The big sneeze

A kid sneezed on me Thursday. My throat started to get scratchy on Friday and today, Sunday, I’m doing nothing but lying in bed and resting. But let me backtrack a little. The cake which looked so great when I took it out of the oven turned out to be a totally gooey mess. I even tried putting it back in the oven and it didn’t help. I’m just going to have to wait for American cup measures to arrive. Then Friday,the grandmother of my toe-jam-picking child came in along with his father to pick him up. Now remember, this kid started with no English skills and is now correcting me. He’s also a well-behaved little boy now. Well, grandma grabbed my TA and tried to explain to her that the class was making her grandson nervous. We should never discipline him and we should never ask him to sit down, because he has so much energy. Stuff it, lady! My TA was all nervous and asked my if she should get the psychologist to talk to the grandma. I said hell no. Both parents are in total support of how we are educating the kid and it’s none of the grandma’s business. She can go suck eggs. Then there was the conference in the afternoon where all the Russian-speaking teachers tried to get out of playground duty. They think it’s beneath them and they don’t want to take responsibility for an injured child. How’s that for collegiality? Then the other disappointment for Friday was that my TA told me she had seen Mama Mia 2 on Monday. Damn. I had wanted to see that when I was home this summer. She checked all the theaters for me and not one of them us playing the film any longer. Rats. But Friday night turned out to be good. Sonia and I studied together then we walked over to a little cafe we had seen close by which we had wanted to try. Ravil met us there and told us it wasn’t a cafe but a bar/ dive. What the hell, nothing else in my day went well so we decided to go in. It was the best food we have eaten since we’ve been here! The owner are of Caucasus ethnicity and the grilled the best chicken wings I’ve ever had. Ravil ordered ribs and Sonia had French fries. The were real French fries, freshly cut from the potatoes, not frozen. And they were fried nice and crispy, just the way I like them. The sauces wer great too. Ambience and atmosphere 0, food excellent. We will definitely hit that place again. Yesterday we had tickets to the soccer match. But the had fan day before the match so we said why not and went to get some autographs and eat some chak-chak, the Tatar funnel cake specialty. It was freshly made, cover in chocolate and good! The game stunk. We won because of a nice early goal, but the last 80 minutes looked like a bunch of 8-year-olds all running together to the spot on the field where the ball is.Hmm, I think they need to work more on team play. After the game, we met Anna downtown and since it was such a beautiful day, we decided to quickly climb up the old Nikolai tower and look around. This is the tower who’s openings at the top are basically only cover with chicken wire to prevent you from falling several hundred feet to your death. It’s hard to enjoy the view when you’re almost wetting your pants from fear, but the climb is worth it. We climbed down and went over to Brooklyn Pizza for a pleasant evening. On the way home, my throat really started getting sore, so we stopped at the pharmacy and I got some throat lozenges. Today I’ve just been lying in bed and drinking tea. No bike rides, no farmers’ Markets, no nothing. It was a good idea.