Post six, in which I decide things might actually be ok

Things are looking up a little, since my last post.
Yesterday and the day before were shockingly mild--sun, no wind, and warm enough to wear just a jacket! Hurrah!
Unfortunately today is much colder again, and fine snow is sifting down again. I think it melts though, when it lands.

One of the other teachers introduced us to her old school, a jr/sr high school, where they happen to serve fantastically hearty and cheap lunches to anyone who can pay. This means that for the last couple of days I've been getting overwhelming portions of borscht, blini, carrot and horseradish salad, coleslaw, and chicken stew over potatoes for the sum of....about $1.35. Hurrah!

I think, after the first week of my baptism-by-fire teacher training, this week can't help but go better. I have far more tasks planned for each class, and I think I'm beginning to figure out what the students actually need help with, as opposed to the nonsensical nonsense that the other teachers have been telling me.

Would you believe there's no curriculum? These poor students end up being taught the same crap every year, just because the idiotic administration (based in Lublin, and deigning to come to Chelm once a week) doesn't want to bother. It makes me really mad.

We had a meeting with the aforementioned administration, in the form of the Director of Practical English Studies, to introduce me and Nick to the other teachers (only the teachers we already knew showed up though), and to discuss, among other things.....when the next meeting should be. Really; we spent over half an hour discussing this. Then it was resolved (and this, I think, was the goal of the administrator) that we would all meet individually, as it was too difficult to arrange a time. So she was absolved of any responsibility. What a gremlin.
So: 1 1/2 hours spent learning absolutely nothing.
I guess this is how my students feel!

At any rate...unaccountably, I feel better than last week. Maybe because my cold is finally disappearing, or because Nick taught me an awesome variation of Rummy called Rummy 500, with more aggressive scoring and discarding rules. And Saturday the previous English instructor, Caitlin, and her boyfriend came over to play Texas Hold 'em for matchsticks. Hurrah!