Day four/five (Monday Jan 31st /Tuesday Feb. 1st)

Monday and Tuesday were just kind of a relaxed and finish trying to get settled in days.  Inna took us around to the sports complex and showed us the supply room/office of ILP.  Well let me tell you the supply room was not what I was interested in at the time. We have this massive pool and MASSIVE water slides (yes plural SLIDES) that we are allowed to use twice a week, along with a gym with a lot of equipment. Sweet, no other school can say they have access to a pool in Moscow in February!!  So any way we unloaded all our school supplies and started talking lesson plans. WOW lessons plans, a little different than I thought, but in a good way. We basically just kind of hung out some more and got to know each other a little more and got talking about what was ahead of us and how to do the lesson plans.  

It was nice to just relax for a couple of days and still try and get into the swing of things.  We could explore a little and see what is around us which is, well, really nothing! We live in the country or outskirts of Moscow so really there is nowhere to go. We have a LITTLE store about a 15 min walk away that we discovered and realized no one in it speaks English so it’s like what they call a monkey market, we just point out what we want and node our head if they grab the right thing! It has a little bit of everything and not really anything at the same time. 

Food is definitely different and interesting to look at but we don’t need to buy food because we are fed at the school three times a day. Breakfast is at 9, Dinner is at 12:30 and Supper is at 6. It’s crazy to eat three HUGE meals a day. They definitely know how to eat in this country and to eat fast then get up and walk til the next meal comes.  Walking is a big thing here even though a lot of people drive, there are way more cars and traffic around here then I thought. I mean there are a ton of people that ride the buses and metros but a lot of cars too. We have about a 10-15 minute walk to and from the school we do several times a day and then walk to the sports complex, and walk to the kindergarten school. So yeah the calluses on my feet are definitely building up.  I can’t complain too much though, I knew it would be a lot of walking and I just wish I had some better and more comfy winter boots. But I’m sure when we go into town sometime I’ll get me some nice ones. The weather hasn’t been too bad, it’s actually been better than I thought it would be, but then again I love winter so this is just heaven to me. I couldn’t imagine having to walk as much as we do in hotter temperatures.  I can’t say I’ve fallen in love with this country yet, but I’m without doubt not complaining about my choice!