singing a song, dancing along with it. When they were so happily giggling, I was standing nearby unable to join. I wanted to join, but I didn’t know what to say. When you don’t now a language, you get this immobilising feeling like the one you get in a dream when the words won’t come out of your mouth- because you are half awake and half asleep. To this day, shoes are difficult. You can never get them equally tight. A swarm of laughing kids raced out the door while I anxiously focussed on putting on my shoes. If I didn’t fix them soon, an impatient kindergarten teacher would come along to help. She would mutter under her breath, and I’d getting the feeling I was a burden. It isn’t a pleasant feeling to not be able to do something everyone else manages eff...
Krasnoyarsk was a city further east than St Petersburg or Moscow. It was a place that did not have the luxury of a metro – (a Russian train system in big cities short for metropolis), or fast food places, or international schools. Before I was old enough to go to school, my education was a mixture of home school, Russian preschool, children's centre, and art school. All places that I loved going to. Mum taught me to read in English, which really helped. Soon enough I was reading very big books. In a nutshell, reading saved me from appearing to have lived under a rock all my life when I came to Australia to school for the first time. I learn so much about the other world that it helped we with where I am now. The Art School I went to stirred my passion for drawing. I wish there was something like it here in Darwin, but there just isn’t. Russian have been much more interested in the arts, and there just doesn’t same to be much I can learn over here. So I’ll just practice and ...
This is a story that influenced my life a lot- even though it was not in Russia. It had massively made me who I’ve become. It could have been completely different if things had gone slightly differently, and it is incredible how God used it for good. Most of you have probably heard this story, more or less. And for those of you who are squeamish, I won’t go into too much detail on how my tooth went through my tongue. This actually happened before we went back to Russia. Mum and Dad had already been there, but I don’t remember that time. We were living in a place in the outer suburbs of Melbourne called Kangaroo Ground. Mum, Dad, and me stayed there for a year and a half, while they were studying. Before this had happened, whenever we wanted to pray, I would squirm away and go play. I wasn’t interested. It broke Mum and Dad’s heart that I didn’t like praying, and didn’t think much of God. I was at Kindergarten, playing. And apparently, I simply fell. I don’t remember t...