A Typical Day at Lady School

I was thinking about how we usually write about more...momentous events, but that's not really the bulk of what we do over here. So, here is the rundown of a typical day here.

I generally set my alarm for about six thirty, allowing myself a good half hour to wake up. Around seven, Haley and I start legitimately stirring. Most of the time it isn't by choice. Every morning starts out nice and cool and quiet. The noises slowly pile up until it is impossible to stay asleep any longer. Whether its a fly buzzing in my ear, someone sweeping obnoxiously loudly outside our window, people yelling, dogs fighting, or the music they turn out (right outside our window and SUPER loud), the peace doesn't last long. It isn't too long (usually) before we are up and ready to go for a run. Well, in my case, its more of a pathetic half-jog half-walk. Haley has to run circles around me most of the time. We come back and do a little bit more working out (Haley works those abs for like an hour. I last maybe ten minutes). We usually don't have to wait too long for a shower, since we get back later and everyone else has already showered. Usually. We have breakfast at 9:30, and start teaching at 10. Haley's rotations are a bit different, since the has the younger groups. There are four teachers (equalling four classes...) in the upper group. We teach for about thirty-five minutes for two rotations, then have combined class with another teacher, then do two more thirty-five minute rotations. At 2 o'clock, we're done teaching and we all go to lunch. Frequently we are so exhausted from teaching that we take a nap after eating. At 4 o'clock we have a glorious thing called middle dinner. Usually its just a fruit, juice, and a cracker (or cookie. Or better--a yummy wafer!) but we love it. Only two hours later is dinner, at 6 o'clock. After teaching and before bed, we do a variety of activities. Napping is one of the most popular. We go for walks around Boyarka, sometimes we go into Kiev, we read, write in our journals, email people, sit around and talk (rarely, with ten girls, do we run out of things to talk about), occasionally play with the kids, plan lessons, and chill. We do a lot of chillin'. Usually its just so hot that doing much of anything doesn't sound like much fun. The last few days, though, its been cool and rainy. A nice change, except that the rain makes it really humid. In the evening we sometimes watch movies or go exploring again. And that's about it! Four hours of teaching is a lot, but it leaves us lots of free time. I keep wanting to work on my book, but I'm afraid Haley's and my computers (uh, grammar check please??) are popular and we usually don't get tons of time on them. Hmm...maybe I'll go work on it now while everyone is busy...