Hello Yulya,
Something went wrong with your recording and the last sentence was not recorded. So, please forgive me if I have pronounced your name wrong.
How are you? I am awake, even though it’s almost 4am! I couldn’t sleep, so I gave up and came to my computer to reply to your messages.
What do you think of your new school uniform? Did you have a uniform at school before, or is the first one?
Take care,
Megan
Hello Yulya
I’m happy to oblige your request, so here comes your picture:)
As for the duties:
How many times is your class on duty in a week?
And what do the others have to do who are not responsible for the students uniforms?
By the way:
Did you visit your school during the summer vacation?
Here come some pictures how it looked like during the renovation when Yuri showed it to me…
It’s always a bit of a miracle, isn’t it, how the workers manage to get a building ready again in time (or almost in time, I guess), when there is so much work to do - the roofs, the heating system, the air ventilation, some windows, the floors…!
Hope to hear from you again soon:)!
Cheers
Urs
Hello Urs, Megan and others,
Thank you Urs for appreciating my reading. I try to work hard on it. It is amazing that you remember my voice. I still remember English songs I learnt by heart when I was in summer camp. And it was more than two years ago! How are you doing now? Is there anything special?
Megan, it is the first time I am writing a letter to a native American! I see you live in the Netherlands. Tell me, please, when you last visited your relatives in the USA? What state are you from? And in what town or city were you born?
Best wishes,
Dulma
Hello Dulma,
It’s very nice to meet you and I was very happy to get your message along with your questions for me. How are you doing? How is the new school year going for you?
I have lived in the Netherlands for over 10 years. I’ve only been back to see my family twice in all that time. The last time I saw them was in 2009. I was there for 6 weeks. As you can see, it’s been a long time since last I saw my family. I talk to my parents every week on the phone. Sometimes we talk for hours!
I was born and raised in the state named Oregon. Do you know where that is? I lived in a small town named Pendleton. When I lived there it had about 15,000 inhabitants. I spent about two thirds of my life there. I also lived for a while in Idaho and Kansas before moving to the Netherlands.
Thank you very much for your questions. I hope you have a wonderful day.
Take care,
Megan
Hello Urs, Megan and everyone!
I would like to talk to you again. I liked the meeting with Urs and our talk on Skype to Megan very much.
Urs, could you send me a picture with you and my teacher too. I am in the second row and I am wearing a pink tracksuit. And, please, send me my grandmother’s picture with you and my teacher. My Granny is an English teacher too. She is in the third row.
Talk to you soon,
Lena
Hello Urs, Megan, Mujibur, Mauricio and everyone,
It was long time ago when I last sent my voice messages here. I was very busy because I had to look after my younger sister and brother. Now they have grown bigger and I can afford to spend my time at school after calasses. I am going to attend our Chess-Checkers Club too. Our English teacher promises that sometimes he will attend our Club and play with us.
Take care,
Arsalan
Hello Lena
Sorry for being late - but here come your two pictures at last:)
I didn’t know that it was your Granny I had the pleasure to meet!
Could you write down her full name for me?
Have a nice day!
Urs
Hello Lena,
How are you? Are you having a good time at school?
I enjoyed getting to spend a little time with all of your over Skype. It was a lot of fun! I am glad you enjoyed it too. What did you like best about the tea party? What did you like best about meeting Urs?
Take care,
Megan
Hello Arsalan,
How are you doing? I am happy that you have time once again to speak with us here. It’s very nice that you looked after your brother and sister but I am glad they are older now so that you can join in after school activities once again.
Do you prefer playing chess or checkers? My dad taught me how to play chess when I was very little but I am not very good at it.
Take care,
Megan
Hello Megan,
I am very glad to be your acquaintance!
I would like to tell you something about myself. I go dancing and attend music school’s dancing Club “Iskorka”, which means “a sparkle”. We go with our concerts to different towns and cities. We have already been to Novosibirsk, Ulan-Ude and soon we are going to visit the city of Chita.
My family consists of my Mother, Father, Brother, Sister and me. I am in the 7th Form. My favourite subjects at school are English, Russian, PE and Maths. Also, I like singing.
I am looking forward to your answer.
Best wishes,
Dulma
Hello Dulma,
Thank you for your lovely message. I was very happy to receive it.
It sounds like you really enjoy dancing. That’s great! I’m terrible at dancing, but I like to dance around the house while I am cleaning, or just for fun.
You said you also liked singing, do you have other hobbies or interests besides dancing and singing? I guess your dancing must keep you very busy, along with school. I have many interests like reading, writing, animals, nature, swimming, going for walks or riding my bicycle, spending time with my friends, watching movies, listening to music, singing, traveling, taking pictures, history, genealogy, playing games, crocheting, sewing, cooking, baking, learning about other cultures and languages, and much more.
Are your brother and sister older or younger than you? I do not have any siblings.
Take care,
Megan
Hello Megan,
How are you doing? I am fine and everything is OK.
To tell the truth many students in our school don’t like the uniform. It was introduced only this year and they have not got used to it. As for me, I don’t care too much. But I think the uniform disciplines the students.
Take care,
Yulya
Please listen to my recording and respond with a voice message too. Many thanks.
Hello Yulya
May I ask you: do all school children in your valley wear school uniforms or is it just your school that has that new rule?
In Switzerland we have no school uniforms anymore for many years, but if you go to Spane or Great Britain or Italy or India for example then you see many school uniforms.
There are good sides and downsides to a uniform, of course. The good side is maybe that no one can show off with some cool but expensive clothing, the downside is maybe that all the parents have to buy these uniforms for their children. A huge amount of money if they have let’s say ten children…
But I think it’s just the way it is now, and I hope everyone gets used to it soon.
We had uniforms too in our Boy-Scout Group (I think you call that pioneers in Russia).
There were people who didn’t like the idea of uniforms at all and told me that it gives us a “military look”.
But what we did at the time had very little to do with military stuff - quite the opposite.
And the uniform gave us a feeling that we were one group - and I liked that.
Sometimes we printed our own T-shirts for a camp, and so that was our uniform then for a week or two - so for the time of the camp.
We did that if there was a very special topic like “Show-Business” or we even made a special outfit like armories and were knights of medieval times in that camp…
Now, that was a long post today, wasn’t it?
I hope you could understand most of it.
If not, you can always get back to me and ask questions:)
I wish you all a nice day!
Bye for now
Urs
Hello Urs,
It is Marina again. How are you doing! I am fine but the weather is not too good. It is raining and sometimes snowing outside. But it is warm and comfortable in our classroom after the reconstruction of school.
Urs, you sent Masha’s picture instead of mine. Please, sent me my picture. I am just behind my teacher in the second (after you) row.
Take care,
Marina
Hello Marina
Thanks, I’m fine, I hope you’re still fine too despite the “nasty” weather.
We had the first snow too in my country about a week ago. But there was snow only in places situated above 1000 meters, so in the mountains. Where I live, it’s about 450 m above sea level (no sea nearby but that’s how it is, ha!).
In one valley, there were 80 cm of snow, but it melted again soon.
Here it’s quite rainy too, and we had some strong wind these days.
There will be new snow by the end of the week.
This always means that most of the passes over the alps must be closed and the trucks can’t pass to Italy or the other way to Germany.
So they have to wait somewhere for a day or two untill the situation gets better again.
Marina, I’m very sorry about my mistake, I’m glad you wrote back to clarify it:)
So here comes your photo, I hope I didn’t mess it up this time!
I’m glad it’s warm in your classroom, so you got some new windows, I guess?
Cheers Urs
Hello everyone
May I add some pictures from my time with the boy-scouts?
They show that you can have a lot of fun in uniforms…
Have a nice week!
Urs
Hello Urs, Megan, Mujibur, Mauricio, Hensiq and everyone,
Do you remember me? I am Nastya, I sent my last voice message in spring.
I am very busy at my musical school but I am eager to take part in this project. Many children from our Form would like to participate too but many of them just don’t have time for that.
I spent great summer but I was very busy with my younger cousins who came to spend their time to my place from Ulan-Ude (they were very noisy and naughty). That’s why I couldn’t attend the meeting with Urs. Such a pity!
Best wishes,
Nastya
Hello Megan, Urs, Hensiq, Mauricio and everyone!
How are you all doing? I am doing well both at school and at home.
Today’s weather is very fine. It is warm outside and very sunny. But yesterday it was snowing and the day before yesterday it was very cloudy.
Yesterday we played snowballs – it was very funny and exciting! My clothes got wet and it seems to me I got cold. That’s why my voice sounds strange.
Urs I watched the pictures of your Boyscout experience. I like them. It is interesting that scouts in your country wear yellow ties. The pioneers in the USSR wore red ties.
Take care,
Erdem
Hello Megan,
It seems to me we have much in common. I like cake very much, too. I think that Russian cakes are same as all over the world. But maybe some of them are different.
I like baking cake together with my Mum. I hope soon I will bake cake all by myself.
Take care,
Nadya
