OK, so Halloween was a bust. As usual, I tend to overestimate activities for Halloween. In Ufa, it was basically a "non event". I did notice though that a coffee shop in town had a few spiders and ghosts in their window so I suggested that we meet there after our classes. I brought along a few of my Halloween things and gave them to the girl at the counter to use if they wanted.
As we drank our coffees and talked about our day, the young girl from behind the counter brought us out some cookies. My Halloween treat :)
I gave up on the candy distribution at the apartment. It started to get dark, and was raining with no kids coming in or out. If there had been, the parents would have probably thought it strange - me pushing candy on their kids. Next year has to be better...
John's teaching is going well. He has been asked to teach more and more. He likes it and has been asked some very interesting questions. "Who is your favorite author?", What is the most significant event from your perspective in the USA?", "What do you see as the major differences between the USA and Russia?" "Do all Americans think we have bears in the streets here?"...and these questions are from 18-23 year students!
Monday is a national holiday in Russia. It is Unification Day. It is the newest of the Russian holidays and calls for tolerance between various ethnic and religious groups in the Russian Federation. There are still some tensions associated with the day and we have been officially warned by our consulate to basically stay away from any area where there are protests or groups of people.
I have plenty of prep work to do for lectures next week so it will likely be another day spent at our kitchen table with our computers.
Our time is winding down here in Ufa as we have entered our last month. I must say as the time nears for our departure home to the USA, it is sounding awfully good. By now, we are missing so many things especially our families, home, cat, seafood, washing machine (it never showed), clothes dryer, oven, dishwasher, TV in English, cars, sandals, and a suntan!
As we drank our coffees and talked about our day, the young girl from behind the counter brought us out some cookies. My Halloween treat :)
I gave up on the candy distribution at the apartment. It started to get dark, and was raining with no kids coming in or out. If there had been, the parents would have probably thought it strange - me pushing candy on their kids. Next year has to be better...
John's teaching is going well. He has been asked to teach more and more. He likes it and has been asked some very interesting questions. "Who is your favorite author?", What is the most significant event from your perspective in the USA?", "What do you see as the major differences between the USA and Russia?" "Do all Americans think we have bears in the streets here?"...and these questions are from 18-23 year students!
Monday is a national holiday in Russia. It is Unification Day. It is the newest of the Russian holidays and calls for tolerance between various ethnic and religious groups in the Russian Federation. There are still some tensions associated with the day and we have been officially warned by our consulate to basically stay away from any area where there are protests or groups of people.
I have plenty of prep work to do for lectures next week so it will likely be another day spent at our kitchen table with our computers.
Our time is winding down here in Ufa as we have entered our last month. I must say as the time nears for our departure home to the USA, it is sounding awfully good. By now, we are missing so many things especially our families, home, cat, seafood, washing machine (it never showed), clothes dryer, oven, dishwasher, TV in English, cars, sandals, and a suntan!
Nice try!! I know some people who will be glad to have you back in the USA...
ReplyDeleteTurkey & fixins' await... all that is missing is you & John.
ReplyDelete