As I started my first lesson of the afternoon, I saw a lady walk in and sit down to watch me. As I turned to look at her again, I recognised her as the one lady I had an interview with on skype, my boss! I wasn't aware of her coming over to the school. Not that it made much of a difference to me but it would have been nice to know. I found out afterwards that she only comes to the school about once a week as there are other schools she goes to the other days of the week.

At the end of the afternoon, after all my lessons, she wanted to speak with me. Her English is also not that good so Julia, our receptionist sat in our meeting to help Anna out. Anna, my boss said she was very impressed with my lessons considering I had no curriculum to teach from. Yay!!

She mentioned that the other teachers were super concerned about me when I went into Moscow all alone and only after three days of being in the country! Once I told her that I had just come from China and had travelled all over there as well as travelling to other countries alone, she sighed a sigh of relief. Really sweet of her and the others to be so concerned. She asked if I needed anything for the school and I mentioned the possibilty of an interactive whiteboard as it would make teaching a largish group of kids that much easier. Much to my surprise, she was all for it and mentioned that it was worth looking at after we had spoken about the pros and cons of having one. She also enquired about the weather and whether I had enough warm clothes and said I'll receive all the assistance I need to go winter clothes shopping. Coming from Israel where temperatures soar to sometimes as much as 40 degrees C in summer and only drop to around 17 degrees C in winter, I certainly do not have the right equipment for minus 20 degrees and thick snow. Even though I know this winter is probably going to be the coldest I will ever experience, it's one I am so looking forward to.

Whenever this time of year comes around and the Christmas festivities start with colourful streamers and decorations in the shops, christmas carols blaring from car radios and playing in every shop, people walking around genuinely happy after a long hard year at work or school, and white snow everywhere, it's what I've always dreamed of. I too, want to look like the Michelin Man as I head out into the cold snuggled in my thick coat, scarf, hat and gloves. I want to go skating on iced up ponds and build proper snowmen that are more than 10cm high, drink hot chocolate and sit in front of the fireplace toasting marshmallows. Go Hannukah/ Christmas shopping and just enjoy the festivities of the season.