The pool was closed!

Rats, I figured I wouldn’t undertake any adventures today. I wanted to get back to the pool and get my haircut, but otherwise I just wanted to stay at home, do lesson plans and work on my puzzle and other projects. But the pool was closed! But let’s go back. The 3-day school week was good, except for the kid who bites everyone. I have to tear him off of other children 4-5 times everyday. He’s vicious. Besides running interference, we’ve been working on the names of shapes. They are really good with circles and squares already. And there are lots of great songs about shapes on YouTube that we watch. They are definitely learning something. Friday the boss gave me a ticket to a performance at the Tatar state theater. That’s where everything is performed in the tTar language and you get headphones for Russian or English translations. This play was not as interesting or as easily understandable as the performance I went to in November. It was a more modern piece and there was a lot of background information that I was missing to be able to fully enjoy it. It was written in the 90s, so there were soviet jokes and jokes about small villages, but nothing I could laughs at because I didn’t get the humor. The translation is so literal that it often doesn’t make sense. Instead of saying “well, what about it?” They say “what is from it?”. Then I had to first think of what they meant in English and before I figured it out, they were already into the next joke or scene. But, it’s still great that the culture and language are being preserved at such a high level. And it’s noT like the people of Tatarstan are going to try to break away and form an independent republic. It’s just a lot of pride in their heritage. Before going to the theater, Sonia and I wanted to meet Fouad at Amigo Miquelon for some Mexican food. We checked on line to make sure it was open, walked on down and....it was CLOSED. Now note on the door, no sign, no nothing. So we all got on the bus and rode to the subway station where we took the metro downtown. We ended up going to Khinkalnaya, the great Georgian place. We had the dough boat filled with hot cheese, among other things. It was good as always. And the nice waitress spoke English to us and made recommendations as to her favorite things. We spent a long time just sitting and yakking, so I walked to the theater directly from there and Sonia and Fouad hung out a bit longer. Yesterday and today I worked on my puzzle of Amsterdam. I made a lot of progress and had to force myself to stop so I could get other things done. I was all excited about getting back to the pool and walked all the way over there to find it closed. So I walked back and picked a few things at the store before going to the hair salon that was near me. Boy, I like this place much better than the other shop where they really butchered me. This lady was very nice and I showed her a picur3 in a magazine of about what I wanted. She worked on ,e do an hour and spoke Russian very softly to me so that I could hardly hear her, let alone understand her. plus, I could barely hear her over the other lady’s hairdryer. Then at the end she started speaking to me in a very clear English! But I will definitely have her do it the next time I need a cut. It certainly looks much better than the last two times. Back home I just sort of settled in to get things done. I know what I’ll be doing with the kids next week, so that is good. Next week there is supposed to be a polar bear plunge somewhere near here. Ravil knows more about it, so I think that’s where we are headed next weekend.