Friday, November 10, 2017
Big shout out!
In case it doesn’t work out with Skyping tonight, here’s a big shout out to all my good buddies meeting at Tully’s. Happy birthday, Michelle and Laura.
A short and stressful week
Fun fact: Our school serves dinner rolls to the kids for dessert. They are rather sweet and the kids love them.
So, Tuesday I get back to school after the Moscow trip and head to the accounting office with my calculator to pick up my pay envelope. Hmmmm, I come up quite a bit short. When I point this out, the ladies say that’s what they were told by the boss and he is on vacation till the 10th. I tell them I will be back then. Later that afternoon, as I’m sitting in the room with my hand in a batch of home-made play dough that I’m mixing up, in comes one of the ladies and says that they called the boss at his vacation spot and asked for clarification. I should come and sign for the rest of my pay. I tell her I’m not coming down now with my hand full of blue play dough, I’ll be down later. Okay. I hop on down with my trusty calculator when I’m finished, pick up the rest of my money and calculate. I’m still $6 short. Oh, they say. We deducted 500 rubles for your meals. You did WHAT? You didn’t do that in September, why would you do that now. And I’m supposed to be apply to eat at school for free. Nope, they’re not buying it.
I go home that afternoon and get out my contract. There it is in black and white that I’m supposed to be able to eat at school for free (especially since kindergarten teachers are required to eat with the children). Wednesday I go back to the accounting office armed with my trusty calculator AND my contract and get my 500 rubles back. Don’t mess with my pay stub, people.
We had a pirate party at school on Wednesday where the kids got to dress up and yesterday I hid a “buried treasure” in the classroom. They had fun doing that. This coming week we’re still going to talking about jungle animals so we’re going to make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls to be able to “see” them better in the distance.
Today was another bureaucratic journey to the tax office and the police station this morning. The guy from school went with us to translate and fill out forms. There were Sonia, Matthew and me at the tax office and Emma joined us later at the police station. This was, without a doubt the most modern-looking Russian office I have been in so far.
Everyone who works in Russia must have a tax number. The big boss needs it to pay our taxes. Also, It qualifies a person to collect a pension from the Russian government later. That would be a hoot. If it means working 40 quarters like in the States, forget it.
Immediately after the tax office, we walked over to the police station. We all marched into one little office where they took our passports and migration papers separately and recorded the, in a book and on the computer. Don’t ask me why. I don’t even know why we had to appear personally. But it kept me out of class for the morning.
We were gone from 8:30 tp 11:30. Between waiting in government offices and traffic here, you probably lose three years of your life.
But that wasn’t the end of our exciting day. Before we can go to our physical next week, we had to have chest X-rays to show that we don’t have TB. So, at 5:30 we all hike over to the clinic where I had my blood work done to control for my med dosage a few weeks ago. Sonia and I got to go first, which meant we both were told to go into this sort of locker room together and strip to the waist. No separate cabinets, no privacy, just strip. It didn’t take 5 minutes for the both of us.
On the way out of the clinic we stopped at the pharmacy counter to buy the specimen bottles we will need to fill up and take with us on Wednesday. Oh, joy. They make teachers go through all this, which is fine, but the food servers don’t have to wear gloves and they give food that one kid doesn’t finish to another kid. That seems sort of counterproductive.
Now I’m just relaxing and looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow night we’re headed for a baseball game and Sunday I’d love to see the movie “Mathilda”, about the czar who had the affair with the ballet dancer. I’m hoping I’ll find it somewhere with English subtitles.
Two interesting little asides. I bought what I thought was cherry jelly and it turned out to be red currant. It’s absolutely delicious.
The other thing is, the boss’s three-year-old son is in my class. The family was on vacation in Turkey for a week. At the breakfast buffet the kid must have gone up to the waiter and said, “Excuse me. Juice, please.” So it seems total immersion in a language does pay off. The kid was certainly not afraid to use his English.
I’ll fill you in tomorrow and shopping, basketball and other adventures.
So, Tuesday I get back to school after the Moscow trip and head to the accounting office with my calculator to pick up my pay envelope. Hmmmm, I come up quite a bit short. When I point this out, the ladies say that’s what they were told by the boss and he is on vacation till the 10th. I tell them I will be back then. Later that afternoon, as I’m sitting in the room with my hand in a batch of home-made play dough that I’m mixing up, in comes one of the ladies and says that they called the boss at his vacation spot and asked for clarification. I should come and sign for the rest of my pay. I tell her I’m not coming down now with my hand full of blue play dough, I’ll be down later. Okay. I hop on down with my trusty calculator when I’m finished, pick up the rest of my money and calculate. I’m still $6 short. Oh, they say. We deducted 500 rubles for your meals. You did WHAT? You didn’t do that in September, why would you do that now. And I’m supposed to be apply to eat at school for free. Nope, they’re not buying it.
I go home that afternoon and get out my contract. There it is in black and white that I’m supposed to be able to eat at school for free (especially since kindergarten teachers are required to eat with the children). Wednesday I go back to the accounting office armed with my trusty calculator AND my contract and get my 500 rubles back. Don’t mess with my pay stub, people.
We had a pirate party at school on Wednesday where the kids got to dress up and yesterday I hid a “buried treasure” in the classroom. They had fun doing that. This coming week we’re still going to talking about jungle animals so we’re going to make binoculars out of toilet paper rolls to be able to “see” them better in the distance.
Today was another bureaucratic journey to the tax office and the police station this morning. The guy from school went with us to translate and fill out forms. There were Sonia, Matthew and me at the tax office and Emma joined us later at the police station. This was, without a doubt the most modern-looking Russian office I have been in so far.
Everyone who works in Russia must have a tax number. The big boss needs it to pay our taxes. Also, It qualifies a person to collect a pension from the Russian government later. That would be a hoot. If it means working 40 quarters like in the States, forget it.
Immediately after the tax office, we walked over to the police station. We all marched into one little office where they took our passports and migration papers separately and recorded the, in a book and on the computer. Don’t ask me why. I don’t even know why we had to appear personally. But it kept me out of class for the morning.
We were gone from 8:30 tp 11:30. Between waiting in government offices and traffic here, you probably lose three years of your life.
But that wasn’t the end of our exciting day. Before we can go to our physical next week, we had to have chest X-rays to show that we don’t have TB. So, at 5:30 we all hike over to the clinic where I had my blood work done to control for my med dosage a few weeks ago. Sonia and I got to go first, which meant we both were told to go into this sort of locker room together and strip to the waist. No separate cabinets, no privacy, just strip. It didn’t take 5 minutes for the both of us.
On the way out of the clinic we stopped at the pharmacy counter to buy the specimen bottles we will need to fill up and take with us on Wednesday. Oh, joy. They make teachers go through all this, which is fine, but the food servers don’t have to wear gloves and they give food that one kid doesn’t finish to another kid. That seems sort of counterproductive.
Now I’m just relaxing and looking forward to the weekend. Tomorrow night we’re headed for a baseball game and Sunday I’d love to see the movie “Mathilda”, about the czar who had the affair with the ballet dancer. I’m hoping I’ll find it somewhere with English subtitles.
Two interesting little asides. I bought what I thought was cherry jelly and it turned out to be red currant. It’s absolutely delicious.
The other thing is, the boss’s three-year-old son is in my class. The family was on vacation in Turkey for a week. At the breakfast buffet the kid must have gone up to the waiter and said, “Excuse me. Juice, please.” So it seems total immersion in a language does pay off. The kid was certainly not afraid to use his English.
I’ll fill you in tomorrow and shopping, basketball and other adventures.
Tuesday, November 7, 2017
A short week
I’m going to be all screwed up this week because Monday was a holiday. I’m already trying to remember what I did yesterday.
But now I remember. Emma, Sonia and I all went to a nice coffeehouse for brunch . We sat around for three hours and just yakked. Then I came home and solidified my lesson plans. And watched a lot of Grace and Frankie.This morning I was up early for school. It was bone-chillingly cold and foggy, but I pedaled to school. We only had 5 kids today and everyone was in a really good mood.
We are starting a unit on jungle animals so we talked about them in circle time. I had bought a whole bunch of plastic animals to illustrate what I was talking about. This week we will make a zoo and paint it. A couple of the kids made snakes, which they had a good time with.
When it was nap time, I went down to the accounting office to pick up my pay. Boy, am I glad I always take my calculator with me and stand right there to figure it out. I came up about $100 short. “But that’s what the boss told us your pay rate was.” “That’s not what he told me." “But the boss is on vacation until the 10th.” “Ill be here. We will discuss this again.” I went and reported it to the department head and then went back to my room to make play doh out of cornstarch and hair conditioner.Not only was it easy, but it smelled good.
Just as I have my hand in the bowl and am squishing the crap out of it with my fingers, in comes a lady from accounting who tells me they have called the boss on his vacation and he apologized to me for giving accounting the wrong information. I should please come down to accounting and pick up the rest of my money. Uhhhh, my hand is full of blue play doh. I don’t think I’m available at the moment. After class was over in the afternoon, I went back and collected the rest, to be sure!
So then I headed to the post office to pick up a package that had arrived. As I’m sitting there waiting my turn I’m thinking, crap, the school guy took my passport this morning to re-register me with the police in Kazan after my stay in Moscow (where I also had to be registered at the police station) and he didn’t bring it back to me yet. So, of course I couldn’t pick up my package, put I did manage to mail some postcards. So I’ll have to run to the P.O. again tomorrow before I go tutoring.
You have to really stay alert in this place!
But now I remember. Emma, Sonia and I all went to a nice coffeehouse for brunch . We sat around for three hours and just yakked. Then I came home and solidified my lesson plans. And watched a lot of Grace and Frankie.This morning I was up early for school. It was bone-chillingly cold and foggy, but I pedaled to school. We only had 5 kids today and everyone was in a really good mood.
We are starting a unit on jungle animals so we talked about them in circle time. I had bought a whole bunch of plastic animals to illustrate what I was talking about. This week we will make a zoo and paint it. A couple of the kids made snakes, which they had a good time with.
When it was nap time, I went down to the accounting office to pick up my pay. Boy, am I glad I always take my calculator with me and stand right there to figure it out. I came up about $100 short. “But that’s what the boss told us your pay rate was.” “That’s not what he told me." “But the boss is on vacation until the 10th.” “Ill be here. We will discuss this again.” I went and reported it to the department head and then went back to my room to make play doh out of cornstarch and hair conditioner.Not only was it easy, but it smelled good.
Just as I have my hand in the bowl and am squishing the crap out of it with my fingers, in comes a lady from accounting who tells me they have called the boss on his vacation and he apologized to me for giving accounting the wrong information. I should please come down to accounting and pick up the rest of my money. Uhhhh, my hand is full of blue play doh. I don’t think I’m available at the moment. After class was over in the afternoon, I went back and collected the rest, to be sure!
So then I headed to the post office to pick up a package that had arrived. As I’m sitting there waiting my turn I’m thinking, crap, the school guy took my passport this morning to re-register me with the police in Kazan after my stay in Moscow (where I also had to be registered at the police station) and he didn’t bring it back to me yet. So, of course I couldn’t pick up my package, put I did manage to mail some postcards. So I’ll have to run to the P.O. again tomorrow before I go tutoring.
You have to really stay alert in this place!
Sunday, November 5, 2017
Go, Rubin Kazan, part 2
I didn’t set the alarm this morning and slept until almost 9. I met Sonia at 10 because we had to find I place to print out our tickets for the soccer game tonight. I remembered having seen one near our bank. So we headed on down the street and I was right. They place printed them for $0.05 a page. Wow. That was cheap. The. We ran into the bank and came back to the open air market. The ladies wheee I bought my pumpkin and cottage cheese joked with us for awhile. The we went to another stall where we were trying to find a spatula for Sonia. That vendor didn’t have one but she took us inside an indoor market that we hadn’t even realized was there. It was way better than the market we had gone to a couple of weeks ago. They had all sorts of spices and fruits and just about anything else you might need. The stall the lady took us to in there didn’t have on either, so Sonia will try at “home depot” this week.
We quickly ran into the grocery store and got a few things included Oreos and Kleenex’s almost as good as German kleenexes, and headed back to her place, which is in the same building my little “mom and pop” grocery store is. She downloaded Netflix on my iPad for me, since she can have x number of people on her account and she hadn’t filled her quota yet.
I headed home and got some stuff done before Sonia and I met again to eat at Amigo Miguel before we headed for the soccer game. The food was great again. I tried tacos. They were not what we are used to in the States but were very good. And they were spiced very nicely. And the restaurant even has different games on a game table that you can play while you are waiting. We got through one game of Jenga before the food came.
We took the tram to Kazan Arena and got there about an hour early. It was cold, but I had on a hat, three shirts under my jacket, one shirt of which was a hoodie, snow pants, winter boots and two pairs of gloves. I was glad I did, because it started to snow in the 2nd half of the game. I stayed nice and warm. The game was fun, but neither team could shoot a goal. Guess I’ll have to wait until the next game.
But next week we want to catch a basketball game and I promised her I would also go to an ice hockey game with her. Tomorrow morning we’re going to meet our colleague Emma for brunch.
So now it’s back to Grace and Frankie on cable TV. How neat is that?
We quickly ran into the grocery store and got a few things included Oreos and Kleenex’s almost as good as German kleenexes, and headed back to her place, which is in the same building my little “mom and pop” grocery store is. She downloaded Netflix on my iPad for me, since she can have x number of people on her account and she hadn’t filled her quota yet.
I headed home and got some stuff done before Sonia and I met again to eat at Amigo Miguel before we headed for the soccer game. The food was great again. I tried tacos. They were not what we are used to in the States but were very good. And they were spiced very nicely. And the restaurant even has different games on a game table that you can play while you are waiting. We got through one game of Jenga before the food came.
We took the tram to Kazan Arena and got there about an hour early. It was cold, but I had on a hat, three shirts under my jacket, one shirt of which was a hoodie, snow pants, winter boots and two pairs of gloves. I was glad I did, because it started to snow in the 2nd half of the game. I stayed nice and warm. The game was fun, but neither team could shoot a goal. Guess I’ll have to wait until the next game.
But next week we want to catch a basketball game and I promised her I would also go to an ice hockey game with her. Tomorrow morning we’re going to meet our colleague Emma for brunch.
So now it’s back to Grace and Frankie on cable TV. How neat is that?
Saturday, November 4, 2017
Wonderful architecture, part 2
If you go anywhere in Russian and stay overnight, you have to register with the police. Fortunately, if you’re a tourist, the hotel does it for you. So, I got up early this morning and had my good breakfast. Then I went back to the room and made sure I had put everything in my suitcase, and went to check out. I got the police form from the receptionist and headed for the subway. I didn’t have to leave for the airport till about noon, so I figured I would stop off on my way to the Aeroexpress train station the Aeroexpress train takes you directly to the airport without stopping.) to check out the mosque. It was an an neighborhood with an interning mixture of architectural styles, as you can see from the pictures in the previous post.
The mosque itself was beautiful and was only built in 2015. There were completely different entrances for men and women and it was interesting that many of the women wore the same kind of aquamarine coat. After visiting the museum in the mosque for half an hour, I walked back to the subway station and rode over to the train station. I caught the train to the airport and had to ask where my terminal was when I arrived.
The security is strange. I had a half empty bottle of water in my backpack side pocket and not one person questioned it. I was really sort of surprised at how superficial I felt the security was. After I was through, I found my Aeroflot domestic flights counter and waited till I got called up. It took about 15 minutes. When I get up to the counter, the lady tells me it’s to early for me to check in. I should come back tomorrow. Now, I knew that I had just checked out of my hotel, so I could have been wrong on the date. I told her to look at my paper again and check her computer. Finally she found me and issued me a boarding pass. Whew, that was a close one. I would have camped out in front of that counter before I let her tell me I couldn’t get on the plane. She apologized and I went through another rather relaxed security check and then on to my gate.
When I got there, I noticed that my Russian phone was deed. Since my Uber app is on that phone, I figured I’d better recharge it before I got to Kazan. There was only one recharging station and two of the 6 outlets didn’t work. So I had to wait until someone else unplugged after about 20 minutes. I was a le to get it juiced up to about 50% before I looked up and noticed that my gate had been moved. I grabbed the phone and my suitcase and my backpack and my jacket and took off. I was there on time so it worked out fine.
Both flights to and from Moscow were excellent. I have the impression that Aeroflot pilots use much Less of the runway to take off than American pilots do, and they seem to rise more steeply. Maybe I’m imagining things. For the 1.5 hour flight, we even got served a lox and cream cheese sandwich and an apple. Not bad.
Kazan airport is pretty small so I got out right away. I took a taxi back home and was here in a half and hour. So know I’m just loafing and will finish unpacking tomorrow. Tomorrow night Sonia and I are going shopping and to a soccer game. I’m going to have to dress warmly for that one.
Enough for now. More tomorrow.
The mosque itself was beautiful and was only built in 2015. There were completely different entrances for men and women and it was interesting that many of the women wore the same kind of aquamarine coat. After visiting the museum in the mosque for half an hour, I walked back to the subway station and rode over to the train station. I caught the train to the airport and had to ask where my terminal was when I arrived.
The security is strange. I had a half empty bottle of water in my backpack side pocket and not one person questioned it. I was really sort of surprised at how superficial I felt the security was. After I was through, I found my Aeroflot domestic flights counter and waited till I got called up. It took about 15 minutes. When I get up to the counter, the lady tells me it’s to early for me to check in. I should come back tomorrow. Now, I knew that I had just checked out of my hotel, so I could have been wrong on the date. I told her to look at my paper again and check her computer. Finally she found me and issued me a boarding pass. Whew, that was a close one. I would have camped out in front of that counter before I let her tell me I couldn’t get on the plane. She apologized and I went through another rather relaxed security check and then on to my gate.
When I got there, I noticed that my Russian phone was deed. Since my Uber app is on that phone, I figured I’d better recharge it before I got to Kazan. There was only one recharging station and two of the 6 outlets didn’t work. So I had to wait until someone else unplugged after about 20 minutes. I was a le to get it juiced up to about 50% before I looked up and noticed that my gate had been moved. I grabbed the phone and my suitcase and my backpack and my jacket and took off. I was there on time so it worked out fine.
Both flights to and from Moscow were excellent. I have the impression that Aeroflot pilots use much Less of the runway to take off than American pilots do, and they seem to rise more steeply. Maybe I’m imagining things. For the 1.5 hour flight, we even got served a lox and cream cheese sandwich and an apple. Not bad.
Kazan airport is pretty small so I got out right away. I took a taxi back home and was here in a half and hour. So know I’m just loafing and will finish unpacking tomorrow. Tomorrow night Sonia and I are going shopping and to a soccer game. I’m going to have to dress warmly for that one.
Enough for now. More tomorrow.
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