That was a colossal waste of time!

Let’s start back at Tuesday. Narzullo picked me up after school and we went over to his mosque. They had refinished the basement and made classrooms and I had wanted to see it. It really looks nice how they’ve arranged things. They even have table tennis tables for the kids to play. I sat in on the Arabic lessons again. Narzullo prepares the dialogue in English language letters for me. So I’m able to read the text, but can’t decipher the Arabic words. It’s a very difficult language.
Wednesday in school we did and experiment with eggs. We tested raw eggs to see how much weight they could hold. They finally broke when I placed a board across four of them, put a chair on the board and put my heaviest kid on the chair. The kids loved it, of course. Anything that makes a mess is a fun experiment for them.
But the kicker yesterday was when the boss’s assistant came in and told me I was signed up not only to do a PowerPoint presentation on bicycle education today, but tomorrow I should present a master class on teaching English. I had a few choice words with her about her never having discussed this with me. When she stood there and insisted that she had, I kicked her out of my room because she was making me very angry. After discussions with the boss, it turned out that a master class in English wasn’t even necessary. I was steamed. Don’t stand there and tell me you discussed something with me that was never, ever even mentioned!
But the evening was fun because we went out to play table tennis again. I still can’t beat anyone, but I’m certainly improving and the exercise is sorely needed.
Today was the big day. I had timed my presentation and it was 12 minutes long, well within the 15 minute limit the boss told me I had. So, I teach class this morning, then Matthew, who is also presenting, and I get a taxi out to the conference hall near the airport.  We had to go through the airport terminal and over the sky walkway to get there. We finally find people from our school who directed us to the right lecture hall. Azat made sure they had downloaded my PowerPoint and then we stood around and met some people from the Netherlands who were also presenting. Floor had been told she should prepare an hour-long presentation. When she got there, she was told a quarter of an hour. And this was representative of how the entire conference went. The made. Matthew go first because they had screwed up Floor’s PowerPoint. As Matthew is presenting, they turn his video on its side and leave the audio off. Not an optimal situaton. Then Floor gets started but they still cut her short. Then came two Russian presenters who were not bad. But THEN came the stinker. She told  how she takes her children to Egypt and Greece and Bali so that the kids can learn first-hand. Hmmmmm, let me think. How many elementary schools can afford to send their classes to Egypt or Greece or Bali? Then she proceeds to show 20 minutes worth of pictures from these “excursions “ that look like home videos of her summer vacation. What a bore.
I followed her. I got off to a good start, the clicker was working on the Smartboard, I was about halfway through my presentation and the moderator says I have two minutes more.  So I had to cram 6 minutes worth into 2. Then there was supposed to be a panel discussion, which never took place.
So, I worked intensively on this presentation for a month and didn’t even get to present it fully. I know I won’t get roped into that situation again! But I’m glad I have the presentation because it might prove to be helpful in other situations.
Tomorrow’s Friday. Yippee. Then next week is a short week because of International Women’s Day. I’ll take it.

Busy weekend

I was glad when the work week was over. Even though I only had 8 kids, I was still recovering from that viral infection. So the week really dragged. But when I got home I made a batch of spinach lasagna and took it over to Paul’s. I still had one more film on my USB that Matthew had downloaded for me so Paul and I watched Grand Budapest Hotel and stuffed our faces. Then we got talking about the presentation I have to do on Thursday about bicycle education. He has a neat little computer attachment that allows me to move the slides without asking someone else to do it.
Since I wanted to go to school Saturday morning and work on my presentation there, he said he would meet me there and bring it to me. I worked on the stupid presentation for three hours!!!! I need to have Linar help me change a couple of minor things tomorrow, but on the whole I’m very satisfied with it.
While I was working, Ravil texted me. A HA, I thought to myself. Maybe he would be willing to listen to my presentation and critique it. Sure enough. So when I was finished at school I ran home and got a bite to eat, then took off for his place. I went through the presentation and it took between 10 and twelve minutes, which is perfect because I’m allotted 15 minutes and it will be simultaneously translated. So it should work out just fine. Then we had tea with Albert and I was about to leave, but there was couch surfing that evening and Ravil suggested I hang out a little while longer and go with him. I was good with that. I had turned down a City Club meeting that evening because I’m tired of the new format. But I hadn’t been to couch surfing in awhile, so I figured, why not.
We ran into Sonia and Fouad there and I had long discussions with Alex, Elena, Mahmoud and Dmitri. It turns out Dmitri is a cyclist and Mahmoud wants me to give my bike presentation to a group of Taatarstan businessmen. All good stuff. I didn’t stay too late. I was home by 10:30 pm.
This morning I did a wash before I left to meet Anna for breakfast and a visit to the Gorky-Schaliapin Museum. Gorky was a great Russian  author and Schaliapin was a great Russian opera singer. The people of Kazan are really proud of the people who have lived here and their museums show it. After about two hours there I headed back home. The first thing I did was book a hotel in Almetyevsk for Claudia and me for March 8. I can’t wait to get back. I’m even planning on taking my bike. I checked out all the things you can do there online. It’s a small city, but there are lots of activities.
Then I made a pizza and just got stuff done for the week. Lesson plans are done and Russian is studied. I’m good to go for tomorrow.

Table tennis

So, tonight I went with the guys to play table tennis. They’d asked before if I had wanted to come and   I suspected I would be out of my league, but I figured, what the hey, I need the exercise and this time I went along. Narzullo picked Paul and me up, the. We swung around to pick up Andy. Marat and Ravil met us there. We got three tables and played single for about an hour and a half. All this guys were REALLY good. But considering that all I know about table tennis is from watching others play, I was happy I could play at all. Of course I lost every set, even when we played some double at the end. But I really worked up a sweat and I did notice an improvement over the course of the evening so it’s definitely something I’m going to do again.

Up and running again

Ok, I’m feeling much better. I went back to school yesterday. Both assistants were sick and I only had 8 kids. (They sent in another assistant.) I was tired when I got home and slept for 12 hours, but today was much better. And when I got home from work today, I even had the energy to go grocery shopping. The walk to the tram did me good and it just felt good to get out. But the temps are hovering about freezing now so some spots are very icy. I tread carefully. But some sidewalks still have two feet of trampled down ice on them. I noticed in one spot that I could have jumped on the roofs of care going by if I had wanted to!
I’ve spent the last two nap breaks working with Linar to put my PowerPoint presentation about bike Ed in schools together. I’m still filing on it and I want to have it ready by Monday so that Regina can send it along to the translator so that she can prepare. This is becoming a hot topic here in Kazan and more and more schools are buying into the idea. Hope I can convince a few more school administrators to create programs.
Tomorrow I’m going to go play table tennis with the guys. They go every Wednesday. I’ll give it a go. I’ll probably be way out of my league.

The clinic is becoming my second home

I slept well last night, even though I had weird dreams. I didn’t really wake up till about 9 when I got a text from my colleague Jake, who lives on the 11th floor in my building, that he was sick and needed help. I went up and checked and he was in worse shape than I had been. We both tried to get the liaison to come with us to the clinic to translate but he said he couldn’t and suggested I find someone. Bullshit. We’ll manage on our own. Thanks so much for your help and concern!
So Jake ordered a taxi and off we went to the same clinic I had been to on Friday. Fortunately, there weren’t many people there. Jake has a translator app on his phone so we had no problem with reception and could go right upstairs. There were other people waiting, but it didn’t take long to be taken in.
We sat at a desk in front of a nice young doctor and I started trying out my Russian, when he said “English “. After that it was easy. It turns out, Jake has a viral AND a bacterial infection. They even gave him a 10-minute drop on the spot. The doctor prescribed about 5 different meds and told him he should get and X-ray tomorrow. And he’s not supposed to go to work for a week. School will love that.
So, we got back home at about lunch time and I ate and did a wash. Then I figured it wouldn’t be a bad idea if I went out walking in the woods and got some fresh air. So I went and got Jake’s dog and took her with me. We were only out for an hour, but it was enough. I felt well enough to study some Russian today. I got my lesson plans done. The apartment is relatively clean. So now I’m just going to curl up with a book till I fall asleep.
Oh, I also forgot to mention that both of my assistants have fallen ill and also a couple of the kids. Maybe I’ll be the only one in class tomorrow.

I’ve got the whiz

Thursday after the kids went down for their naps, I just couldn’t make it anymore, so I went home. I asked the liaison to call the clinic and make an appointment for me. She texted me and got me an appointment for Friday at 10. Good. This is a clinic that Jake and Paul have both been to and both told me that they had people there who knew English. So I didn’t ask any Russian speaker to go with me. I walk to the bus, and don’t have to ride far. I go in, put the stupid plastic covers on my puts and go up to the reception. By this time, I’m not only sick, but tired from traveling to get there, so when the lady started speaking to me in Russian, I just stared at her like a deer in the headlights. 

I finally managed tohand over my ID and sign the forms they put in front of me. Then they literally led me to a doctor who also spoke no English. He looked in my nose, ears and throat, told me I had a viral infection , wrote something on a piece of paper and had someone lead to to the next room where there was another doctor who spoke no English. This lady listened to my lungs, all the time talking to me. She takes me to have blood drawn and talks to me. None of it is registering in my brain. Then she sits me down at the desk and starts explaining what the other doctor wrote on the piece of paper. None of this is registering in my brain. Finally I tried to ask if my friend could call later and ask about my diagnosis. 

But she misunderstood me and called somebody in another office named Dasha who spoke a minimum amount of English. The nice doctor tells Dasha a bunch of stuff and then hands me the phone. Poor Dasha is having to look up words as she’s going along but then she tells me the doctor says I have the whiz. What do I have? The whiz, the whiz. Would you spell that please, Dasha? 

W-h-e-e-z-e. Oh lord. If I hadn’t felt so terrible, I would have died laughing. 

The gist of the conversation was that, if I didn’t feel better, I should get a chest X-ray taken. The doctor was so nice and was trying so hard to help me understand. She led me back to the reception, still talking to me. She made sure the in-house pharmacy had the meds I needed. She just felt as helpless as I did that we couldn’t communicate better.

I paid the doctor bill ($12), bought my meds ($7.50) and headed home. Since I was totally exhausted,  

 I fell into bed when I got there. But then I’m starting to think, hmmmmm, I still don’t like this low energy vibe and I wonder how much I didn’t understand. So I texted my friend at school, told her what happened and asked her to call the clinic. On the first call they wouldn’t gave out any information for privacy reasons, but she tried once again and this time they talked to her. (I’ll bet it was the nice doctor.) In any case, they recommended a chest X-ray. OK. So my friend finds out where it can be done on a Saturday morning and since Claudia was going to come over and make me soup today anyway, I asked her if she would come a little early and take me to the X-ray place. No problem.  We found the X-ray place with no problem and the whole thing only took about 45 minutes and cost............(Wait for it!).......$12.  I’ve lived in two countries now where there has been some sort of subsidized health care and I can tell you, it’s the only way to go. No artificially jacked up prices that you can’t afford. Everyone can use it. It makes life so much easier.

In any case, we stopped first at the post office before we got back to my place. Then, since parking is so bad around my building, I had Claudia drive up on the snow-covered sidewalk to get past the barrier into the parking lot. It was easier than driving around for half an hour looking for an open snowbank to park it.

She mixed me some great lemon, ginger and honey concoction and made a wonderful batch of healthy, hearty soup, which I shared with Jennifer and Jake because they are both sick. So now, I’m just resting as much as possible and trying to cure myself of the whiz.

I’ll try to get back to school on Monday.

Down and out

The sore throat finally caught up with me and blossomed into something more. The last two days I’ve come home from school and have slept 12 hours. I have no energy and today I could not drag myself through the whole day so I asked the liaison to get me an appointment at the clinic and came home early. I should show up at 10 a.m. tomorrow with my passport. (Nothing gets done here without a passport or ID.) Now I have to make sure I look up the Russian word for appointment. It’s just so weird when I don’t feel like doing anything. I’m sure this will be an adventure tomorrow so I will definitely let you all know how my first doctor’s appointment goes.

The weekend’s over

Yikes! The weekend’s over again. Yesterday morning I went out shopping and came home to make a salad for Fouad’s party at night. Then I spent the entire day finishing off my rough draft for the presentation I have to give on Feb. 28 about bike education programs in schools. I sent it off to Linar, who is gong to help me insert all the pictures I need in the PowerPoint. I’ll be speaking to about 200 people, so I really want to make my point.
Paul and I went to the party together and found the place with no problem. There was a pretty big group there and there was one girl there who was going to do a work-study program in New Jersey so she had a lot of questions about the States. We ended up playing a game called Heads Up, which is a little like charades, but with words. It got loud and boisterous and it was a lot of fun . We had some good laughs. Paul and I, along with a bunch of other people, left at a little after 10. It was long enough.
This morning I was up early because Anna and I had wanted to go to an art gallery to see the exhibit of Shemiakin pantings. He’s a Russian painter who had to flee during Soviet times and now lives in NY. I had never heard of him, but I really liked his stuff.   Before we went to the gallery, we decided to do a breakfast at Truffo, the French restaurant here in town. And it was like old home week. We had no sooner sat down when Matthew and Valeriya also came in to have breakfast. We had just ordered and Fahti and his wife came over and said hello because they had also come in for breakfast. And at the table across from us, there was a mom from school with her kid. The place was jumping with familiar faces.
After we ate, we walked about an hour across town to get to the gallery. We figured we had better work off the calories from breakfast. And work them off we did, because the temperature hovered at the freezing point and a lot of the snow was that grainy, half-frozen slush that’s like walking on soap. You took one step forward and slipped half a a step back. But the exhibit was worth the walk. I really enjoyed the pictures. There was a real biting humor to them.
 So, now lesson plans are done, I’ve eaten my pizza and I can get some studying done.

My wonderful day in Almetyevsk

This day was worth getting up at 4 effing 15 a.m. for! Regina and I met at the gas station across from my building shortly before 5. Then Olga showed up and the bosses showed up. We were on the road at 5. Keep in mind, it had been snowing for the last two days and I was really wondering if we would even go at all. But the roads were relatively clear by Russian standards and the boss has a big, macho SUV, so we made it in under 4 hours. Along the way everyone else slept, so Dinar pointed out the oils wells along the way for me as soon as the sun came up. The reason for the trip was ostensibly to visit the of the soon-to-be Bala City kindergarten in Almetyevsk. But, since I had learned last year at the Winter Cycling Conference in Moscow that Almetyevsk had a wonderful bicycle infrastructure, I had always wanted to go there. So the bosses invited me along. It’s also important to know that the government official from the region who got this infrastructure put in place about 5 years ago is, himself, a cyclist and a good friend of Dinar’s.

But, of course, the trip combined many elements, all of which were photographed. We arrived in plenty of time and stopped for breakfast at MacDonald’s. Then there was the usual flurry of texting and calling until Regina got the call that they were waiting for us at the meeting point. 

So off we went with a government official  to visit 3 kindergartens, two of which are using Anji Play techniques. It’s supposed to be something like a free play system where the kids are supposed to self-determine what they enjoy doing. In the first kindergarten it looked like a “no play” system. Every kid was at a project with adult supervision. Not one kid was smiling. Nobody was talking with one another. I’ve never seen such an unhappy kindergarten in my life. You could just tell that the kids were told that “important” guests were coming and they would get the crap beat out of them if they screwed up. Then we were driven to the next kindergarten in the city’s van. (The driver loved fishtailing around the corners on the packed snow.
The second kindergarten was a traditional one, and the kids were having tons of fun and talking and playing and arguing and asking us questions, just as it should be in a kindergarten. The third one was another Anji Play kindergarten, which was a little better than the first one, but still not impressive. It seems that Anji Play is involved with using a lot of wooden building blocks. And this is new because....? I think they’d better start worrying about training staff members a little better.
The highlight was at the first school, however. Damned if they didn’t put little runners on the kids’ pedal-less Bikes and give them bike lessons. They loved zipping around over the snow , of which there was plenty, and balancing on the bikes. And, it was an outside activity for the kids.                    
After the kindergarten visits, we drove to the new Miras fitness center. And as we’re driving along, we are seeing many of the 55 miles of the city’s bike path. It is plowed and separated from the pedestrian sidewalks, which are also plowed. And both are separated from the road, which is ALSO plowed! And this in a city of 150,000 people out in the middle of nowhere. The biggest industry here is the oil industry and they stand 100% behind the bike project. Now, that’s a real novelty.
But back to the fitness center! Holy crow. This place had everything, including an Olympic size swimming pool. The equipment was absolutely amazing. Everything was up-to-date. It’s used for rehab as well as by top athletes for training. And the boss of the place who showed us around was rightfully proud of it and very, very nice.
After that, we headed to the planetarium, where the lady engineer who designed the bike infrastructure showed us a PowerPoint about. It’s just mind-boggling to think what can be done if the political will is there.
Next we went altogether for a late lunch and then ended up at the site of the new kindergarten. The walls are up and the roof is one, so we walked around inside and the bosses made suggestions to the architect about what the wanted. And, of course, at every stop we made, people were there taking our pictures.
By this time it was almost 4 and starting to get dark. So the city van took us back to where we parked the car and we got on our way, but not before another stop at MacDonald’s for cappuccinos. It was a long drive home with a lot of discussion about school policies, which was very enlightening. I finally get in the apartment at about 9. But boy, was it worth it.

More pictures from Almetyevsk

A bike path that's plowed in winter, a state-of-the-art fitness center and a national hat from Bashkiria.

Bike lessons in Almetyevsk

Absolutely brilliant. Put the bikes without pedals on runners and let them learn to balance on the snow!

The presentation at the end of February

OK. So now I’m getting a few more details about the presentation I got roped into for the end of Feb. It’s a conference here on the outskirts of Kazan for educators and government workers.  The boss said it will be two days of workshops and presentations. I only have to present on one day. Would I rather do a sample hands-on English lesson for about 200 people or take to an audience of  200 about why bike education in schools is so importance?  This was a no-brainer. I’ve been researching and making notes now for a week. Just starting to sort of put it together now so that I can send it on to the tech guy at school who’s going to help me put it into a PowerPoint. I know that most my stats are from the US, but they can serve as an example for other countries. I really want to make this a good one so that maybe, just maybe, the mindset here about infrastructure can start to change a little too.
Yikes. Tomorrow we leave for bicycle city Almetevsk at 5 a.m. Oh, sweet Jesus! If I had decided to stay at school , I could have slept for another 2.5 hours. Oh, well. I was the one who wanted to get to Almetevsk. I guess I can suck it up.
Now I’ll settle down and do a little Russian studying.

Dinamo Kazan

The woman’s pro volleyball team played tonight. Sonia and I went and who did we run into ? The photographer who took the picture of us at the last game. He showed us all around and was very kind.  It turns out there’s a men’s game on Sunday and an American is playing on the team. I’ll probably get out to see that too. By the way, the women won in three straight sets.
Tomorrow we are having a “beach “ party. We’ve been talking about the oceans so I decided we should spend a day at the beach tomorrow. I told the kids to bring shorts and sunglasses, etc. and then in the afternoon one little girl who is going to Miami for three months will celebrate her birthday before she leaves. And today we celebrate Chinese New Year. The school even had fireworks late in the afternoon. These kids will be all partied out this week.

The gang at the volleyball game

Hot tea and throat lozenges

I’m holding my own with the sore throat. I have been drinking hot tea with honey and lemon for two days and the throat lozenges seem to help. Went out to dinner with Claudia and Katrin last night. Had a long, pleasant conversation ablout education because all three of us teach different age groups. It was fun to compare notes AND do it in German. I needed the practice. Claudia had the sniffles too. Today she’s really got it and I guess I was lucky. The sore throat is really not bothering me much. Hope it stays like that.
So, this morning I went early to my usual hair salon. I had a really great cutter this time, but she still didn’t want to stop. When I said enough, she kept saying just a minute, just a minute. In any case, she did a good job and it doesn’t look as if she just put a bowl over my head.
I came home, made a nice patch of spinach lasagna, did my lesson plans and then studied. Then at 4 I picked up Pail and Vladimir and we walked to the sports complex at the university to meet Ravil and Albert to watch a volleyball game. Ravil had given me the street address so we took a pretty convoluted route to get there only to find out that it was directly at the swimming bowl I went 5o last year. If he had said the name of the building, I would have known. As it was, the weathe4 was nice, so we had a nice walk around the campus. The exercise was good for us. Albert’s favorite team, which we had gone to support, lost in a very exciting 5-set match.
It turns out the women will be playing on Tuesday, so I definitely know what I will be doing on Tuesday night.

A blah end to a blah week.

This has been a tiring week. We’ve talked about the oceans and animals in the ocean, so that’s been OK, but I’ve been really tired every night when I’ve come home. I’ve been in bed early and haven’t had much energy. To top that off, my email server has stopped sending out ANY of my emails. Paul and I have been sitting in the teachers’ room the entire week trying to figure it out. I ended up locking myself out of my email account! Jake came in and tried to help. Unfortunately, Jake is sick and I think I’m getting it now. I came home last night with the beginnings of a sore throat so started drinking hot tea with lemon and honey this morning when I was out, I got some throat lozenges. I was so proud of myself. I was waiting in line at the pharmacy and some lady tried to cut. I told her in Russian that she should wait her turn, I was first. She apologized. Don’t mess with me, especially when I don’t feel well.
After that I stopped in to get a haircut at a place that was on the way to the mall. In other words, it wasn’t my usual haircut place. The lady is just sitting there in the waiting room on her iPhone  while another lady is cutting someone’s hair and still another is giving a manicure. I at first wasn’t sure whether iPhone lady was a worker or a customer it finally she asked me what I wanted. I told her a haircut and she said it would be 20 minutes. Meanwhile, another customer walks in. You can tell she’s in a hurry and she asks how long the wait is. The Iphone lady tells her the same. I take out my book and read. Customer number 2 waits 10 minutes and walks out. Meanwhile, it’s much longer than 20 minutes and iPhone lady is still on her phone and the others are still working. Then a guy walks him and asks if he can get a haircut. The iPhone lady tells him yes, and takes him on right away and starts cutting his hair. At that point I walked out. What a crock. I was just glad I had some quiet time to get some reading done.
So I ended up going grocery shopping at the mall and coming home. I’ll go to my regular haircut place tomorrow. Tonight’s going to be German night with Claudia and a couple others. That’s going to be fun. Tomorrow, besides the haircut, Ravil, Albert and I are headed to a volleyball match. The volleyball center isn’t far from me at all, so I won’t have to run all over town to get there.
But back to my iPad and email problems. With Paul’s help, I was finally able to change the password on my email account and get back into it. The downside is that I still can’t send any emails. So those of you who correspond with me through email, I am not intentionally slighting you. It’s just that my email account is messed up. I will continue working on it.