Russian Roubles and Red Square

Wow.. time has been flying by and now been 3 weeks since I arrived.  So what have I been up too.  Well the 10k never quite happened yesterday due to lack of training and well pure laziness but the intention was there and intentions are good! I'll still whip your ass Giles in the next one.. are you sure your stop watch was working properly the other day!?
I did however go swimming which was certainly an interesting experience as Hannah said it was an outdoor pool which sounded very exciting in the middle of Russia and an experience not to be missed.
So first we had to pay for a medical to check we were not lepers.  This involved a doctor telling you to take off your shoes.  She briefly glanced at the 'top' of our feet and told us to replace our shoes.  Hannah translated that she was looking for verrucas?? This is when i started doubting this doctors ( again very old ) credentials!   Then she wanted to know our height and weight although despite being in a doctors surgery she did not have any scales or tape measure.. , quick blood pressure and we were obviously prime candidates for the outdoor swimming experience.  She charged us £10 for this thorough assessment!   Then i had to spend £6 on a compulsory swimming hat. I wanted the bobbly pink one but Hannah brought me to my senses and I am now a proud owner of latex blue hat that makes me look like a smurf and pins the bottom of my ears to the top of my ears.  It's a sexy look!  Then we went to buy our ticket to swim for 1 hour.. A reasonable £11!! I imagined the pool must be some kind of state of the art olympic number after all this.  But no, it kind of looked like it had not been renovated since the communist era.  Russians take their pre-swim shower very seriously.  It's not like in the UK where you just nip under the shower to make yourself look wet or just skip it altogether and just run into the pool before anyone can stop you ( or is that just me!!)   All these naked ladies were lathering up left, right and centre but Hannah and I had forgotten any soap or shampoo and I'm pretty sure we were being judged on our lack of lathering!!  Anyway the weather was 17 degrees and water was 27 which was really nice actually and swimming outside is lovely but at that price it will be not a regular thing. Although I def want to go when it is snowing outside!

Have sampled a bit more vodka just to check the quality is good week to week.  Certainly as dangerous as ever!

Finally made it to Red Square and St Basil's which was breathtaking.  Also went  to a Russian market marvel at all the beautiful Russian dolls and Faberge eggs ( finally know what you were all banging on about!)  Some wicked old,old antiques markets too which make the stuff in Portobello look like stuff from Argos last year!

Have got slightly addicted to Smetana the sour cream they put on everything over here.  I put it on all my food at school and casually mentioned to 5 year old Natasha one lunch time that i had to be careful as if i ate too much i would get fat!   Ten minutes later she saw me helping myself to another dollop and said  in perfect English. ' Miss Rebecca you will be the fattest teacher in school.!'  God I am a good teacher!!

However i may be saved from the smetana curse as a horrific incident with some dental floss yesterday  meant  a filling flew right out!  So now it's soup and soft food on one side of my mouth!  Mind you smetana is soft too dammit!  Hoping tooth will last until Friday when i am back in London. Don't fancy a Russian dentist after my experiences with the doctors!

Hmm what else...  oh I went out for a walk and explore on my own and did not get lost, attacked or stopped by the police which i thought was jolly good indeed!!  I even successfully bought some milk!!  

Right bedtime.  Hugely excited about coming home now if only for a few days.... see you soon! x

More Moscow Musings

So have nearly done a whole week at school now and it's been tiring but good.  Got a cold bug thing which as we all know is no surprise for me but as the school only allows 5 paid sick days in a year i took my germs to school.  The children get checked every day by the school doctor before they are allowed in but they don't check the staff ironically. I can tell you when i was coughing in the staff room that doctor's head whipped around like something out of the excorsist and the look i got was not exactly warm.  I have been trying to stifle any coughing in front of the parents as it appears Russian parents are very concerned about germs!!  And playing without coats even if it's boiling!  Oh and drinking cold water!  Very dangerous!!  

But all my children are really sweet and we sit down at 9.00 and eat our Russian porridge or semolina ( brings back childhood memories).  Then snack on cheese and quails eggs ( yes quails eggs for 5 year olds). It's all very civilised compared to the zoo mentality of lunchtime in a huge British primary school. But no chip Friday which is a shame!  This is after we have done morning excercises.. nothing like a bit of agadoo at 8.30 in the morning!  They do yoga too with a teacher and have mini yoga mats.. very cute!
Lunch is always soup with croutons, it's always a different colour but amazingly it always has the same taste!   Followed by main course of some kind of meat and pasta or rice or Smash.  I have decided to stop enquiring what the meat is as last time i asked it was veal... ( Emma don't even try to tell me that the Russians are using the humane method you keep banging on about!)

It's a long day compared to UK schools (8.15 -5.00)  but the relaxed approach to planning and the flexibility and lack of paperwork and the access to good  resources makes up for it!! I may even go so far as to say I am enjoying teaching!! Although still missing my Interactive whiteboard! :(

So we went out last weekend to some really nice bars with great live music....and I found myself ordering shots of vodka ( they don't appear to mix it here) and sipping them like a nice glass of sherry!  I can make a shot last a longgg time and at a pound a shot it's brilliant!  Have now been in one of the random cars that act as taxis ( read on mum!) but with other people who speak Russian so all safe !!  Went to Ikea too and forgot i was in Russia for a while.

Went for my first run in Gorky park with my TA Hannah.. we are attempting the Moscow 10k next sunday.
Prior to meeting Hannah I had kind of thought running may not be an option after reading a blog by an expat and his experience of Moscow running.  He mentioned the rarity of runners that resulted in small children pointing and laughing at him, along with the fact that you got chased by packs of wild dogs!!  This was not my experience in Gorky park thank god although I had thought a pack of wild dogs might do wonders for my motivation to run faster!  We even passed other runners although you kind of gave each other a knowing nod and a smile that we were special!  Gorky park also has giant go-karts you can hire to ride around the park in... i don't know why this excites me but it really does!!

I have now been to a supermarket alone.....it was scary and i failed to buy milk despite the carton having a cow and a milk maid on the front.. i don't know what it was but it was some kind of evil encompassed in some thick white gloop!!  I was trying to learn the Russian alphabet but as we all know I am a bit of a procrastinator..plenty of time for that!  I can say hello ( kind of), thankyou and bill please, oh and yes and no....I'll be fluent before you know it!

So this weekend we have staff bonding day which sounds horrific but there is pizza after so maybe it will be worth it!  And some more exploring.  Went to the Kremlin last weekend but it was Moscow day and Red Square was shut so still more to do.

Ok bedtime, my flat mate Jen has shown me how to download stuff on my computer using a torrent (check me out!) and I am addicted to True Blood... i tell you if he is called Bill,  a vampire can feed on me any day!

Good bye comrades!  Oh and I fly home on Fri 23rd of Sep for the weekend to get my real visa so keep it free if you are in London, can't wait to see you all  xxx