turn my head with thoughts of summertime

Nelya called this morning to say it was very cold (-27 Celcius) and that I could stay home if I wanted. So I did, not wanting to be frozen. However, I had errands that compelled me to leave the warmth of my apartment, and I have discovered that it is actually not that bad, if you don't mind frozen nose hairs. Am now contemplating trying to make it to school for the last two classes.

This is my seventh trip to the post office in the last three days...every other time I was here, someone was on the Internet and was going to be so for at least two hours. This time, I met a guy who speaks very good English (including such phrases as "piece of cake") and who has been to New York City, Minneapolis, LA, and Key West. I think he's better traveled in the US than I am.

We had a school dance on Saturday night...sort of a home-coming-esque thing where previous students came back for a concert put on by current students and then a dance for everyone afterwards. I danced a bit, but mostly hung out in the teachers' workroom and had lots of people trying to talk to me. The music teacher, his son (who's a jazz pianist), and I sang "Yesterday" in three-part harmony.

School last week had its ups and downs. My third form on Thursday was a complete disaster, as Nelya had had to go to the train station and left me alone with 15 rather wild, non-English-speaking 8 year olds. It turned into chaos, as I had no way of making them behave. (Trust me, I tried.) 2/3 of my ninth form didn't do their homework, and 4 of the other 5 blatantly copied from books and each other. However, they looked pretty sheepish after I lectured them. But on the other hand, 10th form did a lesson on supermarkets complete with pages from a Meijer's ad, and that went over really well. My 5th form is currently learning grammar via folk songs, and the shyest girl in that class, who never speaks above a whisper, even in Russian or Ukrainian, said "Good morning" to me the other day.

So there's hope in teaching yet. :)

~*~

Movies of the weekend, lent from Tif: Phantom of the Opera (from whence comes my post title) and The Incredibles, which I highly recommend to my family.