On Thursday, my friend invited me to his last day of student teaching at a school here in Vladimir. He is studying to be a foreign-language teacher, and so bringing a real, live American to class is a pretty cool way to wrap things up. He taught a group of 11 and 12 year olds, and so their English was shaky, but they were really excited to ask lots of questions. Then, we had lunch in the cafeteria--Russian cafeteria food is just as uninspiring as American school food. After I wolfed down my pizza and drank my tea, we went back to the classroom and talked to a group of 11th graders (there are only 11 grades in Russian schools). Their English was better, although they were kind of shy. The funny thing is that I recognized several of the students in that class from the gym or just seeing them around my neighborhood--Vladimir is a really just a big village. They asked lots of questions of video games and movies, and I showed some pictures of my family and even passed around my Ohio driver's license. 

Here are some pictures of the class. It's interesting to compare the classroom and how the students are dressed to what a typical American school looks like and how typical American teenagers dress for school (Russian schools have stricter rules about dress--a lot of schools don't allow jeans, for example).