What an end to the week!

Wednesday we had our class presentation in our room (as opposed to the multi-purpose room). It went very, very well. The kids sang songs and then performed their little skit. Then all the parents did a craft project with the kids that I had prepared. They had the best time. And, of course, the mom of one kid didn’t show up, but all the other parents really included her in everything. Then we had tea and ate the cookies we had baked on Tuesday. Also, the kitchen baked some cakes for us. Some parents stayed two hours andplayed with the kids. I was a great afternoon. These parents are not used to this kind of celebration. They’ve always had the presentation where the kids have to perform on the stage like some trained animal act. This was so much more relaxed and enjoyable.
Since  Narzullo’s son is in my class and the party  lasted so long, he picked Paul and me up a little later for table tennis. Ravil met us there, but Andy and Marat couldn’t make it, so it was just the four of us. Man, I still can’t beat any of them, but I’m getting better and better every week. And with Narzullo as my partner, we even won a doubles set against Paul  and Ravil. I really work up a sweat when I’m playing against these guys.
Oh, and I didn’t go back to the clinic to get my blood drawn because I needed the kids’ nap time to prepare for the party.
So, Thursday was the celebration for the rites of spring. Of course, one of the kids hit another one so I told him he couldn’t go to that celebration. After two minutes of crying he knew I wasn’t kidding, so he just quit protesting. While the others went outside to the celebration, he and I went for a walk. This is a 4-year-old who is so bright, he can look at three-digit numbers on license plates and tell me which is the biggest and which is the smallest. Amazing. He just can’t keep his hands to himself.
After lunch the kids went down for their nap and Linar and I headed to the clinic for the blood draw. No problem. Took one hour back and forth. I can get the results on Monday.
The rest of the day dragged and I was really pooped. But I was psyched because I was supposed to give my bike ed presentation to a group of Tatar businessmen who are learning English that night. I was just headed out the door when Mahmoud called and said it was postponed because everyone was celebrating International Women’s Day.(The school and the parents shower us with presents. In the States I had never even heard of the day!)
OK, that was cool. So I headed out to the couch surfing meeting. I met Sonia, Ravil, Albert and Dmitry there But was really so tired, I only stayed an hour because Friday Claudia and I wanted to take off for the city of Almetyevsk, about 3.5 hours away. So I vasically got home and flopped not bed.