It’s money in the bank

Oh my goodness. What a start to the week. Thursday is International Women’s Day and it is a very big deal here. We will have Thursday and Friday off, which why my buddies and I decided to get out of town for three days. But yesterday morning, one of the moms came in and gave me a toaster as a present from the parents for International Women’s Day. How nice of them. It tastes so good to have toast again. I also got a plant and bouquets of flowers. These parents are great. The next nice thing was that I grabbed the guy at school who helps the international staff and took him to the bank with me. This time I was armed and ready. I asked my good, good friend if I could deposit my money in her bank account and have her transfer it to my bank, because her bank has a SWIFT code. So, I went to the manager’s office, we sat down, he logged in and it worked. It didn’t take 5 minutes. So now I will do it this way each time. All because some numbskull of a bank official was afraid to sign off on a transfer through the intermediary bank. So, the money’s already in the States. I don’t have to smuggle high sums home in my underwear. So, get back from the bank and we have to go to the party room to celebrate the kindergarten director’s birthday. It contained the usual pageantry and speeches with lots of tea and food. It’s just so interesting how these long, involved congratulatory speeches are always required. This is definitely a cultural trait and I would love to understand where it originated. So it was a very positive day. I went to the post office after work and then met Sonia and Edward at MacDonald’s for a gab session, did a little shopping and then walked home. We all live in the same settlement near school, so it was nice to have company on the walk. Today started out well also. We let the kids start painting our house. They voted and chose green. Not only was the house green, but socks, sleeves and foreheads as well. I added a door handle so it’s easier to get in and out. They always knock on the door before they go in. They are hysterical. They will have a lot of fun with this thing before It eventually falls apart. Then the coolest thing was, I had asked the principal of the primary school for a meeting before the bicycle lady whom I met I. Moscow comes to offer us assistance In setting up a program. I told him we couldn’t meet with her if we didn’t even know what we wanted. So he, the school director, the head of the international department and I met at 1. I went in with a prepared wish list. Not only did I get everything I wanted, the others all added things and we came up with about 10 points. The principal is so e thusiastic about this. The great thing is that he and the director both have lots of good connections in high places, so I’m sure we will get the funding and the support we need. The principal wants to start a program where other kids and teachers come to our school and we train them in bike education. We will end up being the bike education center of Kazan. Cool. The next meetings g is already tomorrow with some guy who teaches mouth train biking. This is great because we have the forest right behind the school and we want to use it for phys ed biking classes. The director also wants to by balance bikes for the pre-schoolers. This is so exciting to have so much support for a biking program. Kazan is a city that needs to work on its infrastructure and we might as well start with our touch, because they will eventually be the ones who decide what the city will look like. So I ca e home right after work and immediately made toast the. Cleaned up a little bit before packing my suitcase for tomorrow’s trip to Nizhny Novgorod. The Russian colleagues are cracking up about this, because they all say there’s. Otho g to see there and what the hell are we going to do for three days. I just tell the. The snow in Nizhny is probably different than the snow in Kazan. Who cares? It will be an adventurous train ride with good friends. Oops, almost forgot. The kindergarten supervisor came in today and presented me with two tickets to the movies for International Women’s Day. The presentation was Accompanied by the appropriate speeches, of course. It’s just such an interesting system.