It’s cold.

Ok, so, you’re not going to believe this. But, if you are dressed appropriately, it is not really unpleasant to go outside. I make a point of walking somewhere everyday after work to make sure I get some exercise.
We have not been allowed to take the kids outside on the playground for the last 3 days because the nurse says it’s too cold for them. So we’ve gone up to the gym and let them run around there. They’ve enjoyed that too, but they love going outside and building igloos or walking in the woods and it’s rare that anyone complains of being cold.
The week went well. We finished up talking about the planets and rocket ships. They loved the topic and had a good time painting our cardboard box rocket ship and making moon craters by throwing marbles onto shaving cream. One little guy even built a rocket ship and launch pad out of building blocks and was able to explain to me how everything works.
Next week we’ll start talking about the ocean and end the unit by throwing a beach party. They should enjoy that too. We’ll make jellyfish and sand crabs.
Last night I walked to the post office after work and then just came home and chilled. (Rested, should be understood here. Not getting cold.) There had been a city club meeting, which I had forgotten about. But it’s getting uninteresting now anyway, since the founder has changed the format.
Today I just did the mundane things; washed clothes, went shopping, worked on my 1000 piece puzzle(It’s a hard one! Thanks a lot, Sonia!) and when I finish this up,I will study some before I make a pizza to take over to Paul’s. We’re going to check out a British film I downloaded on my USB.
Tomorrow will be lesson plans, more puzzle, more study, then the 3 o’clock showing of Hamlet at a theater downtown.
Oh, and the boss lady has signed me up to give a lecture to a group of educators at the end of February. Oh, joy! When I found out, I chose as my topic “Learning Through Play”. When she finally talked to me about it a week after someone else told me it was going to happen , she said she wanted me to talk about bicycle education. Ok, I can do that too. I love how the flow of information here just seems to be perpetually dammed up.

This is the way we walk to school, so early in the morning.

Take a gander of the snow along my path to work!

Mary, Queen of Scots

Yesterday morning Anna and I went to see the movie Mary, Queen of Scots. Good movie, very brutal, as was the whole political situation at that time. After that we went to lunch and yakked for an hour and a half. I came home and started doing some school work. Then I got a text from Ravil that he was in the neighborhood, so I invited him over for tea. We yakked for three hours and covered a lot of territory!

School went well today except that one of the poor kids threw up all over the rug. I hope his mom doesn’t send him tomorrow! And then I walked out in the hallway and there was a first grader throwing up all over the place. Oh, geez, something's going around.

It’s snowing again. What a surprise. (Sarcasm). But they’ve been managing to keep a lot of the sidewalks cleaner than they did last year, so it’s not quite as difficult to walk. 

I’ve got my plans done for tomorrow so I’ll do some studying and then turn in.

Hey, I’m (almost) famous.

This morning was the school’s winter festival. Paul, Sonia, Jen, Adam, Jake with his dog, and I all walked along the path in the forest to go to it. It was at the same place where I led the bike trip in September. At that time, the kids got to climb along the wires and boards strung from tree to tree. Now the paths in the woods around the place are coated with ice and you can skate through part of the woods. They also had a skating rink, cross-country skiing and tubing, as you can see from the previous picture. There were about 100 people there and everyone had a really nice time. We foreigners only went tubing. But afterwards they cooked pilaf for lunch over an open fire. It was fabulous and of course we were hungry from all our activity. By the way, pilaf is a very common dish here. But this was probably the best I’ve ever had. We hung around and talked to people for awhile, then the guys headed out to the ski resort to do some downhill, Sonia and Jenn headed back home, and I went to the bank and shopping.
I got home, did a wash and then studied. Sonia met me at 6 and we went up to check on Jake’s dog because Jake wouldn’t be back until late, and then We headed out to the couch surfing meeting. It was a pleasant gathering and I met an 80-year-old guy from Iceland who lives here. Later,as we were all sitting around talking and drinking tea, a girl that we know came up and told me she had seen me on Instagram. I asked what she meant, and she said the meeting that was held last night about the new park in the woods was posted on Instagram and they had me in there as the foreigner who was making suggestions to improve usage of the forest. Since I don’t do any social media except WhatsApp, I never hear about this stuff unless someone tells me.
I didn’t stay at the couch surfing gathering too late. I went out to wait for the bus. It wasn’t coming and wasn’t coming. Finally I asked a lady and she said that bus wasn’t running anymore but she would show me where to get another one and she had to catch the same bus. The great thing about this is that we had a pleasant conversation during our wait and it was entirely in Russian! I am ecstatic that I could get so many sentences together and that she understood me. The studying at the kitchen table is paying off.

Bala City School winter festival

The interesting meeting

I had been planning to meet Sonia at the shopping center tonight but just before I left school the bos lady came in and and said she had just heard thatvthere is a community meeting to discuss plans for a proposed “park” on the forest behind the school and next to my building. Did I want to go, along with her husband. Of course I did. I’ve been suggesting since I’ve lived here that they have to put up decent directional signs on the trails in the woods. I get lost everytime I go in.
So, we get there and the place is really packed. The architect gives a PowerPoint presentation. About what the “park” is supposed to look like. It’s talking about cafes, bike rental stations, a teeny tiny playground for little kids and a large parking lot. Most of the people jumped on that right away. 99% of them were against a large parking lot right at the edge of the forest. They pointed out there the city could offer alternatives. Some good discussion came up and I suggested they put in a skateboard/BMX park for older kids. They were offering something for every other age group, but nothing for teens. There was also a group of kids there from the local high school who wanted things like a basketball court and a concert venue. One other lady objected to the concert venue because the birds wouldn’t like the noise from the music.
In any case, the boss man said that the project would probably start in summer because the funding is there, and he is sure that the planners will take the public’s suggestions into consideration. Sounds like a democratic process to me, if it really turns out that way.

Weirdness at school

While the kids were napping today I stepped out for a few minutes. When I came back my TA handed me a piece of paper which the Boss’s assistant had left for me. Among other things, I should include a piecture and tell what the subject of my speech will be. I asked my TA what this was all about and she had no idea. I told her to text the lady and find out. Meanwhile, Matthew had dropped by with some books and I asked him if he knew anything about it. He suspected that it might be for a conference at the end of February. That’s nice. I always love the flow of information where I never find out anything in advance but they just sign me up for something. I told Matthew I wasn’t filling out anything until I find out what’s going on.
So, to continue. At 4 the TA takes the five older kids to the speech therapist. They are just leaving the room and the vice-principal comes in and asks if “they” can visit me now. Who’s “they”, I want to know. It’s a delegation from the university and they will be here in about 3 minutes. I no sooner turn around, go into the room and sit on the floor to read a book to the kids, when the director comes traipsing through with about 10 people. I stayed on the floor and after saying hello, read to the kids. They stayed about 5 minutes and left again. I mean,   nothing like getting information a little ahead of time. It’s no big deal, in I would have done nothing differently in the classroom. It’s just annoying that no information ever goes out about this stuff. It’s so typical of this school and I suspect it might be a trait of Russian schools in general, but I have no comparisons.
We wanted to take the kids for a walk in woods again today for outside time. We got as far as the edge of the woods where the snowplows had dumped a pile of snow 12 feet high. We spent an entire hour just climbing up the side of the pile and sliding down. That was the fun part of the day. The hard part is when this little midgets get stuck in drifts up to their armpits and I have to wade in and pull them out. I feel like Nunook of the North when I’m out there with them.
Meanwhile, it’s time for me to go home and my TA tells me the boss’s assistant wants to pick up that piece of paper by the end of the day. Tough nuggets, I tell her. I’m not filling out anything until I know what it’s all about.
Made a homemade pizza again for supper.  Oh, do I love that new oven. The. Sonja and I walked to the store. My glue gun gave up the ghost today while I was trying to build some rocket ships so I had to get a new one. It was good to get out and get the exercise, but so tedious trying to get through the snow on the sidewalks.

Dry cleaning through the snow

I had gotten a new sweater for Christmas. I wore it in Greece and of course promptly spilled salad dressing on it. I took it to the dry cleaner’s after school. Holy crap. They charged an arm and a leg!
I didn’t want to pick it up yesterday because I didn’t want to walk all that way before I went over to Paul’s. So I went tonight through the blizzard. It’s been snowing for more than 24 hours now. It’s a really fine snow and the wind is whipping it so hard, it almost feels like sleet against my check. And of course, the snow is drifting on all the roads and sidewalks. Sometimes you have to high step through 12 inches and that’s what really slows you down. It was a miserable walk home with my dry cleaned sweater in one hand (At least they did a good job on it!), a small bag of groceries in the other and the wind blowing in my face. I was glad when I reached the building entrance.
Paul’s dinner yesterday was spectacular. He cooked tandoori chicken, curried chicken over rice, nasi goreng and dhal. This guy is really a gourmet cook. Jake, Adam, Sonja and I were there from school and Ravil, Lorene and Fouad joined us. We had a really great time with some very pleasant conversation. In fact, we got talking so loudly, the people in the apartment below sent the concierge up to tell us to quiet down. We didn’t think we had been that loud, but we had been sitting in the kitchen and Paul says you can hear everything through the air duct. We broke up shortly after that.
The kids at school love talking about the planets. They now know what centers on the moon are and today we talked about gravity. And my older ones understood the concept. There are some clever kids in this group.
Since it was blowing so hard all day, I wasn’t sure if I should take them outside.  It we decided to go walking in the woods. We were protected from the wind and the kids loved jumping in the big snow drifts. And since it was a work day, there weren’t a whole lot of people out there skiing so nobody yelled at the kids to get out of the way.
NOw I’m just tired from wading through all the snow today, so I’m going to call it quits soon. And Lorene takes off for France again in about 3 hours. I hope she makes it through the snow.

The weekend

Friday night I went over to Paul’s for dinner. He made curried chicken on wild rice. Fabulous. Then we worked for a couple of hours on some of the material he has been writing. It will be some good stuff when he’s done.
Yesterday was so relaxing. I studied a large part of the day. Then I worked on the puzzle and read a little bit. In the evening I met Sonia at 6 and we headed to Ravil and Albert’s Place for dinner and games. (I won Uno and lost at Jenna.) I came home a little after 11.
This morning when I woke up, the first thing I did was listen to Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me while I loafed awhile longer in bed. Then, made breakfast, did lessons plans, did some texting, got some water and a few grocieres. Now I’m just getting ready to head out to the store for some art supplies before I head off to my meeting with the bicycle guy. After that, I’ll just come home and clean up for the start of the week.
I was told they were going to paint the hallway outside my apartment before I went on vacation. The paint cans as well as the plastic sheet that’s supposed to cover my door are still sitting there. Oh well, my bike is safe a school. As long as they have it done before the snow melts. That will take awhile, however, because it’s snowing again now.

Back to school

It’s tough trying to get back into gear after the vacation. I got used to sleeping late and now I hate it when the alarm goes off. Only 10 kids have been in class this week, which is nice. We’ve started talking about the solar system and they are excited about that. But the nurse said we couldn’t take them outside to play in the snow today because it was too cold. That’s crazy because yesterday felt even colder and we were outside playing on the big piles of snow the plows had pushed together. And the kids were disappointed because they had had so much fun yesterday, they wanted to do it agin today. Oh, well. Only one more day left for this week. Next week we’ll make some rocket ships to travel to the planets in.
Sunday I’ve got a meeting with a guy from the bicycle club to get some ideas going for putting the bike program, in other schools. Let’s see what we can get off the ground.

A walk in the woods

Paul and I went for a walk in the woods today. It was FILLED with cross country skiers of all ages. We really had to take care that we could walk without getting run over. The Russians are great at getting out of doors and getting exercise in any weather. They don’t have much other choice.

Decorations downtown

The big celebration is tomorrow night. It is freezing cold.

Saturday And today

I slept late yesterday. I didn’t get up until 10: 30. I got two more loads of wash done. Now I’m good to go. In the afternoon I went downtown to meet Ravil and Lorene for tea. Lorene is visiting from France for 3 weeks. It’s so good to see her again. She says here studies are hard and she really needed this break. Today I was supposed to dogsit , but Jake decided not to go skiing after all. So Paul and I are going to walk through the woods. Later I went to get to the post office and send my mail. The. It will be another study/puzzle evening. Oh, and I also want to hit the toy store to see what games and activities I can find about the planets. That will be my next unit in school.

The last day in Greece, the first day back in Kazan

So, Wednesday ifinsihed thecbesutiful ride along the coast and got picked up at Xylokastro. On the ride back to Athens, the organizer kept saying it looked like it would rain the next day, and do I really want to ride out to the temple of Poseidon. I said if it wasn’t a downpour, I was going. The organizer was going to ride with me. That was the deal, in writing.
I got dropped off at the hotel, which was in a lovely location. From the rooftop restaurant you can see the Acropolis from one side and the temple of Zeus from the other. I slept well, woke up the next morning and.....it was raining and very windy. I go up to breakfast, come back down and my phone is ringing. It’s the organizer. She refuses to ride her bike. Ok, but you’re going to take me out there with the bike on the car rack and if it clears up I will ride back in. She was trying to think of all sorts of objections to that idea. I told her to knock it off, I was a paying customer. So , while I was waiting for her downstairs, one of the bellboys was talking to me about the ride out there. He has also done it on the bike and he thought the winds would make it difficult and danger. I was glad to hear a non-confusing explanation for once. In any case , I got picked up and we drove out of Athens to the temple of Poseidon. It rained the entire way and was windy. So when we got there, she stayed in the car and I walked up to the site in the wind and rain and tried to take some pictures without letting my phone get too wet. When I got back to the car, it was raining so hard, there was no way I was going to ride the bike for 30 miles. It was coming down in torrents. Dirt and gravel were washing across the road from the hillside and some of the puddles were so deep we had to crawl through it. But I was not going to sit in the hotel all day!
When we finally got back into town, she dropped me off at the national archaeological museum. I spent two hours there and then took the metro back to the hotel where I had left my suitcase. I ran into that same bellboy again and told him how bad the weather had been. It would have been a beautiful ride if the sun had been shining. I rain into the bathroom to change out of my bike clothes and put on warm stuff because I knew it was going to be cold when I hit Kazan. Then I debated whether I should quickly hit one more museum but decided against it. Enough is enough. So I hope on the metro and took it all the way out to the airport. It was only about 5 and I wasn’t going to leave until after midnight, but the great thing about airports is that I get a lot of reading done.
We were just getting ready to board for the first leg to Moscow. Everyone was coming along with his/her duty free bags of liquor. All of a sudden I hear a crash and one guy has dropped his bag on the floor. Fortunately the plastic bag didn’t rip so he was able to deposit broken glass and alcohol in the nearest waste can. And that was really a waste.
I slept a little on the plane. We got into Moscow and I got through customs and security pretty quickly. Then It was another long wait. I nodded off a little bit. They finally started checking us in and then they loaded us on one of the buses to take us out to the plane because it was parked way over in the north forty! And, of course it was snowing in Moscow. But, it was a smooth ride and everything worked out well.
We landed in Kazan in a snowstorm with temps well below freezing. I text Ravil to order my taxi and all of a sudden I hear someone say, “Where are you coming from?” It was Paul. We had been on the same plane and didn’t even realize it. He had connected from Ireland. We decided to share the taxi. I grab my suitcase, and wouldn’t you know it, Paul’s  suitcase never made it on the plane. So we had to  go to the lost luggage office before we left the airport.  They told him they would deliver it to him tomorrow.
So, I went and got water and froze my ha das doing it, I got two loads of wash done, my suitcase unpacked, I went to the little store for some basics, I studied some Russian and started a 1000-piece puzzle that Sonia had given me for my birthday. I figured I

Message to Sandra

Sandra,
Email didn’t go through again. Got the cards. Loved the snowmen. Yes to the road trip. Think of a good destination.
Sip

Back in Kazan

Now, THIS is what cold looks like! It's still snowing and blowing out there. Taken from my apartment windows on the 5th floor.

Pictures from today's ride

This was a good day

I’m in another great hotel with a wonderful of the Acropolis from the breakfast room and out my room window a beautiful view of some columns which I’m not able to upload at the moment because WiFi is too weak. But go ahead. Ask me how my day was.

I got up and brought my suitcase down to the to reception so it could be picked up later.  Then I ate breakfast and was rejoicing in the fact that the sun was shining. So IF the cog railway wasn’t running and I had to ride over the mountain to get down to the coast, at least I would have sunshine. I hung around and the receptionist called the tourist bureau and, lo and behold, the train was running. So I rode the two minutes down to the station, bought my ticket, left my bike at the station and walked back to the Holocaust Museum. In 1943 the Nazis executed every male over the age of 16 in Kalavrita and set fire to the locked school where they had imprisoned the women and children. The women and children managed to break the doors down and escape. The museum is housed in the rebuilt school. I was so glad I got to see it. So, I went back to the train station just as the train was pulling in from its uphill trip. I loaded my bike on and took my seat. Then we started down through breathtaking scenery with cliffs, waterfalls and goat herds. Thectrip took an hour and was well worth it. 

On the coast it was still cold. I took off my rain layer but still had 4 other layers on, plus my gloves. It was a great ride along the little-used old national highway. There were a few hills at the beginning, but NOT mountains. I rolled through so many picturesque little towns. After about an hour I stopped for a cup of coffee. I sat outside on the cafe’s little patio and one of the guys sitting there asked me in flawless English where I was from. It turns out he had lived In Denver for 30 years. I got on the road again und reached Xylokastro shortly before 3. The organizers let me know they would be there at 4, so I tooled around town to get some pictures. When they got there we loaded the bike up immediately and took off. We were back in Athens in two hours. After a shower and a good meal in the restaurant with the view of the Acropolis, I’m about ready for bed.

Tomorrow  I have one more ride along the coast here before I Hop on the plane at a little after midnight. I’ll change my clothes, but I won’t be able to shower. I pity the people who have to sit next to me.

I’ve got a plan!

This morning I had an early breakfast for the case that the weather would be could enough to ride my bike out to the tree with the church in it. Forget that! The snow was coming down and the wind was blowing like crazy so I went hiking for three hours. Before I left, I made an appointment to use the sauna at 5. I’m not a sauna fan, but it’s a spa hotel and I figured I should take advantage of the office. So, The ladies at the hotel told me I would find the trails at the train station. I found the train station, but no trails. So I just walked out of town on an isolated dirt road. Of course there were barking dogs along the whole route.
I stopped in the tourist office when I got back into town and learned that there is a cog railway that takes you down to the coast from here. But today it wasn’t running because of a problem on the tracks. Rats! I would have been a nice diversion. So I walk back into town and see that there is a holocaust museum here. (The Germans had killed a lot of Greek partisans.) I walk around to the front entrance and see that it had been open yesterday but not today. Rats again. Meanwhile, I was in the mood for something chocolate. I went into a cafe and had a cup of tea and some terrific chocolate mousse on a layer of lady fingers that was so rich I almost couldn’t finish it. But I made the sacrifice.
I went back to the hotel and Skyped and texted until the sauna appointment. I went down to the sauna and it was the “meh” experience I had inspected. I’m just not the sauna type.
By now I’m getting hungry for supper and was in the mood for spaghetti. I went to the  Italian restaurant in the pedestrian zone and had a great salad and spaghetti Bolognese. Then I start to think, “Hmmmmm, if that good old cog railway is running tomorrow, it will take me down to the coast in an hour and I’ll have a spectacular view I can enjoy without worrying about riding off a cliff.
So when I get back to the hotel, I ask the receptionists about whether the railway will be running tomorrow. They say they won’t know until the tourist agency opens tomorrow at 9:15. Hmmm, I had wanted to get on the road at 8 and the sign at the tourist office says it opens at 9. So I figure, by the time I get down with breakfast and get the bike packed, will only be losing about 45 minutes if I’m at the tourist office at 9; if the train’s not running I have to ride in that direction anyway, so I’ll get to the coast just a little later than usual. If the train’s running, it leaves at 10.17 and that will give me 45 minutes to still visit the Holocaust Museum. It’s worth the gamble.
She. I do get down to the coast at Xylokastro (however I do it),I’ll be picked up and driven back to Athens. Then, the day after tomorrow I have one last day of riding along the coast by Athens. As soon as the ride’s over, I’ll hop on the metro to the airport and catch the plane shortly after midnight to get back to Kazan.
I miscalculated a lot on this trip and would never do anything like it again. But I tried to get as much out of it as I could.

Kalavryta