6:00 am Cell phone alarm goes off. I've yet to get a clock! I still have the principal's watch, which he lent me when I first arrived and had no way to tell the time (my cell phone time is not always accurate). I may press snooze once or twice, then I go into the kitchen to put away the dishes from last night (no dishwasher) and usually the clothes that I had drying overnight (no dryer, but luckily things dry pretty fast around here). Then I take a shower in the dark, as I've yet to get someone to fix the light in the bathroom. It's something I think about while I'm in there, but not much when I'm elsewhere.
By 6:45 I open the doors to Sophia's room (she has double doors) to let in light and I turn on the TV and lower the volume. The earlier she wakes up, the more likely she is to eat breakfast before we leave.
By 7:00 I'm pretty much ready, I just have to eat (bread and jelly or generic Nutella) and drink coffee, and get Sophia ready. So it's usually after 8 before we leave. I understand why many little girls have short hair--that would be so much faster! My favorite show--"Apple Man" we call it--comes on at 8:00, and I tell Sophia that we have to leave when it starts.
It takes quite a while to put on all our gear, and it can get rather hot in the house, dressed in multiple layers and heavy coats. Finally we're out the door and go down 3 flights of stairs and then out into the cold. Usually I take a bag of trash with me--no large trash bag in the house, so the little ones fill up quickly, but the dumpster is on our way out.
We used to walk to meet Christie and then onto school. Now we just walk the two blocks to the bus stop. I urge Sophia to hurry up, until we get close enough to see if the bus is coming. If I don't see one coming, I can relax.
We wait at the bus stop, usually get on Bus 14, and sit for the short ride to school. Frequently we see someone else who works at the school--the secretary, the IT guy, even the vice principal. We get off by the school and walk the short distance (about a block's length) to the school and into the school. I drop Sophia off at her classroom and go into my room (next to hers) to unload. I hang my coat and scarf in the cabinet in the teacher's lounge (across the hall from my room) and put my hat there too, along with a bag with Sophia's lunch--American-style cheese and cranberry juice. The teacher's lounge is usually cold, and our classrooms are usually warm, so since there's no refrigerator, I figure the teacher's lounge will work to keep her cheese and juice cool.
If it's Monday or Friday, I follow my class to the front lobby area, and Sophia goes with her class. Once all the classes are there, someone turns on the Kazakhstan national anthem, and all the children sing. Sophia pretends to sing, although she is apparently learning the words, just from listening so much. Some of the children stand up really tall and proud and shout out the words. The English-language teachers stand politely, one hand over our heart.
Then the Russian vice principal makes announcements or asks questions in Russian, making me wonder what's the point in calling this an international school. Finally she dismisses us and the children run back to the rooms.
If it's Wednesday I have to go to the second floor for "duty" where I'll monitor the hallway between classes. The second floor is pretty boring. The 1st and 2nd grades are on the first floor, and the 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades are on the 3rd floor. I think the 2nd floor contains the science room, the dance room, the accountant's room, the vice principals' office, and not much else.
The school, by the way, is large, although it does not look that way from the front. It is shaped like a misshapen upside-down U. The right side, the short side, houses the International School, the left side, the long side, houses the Kazakh-Turkish elementary and high school. The middle (more like the the middle-right) joins the two schools with a common swimming pool, cafeteria, canteen, and gym. Teachers from both schools eat together, but other than that we don't really see each other much. My duty only involves our side of the school.
Tuesday and Thursday mornings I teach English first thing, at 9 am. Fridays I teach 5th grade math, on the 3rd floor. Mondays and Wednesdays I have free time, which I usually spend feeling awkward in my classroom, doing work in the front (where the teacher's desk and computer are located) while the Kazakh teacher teaches Kazakh, or working in the cold Teacher's Lounge.
At 9:40 the assistant takes the class to breakfast, and usually the foreign kids stay in the classroom. Sophia is not the only foreigner who does not like Kazakh-Turkish food. (Not sure if they serve Kazakh or Turkish food.) Sometimes Sophia takes her lunch bag and eats a slice of cheese. Often the foreign kids stay behind in the rooms, not wanting to go to the cafeteria.
At 9:55 it's the next period, and there are a total of 4 periods--40 minutes each, 10 minute breaks in between between breakfast and lunch at 1:05. The assistant takes the kids to lunch and I join Valerie and the other English-speaking teachers for lunch in the teacher's lunchroom in the basement. I quite enjoy the free food, and the purple fruit "salad" is the only thing that I don't eat. The Philippino teachers miss their own food, although they do eat the school's food, and they have noticed that the same dishes are served on the same days of the week. Hm, I'll have to pay more attention.
Lunch is usually a "salad" of sorts--the purple fruit salad is sweetened with beets, hence the color--and sometimes it's a mixture of vegetables that tastes better than the fruit salad. There are two other dishes--usually a soup of sorts and then a mystery-meat and starch (noodles, rice, or a mashed-potato-like mixture). There's also unlimited sliced bread, not the best, but since this is my main meal, I eat a lot. The drink is either some strange fruit juice or tea, and the two are the same color. Sometimes the fruit juice is warm and it's hard to tell the difference between it and tea. Although, they provide spoons to put sugar in tea if it's tea, so that's one way.
The children eat in the cafeteria and then sometimes their assistant takes them outside to the playground, but more often than not their "recess" is just running wild inside the school. Coming from the teacher's lunch room to the classroom you feel like you're stuck in ravaging hurricane full of screaming kids. Really? And it's a surprise that they can't later on settle down?
After two more periods it's "Etud" or Study Period. Sometimes I teach math, sometimes I'm not in the mood (neither are the kids) and I let the Kazakh teacher teach Kazakh. After Etud comes Extracurricular Activity time, which means that the kids whose parents didn't sign them up for anything are stuck, bored, in the room. Like poor Sophia. I can't sign her up for dance until I get her dance clothes. In fact, she doesn't go to dance when her class does. During activity, if a kid does not want to go or does not have the proper attire, he/she is left alone in the room, bored and lonely.
Parents start arriving around 4, after Etud, although some arrive earlier. Some come while their kid is still in karate or whatnot. I try to be polite and talk to them, but many speak English rather poorly.
5:00 is the official end-of-school time, but parents linger and some come late (really late). So, as much free time as I have during the day, there really is no time when I'm alone in the room (hence my rarely getting around to putting up this blog). There's also plenty of other teachers who need to use the classroom's computer, either for personal use, for lesson planning, or for the immediate lesson (playing music, etc.)
5:30 is the official I-can-leave time, and usually Christie finds me and says she's ready to go. If I'm ready, I hurry and get Sophia and me dressed (this takes time!) Sometimes I tell her to go on ahead, I have work to do, or Sophia wants to play on the playground.
When we leave, the Kazakh teachers and assistants are usually still there. There are usually kids hanging out on the couches in the lobby. One evening, we left really late--close to 7 pm--with the principal and a few other teachers. The lights in the school were out. One 2nd grade boy was still in the school. I said something to the principal about there still being a kid in the building, who seemed surprised. He turned around and went inside and talked to the boy.
Sometimes I play a bit with Sophia on the school playground before walking home. Sophia talks A LOT on the way home, and she's in a better mood if it's just me. She loves talking to the other teachers but she gets very frustrated when we adults try to talk to each other. I'm craving a real conversation as much as she is!
Frequently we have to go to the store to pick up something on the way home. So it's rare that we get home before 7 pm. Once home, I make her pizza, which takes time since I've yet to buy a pizza shredder, so I cut the mozzarella cheese they way you cut an onion (at least, the way I cut an onion into tiny pieces). I usually fry an egg for dinner, since that's easy, filling, yummy, and healthy. Not exciting, but I don't need excitement in my dinner.
Often I do a load of laundry in our small, front-load washing machine. I'm so glad that it works! (It turns out that the child lock had been set, which is why it wouldn't work my first two weeks here.)
At 9:00 her favorite show comes on, "Kid versus Kat" then mine. We try to go to bed after that.
Not an exciting day, not too much different from a day in the States.
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