Monday, December 31, 2018
Not the best day
I had already decided I would not ride today because it was so hilly, but then the rain continued so I was happy to jump in the cab with the guy who was taking my luggage. He took me straight to Olympia, where a tour guide was awaiting me. It was cold and nasty, but we took a two hour tour, and I’m glad I did. I learned so much about the first Olympic Games and how they were religious-based. They ancient games only ceased to exist when the Romans, who by then had taken over Greece and had made Christianity the accepted religion, banned the games. When we exited the stadium to the parking lot, the taxi driver was waiting for me. He was worried about snow in the mountains on the way to the next hotel.Hmmmmm, I’m thinking this doesn’t sound good.
We headed out and everytime we passed through a town, he’d stop and ask a local how the road was. By the look on the local’s face I could tell it wasn’t great, but the the driver kept telling me everything was ok. We climbed and climbed and climbed. No way I could have done it in the allotted time on my bike. Lance Armstrong would have had a hard time. We’re talking steep climbs, hairpin turns, often no guard rails and straight drop offs. Oh yikes. As were climbing to the summit he says that after this 6 kilometers everything will be good because then it will be downhill. But that 6 kilometers was still straight up and the rain had turned to snow. Snow started collecting on the pavement. When we got to the very highest curve, there’s a Mercedes and another car parked at the edge of the road. Everyone’s out of the cars throwing snowballs! And, here’s where the driver starts slipping and sliding in the slush. He can’t make the turn! So he starts to back down the road to get a running start. Oh Lordy. He finally did make it around the curve and a bus is coming up the other side of the mountain. The bus driver flicks his lights so my driver stops and they discuss the road conditions in either direction. Lovely. I don’t see how the bus could have made that curve that we just came through. In any case, as we descended, the snow turned back into rain. It took us another hour to get to Kalavrita, which is a ski resort town! Tomorrow it’s expected to snow here! I’m not bothering with my day trip ride of it is. Crap. But Wednesday I come down off the mountain. I first have to climb a little (maybe 5 miles), then it should be downhill to the coast. This trip at this time of year was not the best idea I ever had.
I did walk around time for a little bit but there certainly wasn’t much going on in the rain. There were a couple of ski tourists and a few tourist shops were open. I did have a nice dinner of lamb chops, which the taxi driver had recommended. I don’t even feel like going out in the streets for New Years. I think I’ll just chill out.
We headed out and everytime we passed through a town, he’d stop and ask a local how the road was. By the look on the local’s face I could tell it wasn’t great, but the the driver kept telling me everything was ok. We climbed and climbed and climbed. No way I could have done it in the allotted time on my bike. Lance Armstrong would have had a hard time. We’re talking steep climbs, hairpin turns, often no guard rails and straight drop offs. Oh yikes. As were climbing to the summit he says that after this 6 kilometers everything will be good because then it will be downhill. But that 6 kilometers was still straight up and the rain had turned to snow. Snow started collecting on the pavement. When we got to the very highest curve, there’s a Mercedes and another car parked at the edge of the road. Everyone’s out of the cars throwing snowballs! And, here’s where the driver starts slipping and sliding in the slush. He can’t make the turn! So he starts to back down the road to get a running start. Oh Lordy. He finally did make it around the curve and a bus is coming up the other side of the mountain. The bus driver flicks his lights so my driver stops and they discuss the road conditions in either direction. Lovely. I don’t see how the bus could have made that curve that we just came through. In any case, as we descended, the snow turned back into rain. It took us another hour to get to Kalavrita, which is a ski resort town! Tomorrow it’s expected to snow here! I’m not bothering with my day trip ride of it is. Crap. But Wednesday I come down off the mountain. I first have to climb a little (maybe 5 miles), then it should be downhill to the coast. This trip at this time of year was not the best idea I ever had.
I did walk around time for a little bit but there certainly wasn’t much going on in the rain. There were a couple of ski tourists and a few tourist shops were open. I did have a nice dinner of lamb chops, which the taxi driver had recommended. I don’t even feel like going out in the streets for New Years. I think I’ll just chill out.
Sunday, December 30, 2018
The hotel in Nafplio
Forgot tovtell you this. All the hotel arrangements have been first class establishments. But unfortunately, last night I had a room with kids above me. They kept trampling around and jumping off the bed while I was trying to sleep. I called the reception desk twice. The guy called them, but it didn’t help one bit. Not conducive to a good night’s sleep.
The “ride” to Vytina
I had gotten everything packed last night and was down at breakfast at 7:30 a.m. with my suitcase because the driver was going to pick we up at 8. It was overcast and the plan had been for me to ride part way with the driver, then have him let me out about 6 miles before town because there was NOO WAY I was gonna no to make it up that mountain on a bike in the allotted time. And OMG, was that mountain steep. And of course it started to rain hard. So I just thought, screw it, and told the driver to drive me directly to the hotel in Vytina. It’s a rely beautiful little town, population about 300. Naturally they weren’t expecting me that early, so I got my warm jacket out of my suitcase and decided to go hiking along one of the many hiking trails they have here. The nice receptionist recommended the green trail, about a four-hour hike. The rain had stopped and the distance sounded OK to me, so I went for it. I checked the trail signs going out of town and the green trail was labeled “family-friendly”. It neglected to say family of mountain goats. Holy crap. Steep ups and downs, narrow paths, loose stones, ice on the paths. Once I went in the wrong direction and had to backtrack before I found the green trail markers again. And of course, I had a couple of rain showers along the way. But I made it back all in one piece, my room was ready and I immediately feel into bed for a nap. After I woke up, I wandered around town for a little bit and then ate a pizza at the restaurant right next to the hotel. The young waitress spoke good English and we had a pleasant conversation. Now I’m in for the night and I’m sure to sleep well.
The ride to Epidavros
I left the hotel about 8:30 a.m. yesterday and followed the GPS instructions to get to Epidavros theater and archaeological site. It was a steady climb through lots of olive orchards. It wasn’t a particularly attractive area. Lots of farmers were out pruning trees and the smell of wood fires was in the air. That was rather pleasant. At one point I took a break to strip off some of my layers. I took off my head band, stuck it in the pocket of my jacket and thought to myself, “Don’t lose it out of your pocket.” I lost it. I should have immediately put it in my backpack but was too lazy to take it off and put it one again. I’ll never learn.
I did a lot of pushing because it was a long climb. When I got to the little town right before Epidavros, I saw a big sign that said “Donuts” so I stopped for a cappuccino and a donut filled with chocolate cream. I couldn’t even finish it, it was so much! I took off again and finally got to The ancient theater. I chained the bike at the ticket office and went on in. It’s a gigantic site, but I just mainly hung out at the theater in the sun. There might have been 50-100 people walking up and down the stairs or just sunning themselves. Because the acoustics are so good, one little boy stood in the center of the stage and timidly sang a song. All the tourists applauded and then a little girl did the same thing. Everyone applauded. So a young man stood in the center and started singing the French national anthem in a normal singing voice. All of a sudden, TWEET, TWEET! Some guard his blowing his whistle! Then he tells the French guy he’s not allowed to sing! We all just sat there with our mouths opened. And we REALLY applauded him. Later when I went into the museum , I asked the lady why singing in the theater was forbidden. She told me it was only meant for comedy and drama, not music. My god, it’s not like it was Beyoncé with a laser show. It was one guy singing his national anthem. That really weirded me out.
After the museum, I went back and got the bike and started back to Nafplio. I decided to take the alternate route which took me along the coast. First there was a nice long downhill before I had to turn off. This route was also pretty uninteresting. There was not much along the way except gravel pits. I did hear goat bells, but couldn’t see the goats. And it wasn’t all downhill either. I had a couple more tough climbs. But the final decent down to the bay way breathtakingly beautiful. That alone made it worth the trip.
When I finally got back into Nafplio after almost 50 miles, I took a nice hot shower before I went out for kebabs. I’m trying a variety of foods. I thing my favorite so far has been the calamari.
I did a lot of pushing because it was a long climb. When I got to the little town right before Epidavros, I saw a big sign that said “Donuts” so I stopped for a cappuccino and a donut filled with chocolate cream. I couldn’t even finish it, it was so much! I took off again and finally got to The ancient theater. I chained the bike at the ticket office and went on in. It’s a gigantic site, but I just mainly hung out at the theater in the sun. There might have been 50-100 people walking up and down the stairs or just sunning themselves. Because the acoustics are so good, one little boy stood in the center of the stage and timidly sang a song. All the tourists applauded and then a little girl did the same thing. Everyone applauded. So a young man stood in the center and started singing the French national anthem in a normal singing voice. All of a sudden, TWEET, TWEET! Some guard his blowing his whistle! Then he tells the French guy he’s not allowed to sing! We all just sat there with our mouths opened. And we REALLY applauded him. Later when I went into the museum , I asked the lady why singing in the theater was forbidden. She told me it was only meant for comedy and drama, not music. My god, it’s not like it was Beyoncé with a laser show. It was one guy singing his national anthem. That really weirded me out.
After the museum, I went back and got the bike and started back to Nafplio. I decided to take the alternate route which took me along the coast. First there was a nice long downhill before I had to turn off. This route was also pretty uninteresting. There was not much along the way except gravel pits. I did hear goat bells, but couldn’t see the goats. And it wasn’t all downhill either. I had a couple more tough climbs. But the final decent down to the bay way breathtakingly beautiful. That alone made it worth the trip.
When I finally got back into Nafplio after almost 50 miles, I took a nice hot shower before I went out for kebabs. I’m trying a variety of foods. I thing my favorite so far has been the calamari.
Saturday, December 29, 2018
Friday, December 28, 2018
The town along the way
I forgot to mention that, about lunch time I came into a little town and thought I’d take a break. I sat in the park and ate part of my sandwich. Then I noticed a neat little cafe so I went over and drank a cappuccino before I got going again. It was so pleasant just to lolligag.
Dog relay teams and orange groves
Oh my. There’s an ashtray on my table in my room at the Grande Bretagne Hotel in Nafplio. It’s so unusual to see ashtrays anymore.
But I digress. Let me start at the beginning. I left the beautiful house in Nemea at about 8:15. I finally had warm water for a shower before I left and fixed my own breakfast from all the good food they had left in the fridge for me. I decided against another piece of chocolate pie because I had had one last night, but I did squeeze some oranges and make fresh orange juice. Lordy, that tasted good. There were even patches of frost on the road in some of the shady curves. After a short climb/push I rode downhill past the archaeological site which was closed for lack of personnel and headed to the old fortress/palace of Mycenae. I had a bout one one road with no shoulders for maybe 30 minutes, but I have never encountered more courteous motorists anywhere. Nobody honked angrily. Everyone took there time behind me and when I had a chance to pull over and let the trucks and cars by, I did. Many motorists waved and many will just generally give a short honk when they are passing me to let me know that they are there. I had to climb/push up to the site. It was early and there weren’t many people so it was great to explore without feeling hassled. The view from up at the top was spectacular.
When I got to the site, I noticed that the GPS app had drained almost all of my phone battery again. What to do? I gave it to the lady at the ticket counter and asked her to plug it in while I was visiting. She was great about it. When I tried to give her some money later, she refused! But now I at least had enough juice agin to power the GPS to Nafplio.
It was a beautiful ride throw acres and acres of orange groves. I saw a few lemon groves around and a few olive groves, but the main crop in this area seems to be oranges. They just look so colorful hanging orange on a background of dark green leaves.
And the dogs! I’m surprised the organizer doesn’t have any mention of the hundreds of dogs in her info packet. (No im not. She’s a first class ditz.) These guys are good. They chase cyclists in relay squads. Two or three will start after you when you come into town. They run after you and bark at you until the next house, where the first dogs drop out and a couple more take of the chase. I didn’t get chased by this many dogs while riding across the US. I never look them in the eye. I just pedal all the harder and outrun them. After a not to strenuous ride I got in to Nafplio. What a gorgeous little harbor town. I was speaking with the receptionist at the hotel and he told me that on the weekends in summer they will get 10,000 visitors. I’m glad I’m here in December.
This place is classy. Check out the Grande Bretagne Hotel in the internet. It’s a nice room and my bike is stored in their side room. But before I can in for the evening, I pedaled around town. The first thing I did was to go to the tourist office to get a map of the city and then I went in search for an external battery for my phone with the GPS downloaded on it. Damn, I won’t find some one to plug it
in at every archaeological site. I was successful so then I went all touristy. I find a bike path/walkway on the cliffs along the shore line. It was a gorgeous ride, very peaceful and quiet. I came back, parked the bike and went out to eat some spinach ravioli. Very good.
The onLy negative thing I can say about the countryside is that it’s covered in garbage. The sides of the roads are lined with plastic bottles and bags. What a shame. It’s such a beautiful area.
I’m in for the night. Have another ride tomorrow which brings me back in the evening to this hotel again. I’m not complaining.
But I digress. Let me start at the beginning. I left the beautiful house in Nemea at about 8:15. I finally had warm water for a shower before I left and fixed my own breakfast from all the good food they had left in the fridge for me. I decided against another piece of chocolate pie because I had had one last night, but I did squeeze some oranges and make fresh orange juice. Lordy, that tasted good. There were even patches of frost on the road in some of the shady curves. After a short climb/push I rode downhill past the archaeological site which was closed for lack of personnel and headed to the old fortress/palace of Mycenae. I had a bout one one road with no shoulders for maybe 30 minutes, but I have never encountered more courteous motorists anywhere. Nobody honked angrily. Everyone took there time behind me and when I had a chance to pull over and let the trucks and cars by, I did. Many motorists waved and many will just generally give a short honk when they are passing me to let me know that they are there. I had to climb/push up to the site. It was early and there weren’t many people so it was great to explore without feeling hassled. The view from up at the top was spectacular.
When I got to the site, I noticed that the GPS app had drained almost all of my phone battery again. What to do? I gave it to the lady at the ticket counter and asked her to plug it in while I was visiting. She was great about it. When I tried to give her some money later, she refused! But now I at least had enough juice agin to power the GPS to Nafplio.
It was a beautiful ride throw acres and acres of orange groves. I saw a few lemon groves around and a few olive groves, but the main crop in this area seems to be oranges. They just look so colorful hanging orange on a background of dark green leaves.
And the dogs! I’m surprised the organizer doesn’t have any mention of the hundreds of dogs in her info packet. (No im not. She’s a first class ditz.) These guys are good. They chase cyclists in relay squads. Two or three will start after you when you come into town. They run after you and bark at you until the next house, where the first dogs drop out and a couple more take of the chase. I didn’t get chased by this many dogs while riding across the US. I never look them in the eye. I just pedal all the harder and outrun them. After a not to strenuous ride I got in to Nafplio. What a gorgeous little harbor town. I was speaking with the receptionist at the hotel and he told me that on the weekends in summer they will get 10,000 visitors. I’m glad I’m here in December.
This place is classy. Check out the Grande Bretagne Hotel in the internet. It’s a nice room and my bike is stored in their side room. But before I can in for the evening, I pedaled around town. The first thing I did was to go to the tourist office to get a map of the city and then I went in search for an external battery for my phone with the GPS downloaded on it. Damn, I won’t find some one to plug it
in at every archaeological site. I was successful so then I went all touristy. I find a bike path/walkway on the cliffs along the shore line. It was a gorgeous ride, very peaceful and quiet. I came back, parked the bike and went out to eat some spinach ravioli. Very good.
The onLy negative thing I can say about the countryside is that it’s covered in garbage. The sides of the roads are lined with plastic bottles and bags. What a shame. It’s such a beautiful area.
I’m in for the night. Have another ride tomorrow which brings me back in the evening to this hotel again. I’m not complaining.
Thursday, December 27, 2018
Let’s catch up, continued
House im staying at in Nemea. I have it all to myself. In season, they use it for wine tastings and other guest activities. This is a big red wine region. The wife came over and cooked me a big supper and we sat around and asked a lot of questions about Greece. I learned a lot. I studied my cue sheets for tomorrow and got confused again. Then I got logged out of the GPS and almost couldn’t get logged back in. Yikes. Oh, and I had no hot water for a shower for tonight because ice had collected on the solar panels on the roof. So tomorrow it’s, up early, pack, make a sandwich to take along and see if I can do it without getting lost.
Oh, also forgot. I got chased by lots of dogs and rode through two herds of goats.
Oh, also forgot. I got chased by lots of dogs and rode through two herds of goats.
Let’s catch up
Let me go back to the bus rides on Christmas Day. They had one of those headphone deals where you plug in and here the cultural blurb, then they play music until the next historical point. The songs were twice as loud as the blurb so I constantly had to adjust the sound. And they only played two different songs the entire time, one of which was Never on Sunday. And I was wearing shirt, shirt, sweatshirt, sweater, jacket, scarf, hat, gloves and two pairs of socks. (and, yes, pants.) it was so cold.
Yesterday after breakfast, I went immediately to the funicular go go up the highest mountain in Athens. You already had to walk up a bunch of steps until halfway up the mountain even to get into the thing. But the view was lovely so it was worth it. And there was no rain yesterday but it certainLy was cold. I walked back down and took the subway back towards the center, where I sat in front of parliament until I saw the entire changing of the guard. On that day the guys wore white tutus. This whole ceremony is very elaborate. When they do their synchronized marching steps, it’s all I. Slow motion. It’s almost like a goosestep, then with a backward kick. Picture Trigger, the wonder horse, counting by pawing in the dirt. That’s pretty much what it looked like. Then I spent the afternoon walking through the bazaar. Man, some places were even selling wooden dildoes as souvenirs. Real classy stuff!
I walked back to the hotel and took a break, then went to the restaurant just down the street for dinner. I ordered the grilled calamari. I had a piece as big as my whole forearm. It was delicious. I accompanied that with stuffed grape leaves and a big glass of orange juice. It was a wonderful meal.
So, I went back to the hotel and packed up and got ready to leave tomorrow before getting a not very restful night of sleep.
This morning after breakfast, Colleen, the tour operator, and her assistant Ianni camexand picked me up. We drove out to the Korinth Canal and started the tour there. We had a hell of a time getting the GPS to work correctly. And she was constantly complaining that it wasn’t giving verbal cues. Later to realized she hadn’t programmed the day’s ride in correctly. Then , the written cue sheets didn’t always match the GPS. Oh well, she says, I’ll have to fix those. How about you do it before I START my ride? Except for today and the last day, I’ll be riding alon and depending on the navigation aids. Her emails were confusing, her cue sheets are confusing and her verbal explanations are confusing. Then she got into a couple of arguments with Ianni. I do t need to hear all this.
The ride is very hilly. I got off and pushed a couple of times. So she’s concerned that I won’t ride well enough to finish the trip. Geez, I’ve already arranged to be transported part way on some of the days. I’m Not out to kill myself. But I told her I wasn’t a fast rider. Then we finally arrived at the ancient site I was supposed to visit and it was CLOSED for lack of personnel. Lovely. So we rode on To the
Yesterday after breakfast, I went immediately to the funicular go go up the highest mountain in Athens. You already had to walk up a bunch of steps until halfway up the mountain even to get into the thing. But the view was lovely so it was worth it. And there was no rain yesterday but it certainLy was cold. I walked back down and took the subway back towards the center, where I sat in front of parliament until I saw the entire changing of the guard. On that day the guys wore white tutus. This whole ceremony is very elaborate. When they do their synchronized marching steps, it’s all I. Slow motion. It’s almost like a goosestep, then with a backward kick. Picture Trigger, the wonder horse, counting by pawing in the dirt. That’s pretty much what it looked like. Then I spent the afternoon walking through the bazaar. Man, some places were even selling wooden dildoes as souvenirs. Real classy stuff!
I walked back to the hotel and took a break, then went to the restaurant just down the street for dinner. I ordered the grilled calamari. I had a piece as big as my whole forearm. It was delicious. I accompanied that with stuffed grape leaves and a big glass of orange juice. It was a wonderful meal.
So, I went back to the hotel and packed up and got ready to leave tomorrow before getting a not very restful night of sleep.
This morning after breakfast, Colleen, the tour operator, and her assistant Ianni camexand picked me up. We drove out to the Korinth Canal and started the tour there. We had a hell of a time getting the GPS to work correctly. And she was constantly complaining that it wasn’t giving verbal cues. Later to realized she hadn’t programmed the day’s ride in correctly. Then , the written cue sheets didn’t always match the GPS. Oh well, she says, I’ll have to fix those. How about you do it before I START my ride? Except for today and the last day, I’ll be riding alon and depending on the navigation aids. Her emails were confusing, her cue sheets are confusing and her verbal explanations are confusing. Then she got into a couple of arguments with Ianni. I do t need to hear all this.
The ride is very hilly. I got off and pushed a couple of times. So she’s concerned that I won’t ride well enough to finish the trip. Geez, I’ve already arranged to be transported part way on some of the days. I’m Not out to kill myself. But I told her I wasn’t a fast rider. Then we finally arrived at the ancient site I was supposed to visit and it was CLOSED for lack of personnel. Lovely. So we rode on To the
Tuesday, December 25, 2018
Message to Ja
Hi Ja and Deb,
Emails are being rejected again, so Merry Christmas this way.
Love,
NeeNee
Emails are being rejected again, so Merry Christmas this way.
Love,
NeeNee
I forgot the flasher
I forgot to tell you about the “flasher”. As we’re riding in the cold, cold bus along the riviera region (Remember, it’s in the low 40s.), I look out on the empty beach and see someone in an overcoat and winter hat, but with bare legs. I’m thinking, who the hell is this guy flashing out there? The overcoat comes off and it’s a girl in a bikini! She was going swimming in that freezing water.
The cold Christmas Day
Don't know why those previous pictures got so big. You’re just going to have to deal with them because I have no idea how to fix them.
Guess what song was playing in the elevator when I came down from breakfast. “Baby it’s Cold Outside”. It reminded me of the controversy about it in the States at the moment, it it was, in fact, cold AND RAINY outside.
After two beautifully warm and sunny days in Athens, today was in the low 40s. I felt colder here than I do in Kazan! So I took one of those “city bus” tours, figuring I’d be out of the wet. They offered three tours, city, Piraeus and riviera. You could do all three by hopping onto different busses at different stops, so I did. After half the city and Piraeus, the riviera bus didn’t come for two hours, so I ran back to the hotel, put on extra socks, my winter boots and a warmer jacket, although I already had 4 layers on. The bus was none too warm. I got back to the bus stop and still had plenty of time so I decided to hike up the hill of muses. I heard someone calling to me and it was a lady from Hong Kong who wanted to know if I wanted to walk with her. She was also waiting for her bus. She was very pleasant and we spent a nice two hours together before we parted ways. We went to a Fresca Yoghurt shop to get some coffee and they also had spanakopita. I couldn’t resist and it tasted great.
I hopped on my riviera bus and it was freezing. I had to put my hood up. Rain was still coming down , but you really got an impression of the exclusivity of this area. Lots of beaches and bars, of course, and lots of sports venues left over from the Olympics.
Got back into town and changed buses to finish the city tour. The heated downstairs was all occupied, so I had to sit on the open upper deck. Yikes. Good thing we were in the city and didn’t hit an great speeds.
I got back the hotel and jumped into bed just to warm up. Then I went out and had an eggplant stuffed with seafood. Oh my god, it was luxurious! One more day here, then the bike tour starts Thursday. The sun is supposed to be out again tomorrow. I hope so!
Tomorrow will be the chairlift up the highest mountain in Athens and maybe the market place. Then I’d better get my suitcase packed and get everything prepared for the trip.
Sent from my iPad
Guess what song was playing in the elevator when I came down from breakfast. “Baby it’s Cold Outside”. It reminded me of the controversy about it in the States at the moment, it it was, in fact, cold AND RAINY outside.
After two beautifully warm and sunny days in Athens, today was in the low 40s. I felt colder here than I do in Kazan! So I took one of those “city bus” tours, figuring I’d be out of the wet. They offered three tours, city, Piraeus and riviera. You could do all three by hopping onto different busses at different stops, so I did. After half the city and Piraeus, the riviera bus didn’t come for two hours, so I ran back to the hotel, put on extra socks, my winter boots and a warmer jacket, although I already had 4 layers on. The bus was none too warm. I got back to the bus stop and still had plenty of time so I decided to hike up the hill of muses. I heard someone calling to me and it was a lady from Hong Kong who wanted to know if I wanted to walk with her. She was also waiting for her bus. She was very pleasant and we spent a nice two hours together before we parted ways. We went to a Fresca Yoghurt shop to get some coffee and they also had spanakopita. I couldn’t resist and it tasted great.
I hopped on my riviera bus and it was freezing. I had to put my hood up. Rain was still coming down , but you really got an impression of the exclusivity of this area. Lots of beaches and bars, of course, and lots of sports venues left over from the Olympics.
Got back into town and changed buses to finish the city tour. The heated downstairs was all occupied, so I had to sit on the open upper deck. Yikes. Good thing we were in the city and didn’t hit an great speeds.
I got back the hotel and jumped into bed just to warm up. Then I went out and had an eggplant stuffed with seafood. Oh my god, it was luxurious! One more day here, then the bike tour starts Thursday. The sun is supposed to be out again tomorrow. I hope so!
Tomorrow will be the chairlift up the highest mountain in Athens and maybe the market place. Then I’d better get my suitcase packed and get everything prepared for the trip.
Sent from my iPad
Monday, December 24, 2018
Another busy day
This morning I ate up on our rooftop cafe again. I always sit at the table where I can view the Acropolis. I checked out the balcony of the cafe and noticed an extremely high mountain with a church on top. After questioning the waitress about it, it turns out there’s a funicular running up to the church on the top of the mountain. In fact, the waitress was able to give me more information about it than the hotel receptionist or the people at the tourist office. Many Greeks I’m meeting here seem more reluctant to answer questions or give information. In any case, I’m going to take the funicular up to the top of the mountain on Wednesday.
After breakfast I first walked to the shop to get a new battery for my watch. lo and behold, the battery’s not the problem. The watch is broken. I’ll have to rely on my phone then. Then I walked down to the Jewish Museum. It was very well-done and underscored the role many Greek Christians played in saving Jews lives during the Nazi period. After the Museum, I walked up to Syntagma Square where a great concert was going on. It was a female singer with four instrumentalists and the were very good. I listened for almost an hour before I walked across the square to the Parliament building and got there just as the guards had changed and the first ones were walking away in their little tutus and fuzzy shoes. I’ll post a picture after this. Then a folk dance group started performing so I watched them for awhile. Across the street were some demonstrators, but for the life of me, I couldn’t tell whether they wanted to keep immigrants out of Europe or if they wanted Europe to take more immigrants in. The guy was speaking in English and I STILL didn’t understand what he wanted! Then I walked down the pedestrian zone for a bit, but decided I should head back to the Acropolis Museum before it closed, because I knew it wouldn’t be open tomorrow or the day after. I got there at 2:10 and when they told me that they would close at 3 today, I figured my time would be better spent out in the sunshine anyway.
So I headed for the cemetery. Holy moly, this cemetery makes Mt. Hope look like a pauper’s graveyard. The monuments are gigantic and always out of white stone. It just seems fitting for a city that has so many other monuments. I was talking with a gardener there and he was telling me it covers a large, large area, with one stone right next to the other. I’ll post some pictures of that too.
It was 4:30 now and I had skipped lunch, so I wandered away from the tourist area to find a nice restaurant. I find a very good one and ordered the feta cheese covered I n sharp red pepper and some pork cooked in a white wine sauce with spices. Both were delicious.
Now I’m in for the night. After I finish writing this, I will start studying my cycling material. Tomorrow I’m going to take one of those city bus tours and go all the way down to Piraeus. Nothing will be open tomorrow so it will be a good way to sightsee and get an overall view of the area.
After breakfast I first walked to the shop to get a new battery for my watch. lo and behold, the battery’s not the problem. The watch is broken. I’ll have to rely on my phone then. Then I walked down to the Jewish Museum. It was very well-done and underscored the role many Greek Christians played in saving Jews lives during the Nazi period. After the Museum, I walked up to Syntagma Square where a great concert was going on. It was a female singer with four instrumentalists and the were very good. I listened for almost an hour before I walked across the square to the Parliament building and got there just as the guards had changed and the first ones were walking away in their little tutus and fuzzy shoes. I’ll post a picture after this. Then a folk dance group started performing so I watched them for awhile. Across the street were some demonstrators, but for the life of me, I couldn’t tell whether they wanted to keep immigrants out of Europe or if they wanted Europe to take more immigrants in. The guy was speaking in English and I STILL didn’t understand what he wanted! Then I walked down the pedestrian zone for a bit, but decided I should head back to the Acropolis Museum before it closed, because I knew it wouldn’t be open tomorrow or the day after. I got there at 2:10 and when they told me that they would close at 3 today, I figured my time would be better spent out in the sunshine anyway.
So I headed for the cemetery. Holy moly, this cemetery makes Mt. Hope look like a pauper’s graveyard. The monuments are gigantic and always out of white stone. It just seems fitting for a city that has so many other monuments. I was talking with a gardener there and he was telling me it covers a large, large area, with one stone right next to the other. I’ll post some pictures of that too.
It was 4:30 now and I had skipped lunch, so I wandered away from the tourist area to find a nice restaurant. I find a very good one and ordered the feta cheese covered I n sharp red pepper and some pork cooked in a white wine sauce with spices. Both were delicious.
Now I’m in for the night. After I finish writing this, I will start studying my cycling material. Tomorrow I’m going to take one of those city bus tours and go all the way down to Piraeus. Nothing will be open tomorrow so it will be a good way to sightsee and get an overall view of the area.
Sunday, December 23, 2018
First day in Athens
Even though I got in late last night, I was awake before 8. There’s an hour’s difference between Athens and Kazan. It doesn’t seem like much but it throws me off a little bit. I had a nice breakfast in the roof top restaurant of my hotel. It has a spectacular view of the Acropolis. Afterwards, Colleen from CycleGreece, the person who organized my tour, came by at 10 and and we spent an hour going over the material. She will accompany on the first day because she wants to ride, and then I will ride alone. A driver will always take my suitcase from hotel to hotel for me and occasionally I will hitch a ride when I have to be a certain places at a certain time. She has a great bike for me. It’s a brand-new Specialized and it is really sharp.
After we got done, I went right around the corner and got in line for tickets for the Acropolis. The weather was so beautiful, I could run around in my shirtsleeves. I spent a couple of hours there, then I walked around the pedestrian zone. I was looking for a place where I could get a new battery for my watch which quit on me this morning. I didn’t find one, becuase of course it’s Sunday and lots of stores are closed, plus I’m probably looking in the wrong place. But then I sat down for an early dinner of moussaka and a salad, both of which were very good. I came back to the room pretty early because I was beat. I did some communicating and writing; now I’m just about ready to turn in.
Athens is a very impressive city. There are lots of stray dogs and cats running around. And I saw one woman bring little pouches of cat food to feed some of them. And the dogs seem more aggressive than the stray dogs in Kazan. These beasts were barking and chasing after tourists’s dogs. One nice thing about being in Athens in December is that the number of tourists is manageable. The Acropolis was not overly crowded. Tomorrow it’s going to be battery and grocery store search, then a couple of museums. I need to find out if anything’s open on Christmas. Otherwise I will just be reading in a park.
After we got done, I went right around the corner and got in line for tickets for the Acropolis. The weather was so beautiful, I could run around in my shirtsleeves. I spent a couple of hours there, then I walked around the pedestrian zone. I was looking for a place where I could get a new battery for my watch which quit on me this morning. I didn’t find one, becuase of course it’s Sunday and lots of stores are closed, plus I’m probably looking in the wrong place. But then I sat down for an early dinner of moussaka and a salad, both of which were very good. I came back to the room pretty early because I was beat. I did some communicating and writing; now I’m just about ready to turn in.
Athens is a very impressive city. There are lots of stray dogs and cats running around. And I saw one woman bring little pouches of cat food to feed some of them. And the dogs seem more aggressive than the stray dogs in Kazan. These beasts were barking and chasing after tourists’s dogs. One nice thing about being in Athens in December is that the number of tourists is manageable. The Acropolis was not overly crowded. Tomorrow it’s going to be battery and grocery store search, then a couple of museums. I need to find out if anything’s open on Christmas. Otherwise I will just be reading in a park.
Saturday, December 22, 2018
On my way to Greece
Yesterday I was just about to do our science experience during circle time when several parents burst in the room and presented me with my birthday present. They wanted me to have it before I went on vacation. These parents are really the best. What a supportive group. When they left the kids were still excited, so it was great that I did the experiment with the flying teabag (proving that hot air rises). The kids loved it.
The taxi ride to Kazan airport was the ride from hell. The driver was passing right on the shoulder! It could have been straight out of Fast and Furious, without the crash and burn, thank God.
Now I’m sitting in the Moscow airport waiting for my connecting flight to Athens. It should be in the 40s and 50s there, perfect for riding. Paul gave me some tips about what to see in Athens and what feeds to try. I’m just glad to be on my way now. I’ll be posting pictures.
Sonia is already back in Spain, Jake is on his way to England, Jen is headed for Moscow and Paul will be going back to Ireland for his brother’s wedding on NewYear’s Eve. The great news is that Lorene is coming back to Kazan from France for a month’s visit in January. It will be good to see her again.
The taxi ride to Kazan airport was the ride from hell. The driver was passing right on the shoulder! It could have been straight out of Fast and Furious, without the crash and burn, thank God.
Now I’m sitting in the Moscow airport waiting for my connecting flight to Athens. It should be in the 40s and 50s there, perfect for riding. Paul gave me some tips about what to see in Athens and what feeds to try. I’m just glad to be on my way now. I’ll be posting pictures.
Sonia is already back in Spain, Jake is on his way to England, Jen is headed for Moscow and Paul will be going back to Ireland for his brother’s wedding on NewYear’s Eve. The great news is that Lorene is coming back to Kazan from France for a month’s visit in January. It will be good to see her again.
Friday, December 21, 2018
Birthday gift from my parents
This was my birthday surprise from my parents. All the colorful pictures are the kids.
Wednesday, December 19, 2018
Catching up
The dew has frozen on the trees again today and the forest is absolutely beautiful. But let’s catch up with recent events
Saturday was the staff new year’s party. There were about two hundred of us there and it was the predicta mix of dancing, speeches praising everyone in high positions and some staff members getting up to entertain. The problem is always that the background noise is so loud that you can’t really converse with anyone at your table without yelling. But I did get to talk with Artyom a little bit. He teaches robotics at school and his team is the reigning world champion of robotics. He’s a very Impressive guy who has along beard that makes him look like Rasputin. But he’s the nicest guy in the world. For one skit they made all the foreigners get up and learn a Tatar dance. The Tatar spectators had a great time with that. At the more boring parts, some of the guys hit the bar downstairs and of course there was drama when one lady objected to her husband ‘s drinking and then left the party. But when she got home she called everyone at the party a million times to find out what her husband was doing. Give it a rest, lady, and grow up. Paul, Jen and I took a taxi home at about 10:30. Enough was enough.
Sunday the gang met for ice skating in the afternoon. We didn’t go to the promenade on the river this time, but to the hockey rink at Gorky Park. There were a gazillion people there and a couple of Bobby Badasses skating faster than everyone else and then skating against the flow. Not good for the beginners. But Sonia and Fouad already looked a lot more confident than last year. Claudia had skated before so it was just a matter of here getting used to it again. And Ravel was the same pro, as usual. I, on the other hand, made a colossal belly flop the second time around. Those stupid spikey things on the toe of the skate got caught in the ice and down I went. Ravel was able to scrap me off the ice and no damage was done. Then I managed pretty well until close to the end when I fell on my side. It wasn’t my skating day! Afterwards we went upstairs to the food court in the mall for some coffee. We sat for a pretty long time talking politics before we split up.
Monday was the last day to practice our Gingerbread Man skit that we were going to perform for the parents on Tuesday. And who showed up to talk to me? The mother of the spaghetti spitter. I told her exactly what I expected of her child. We also said we were going to split the twins up after their 5 week vacation in Thailand. (5 weeks, yeeeessss!) But could they come and do the performance tomorrow. I asked her if she was going to be there, so I of course said yes, because I knew exactly that the kid would not behave and I wanted her to see it.
Tuesday comes. So do the twins. They start the crying again and the nanny has to get their costumes on them. We go upstairs to the performance and naturally the kid acted like a creep. He ran around, hid behind the curtain and threw things around. And both mom and dad were there to see it. They were mightily embarrassed, especially since all the other kids behaved so well. They even apologized for their kid’s behavior. They were supposed to come today, but didn’t. I don’t think we will see them again until February, and then he’s out of my group. Hooray. I got a copy of a British comedy and on the evening I took it and a pizza over to Paul’s and we had an enjoyable evening laughing it up.
Today the school kids (not kindergarten) will be performing at a really expensive venue downtown for the end of year celebration. I wish they’d take the money they spend on all this cosmetic PR crap and hire some decent teachers and aides.
I’m going to leave early and head down to watch it because afterwards we’re all going to meet at the City Club meeting place to have our good-bye dinner before everyone heads out for vacation. I’ll fill you in later.
Saturday was the staff new year’s party. There were about two hundred of us there and it was the predicta mix of dancing, speeches praising everyone in high positions and some staff members getting up to entertain. The problem is always that the background noise is so loud that you can’t really converse with anyone at your table without yelling. But I did get to talk with Artyom a little bit. He teaches robotics at school and his team is the reigning world champion of robotics. He’s a very Impressive guy who has along beard that makes him look like Rasputin. But he’s the nicest guy in the world. For one skit they made all the foreigners get up and learn a Tatar dance. The Tatar spectators had a great time with that. At the more boring parts, some of the guys hit the bar downstairs and of course there was drama when one lady objected to her husband ‘s drinking and then left the party. But when she got home she called everyone at the party a million times to find out what her husband was doing. Give it a rest, lady, and grow up. Paul, Jen and I took a taxi home at about 10:30. Enough was enough.
Sunday the gang met for ice skating in the afternoon. We didn’t go to the promenade on the river this time, but to the hockey rink at Gorky Park. There were a gazillion people there and a couple of Bobby Badasses skating faster than everyone else and then skating against the flow. Not good for the beginners. But Sonia and Fouad already looked a lot more confident than last year. Claudia had skated before so it was just a matter of here getting used to it again. And Ravel was the same pro, as usual. I, on the other hand, made a colossal belly flop the second time around. Those stupid spikey things on the toe of the skate got caught in the ice and down I went. Ravel was able to scrap me off the ice and no damage was done. Then I managed pretty well until close to the end when I fell on my side. It wasn’t my skating day! Afterwards we went upstairs to the food court in the mall for some coffee. We sat for a pretty long time talking politics before we split up.
Monday was the last day to practice our Gingerbread Man skit that we were going to perform for the parents on Tuesday. And who showed up to talk to me? The mother of the spaghetti spitter. I told her exactly what I expected of her child. We also said we were going to split the twins up after their 5 week vacation in Thailand. (5 weeks, yeeeessss!) But could they come and do the performance tomorrow. I asked her if she was going to be there, so I of course said yes, because I knew exactly that the kid would not behave and I wanted her to see it.
Tuesday comes. So do the twins. They start the crying again and the nanny has to get their costumes on them. We go upstairs to the performance and naturally the kid acted like a creep. He ran around, hid behind the curtain and threw things around. And both mom and dad were there to see it. They were mightily embarrassed, especially since all the other kids behaved so well. They even apologized for their kid’s behavior. They were supposed to come today, but didn’t. I don’t think we will see them again until February, and then he’s out of my group. Hooray. I got a copy of a British comedy and on the evening I took it and a pizza over to Paul’s and we had an enjoyable evening laughing it up.
Today the school kids (not kindergarten) will be performing at a really expensive venue downtown for the end of year celebration. I wish they’d take the money they spend on all this cosmetic PR crap and hire some decent teachers and aides.
I’m going to leave early and head down to watch it because afterwards we’re all going to meet at the City Club meeting place to have our good-bye dinner before everyone heads out for vacation. I’ll fill you in later.
Sunday, December 16, 2018
Saturday, December 15, 2018
The cockamamie story
So, Boss’s Brother says he didn’t understand me correctly when I said he could take my bike. Ok, his English isn’t all that great. When I asked him when they were going to paint, he replied,”Sometime next week.” Yup, makes sense. Put the plastic door cover up a week in advance to make sure it will come off the wall everytime I open the door until then. Good planning.
Door repair, the story
So, Thursday morning the boss’s brother who works at school (official working title: Boss’s Brother) catches me in the hallway and asks if can get into my apartment at 11 on Friday. He says they are going to repairs on my door and can he also take my bicycle and put it in school for 4 days so the hallway will be free. OK, agreed. Friday morning I come home from school and the piece of plastic in the previous picture is hanging across the outside of my door and my bike is still there. So, I’m supposed to sleep in my bike basket in the hall? I don’t think so. Of course, every time I go in our out, the piece of plastic comes down a little farther. And the point of this was....? I texted boss’s brother to find out what was going on , but of course got no answer yet. I will see him at the end of year Staff party tonight and I wonder what sort of cockamamie story he’s going to feed me.
Thursday we mixed our dough for our gingerbread cookies and Friday we cut the cookies out with the he cookie cutters. Except for the two boys who decided to half a kick fight in the bathroom. We put one batch in the oven and the cookies ran all over the place because we hadn’t used enough flour. Guess I miscalculated when I translated cups into grams. But it was a good lesson for the kids that things don’t always go as planned and we got to eat the runny cookies for dessert after lunch. Except for the two boys who decided to bully a little girl. One of them was a repeat offender from the kick fight incident. My TAs were both shocked that none of the boys cried or complained when I told them they weren’t having any cookies. One of them said she felt so bad for their sad, little eyes. I asked her if she was out of her mind. She apparently does not understand that misbehavior has consequences. Not a good idea for someone who wants to teach little kids. During nap time I added more flour to the dough and they turned out much better.After nap time the kids decorated the cookies and everyone did pretty well with that. They each got to take four cookies home.
In the evening I went to a Beatles revival concert, which was very well done. The band played exact covers of some of the songs and then an orchestra did the same same songs in baroque style. Very nice. This morning I was out shopping. Now I’m going to start getting ready for the staff party tonight. Much of the English-peaking contingent is going together in a taxi. If the others don’t get in touch , they can figure out how to get there by themselves.
Tomorrow will be ice skating and a little birthday celebration for Claudia, whose birthday is today. Then, Monday there should be an appointment made with the mother of the spitting twins, it will be our last practice for the end of year performance and Tuesday is the performance itself. The rest of the week we’re just going to decorate a huge Gingerbread house I made out of cardboard. Then next Saturday, it’s off to Greece for vacation.
Thursday we mixed our dough for our gingerbread cookies and Friday we cut the cookies out with the he cookie cutters. Except for the two boys who decided to half a kick fight in the bathroom. We put one batch in the oven and the cookies ran all over the place because we hadn’t used enough flour. Guess I miscalculated when I translated cups into grams. But it was a good lesson for the kids that things don’t always go as planned and we got to eat the runny cookies for dessert after lunch. Except for the two boys who decided to bully a little girl. One of them was a repeat offender from the kick fight incident. My TAs were both shocked that none of the boys cried or complained when I told them they weren’t having any cookies. One of them said she felt so bad for their sad, little eyes. I asked her if she was out of her mind. She apparently does not understand that misbehavior has consequences. Not a good idea for someone who wants to teach little kids. During nap time I added more flour to the dough and they turned out much better.After nap time the kids decorated the cookies and everyone did pretty well with that. They each got to take four cookies home.
In the evening I went to a Beatles revival concert, which was very well done. The band played exact covers of some of the songs and then an orchestra did the same same songs in baroque style. Very nice. This morning I was out shopping. Now I’m going to start getting ready for the staff party tonight. Much of the English-peaking contingent is going together in a taxi. If the others don’t get in touch , they can figure out how to get there by themselves.
Tomorrow will be ice skating and a little birthday celebration for Claudia, whose birthday is today. Then, Monday there should be an appointment made with the mother of the spitting twins, it will be our last practice for the end of year performance and Tuesday is the performance itself. The rest of the week we’re just going to decorate a huge Gingerbread house I made out of cardboard. Then next Saturday, it’s off to Greece for vacation.
Friday, December 14, 2018
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Forgot the rocket ship!
I forgot to tell about our plastic film container rocket ship. I took one of those little plastic film containers and put in some baking powder and lemon crystals, then added water, put on the lid and shook. The think flew all the way up to the ceiling and was so loud, the kids jumped about two feet!
What a week this has been!
It didn’t start off too well this week. The twins who started in my class this October have absolutely no desire or inclination to behave. They are so spoiled, they have no idea what the word “no” means. Monday they disrupted circle time to the extent that my TA had to chase them around the room. Tuesday started out the same and I also had to join in the chase. At lunch time the boy laid across the table while we were trying to serve food. I picked him up, put him at a back table and I sat down to eat with him. He promptly took a mouthful of spaghetti and spit it at me. Later on in the day he did a lot of screaming and also ran out of the room three times. I told the nanny not to bring them back until the mother comes in for a conference, which won’t be until Monday because she’s out of town.(Yay.) This is the same mother who didn’t come to our Mother’s Day event because she was getting her eyebrows done. She sent the nanny instead! Hmmm, can’t wait until those kids are grown!
Yesterday was a quiet day. In the evening Sonia, Fouad and I went to a basketball game. The Unics played a Spanish team, so Sonia was all excited! It was actually a very good game and Kazan pulled off the win although Malaga lead for the first three quarters.
Today was a good day in school. Next Tuesday we have to put on our Christmas performance for the parents. We are acting out the gingerbread man. We had our second to last practice today.
The kids are really into it. They sing the songs when we are out on the playground in the snow! As a tie in, we made the dough for gingerbread cookies today. Tomorrow we’ll roll out the dough and bake them. And the two boys who stood in the bathroom and kicked at each other while washing their hands won’t be cutting out any cookies. Tough luck. Oh, well.
Tomorrow night I’m going to a Beatles cover band with the bosses and Paul and then Saturday we have our big school end of year party. And Sunday we’ll be ice skating. I’ll be reporting.
Yesterday was a quiet day. In the evening Sonia, Fouad and I went to a basketball game. The Unics played a Spanish team, so Sonia was all excited! It was actually a very good game and Kazan pulled off the win although Malaga lead for the first three quarters.
Today was a good day in school. Next Tuesday we have to put on our Christmas performance for the parents. We are acting out the gingerbread man. We had our second to last practice today.
The kids are really into it. They sing the songs when we are out on the playground in the snow! As a tie in, we made the dough for gingerbread cookies today. Tomorrow we’ll roll out the dough and bake them. And the two boys who stood in the bathroom and kicked at each other while washing their hands won’t be cutting out any cookies. Tough luck. Oh, well.
Tomorrow night I’m going to a Beatles cover band with the bosses and Paul and then Saturday we have our big school end of year party. And Sunday we’ll be ice skating. I’ll be reporting.
Sunday, December 9, 2018
Nobody has change on Sunday morning!
Let’s start with Friday night. A bunch of us went to that dive down the street for some great chicken wings. We had two Germans, two Russians, two Americans, one Uzbeki and one Irishman. Acreally international group again. We just had lots of fun and lots of good conversation. Those who hadn’t been there before were all laughing about what it looked like inside, but all agreed that the food was great.
Saturday morning I took the subway and bus to meet Claudia and Sabine in front of Claudia’s place. We then made the 10-minute drive in Claudia’s rickety Opal to the Temple of All Religions. It seems that two brothers from Tatarstan decided that there was only one god but many ways to worship. So they built (with donations alone) a building which encompasses all the religions of the world, including sun worship from ancient Egypt. It was actually sort of strange. It looked more like some sort of architectural exhibit than a religious exhibit, although religious images were evidenced in all the different styles. I found it sort of kitschy. I’ll go back again when the weather’s better because Ravil,Sonia, Fouad and I wanted to do a bike trip out there. It was interesting to see, but not particularly moving.
After that, we made our way out to Innopolis to pick up a former colleague of Claudia’s. Innopolis is an “instant” city arbitrarily being built about an hour’s bus ride out of town. It is the site of a brand new technical university, whose buildings are some of the best modern architecture I’ve seen here. There are some apartment buildings and some individual houses; there’s also a large tech building where many Russian businesses have located. I think the idea is for them to recruit the people coming out of this university. There are about 5000 people living there now and when the project is finished, there are supposed to be 200,000. That will still take some time. Although the buildings look wonderful, the place looks totally sterile. There’s no movie theater and not really anything to do out there. There is one grocery store, but no other shopping possibilities. If the people who live here (and they are mostly young people) want to do anything, they have to take an hour’s bus ride into Kazan, and then of course, an hour’s ride back. I don’t think I could get excited about living there at this stage in its planning.
We had a quick cup of coffee there before we took off again, this time with Claudia’s friend in tow, to visit the Sviazhsk Monastery. I had been there before in February but it’s always interesting to see again. It was cold, but the wind wasn’t blowing, so it was not unpleasant. And, there was hardly anyone there. It was a great day to visit. We went into a couple of the churches where we had to wear hats and wrap long clothes around our waists to make it look as if we had skirts on. There were cats running around all over the place. They all looked well-fed and were friendly. I assume they’re kept around to keep any mouse problems in check. We stopped in all the souvenir shops and put some really good mint jam as presents for my co-workers. I had been trying 5o think what to get them, and this was absolutely perfect. We went into one of the cafeterias there and had a good and cheap meal before we headed back. We started talking about names in the car and started laughing so hard I thought we’d drive off the snow-covered road! We stopped at Innopolis to let Claudia’s friend out and then headed back to Kazan. It was a fun day.
This morning I figured I would get up early and get my haircut before Anna, Paul and I headed out to the history exhibit. First I had to go to the bank to deposit my pay. After that I walked down into the subway station to put some money on my transportation card. The problem was, all I had was a large bill and I wanted to get it changed because I knew I needed cash at the hairdresser’s. I figured, if I top off my transportation card, it would work out just fine. Wrong! The lady at the transportation counter couldn’t give me change for my large bill. What to do? I exit the subway station, go into MacDonald’s and order a cappuccino. The first think the cashier asked me was I had a smaller bill. Nope. It took them 5 minutes to get change out of the back. Didn’t matter. I had my change.
Went back down into the subway and topped off my card. Then I walked to 20 minutes to the hairdresser’s. I mad3 it at a good time because I got taken right away. She kept cutting for more than 30 minutes! I don’t really have that much hair and she was slow. I finally told her just to stop. But it looks OK. And I needed it desperately.
I went home long enough to do some messaging and make a sandwich for lunch, then went out to wait for Paul. We took the bus together to the history exhibit and met Anna there. We only looked at one small part of the exhibit, but it took us 3 hours. When we left, the guard at the gate remarked, Boy, you were in there long!”
Paul took off back home after that and Anna and I headed downtown to an Italian restaurant wher3 we hung out for another couple of hours.
Now it’s time for bed. I’ve got to be fit for our Mother’s Day tea tomorrow which was postponed from two weeks ago.
Saturday morning I took the subway and bus to meet Claudia and Sabine in front of Claudia’s place. We then made the 10-minute drive in Claudia’s rickety Opal to the Temple of All Religions. It seems that two brothers from Tatarstan decided that there was only one god but many ways to worship. So they built (with donations alone) a building which encompasses all the religions of the world, including sun worship from ancient Egypt. It was actually sort of strange. It looked more like some sort of architectural exhibit than a religious exhibit, although religious images were evidenced in all the different styles. I found it sort of kitschy. I’ll go back again when the weather’s better because Ravil,Sonia, Fouad and I wanted to do a bike trip out there. It was interesting to see, but not particularly moving.
After that, we made our way out to Innopolis to pick up a former colleague of Claudia’s. Innopolis is an “instant” city arbitrarily being built about an hour’s bus ride out of town. It is the site of a brand new technical university, whose buildings are some of the best modern architecture I’ve seen here. There are some apartment buildings and some individual houses; there’s also a large tech building where many Russian businesses have located. I think the idea is for them to recruit the people coming out of this university. There are about 5000 people living there now and when the project is finished, there are supposed to be 200,000. That will still take some time. Although the buildings look wonderful, the place looks totally sterile. There’s no movie theater and not really anything to do out there. There is one grocery store, but no other shopping possibilities. If the people who live here (and they are mostly young people) want to do anything, they have to take an hour’s bus ride into Kazan, and then of course, an hour’s ride back. I don’t think I could get excited about living there at this stage in its planning.
We had a quick cup of coffee there before we took off again, this time with Claudia’s friend in tow, to visit the Sviazhsk Monastery. I had been there before in February but it’s always interesting to see again. It was cold, but the wind wasn’t blowing, so it was not unpleasant. And, there was hardly anyone there. It was a great day to visit. We went into a couple of the churches where we had to wear hats and wrap long clothes around our waists to make it look as if we had skirts on. There were cats running around all over the place. They all looked well-fed and were friendly. I assume they’re kept around to keep any mouse problems in check. We stopped in all the souvenir shops and put some really good mint jam as presents for my co-workers. I had been trying 5o think what to get them, and this was absolutely perfect. We went into one of the cafeterias there and had a good and cheap meal before we headed back. We started talking about names in the car and started laughing so hard I thought we’d drive off the snow-covered road! We stopped at Innopolis to let Claudia’s friend out and then headed back to Kazan. It was a fun day.
This morning I figured I would get up early and get my haircut before Anna, Paul and I headed out to the history exhibit. First I had to go to the bank to deposit my pay. After that I walked down into the subway station to put some money on my transportation card. The problem was, all I had was a large bill and I wanted to get it changed because I knew I needed cash at the hairdresser’s. I figured, if I top off my transportation card, it would work out just fine. Wrong! The lady at the transportation counter couldn’t give me change for my large bill. What to do? I exit the subway station, go into MacDonald’s and order a cappuccino. The first think the cashier asked me was I had a smaller bill. Nope. It took them 5 minutes to get change out of the back. Didn’t matter. I had my change.
Went back down into the subway and topped off my card. Then I walked to 20 minutes to the hairdresser’s. I mad3 it at a good time because I got taken right away. She kept cutting for more than 30 minutes! I don’t really have that much hair and she was slow. I finally told her just to stop. But it looks OK. And I needed it desperately.
I went home long enough to do some messaging and make a sandwich for lunch, then went out to wait for Paul. We took the bus together to the history exhibit and met Anna there. We only looked at one small part of the exhibit, but it took us 3 hours. When we left, the guard at the gate remarked, Boy, you were in there long!”
Paul took off back home after that and Anna and I headed downtown to an Italian restaurant wher3 we hung out for another couple of hours.
Now it’s time for bed. I’ve got to be fit for our Mother’s Day tea tomorrow which was postponed from two weeks ago.
More monastery pictures
Saturday, December 8, 2018
Thursday, December 6, 2018
Karen and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day (Sorry, Judith Viorst.)
I have twins my class. They are young, spoiled, have personnel coming out the wazoo, and don’t belong in my class. They’ll show up one week (ugh) and not the next ( hooray). Neither knows how to behave, but the boy kicks, hits, screams and spits when he doesn’t get his own way. Not the other kids, but the staff. He is rotten. It took two of us to get his snowsuit on yesterday after he had removed it once after we dressed him and he screamed for an entire hour afterwards. My complaints to the kid’s nannies and the administration have no effect (because the parents are “important” people). The kid did the same thing again today. But today the psychologist came to observe his behavior. He doesn’t need a shrink, he needs a swift kick in the ass. I’m just waiting for him to break my glasses or crack my head open with a chair. He doesn’t need playthings. He needs a straight jacket. When the mother came to pick the kids up, she didn’t even bother to introduce herself, I had to go to her. I had never seen her before because the nannies always bring the kids. She spoke some English so I told her he had had a bad day. And what did she do? She tweaked his little nose. I felt like giving her a few good tweaks. This is the child from hell. I hope I can get rid of him soon.
At least the day ended well yesterday. I went back to university for a lecture about sustainably and urban planning. I gathered some new information. Today I went to the post office to mail a birthday card and pick up a package. The package was a nice surprise.
Tomorrow night, Elizabeth, Claudia, Sabine, Ravil and maybe Paul and Jake and I are going to head out to that bar down the street for those great chicken wings. Saturday I’ll be doing a road trip with Claudia and Sabine. Sabine has to fly back to Germany soon so Claudia wants to show her a few things. It will be interesting to travel in a car again! Sunday Paul, Anna and I want to see if the history exhibit is open. But this time we’ll call first!
Oh sweet Jesus, tomorrow is Friday!
At least the day ended well yesterday. I went back to university for a lecture about sustainably and urban planning. I gathered some new information. Today I went to the post office to mail a birthday card and pick up a package. The package was a nice surprise.
Tomorrow night, Elizabeth, Claudia, Sabine, Ravil and maybe Paul and Jake and I are going to head out to that bar down the street for those great chicken wings. Saturday I’ll be doing a road trip with Claudia and Sabine. Sabine has to fly back to Germany soon so Claudia wants to show her a few things. It will be interesting to travel in a car again! Sunday Paul, Anna and I want to see if the history exhibit is open. But this time we’ll call first!
Oh sweet Jesus, tomorrow is Friday!
Tuesday, December 4, 2018
The start of the week
Here’s something interesting. Some of the shopping malls are staying open until midnight during the holiday season. It just shows you how well consumerism has taken hold in the former Soviet Union.
The seminar about teaching kids about the environment turned out to be very interesting yesterday. There were 16 participants. One of them was another American who had visited my school, but whom I didn’t meet because I was out sick that day. Another lady turned out to be the mother of a students in one of the other classes at our school. There was the usual “getting to know you” exercise and then lots of experiments and discussions. The people in the room were all German teachers in schools in Kazan. (Except the American. She teaches English at the university but understands German.) It turns out that concerns about recycling and hazardous waste separation were universal among the participants. Russian has passed a law which takes effect on Jan. 1, that says that hazardous waste must be properly disposed of. The problem is, they law doesn’t specify where or what agency is responsible for the waste. But anyone who doesn’t separate will face a huge fine. This sounds like the usual Russian bureaucracy. We had two coffee breaks and a nice lunch with all this. It was over promptly at 4, I hopped on the bus and was back home at 5.
Today I went to school and had a substitute assistant in the morning because the daughter of my usual assistant is home sick. And my afternoon assistant was at the doctor’s and came in late because she is sick. She will be out tomorrow. But all the kids were back. Oh, geez. It’s like starting over at zero with some of them. When they’ve been home for two weeks, they forgot the whole routine. Some of them were real little poop heads today.
This evening I went to my first bike club meeting here in Kazan. We met in the neat little clubhouse behind the bike repair shop. I understood almost everything but just couldn’t respond. So I wrote down all my thoughts and will email them To the guy who speaks English. I also understood that I got nominated to work on the school bike program committee. Damir, another guy who speaks English, will be working with me. I wonder how much we can accomplish before next June!
Tomorrow’s anything evening seminar in German. This time it’s more on the order of urban planning and liveable cities. I’m up for that one.
The seminar about teaching kids about the environment turned out to be very interesting yesterday. There were 16 participants. One of them was another American who had visited my school, but whom I didn’t meet because I was out sick that day. Another lady turned out to be the mother of a students in one of the other classes at our school. There was the usual “getting to know you” exercise and then lots of experiments and discussions. The people in the room were all German teachers in schools in Kazan. (Except the American. She teaches English at the university but understands German.) It turns out that concerns about recycling and hazardous waste separation were universal among the participants. Russian has passed a law which takes effect on Jan. 1, that says that hazardous waste must be properly disposed of. The problem is, they law doesn’t specify where or what agency is responsible for the waste. But anyone who doesn’t separate will face a huge fine. This sounds like the usual Russian bureaucracy. We had two coffee breaks and a nice lunch with all this. It was over promptly at 4, I hopped on the bus and was back home at 5.
Today I went to school and had a substitute assistant in the morning because the daughter of my usual assistant is home sick. And my afternoon assistant was at the doctor’s and came in late because she is sick. She will be out tomorrow. But all the kids were back. Oh, geez. It’s like starting over at zero with some of them. When they’ve been home for two weeks, they forgot the whole routine. Some of them were real little poop heads today.
This evening I went to my first bike club meeting here in Kazan. We met in the neat little clubhouse behind the bike repair shop. I understood almost everything but just couldn’t respond. So I wrote down all my thoughts and will email them To the guy who speaks English. I also understood that I got nominated to work on the school bike program committee. Damir, another guy who speaks English, will be working with me. I wonder how much we can accomplish before next June!
Tomorrow’s anything evening seminar in German. This time it’s more on the order of urban planning and liveable cities. I’m up for that one.
Sunday, December 2, 2018
Ken Burns’ Prohibition
I’ve started watching Ken Burns’ series Prohibition on Netflix. I only mention this now because I ended up at the vodka museum today! Paul and I had originally planned to go back to the Russian history exhibit to catch things that we had overlooked before. Paul bailed because he wasn’t feeling well so I headed out to catch the bus and meet Anna there. I get there first and the guard tells me that the building containing the first half of the exhibit which is, of course, the half we want to see, is closed for a week. Oh crap, what to do? I waited for Anna and when she arrived, I suggested we head back into town and check out the vodka museum. It’s relatively new and Sonia and I had been talking for awhile now about seeing it. Since Anna and I couldn’t think of anything else we wanted to see, we just said let’s go!
We first stopped at the House of Tea in the pedestrian zone and enjoyed a piece of Russian cheesecake before we trundled out into the cold and walked another few hundred feet through the pedestrian zone to the museum.
We get there and there are two entrance fees; one with a vodka tasting and one without. I knew I wasn’t going to touch the stuff and Anna didn’t want any either. We get inside and are told that our guide will be with us in a moment and we are welcome to look around and take pictures until she comes. We hang up our coats and start walking around. They had a lot of great antiques and some really inventive stills. One was made out of a trombone!
After waiting and looking around for about 5 minutes, a very pleasant lady comes and starts explaining everything to us and waited patiently while Anna translated. I caught some of what she was saying and Anna filled me in on the rest. This place was only a relatively tiny room , but they had everything divided nicely into time periods with excellent explanations of the development of vodka and government policies about alcohol throughout Russian history from before Ivan the Terrible. And I had no idea that the process of distilling was invented in India and alcohol was used originally for medicinal purposes. The tour guide was very gracious with her time and answered all my questions. When we were finished with the tour, the lady at the gift counter tried to convince me to by a bar of soap in the shape of a cucumber. No thank you. Anna had enjoyed the museum as much as I did because she could relate many stories that her grandmother had told her to the artifacts she saw in the museum.
We both left in a good mood and walked back through the pedestrian zone. We wanted to stop for a cup of coffee so I suggested we go into the great cafeteria at the youth hostel. Anna ended up having a tasty fish stew and my cup of coffee cost $.25. And the place has one of the nicest interiors I’ve seen in a Kazan restaurant/cafeteria. The inner walls are brick and it just makes the place look so warm and friendly. And, at the silverware counter, they also offer chopsticks because I’m sure they have a lot of guests from the Far East.
When we got done, I quickly ran into the store to buy a birthday card for a colleague and then headed home. Tomorrow’s the seminar on teaching kids about the environment and Tuesday I’ll go go my first Kazan bike club meeting. I’m looking forward to that.
There’s still not much snow here. This has given people a chance to clear parts of the sidewalks but they are still overwhelmingly covered with a layer of ice.
We first stopped at the House of Tea in the pedestrian zone and enjoyed a piece of Russian cheesecake before we trundled out into the cold and walked another few hundred feet through the pedestrian zone to the museum.
We get there and there are two entrance fees; one with a vodka tasting and one without. I knew I wasn’t going to touch the stuff and Anna didn’t want any either. We get inside and are told that our guide will be with us in a moment and we are welcome to look around and take pictures until she comes. We hang up our coats and start walking around. They had a lot of great antiques and some really inventive stills. One was made out of a trombone!
After waiting and looking around for about 5 minutes, a very pleasant lady comes and starts explaining everything to us and waited patiently while Anna translated. I caught some of what she was saying and Anna filled me in on the rest. This place was only a relatively tiny room , but they had everything divided nicely into time periods with excellent explanations of the development of vodka and government policies about alcohol throughout Russian history from before Ivan the Terrible. And I had no idea that the process of distilling was invented in India and alcohol was used originally for medicinal purposes. The tour guide was very gracious with her time and answered all my questions. When we were finished with the tour, the lady at the gift counter tried to convince me to by a bar of soap in the shape of a cucumber. No thank you. Anna had enjoyed the museum as much as I did because she could relate many stories that her grandmother had told her to the artifacts she saw in the museum.
We both left in a good mood and walked back through the pedestrian zone. We wanted to stop for a cup of coffee so I suggested we go into the great cafeteria at the youth hostel. Anna ended up having a tasty fish stew and my cup of coffee cost $.25. And the place has one of the nicest interiors I’ve seen in a Kazan restaurant/cafeteria. The inner walls are brick and it just makes the place look so warm and friendly. And, at the silverware counter, they also offer chopsticks because I’m sure they have a lot of guests from the Far East.
When we got done, I quickly ran into the store to buy a birthday card for a colleague and then headed home. Tomorrow’s the seminar on teaching kids about the environment and Tuesday I’ll go go my first Kazan bike club meeting. I’m looking forward to that.
There’s still not much snow here. This has given people a chance to clear parts of the sidewalks but they are still overwhelmingly covered with a layer of ice.
Saturday, December 1, 2018
The overweight kid
I forgot to mention that, while shopping yesterday, it was the first time I noticed a Russian kid who was obviously overweight. And what did she have in her hand? A can of soda pop.
A nice week
The whole week, the most I had was 7 kids in a day. It was so nice because we could take them for a walk in the woods without worrying about half of them running away. We are having a problem with one kid’s aggressive behavior, but I notice that he is being mobbed by the girls, so I’ve called in the psychologist (I specifically asked for the good one!) to observe and help me deal with the situation. But I had a lot of time to give individual attention this week and it was nice.
Today is going to be a shopping day. We’re going to do the story The Mitten this week and I have to find a stuffed badger, mole and hedgehog. I might just have to look in the cat toys department! Also want to finally get to the Museum of Alcohol and Drugs.
Tomorrow I’m headed back to the Russian history exhibit with Anna and Paul. Will study a lot this weekend. Then Monday I’m headed for the seminar concerning teaching kids about the environment. Looking forward to that.
Today is going to be a shopping day. We’re going to do the story The Mitten this week and I have to find a stuffed badger, mole and hedgehog. I might just have to look in the cat toys department! Also want to finally get to the Museum of Alcohol and Drugs.
Tomorrow I’m headed back to the Russian history exhibit with Anna and Paul. Will study a lot this weekend. Then Monday I’m headed for the seminar concerning teaching kids about the environment. Looking forward to that.
Wednesday, November 28, 2018
A glorious day
How sweet was that? 12 of my 17 kids were home sick. It was luxurious. Each kid got a lot of individual time and we even took a walk in the woods. I can’t believe I stay as healthy as I do, considering all the snotty little noses I wipe everyday. We’re doong lessons now celebrating Santa Claus and the winter holidays. Santa Claus is a big thing here now, but still the big holiday is New Year’s Day.
Monday I get to take off for a German language seminar about teaching kids about sustainable energy and the environment. It’s something which Claudia arranger through institute and invited me to. Am looking forward to spending a day using the German language. I don’t want to use too much of it.
Cross your fingers that a whole bunch of kids are sick again tomorrow. I could use another day like today.
Monday I get to take off for a German language seminar about teaching kids about sustainable energy and the environment. It’s something which Claudia arranger through institute and invited me to. Am looking forward to spending a day using the German language. I don’t want to use too much of it.
Cross your fingers that a whole bunch of kids are sick again tomorrow. I could use another day like today.
Monday, November 26, 2018
So much for the Mother’s Day tea
Yesterday was Mother’s Day here. We were going to have a tea for the moms today but over half of our kids were sick, so we postponed it for two weeks. What an unusual feeling to teach a class with only 8 kids in it. We made Christmas trees by pasting different lengths of drinking straw pieces on paper and putting a star on the top. Only problem is, the drinking straws don’t stay glued for long. Plus, the fact that they are damaging to the environment.
I ran into our friend Emma from the public market yesterday. She had been sick, which was why she hadn’t been in touch. I’m looking to attend a seminar in German on Monday about teaching kids about the environment and sustainability. The boss says I can go, I just want her to tell my how she’s planning on covering my class. I can’t leave 17 kids with one aide for 11 hours.
I ran into our friend Emma from the public market yesterday. She had been sick, which was why she hadn’t been in touch. I’m looking to attend a seminar in German on Monday about teaching kids about the environment and sustainability. The boss says I can go, I just want her to tell my how she’s planning on covering my class. I can’t leave 17 kids with one aide for 11 hours.
Saturday, November 24, 2018
Van Gogh and the flat tire
So, Paul and I hop on the bus to go to Mega mall to meet Sonia and Klaudia and see a Van Gogh “multimedia” exhibit there. Paul and I got there early and went into IKEA to get him a mattress cover. The mattress on the bed in his apartment is so dirty, he is getting sinus infections from all the dust. We find one and then walk over to the Van Gogh exhibit. Sonia and Klaudia show up. Klaudia is German, works for a German agency here and drove her car here from Germany. Very daring.
We buy our tickets for the exhibit and go in. It consists of multiple screens and a lot of beanbag chairs. Von Gogh paintings are projected on the screens, nice music is playing in the background, and every once in awhile a voice comes on and explains something about VAn Gogh in Russian. Sonia and Paul dozed off. It was actually very relaxing. We sat through it twice.
We left the exhibit and were thinking of getting something to eat when Klaudia explained that she had gotten a flat tire on her 22-year-old Opel when she pulled into the parking lot. Can we help her change it? We can! We go outside, pull everything we need out of the trunk, Paul jacks up the car, and I hold my handy dandy bicycle light, which I always carry with me, so that Paul can see what he’s doing. Paul tries to take the lug nuts off and the lug wrench is the wrong size. Car down and off the jack, everything back in the trunk, walk back into the Obi store at the shopping mall to buy the right-sized lug wrench. Lug wrench bought, back outside, car jacked up, bicycle light held (I considered myself tech support.), old tire off, new tire on. And this all in below-freezing temperatures. back into the mall to a tea place where Klaudia treated us all for the assistance. Actually, we had lots of fun laughing and talking about the tire and life in Russia in general.
Sonia, Paul and I took the bus back home and I studied a little bit of Russian. Now it’s time to call it quits.
We buy our tickets for the exhibit and go in. It consists of multiple screens and a lot of beanbag chairs. Von Gogh paintings are projected on the screens, nice music is playing in the background, and every once in awhile a voice comes on and explains something about VAn Gogh in Russian. Sonia and Paul dozed off. It was actually very relaxing. We sat through it twice.
We left the exhibit and were thinking of getting something to eat when Klaudia explained that she had gotten a flat tire on her 22-year-old Opel when she pulled into the parking lot. Can we help her change it? We can! We go outside, pull everything we need out of the trunk, Paul jacks up the car, and I hold my handy dandy bicycle light, which I always carry with me, so that Paul can see what he’s doing. Paul tries to take the lug nuts off and the lug wrench is the wrong size. Car down and off the jack, everything back in the trunk, walk back into the Obi store at the shopping mall to buy the right-sized lug wrench. Lug wrench bought, back outside, car jacked up, bicycle light held (I considered myself tech support.), old tire off, new tire on. And this all in below-freezing temperatures. back into the mall to a tea place where Klaudia treated us all for the assistance. Actually, we had lots of fun laughing and talking about the tire and life in Russia in general.
Sonia, Paul and I took the bus back home and I studied a little bit of Russian. Now it’s time to call it quits.
Rich Family
No, I’m not going to describe the people whose children attend my class. This is the name of a new store in our district which could be best described as the Russian version of toys are us. Holy crap, it has everything thing from baby furniture, to sleds, to toys and games. Sonia and I went over this morning because I was looking for a large pair of dice to play some games with the kids and work on their numbers and counting. I didn’t find the dice, but I did find some good-sized plastic blocks that I’m going to paint some dots on. I also found English alphabet puzzles and magnets. A lot of the stuff was cheap plastic junk, but the prices are much cheaper than most of the other retails kids’ stores here.
I headed home after I bought what I wanted and Sonia headed out to go shopping with Fouad. He needs some new duds. I. Brought the stuff home then went out again to make a deposit ant the bank and get some groceries. I was in The mood for another pizza and I’ve got it In The oven now. After I finish eating, I’m going to meet Paul at the bus stop and we’re going to meet Sonia and Claudia, a girl from Germany, at one of th3 malls where there’s a Van Gogh exhibit. Should be interesting.
I headed home after I bought what I wanted and Sonia headed out to go shopping with Fouad. He needs some new duds. I. Brought the stuff home then went out again to make a deposit ant the bank and get some groceries. I was in The mood for another pizza and I’ve got it In The oven now. After I finish eating, I’m going to meet Paul at the bus stop and we’re going to meet Sonia and Claudia, a girl from Germany, at one of th3 malls where there’s a Van Gogh exhibit. Should be interesting.
Wednesday, November 21, 2018
Thanksgiving pizza
It’s been a busy week. One of my aides has been pulled to help out in another class which is a total mess because they keep losing the aides there. So why does my class have to suffer because of that? It would be nice if they would found better solutions and do some long term planning instead of all the piece me crap they throw together. Speaking of crap, one kid pooped his pants today. Oh lord, spare me!
But the one nice thing today was that I celebrated an impromptu Thanksgiving with Sonia, Ravil and Fouad. Ravil and I have been watching BBC documentaries and discussing them so he can improve his English. I suggested he come to my place with his laptop tonight and I would make a pizza. Then we could watch the documentary. Sonia and Fouad joined us. The pizza turned out great and the documentary was excellent. It was about astronomical discoveries in the Islamic world that influenced Copernicus. Very interesting. We ended up just sitting around and yakking after that. Sonia was wondering if we should celebrate Thanksgiving and I said I didn’t feel like going to the trouble of making sauerbraten again on a school day.
Since we had such a good time together tonight, I said we would call it Thanksgiving. That’s what it’s all about.
But the one nice thing today was that I celebrated an impromptu Thanksgiving with Sonia, Ravil and Fouad. Ravil and I have been watching BBC documentaries and discussing them so he can improve his English. I suggested he come to my place with his laptop tonight and I would make a pizza. Then we could watch the documentary. Sonia and Fouad joined us. The pizza turned out great and the documentary was excellent. It was about astronomical discoveries in the Islamic world that influenced Copernicus. Very interesting. We ended up just sitting around and yakking after that. Sonia was wondering if we should celebrate Thanksgiving and I said I didn’t feel like going to the trouble of making sauerbraten again on a school day.
Since we had such a good time together tonight, I said we would call it Thanksgiving. That’s what it’s all about.
Sunday, November 18, 2018
Nizhnekamsk
Yesterday was an interesting day. The guy from the Rotary Club who just completed the “around the world” bike trip in October asked me to go along with him to the opening of a bike park followed by a bike conference in Nizhnekamsk. He wanted me to show my presentation of how we started our school bike club. I was game. But boy, do I hate getting up before 6. We had to be on the road before 6 because it was a 4-hour drive. I was glad there was no snow on the ground.
Ildus picked me up, then we swung around and picked up Aigul. She was going to do a presentation on the bike collection and refurbishing project. It was an interesting ride through a part of Tatarstan that I had never seen before. There is barrenness for miles, then you see the smokestacks of chemical factories rising in the distance. This is where a lot of Tatarstans’s wealth comes from. Unfortunately, this is also where a lot of its pollution comes from.
When we arrived, we went to the youth center where the presentations would take place. We hung around there, all the hosts came to greet us and we got a bite to eat before we were whisked away to the new bicycle park which they were dedicating. I was even asked to say a few words. Then we got shown around the park, which has a whole “street” set-up for bike riders so kids can learn how to ride correctly on the roads. Then we had a bike parade back to the conference center. And, surprise, surprise, the bike they had for me was too big. Meanwhile, as I’m trying to get going with the bike, all these school kids start coming up and asking me to be in a selfie with them because they’ve never seen an American. The hosts are trying to pull me away from the kids and get me on the bike because the police escort is waiting for us. It was an uncomfortable ride, but I made it back without falling on my face.
When we got in the building, first we were given tea and sweets before we did our presentations. I gave my PowerPoint about starting the bike program at the school. Later, I got to talk with the guys who rode the bikes over in the parade. They are all teenagers who are enthusiastic cyclists. In general, the whole city is excited about making hangers in the infrastructure to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians.
Afterwards we went for a very nice lunch served in the guest room of city hall. We got to continue our conversation with our hosts there before we had to start out for the long ride home. It was a tiring day.
Today I hung around all morning, then went to see Bohemian Rhapsody and out to dinner with Anna. The movie is good and the guy who plays Freddy Mercury is great.
When we arrived, we went to the youth center where the presentations would take place. We hung around there, all the hosts came to greet us and we got a bite to eat before we were whisked away to the new bicycle park which they were dedicating. I was even asked to say a few words. Then we got shown around the park, which has a whole “street” set-up for bike riders so kids can learn how to ride correctly on the roads. Then we had a bike parade back to the conference center. And, surprise, surprise, the bike they had for me was too big. Meanwhile, as I’m trying to get going with the bike, all these school kids start coming up and asking me to be in a selfie with them because they’ve never seen an American. The hosts are trying to pull me away from the kids and get me on the bike because the police escort is waiting for us. It was an uncomfortable ride, but I made it back without falling on my face.
When we got in the building, first we were given tea and sweets before we did our presentations. I gave my PowerPoint about starting the bike program at the school. Later, I got to talk with the guys who rode the bikes over in the parade. They are all teenagers who are enthusiastic cyclists. In general, the whole city is excited about making hangers in the infrastructure to accommodate cyclists and pedestrians.
Afterwards we went for a very nice lunch served in the guest room of city hall. We got to continue our conversation with our hosts there before we had to start out for the long ride home. It was a tiring day.
Today I hung around all morning, then went to see Bohemian Rhapsody and out to dinner with Anna. The movie is good and the guy who plays Freddy Mercury is great.
Thursday, November 15, 2018
The long flight back.
Wow, that was a long two days. My flight left at 10 to 5 on Sunday morning. That means I had to be at the airport latest at 4. That means I would have had to take off for the airport at 3, so I figured it made no sense to get a hotel room for that night. So Saturday evening I just took the tram to the airport and stretched out on a bench when I got tired. I was actually going to take the bus to the airport. But after walking up and down the street and asking people for directions several times, I just said screw it, and caught the tram. I big rugby match had just let out so it was difficult walking down the sidewalk and pulling my suitcase. But I made it. I went to the KLM counter at 4 a.m. and the guy couldn’t find my ticket because I had changed my flight date. Oh crap. After doing some checking, I finally got my boarding pass. It was all three flights on one card. I’m thinking it’s convenient. Land in Amsterdam, no problem. Land in Moscow, no problem. Try to go through security in Moscow, problem. The compute4 won’t accept my boarding pass. The lady sends me back to the counter to get a new, individual boarding pass for this last flight to Kazan only. What a pain. Fortunately, I had plenty of time. I get reading done, texting done, and just generally killed time. I arrived in Kazan at 1:30 a.m. Monday morning. Sonia had a taxi waiting for me and I was home by two. I was in school at 8. I managed to catch up with my sleep Monday and Tuesday so I’m back in the groove again. We’re preparing for Mother Day, which is November 25 here. We’re going to host a Mother’s Day tea in class and act out the story, The Little Red Hen. Then on Saturday, I have another bicycle gig. The guy that rode around the world is doing a bike presentation in another city in Tatarstan and is taking me along to show my PowerPoint presentation of what the school’s bike program looks like. It’s a 3.5 hour drive there. It will be a long day. But it should be interesting and I will get to see another part of Tatarstan.
Saturday, November 10, 2018
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