Well, finally I have the opportunity to sit and add further entries to my blog.It has been a busy couple of weeks since the first one (albeit with plenty more stories about driving!).At the moment, it's early morning here in Vienna, where we having a short break.I always suffer with the time change - at the moment it's 8:40am in Moscow but only 6:40am here.According to my body I should be doing something, so as a morning person I always feel the need to be productive.Hence this.

Last weekend Nataly and I joined friends from our church for a residential weekend in a small village called Snegiri ('robin'in Russian) out in Moscow region.It's a large dacha owned by the Calvary Christian Fellowship, who let it out to church groups and other organizations, and from the moment you arrive you are looked after. With a seemingly never-ending supply of tea and coffee, plus the wonderful warmth of the building, we just enjoyed getting out of the city and spending time with our fellow-believers.There were about 40 of us in total, all spending time studying about the ways we could remove the unnecessary items from our lives (the theme was "My Heart: Christ's Home") and seeing if it was a fit place for Him to live.

There was of course time for R&R: I went to the local banya along with two of the men who regularly join me for outings to a banya in Moscow.Without going into too much detail - the banya is better experienced rather than described - all of us enjoyed going and cleansing ourselves, and felt very relaxed by the time we rejoined the group.Some of the others had been out for walks in the surrounding forest; others had taken the train to see a military memorial where it is popular for local brides and their grooms to have their photos taken as a sign of good luck.

It was also the birthday of Ksenia, one of the girls who regularly attends our group, so whilst we were out we looked for a cake for her.Trying to find one which didn't contain alcohol proved a challenge!I can't; others won't; so we had to be resourceful.Fortunately there was one, hiding away at the back.Russian birthday cakes tend to be big, full of cream and brightly-coloured, and can taste somewhat artificial if you're not used to them.

Driving back on the Sunday was easier than driving there.We left as early as we could to avoid the 'dacha traffic'- cars coming back from their trips to the weekend houses - but in actual fact we made very good time and after dropping off Jon and Lydia, the two friends who had travelled down with us, we were able to go home, rest for a bit; I went into town to collect some items for school and then it was business as usual…

I always find the week before a holiday to be particularly busy.Not that there's often anything extra to do, but you know that you won't be there next week and consequently there's a sense of finality and wanting to ensure that all of the loose ends are tied up etc.One of my colleagues was off all week; another for two days out of the week; which left us stretched at different points.Still, as we were preparing for International Day on Friday most people just put their heads down and got on with it.

International Day has always been my favourite event of the year at BISM.I love seeing the children come in with all of their national costumes, sharing their foods, making us all aware of their cultures.Our music teacher had auditioned and selected a variety of students for the main concert; reading poems, playing music and in some cases, the whole class performing a song.All of us got to see the final rehearsal on Thursday and despite the number of children going up, it didn't last any more than 40 minutes.The Y6s were very competent announcers to keep the performance flowing.

Whilst as Deputy Head I'm always proud of all of the children, as a teacher you are always particularly proud of those from your own class and the four children from my class who went up did do well.They are only seven and eight years old, and to get up at that age in front of all of your peers is a big thing - and then to do the same in front of a hall full of parents the following day!Third-culture kids (henceforward TCKs) are, I find, generally more self-confident and don't have the diffidence about doing such things.

On the day itself, the children came in and changed into their national costumes, and then we had our traditional parade assembly for staff and students, where we all got to see the different dresses worn by the children.The Koreans always look smart/beautiful in their long trousers or skirts; likewise the Russians.Interestingly, there were very few (if any) football shirts - something which has been a staple in previous years when a child didn't have their national costume.Everyone tried or at least wore the colours of their national flag.

Many of our children are the product of bi-cultural marriages.Although I only have 10 children in my class at present there are 9 nationalities represented!One of the children in Year 4 is Scottish/Russian, and he came in wearing his family tartan and kilt.One of the Year 6s was fascinated with the fact that he was 'wearing a skirt'.

The parents came in to see the performance assembly at 11:00.From what my colleagues said, it all went off as well as the rehearsal, and the parents left impressed.This was the first year for a while that all of the parents had been invited to see the whole performance, as well as come for the shared lunch, so it was a bit of an experiment for us.The children in my class who took part certainly returned pleased with the way that their parts had gone.After the whole concert had finished, parents filtered up to the classrooms to see their respective children.

All of us noted the lack of engagement with their children.Despite being expressly invited in by all of the staff, very few parents came in and sat down with their children.Some wouldn't even intervene when their children overtly misbehaved in front of them.Cultural differences are always interesting: some feel that this is the teacher's 'ground' and that they have no business to interfere.Others (unfortunately) have a very much 'hands-off' approach because they spend so little time with their children that they don't discipline them.It's all 'give them what they want', rather than what they need.Certain cultural groups therefore bring more issues with them than others.

The lunch itself was delicious.Every year that I have been in Moscow, any kind of international food-sharing has always been wonderful.Canadian maple syrup cookies, Uzbeki plov, Georgian shashlik, Korean kimbob, Russian blini, Ukrainian borsch, the list goes on and on….it's great for the children to taste as many different foods as they can.The staff don't mind either!Parents and support staff packaged up the remainder and took it home.Each class came up one at a time (with their parents) and helped themselves, then returned to their classroom.Many of my children went back for seconds.

The afternoon was taken up with different activities, all related to International Day.Each class did a variety of things: for mine, they had jigsaws made out of the flags of their nationalities; they completed a 20 Questions quiz to find out information about each other; there were flags to colour in; and Anya had put together a collage about several different countries for the children to complete in pairs.They had to sort out the pictures and words associated with each country.

As is usual on any day where parents are invited, some of the children were taken early.Out of my 10 children, only 5 were left at the end of the day.Some classes had none left!After the children had all left, staff took down all of the decorations and packaged them up.At least we know that we have everything in one place for next year.

And that was it!Half a term is over.Where has it gone?We all said goodbye, wished each other good holidays and then disappeared off in different directions.After just a few weeks, I'm feeling very settled into School 4.The team of staff is great: they've been receptive to a lot of change in a short space of time, but at the same time they've also been part of a lot of the decision making.

Time for a holiday…..but where?......oh yes…..VIENNA!