That Time of Year

Well, it's that time of year again. And by 'that time' I mean that the heaters are on ALL the time, and will remain so until the end of March. My apartment is toasty, toasty, toasty. The last few nights I've gone sans covers and sans cat snuggles. It's just too hot.

Except for a freakish cold snap while I was away in Budapest, the weather has been fairly pleasant. It's definately cooler, but certainly not cold yet. Definately not so cold that everywhere you go needs to be heated.

My school is especially warm. Yesterday, my 9A classroom was so toasty that the kids all had rosey cheeks and sweat dripping down their forheads. Come winter, I know I'll be grateful for the heat; in fact, I'll probably complain that it's not enough heat, but for now, I'm constantly dripping with sweat when I'm indoors. And that sucks.

Next week is fall break, so that means this week at school is a total bust. The kids are a million miles away, off in la-la fall break land. My teachers are kind of that way too. Larissa told me yesterday that the only thing that is getting her through the week is the thought of fall break. She really hates her job. She's always telling me that the only thing getting her through school is the thought of a break, or the weekend, or the summer. Yesterday during the 15 minute break between the 4th and 5th lessons, she sat in the teachers room whining, "I want to go home. I want to go home. I want to go home." She was sitting in her chair, bouncing up and down and I thought to myself, good grief lady, how old are you?!

This Saturday I'm going out east to Dnipropotrovsk for a big halloween party. There will be lots of volunteers there from my group, most of whom I haven't seen since swearing in last december. It should be pretty fun. The two volunteers who live in Dnipropotrovsk have rented out a Bar and so it'll be an all-american costume party. I'm not sure what I'm going to go as yet. Like I told my mom, it's not like I can just run down to the Halloween Superstore and grab something clever.

Next Tuesday, Jennifer and I are finally opening our English Resource Center to the teachers in the school district. We will have a seminar Tuesday morning and then we will give them an orientation on how to use the center, have them sign a contract, give them an "access card" and hope that they will be good stewards of our work.