Last teaching day

I have to play catch up again. Since Sara has come we have just been soooo busy that I haven't had time to sleep much less blog. So today I am getting caught up.

My last teaching day, last Thursday, was a bitter sweet one. I actually should call it my last work day, I didn't teach. I spent the day saying bye to people and taking care of some business that I am still trying to work out before I leave. My teacher friends had some very sweet and encouraging words to say. I got a few gifts too. My supervisor, Larissa gave me a beautiful ceramic tea pot with sugar and cream holder/ pourer. They are gorgeous. And my friend Tania gave me a hand made cloth/ ceramic doll and framed flowers. It was all so sweet. I was sad to say by to these people. But at the same time, excited to see what the future holds!

Me and Lydia

The English Teachers for PYP: Natalia, me, Kristina, and Dasha

Me and my dearest Tania

Me, Tania and Sara

Dinner with all the American teachers for the last time, Adam, Lydia, Truc, me and Kate.

Sister here!

Sara came in on Monday afternoon. Everything went smoothly at the airport which was our biggest concern. Documents are such a huge thing here and I have seen it go wrong so many times. But everything was perfect.

I'm pretty sure I have worn the poor girl out. We are both completely exhausted. But she is getting a glimpse into what my life is like here for a few days. Today is my last day of work! But that means she has been getting up at 6 am with me, leaving at 7.15 and the earliest we have gotten home is 10.30 for the first time in the day. So we are a bit tired. But things will slow down in about a week. We are going to St. Pete on Friday and that will not be restful. We are going to see as much as humanly possible in 3 days. Plus we are seeing a ballet at the Marinsky theater there. It is supposed to be the most beautiful theater in the world. They still have the throne of the last Tsar there, where him and his family sat when they saw ballets.

So anyway, I have to go. I will make a better post later!

A Day at the Park

Yesterday I had the pleasure of having the day off and spending it the my favorite Fisher kids. I was supposed to be on an excursion to the Kremlin with my students but there was apparently some problem with us being foreigners. There is always some kind of problem. So Kathryn and I took the Fisher kids to the park for the afternoon to give their mommy some much needed relaxing time. Dad is in Iraq for a month with the BBC.

So here is some of our day! It was not your typical park. It is what we call the statue graveyard. It is behind the art museum and the put a bunch of statues on some land and made it a walk through park.

This first one is actually the last. After our day in the park and dinner at McDonald's, we had bath time and were watching a movie. Angus and Amy were feeling particularly snugly. This is how we layed for about an hour. I was shocked they were still awake!

I especially like this one. I got one of them all looking at the camera but I really like how Angus is lookng up at Jude.

Of course we had to have ice cream in the park too!

Angus liked to eat from the top and bottom at the same time!

Well the regular school year is over and now we are in Summer school. There are only about 30 kids in the 1-5 grades. We have only had 2 English lessons in the last 4 days but it has been great to just hang out with my students and play games with them. We also went on an excursion to the Moscow River. We got a private river boat tour with a tour guide. I have done this many times but the kids didn't seem so interested. Their PSP's were much more fun to them. But I really enjoyed being outside all day.

Tomorrow is an excursion to the Kremlin all day. Me and the other 2 English teachers were supposed to go but they are claiming some problem with foreigners so we can't go. Not the end of the world though because that means I have the day off! I'll spend the day with my favorite Fisher family instead.

This is random,but this pic is of some trees all near our apartment. They are all over the city. I don't remember them from last year at all. Maybe they were not near where I lived. I think they are maybe lilacs. I'm not sure but they smell sooooo good.

FYI: I took this pick on my walk home from the metro on night at 10:30 pm. Look at how like it still is. The sun is barely beginning to set.

Here is the river boat. Some of my previously 2nd grade girls, Olga, Dasha and Sonya.

Here with my sweet 4th grade girls, Anna, Arina and Sasha.

I think it is safe to say I am beginning to realize that I'm going to miss them! Some of it is beginning to hit me...

Retreat

This past weekend we had a great chance to get outside of the city and have a retreat. I go to a Bible study on Tuesday nights with the 'young adults' from the church I used to attend here in Moscow. This group if full of people from 18 to their mid-late 30's. It can't be called the singles group because there are several married couples in it. And it can't be called a college group because there are only a handful of college students in it studying abroad for the year. So we call it the young adults group.

We got to stay at this dacha for the weekend. It was about an hour electric train ride outside of the city. We did a study over a C.S. Lewis book. We also had a great time in fellowship over tea, yummy smores, a great meeting with some guys from Tajikistan, a skimpy-dip in the pond and tons of fun. I was unfortunately sick the whole time. So I ended up spending our Saturday free time asleep in bed but I still did everything else, just heavily medicated.

Well all the fun stories begin with the need for smores. You cannot have a weekend in the woods without smores. Doug was able to go to the American Embassy store and get Hershey's chocolate, Jet Puffed marshmallows and real graham crackers. But it had rained all day and we couldn't find any dry wood for the fire. Well some of the guys in our group started to walk around looking for some. They ran into two guys from Tajikistan who said they had some left over roofing wood we could have. Well they ended up inviting them to have smores with us. They loved it. It was a real treat for them.

We had already planned on jumping in the pond when the Tajiks invited our group over. So about 10 of us went to their 1 room home. It wasn't any bigger than my office here at school. It was a father and his 5 oldest sons. He had 5 other sons, a daughter and a wife still back in Tajikistan. They were working and sending their money back for them. Well they cooked us up some lamb fat and onions and did some traditional Tajik dances for us. It was the best time. Great memories. They kept going on about how it is such an honor for them to have guests in their home. Their home by the way had no bathroom and an outdoor sink. It had 2 benches and a table with one set of cabiniets. They also had a little 2 stove gas set to cook on. Their hospitality was truely amazing. Before we left they wanted to pray for us. So one of the sons sang a beautiful prayer in Arabic to their god Allah. Then one of our girls asked if we could pray for them. She prayed to the one true God (in Russian). They continued talking about what a blessing this was for them. Here in Russia they are like beyond scum to the Russians. It is quite sad. But I know that Jesus loves them just as much as he loves me.

Then we went for a skibby-dip in the pond. You can't call it a skinny dip because we were still in our skibbies. It was great fun. Though Lydia and I both got cuts on our foot and it probably only made me more sick. But hey, it was a great way to end the weekend!!





This is the house (dacha) we stayed in for the weekend. It was so wonderful!

A view down the street of the village.

I think this house doesn't have much longer to be standing.

Another house in the village

Emily out on a walk.

One of our neighbors houses.

Attempting to get a fire started with roofing wood and copybooks after it had been raining all day.

The girls about to enjoy some smores!

About to eat my first smore of the night

Betty and her head torch. She had never had a smore before (poor British girl) and just though you were supposed to eat the marshmellow melted. She was all happy about it too. Then we had to show her the good stuff.

Emily had the great idea to just put the chocolate right on the marshmellow and melt them into a tasty treat. Those Brits are clever.

Getting smore number 2 ready.

Me and Kat enjoying the campfire.

Roomates for a few more weeks!

Dr. Appt.

So like most Americans I know, I am going to work sick because there is just TOO MUCH TO DO!! I have Russian medical insurance and I so as long as I see a doctor, I still get paid when I am sick. Well I have been pretty darn sick for the last week and finally decided to stay home on Tuesday and have the doctor come see me. She told me I needed to stay home for the rest of the week and go see the doctor next week. Well she was probably right but I am stubborn and there is just TOO MUCH TO DO!

So I went to work today, late. When I walked in my supervisor was there talking to someone and she is asking my why in the world I am at work. She says I should not be here until Monday. This is true. But I was there anyway.

I really didn't want to miss the last week of school. So I went today so I could have a little more time with my students. Not to mention next week starts summer school. They finally gave us a schedule and a theme today so we can start planning. Plus there is tons of end of the year paperwork to do. Which I did early trying to be diligent. Of course, I did it wrong and got a nice yelling at from other teachers over that. So I spent part of today fixing my mistakes and will finish that tomorrow.

Well I had to go to the doctor to 'close my account'. It was the fastest dr. appt. ever! There was no wait which is very unusual. Then I totally lied and told the doctor that everything was normal. I had to hold in all my coughs, this was hard. And she had to list to my breathing. I did my best to fake a really good deep breath, or well like 10 really good ones. She looked down my throat. I didn't do any sniffling. I passed the test! But what was really funny is that she kept asking me "Are you sure you want to go back to work tomorrow?!" I didn't even try to tell her that I had already been today. I bet I was her first patient who went back to work earlier than they are supposed to!

Sick

I'm guessing there will be nothing fun to post about this week since I'm at home sick. I finally broke down and saw the dr. today after feeling awful for the past 5 days. So the conclusion is: a low fever, an upper respiratory infection, a sinus infection and a virus. That whole breathing thing seems optional these days. So against what I want to be doing, I'm in bed resting and taking all my meds. The dr. said to stay home at least until Friday. I don't think that will happen. I have to at least be at work on Friday because it is my last day with my kids. I have to say bye. But I'll think about that then because it makes me sad.