Meet the parents...

So the medical!  Well thank the lord above there was to be no butt swabbing!  Quite frankly i think i would have refused!  We were given a card with 3 room numbers on and told to visit them in order.  In room number 9 was a very old (like 80!) russian doctor with a big white mustache!!  He had a big old industrial machine that looked like an incinerator!  He told me to go behind a screen and remove my dress at the top to my tummy.  So i did!  No no not enough, please take of your bra.  I the had to get into this machine which had the door shut and push my boobs against a screen for an xray.   As i stepped out of the machine he said ahh beatiful beautiful!!!!  Apparently he was talking about my lungs!!!  I have to say they did look rather beautiful all clear and clean!  Don't think they will look that clean after living in Moscow pollution!

Then i had blood taken and the nurse who was watching me start hyperventilating as she got the needle out shoved a cotton wool ball under my nose and said breathe, which i did! No idea what was on it but it made me feel VERY nice! Wish they did that in the UK!

So this is my classroom!!! So clean and big and lovely although they do not have Interactive whiteboards which is a real shame... I'll have to go back to old style teaching and practice my neat whiteboard writing!

We also have a mini theatre, and a dance room with mirrored walls! (memories of that horrific Aerobics lesson came flooding back Tash and I broke out in sweats!)  The school is on the 10th floor of an apartment block 1 road over from my flat which is so easy! We have a playground out on the roof. My teaching assistants Miss Hannah and Mr Nick are great  ( obviously not as great as you Simone!!!!) and are both English but speak fluent Russian and I  get called the headteacher which amuses me and makes me feel important!  Today I had to do a speech in front of the 25 rich Russian parents which with my love of public speaking was a doddle haha!  Actually was ok in the end as none of the parents spoke English so i had a translator standing next to me which somehow made it better. 

Today we had training at one of the other school sites and took the local mini buses (Marshruty). They are these hilarious old mini vans and you get in and sit down and then pass your fare forward to the person in front of you who passes it on until you get to the driver and if you need change he passes it all the way back...so inefficient yet seems to work!  Have also been on the metro ( amazing wooden escalators) but not visited the the amazingly beautiful metro stops yet.  They also have trams  and trolley buses but quite how i am ever going to work out where the hell they all go is beyond me as all the stops are in Russian! 

They also have legal taxis but locals use 'chastniki' which is basically where you put your hand out and hail any car that stops and give them a bit of money!!!  Won't be doing that alone!

So one more day of preparing classroom and then the little Russian tinkers arrive.  Planning is so far amazing....can do things my way without silly paperwork and over the top assessments and no threat of OFSTED ever!

Ok bedtime so sleepy!!  Spokoini Noche x

Good Morning comrades!!

So it's 7.00 am and I have woken to the sound of lots of traffic, my chest feels like an elephant has been sitting on it ( assuming it's the smog.. nice!) and i still have 2 hours before I have to get up. Normally I would go for a little stroll and check out my surroundings but I think it may be safer to wait until my flat mate Jen has shown me the basics.  We overlook what I am going to call Lenin Square for obvious reasons although don't know the real name which is also the location for the main police headquarters.Yesterday there were lots of them hanging out in the square having a good old chin wag and looking jovial, but having read that  police stop people (especially foreign looking people) to check documents and often want a bribe I think I will stay in bed.  Considering I break out in a cold sweat  and feel instantly guilty when a police car drives past me when I am driving I can only imagine how I will react when a Russian police man asks for my documents.  I will be practicing my innocent look in the mirror later on!

I was lucky to get here in one piece considering i was flying with Aeroflop and was doubly relieved to arrive in Moscow as 90% of the passengers on the flight appeared to be Japanese, and for one ( maybe 10 plus) terrible moments I thought I had made a terrible boarding mistake and was going to the wrong country.
The Russian flight attendants did not speak English well and we had a frustrating moment when the lovely British girl sitting next to me asked for water and recieved blank looks.  Lots of water themed gesticulations  on both our parts later and she figured it out.  I stuck with orange juice as she seemed to understand this!

I was very proud of how brave I was with the flight considering I hate flying.  The only hairy bit was landing when it felt like there was a giant on each wing having a go on a pogo stick.  I dealt with this by breathing VERY deeply but the lovely girl next to me appeared to deal with it with hysterical laughter. On touch down the whole plane burst into applause which was  nice although I did not have the  gross motor skills to get two hands together as was semi hyperventilating!

I was met by a lovely little man called Erlan who had quite possibly the most fantastic 1970's maroon car..like the rectangle box shaped ones and driven the 35 ks to my flat.  Russian traffic is as bad as I have read..6 lanes across in places, weaving in and out with no signalling, using the dirt track on the side as an extra lane. You can imagine my joy when he answered the phone at 120k an hour!  For anyone who has had me as a passenger you can imagine  how much strength it took for me to sit quietly!!  Passed first wodka victim sprawled out on the sideway snoring away!  Passed Ikea to which for some reason have me a warm fuzzy feeling.. I wonder if they have meatballs!!

So plan for today is go with Jen to my school which is 5 mins away and then go for a medical.  This involves a blood test for one which initially freaked me out as we all know how much I love needles. But then Jen told me that they sometimes do an anal swab!!!!  Suddenly  the thought of having blood taken seemed like a trio to Disney world!  I am holding out hope that they won't as they did not do it last year but did the year before. Pray for me!

My room is lovely.. double the size of my one at home all decorated properly and I have a wicked arm chair which looks like it's from the 1970's so all good there. Jen has been telling me about the school (as we sipped gin and tonics on my balcony admiring some new tower blocks that are being but in the distance)  and the 'performances' we have to put on ( let's just say Hallfield ladies it's in a different league to our class assemblies! eek!). Luckily they have dance and music teachers so hopefully they will help me! I have also discovered I have the grandson of the owner of the school in my class so no pressure there!

Ok going to go have a yummy breakfast of craft cheese slices on bread which they kindly put in the fridge for me.  Have a feeling getting a nice bit of crunchy mature cheddar here may not be so easy but luckily my  strange appreciation of nasty processed cheese slices will get me through ( remember Darwin Claire??) yum yum.

Over and out comrades I'll be back soon to let you know if I get violated at the medical!