International Woman's Day

Today is International Woman's Day and I had a day off of school. They make a big deal about it here and I found out too late that it is also Mother's Day thrown in. I had a great project for Mother's Day, but put it away for May when I am used to having Mother's Day. By the time I figured it out it was too late to do the project for the moms. Oh, well, there is always next year. Thinking of Mother's Day brings back a sweet memory. It was in January and I went on my first cross country skiing lesson. I got home and was getting out of the car when Natosha and Jamara ran out to meet me. I was so excited that I had come back alive and told them that it was the best day of my life. Jamara was 6 years old and she started crying and said, "I thought the day we brought breakfast to you in bed was the best day of your life." (Mother's Day) I had to do some quick talking to get out of that one. I am so fortunate to have so many sweet memories that float around in my head.

This is the playground right outside my window. All the snow is gone now and many kids play here after school. When my window is open I can hear them laughing and shouting. It is a very comforting sound - knowing that I am not responsible for them.


Here is my dining area in the same room as the kitchen. The hanging plant was given to me by one of my students who moved back to Hungary. It is really striving!

This is my kitchen with a gas stove and washing machine. It is pretty small, but I have enough counter shelf to roll out pie dough. Who needs any more room than that?

This is my lovely bathroom. The technical water (water to the toilets) froze this winter in the above ground pipes, so I had to use a bucket to flush the toilet for a few weeks. Everyone was in the same boat, so no complaints. Twice I have gotten black water while I was taking a shower, but I try to think that it is good for me. It wasn't good to the nice white towel I was using. Otherwise, everything is lovely. I have a water heater, so won't run out of hot water and have alternate water if the town shuts off the water.

Sorry this picture is so dark. I use my second bedroom for my exercise room and love my plants that were given to me by another student who used to live in this apartment.

Did I tell you that I have a cleaning lady once a week that is part of the rent? (The rent is paid by the school.) I just have to pay $100 monthly for utilities whether I use that much or not.

Pictures of my new place

Since I haven't been able to get on my blog for so long, some of you probably don't know that I moved from my big fancy apartment to a smaller, cozier apartment in an old Soviet building. This is my bedroom with a door leading to a small laundry room where I hang up my wet clothes (no drier). The washing machine is actually in the kitchen.

I am sorry this picture of my living room turned out so dark. There are double doors that open to a small computer/office area.

This is the entrance to my building.

I live on the second floor of this old Soviet building. It actually looks pretty decent in this photo. It doesn't look so good in real life. At my housewarming party the husband of my friend walked in the door and said, "Why on earth did you move from your beautiful apartment to this place?" However, when he got inside he could see why I fell in love with it. I moved because I was getting money stolen and I stopped feeling safe in my own home. My landlord came and went whenever he wanted. I finally took the key away from the cleaning lady and she only came when I was there, but I felt like she took things right in front of me - silly things like toilet paper and napkins. When I returned from Christmas vacation I could tell that someone had been staying there - different food in the refrigerator, several things missing, and some of my furniture was moved. It was a creepy feeling. One thing that was missing was so silly. I had 4-5 pairs of black hose in my drawer, so when I went back to the States I only got brown ones because I knew I had plenty of black ones. When I got back there was not one single pair of black hose to be found. Now who would want my black hose? Also, I was very distressed because my water floater and pump were not out on the deck where I left them in a big black plastic bag. I looked everywhere for them and finally found them a few days before I moved out. Someone had taken the plastic bag and filled it with all their clothes and thrown it over in the pile of stuff the landlord had left there. I found the floater way down on the bottom. Weird! Plus there was a man's suit hanging in my closet and I haven't started a trend of wearing men's suits. So I moved out and I am so happy with my new place. I don't have to look around every day when I get home from work to see if anyone has been in my apartment. It feels like my home and even if it is smaller and not so fancy, it is perfect for me. And I love living out in the community with schools, soccer fields, and families instead of living with all the rich expats. Things are good! This blog only allows me 5 pictures per time and I lost one on this blog post, so I will post more pictures on the next blog.

Miracle

Dear Friends,
All of January and February my blog would not open. I was so sad not to be able to communicate with all of you. Other people could get to my blog, but every time I tried it told me the link was broken. Today it opened and I am so excited.
Our cold winter with all the snow is coming to an end hopefully. Today was a beautiful spring day and I even had to take my coat off walking home. All the snow has disappeared and the mud puddles have all dried up.
This week is Dr. Seuss week and tomorrow I am dressing in my Cat-In-The-Hat costume and going to spend the whole day doing activities from some of Dr. Seuss's books. Then we are going to make green eggs and ham. We all have hats and tails to wear, so it should be pretty wild.
Our school population and staff have started to dwindle. We started with almost 40 students and now we are down to 23. Marc lost his students and moved to another QSI school, Mike moved back to USA, and now Nilofer is leaving for India. So Nick and I will be the only teachers left beside the director and his wife. It is so sad to be losing my students. I have six now, but was so happy with my original 11 students. There are some great things about only having six students, so I will not complain. I still am loving my job. A friend asked me why I loved my job so much and the answer is that the preschool program has a curriculum that I follow, but I add all the things that I think are developmentally appropriate for 3 and 4 year olds and have a blast! I also am so loved here by the administration. My director tells me every day when he walks into my room that nobody could pay him enough to teach my class. He just has alot of respect for me and it is such a difference than the feelings I've had in my past. The parents are great and supportive which makes all the difference in the world. And I find that I just love teaching the little ones.
I'm going to sign off now before this whole thing gets lost. I sure hope that I will be able to get back on this blog soon. I'll send some pictures. Love, Rachel