5:00am and I'm up reading and answering email, Facebook, VK (the Russian variant of Facebook). Read USA Today about the hurricane, ignored the news about the election. Contemplated the days events. It's raining outside. No matter, it's still a beautiful day to me.
5:30am coffee, bread, butter, peanut butter, and homemade (yes, homemade and given to me by one of my students) strawberry jam. It is not sugar free. I sin again. :>)
8:15am Paul arrives to get some images on a thumb drive for printing. We plan to give them as gifts today.
8:45am we rush out, rush over to the university, rush up 5 flights of stairs to our classroom to get it set up for the day. Salt and light again.
8:58am Rick and I are waiting in a break area of the university to go up to our room. Small talk. 6,000 miles away are Dave, Susie, and Alyssa.
12:30pm we end our class and clean the room.
1:00pm we walk over and help John clean his room.
1:30pm we're back in our classroom for a meeting with the Dean of the Foreign Language Department. A routine "de-briefing" we have near the end of every trip. I get very sleepy in this meeting.
3:00pm we're on the train for a goodwill visit to a local school. We're ushered into a classroom to meet with 15-20 students from 7th grade through 12th grade. They're sweet and cute as they can be! We just sit and have tea and English conversation. I'm especially taken by two cutie pies that are in the 8th grade. They're adorable. At first they're shy, then they warm up. When it was time to leave they gave me a hug. Before leaving, however, we asked the kids to sing the Russian Federation national anthem and they are all too eager to oblige. They ask us to sing our national anthem. You would be proud. While we didn't necessarily hold the pitch well, we nailed the lyrics.
5:00pm we left the school building and walked about, oh, a quarter mile down the road...and there they are again - the two adorables! They wanted to walk alongside of me and talk more. We did for another quarter mile or so then I gave them a hug and told them to go home and be careful doing so...the father in me.
5:30pm we hop on the train back to our flat.
6:00pm we're back in the flat. The elevator is out so it's five flights of stairs. John and I split 3 pieces of cold leftover pizza. I didn't nuke it long enough. I slam down a granola bar and some walnuts Rick brought.
6:20 we're back out again heading over to the girls' flat for a party with the university kids. It's a full moon.
6:45 Lots of kids there and some dressed in simple halloween makeup, some a bit more elaborate. Kate came by to visit for a little bit, and she visited with all the other students and Americans as well. We said goodbye in the chaos of the crowd which was probably a good thing otherwise it would have been too sad.
10:00pm (roughly) the last of the kids leave. Actually, Lana was there and ran them all home because of classes tomorrow. Only Lana could pull that off without everyone getting mad. God bless her.
10:15pm (roughly) David and I walk back to the flat. On the way we pass two policemen standing on the Alley of Heroes. We pass two guys (look like they're about 20) drinking and struggling to walk in a straight line. I silently thanked God the policemen were nearby. We don't want trouble. Rick veered off and towards Cafe Nero for cappuccino and some work. He still has a "bidness" to run.
11:00pm shower, read and answer more email, Facebook, VK. Talked with Kate a little more on iMessage.
12:00am lay my head on the pillow and lights out.
TODAY
5:30am. I bolted out of bed, rushed to make coffee, rushed to make breakfast, rushed sit down, hurriedly logged in, speed-type to get the day going, you know, I have a lot to do, must get going, opened Email and...stopped.
Derek Kent
Appreciate all the updates and word pictures of Russia and the kids there. What a salt and light explosion! Still processing and choking up over the watch. Know you are hating to leave and also excited to go home. Blessings and prayers for safety traveling home!
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