I realize I’ve devoted significantly more time to recounting anecdotes than explaining the ins and outs of my daily routine; this post should paint a more accurate picture of my daily life.

I teach 3-11th grades (my 4th A class is pictured at right). Each grade has two 45 minute classes a week, and 6th grade for 3 periods for some reason. My school has just under 200 students, which makes for wonderfully small classes, my smallest at just 10 and my largest at 24, averaging about 15. I teach (most) classes with my wonderful counterpart, Gulnor, for which we plan together and share the teaching 50/50. I have a second counterpart, Nurzada, with whom I’m supposed to teach 10th and 11th grade, but due to illness she’s been in and out of the classroom all semester.

My day starts at 7:30, which is currently before the sun comes up. I get up, head to the outhouse, then eat half a Cliff Bar and head to school for 8 a.m. class (and some lucky days, later). On any given day (Monday-Saturday), I have 1-6 classes, averaging about 4 a day, and Tuesday being my “mostly” day off with just one class. We only have 7 classrooms in our school, so 6th-11th grades have class from 8 a.m.-1 p.m., and the younger grades from 1:15 -5:30. It makes for long days, but except for 6 classes Friday, I never have all my classes consecutively. Between periods, I plan with my counterpart or teach one of my three English clubs (3-5th, 6-8th, 9-11th). We strive to teach very student-centered classes, playing a lot of interactive games to learn vocabulary and grammar structures, and using as much English as possible. This last week of class has seen quite a few games of jeopardy review for finals. I wrote the finals with Gulnor, typed them, and printed them on a decade-old printer so each student could take the test without having to waste time copying all the questions from the blackboard. This was a first for the teachers and students, and I got lots of questions about where I got the paper (Bishkek) and why I’d bother, but I could show the tests as reason enough; I could actually use graphics (including pictures of my host sister washing her hands, brushing teeth, etc.), which made the tests much more interesting for 4th graders.

I love designing new games to play with the kids, and I get the most chance to do this with my English clubs. The most motivated students elect to come to my hour long clubs to practice speaking and reading, mostly. With the younger kids, we’ve been reading Dr. Seuss books (thanks for sending Mom!), learning color vocab with flashcards, and ‘right’ and ‘left’ with the Hokey Pokey. In the older grades, we’ve recently practiced giving toasts and writing resolutions for New Years, translated the Beatle’s hit “I feel fine,” and played adjective/adverb endings dominos (eg. peace-ful, quick-ly, etc.)
After class, I usually meet with one or two students for tutoring, my favorite part of the day.

I head home about 5:30 or 6, have chai with my family (see my host sister, Ainuru at right), do yoga, play games or watch a video with my host sibs. We eat about 9. Sometimes I cook, sometimes my host mom. The fare is sometimes fried potatoes, sometimes fried pasta, and sometimes both together. When I cook, I try to use vegetables, but lately they’ve been pretty hard to come by. We’ve been eating a lot of carrot, pumpkin or corn bread when its my night in the kitchen.

About 10 o’clock (after more chai, of course), I usually retire to my room where I read, listen to music, or watch movies on my computer. Around midnight, in 3 layers of long-underwear and a hat, I crawl into my 0 degree sleeping bag and turn out the light. I can sometime’s feel the wind whistling through the panes of my window that don’t quite reach their frames, but thankfully my heater works—even if it’s currently hotwired for lack of an outlet.