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