God works with friends

As I have mentioned before, I'm having serious friend issues; art school is one of the places where I have these issues. The neighborhood also is a trial sometimes. But what is quite fascinating is that in both places something weird happened. 

Let me back up a little. 

At art school I am most often teased by two girls, Julia and Tanya, and the main reason is because of my accent. The one girl who in particular seems to do it the most is Tanya. Recently she had started to not only 

tease me about it but fake an accent, as if it were very bad. It is not as bad as she acts, but the way she says it is very hurtful and it went so far as me having to tell my dad and my dad having to tell the teachers. It was on Thursday at painting class. On the way there I was with my dad; I told him of the teasing and what was really going on. I was very upset at the way I was being treating, because I hadn't expected to be teased just because of my accent. And he said he would do something. When we got there my dad spoke with the receptionist, who called my teacher, Polina Anatolievna (pictured right). 

The whole point of my dad talking with the teacher was to prevent further teasing by those two girls. 

The teacher caught me on the way to class and asked me to explain what the receptionist had told her, and I explained all the incidents of being teased, and she asked me if it had been going on on Thursdays. I said that it had started on Monday but had gotten on Wed. My teacher went and talked to my dad, and I went to my seat and started drawing what I wanted to paint. When my teacher came back, she went over and scolded Tanya for teasing me, and said that it wasn't good. I could see the reaction on Tanya's face that she wasn't listening, or if she was, that she didn't take it seriously. Afterwards, I caught her whispering things and making gestures towards me with Julia. Julia's expression afterwards I read as, "I'll go with that for now."

(Let me explain my previous relationship I've had with Julia Kim (pictured left). She was the other girl picked with me to go to the art contest. There she had acted best friends with 

me, but back in the classroom she was buddy-buddy with the other kids, especially Tanya. So most of the time she and I hardly talk at all.)

This entire time, Tanya's other best friend Lera (they even did homework together) had been looking at me with an expression that I could not read, having seen the whole thing. During the class I got up to sharpen my pencil. There was a sharpener there, and when I got there, Lera noticed I was having trouble figuring it out, and she showed me how to use it.  When I thanked her for showing me how to use it, she didn't thank me the normal way, which was, "you're welcome,"

 she said it with a truly "you're welcome" voice, as though she really meant it. Later, after class, we were outside waiting for our parents when Tanya and Lera came out. I had already been sledding on my bag of indoor shoes on a hill 3-4 feet high that had lots of ice on it that allowed you to coast a few feet further at the bottom. They came running to sled as well, but what was surprising what that Tanya yelled out, "let's go together!" The both allowed me to be in front, whereas they would normally argue over who would be in the front. But they were very gracious. I was very excited that they would treat me this way. 

The next Thursday, Lera and I sat together. In the middle of the class two other girls were sitting on the same stool, and it looked very funny, for it looked as if they had two heads and four feet sticking out the board on the easel. I poke Lera in the shoulder gently and pointed and said, "Look, a two-headed, four-legged girl." She and I both laughed, which was very surprising, seeing that it's very hard to make things seem funny in a different language. Tanya, sitting nearby, never once teased me. I'm praying for another good day at art school today. 

I'm very grateful to God for starting me off with a new relationship again.