Yes, I live next to a castle. It was bright and sunny a couple days ago when this picture was taken. But right now, I'm sitting in a Starbucks, drinking a chai tea latte and writing this blog post. I'm not even sure what I might write about because there's a lot that's been happening. And despite everything that's been happening, I just wish it were warm and sunny again instead of pouring cats and dogs.
But yes, I do live next to a castle.
It's known as BIP Castle. It was renovated several years ago and now functions as a hotel. It's really popular for weddings and other similar events, but weddings are the main thing based on what I've witnessed. The wedding couple actually has the ability to rent out the entire castle, which is pretty impressive. I've seen pictures of all the rooms and not a single one is unique. If it weren't so big, I wish I could live there. What's holding me back is the amount of chores that would be involved in maintaining the castle's nice, interior appearance. Also, it's impossible to enjoy the uniqueness of all the rooms when you're just a single person who doesn't require much space. Still, one can imagine...
Life itself has been good and I'm really looking forward to relaxing this summer. I've already got tickets to visit the United States for about 16 days, and I've made a list of items that I plan on buying and bringing back with me to Russia. These items are difficult-to-find items here such as mozzarella cheese, provolone cheese, Reese's peanut butter cups and a few more select items. Essentially, I'm limited to what I can pack in my carry-on. As for what I'll do in the US, it will mostly be spent visiting with family in Washington State and a couple friends in New York City for Independence Day.
As for my school, we still have about six weeks left of classes as school ends on June 12th, coincidentally Flag Day in the United States. But right now, it's May holidays. I'm not quite sure the reason for May holidays but it's essentially a period when people get consecutive 3-4 day weekends. It's almost like our labor or memorial day but having them be on back-to-back weeks. It feels good to have a long weekend that doesn't have much work. It also gives my scratches and bruises from swimming and soccer games a chance to heal before everything starts again on Monday.
Additionally, 9th grade has national exams later this month, which means they'll be completely busy for an entire week and I won't have any lessons with them. At least, that's what the schedule says for the moment.
This past Wednesday, our school hosted an "Intellectual Marathon" for 9th graders, which is a short 2.5 hour competition where students complete tasks differentiated by subject and difficulty. Our students competed as well as students from some schools in the surrounding area. In total, I think about 40 competed. My small English Department developed exercises that evaluated a student's ability to read a table of numbers and draw conclusions, organize jumbled sentences into a cohesive story, explain a simple grammar rule in English and more. Most of our students performed well but our school came in third. In two weeks' time, we'll have a second Intellectual Marathon for our 6th graders and next year's incoming class of 5th graders.
That reminds me, in a week, it will be the 70th anniversary of V-E Day, or when the European theatre of WWII was declared over. From what I've gathered, St. Petersburg has some big plans for celebrating the anniversary but I don't know if I'll have a chance to watch it. Our school is going to Lake Ladoga for its own small celebration and remembrance the night before and I don't know if we'll be back in time. For a WWII/military history geek like me, this could be a pretty fun and fascinating experience. I just hope it is and that I understand it.
By this upcoming weekend, I really do hope to post a short article on how it was for me to teaching public speaking in English. It mostly depends on how busy I become over the course of the week and whether I feel the energy to write something that might take more thought than just musings of a rainy day.
I've also been thinking about life choices for when I eventually leave my current position. I've done some research about future possibilities both in the TEFL industry as well as possible Masters programs in either linguistics or education. The one problem with pursuing a Masters in Linguistics is that I have minimal Linguistics training beyond teaching English and studying Russian.
No comments:
Post a Comment