Back to school

Yesterday was a pretty normal day. I still hadn’t slepT well. But it’s always good that the kids sleep for about 3 hours afte4 lunch. It give me a chance to get everything done. yesterday I got to mee5 Edward. He’s the newest addition to the English-speak8ng staff. He arrived Saturday and is from Tennessee. He’ll be teaching the class that’s a year older than mine. He will be able to do writing exercises with them, which will be interesting. He’s going to join Sonia, Fouad and me when we go to the badminton match between Spain and Russia. Yes, badminton. And it’s not a sport for sissies. Check out an Olympic match on google sometime and you’ll believe me. Today we celebrated the rite of spring. It was pretty similar to Shrove Tuesdsy, the day before Lent when Catholics traditionally used up all the grease and cooking fat in the house. But this celebration was customized to the Russian culture with a witch chasing the winter away and lots of pancakes to eat. Nobody does folklore and fairy tales better than the Russians. We danced, sang and said poems. The kids wore necklaces with dough rings around their necks and the little girls wore head scarfs. They looked like those little wooden Russian dolls that you take apart and find another little wooden doll inside. It was fun to see. We had seven kids today and they had a good time. So, as I already said, tomorrow we’re headed for the badminton match. This will be fun. And I’m feeling better, so I suspect I will get a good night’s sleep.