Phone Call from Bethany

Bethany called her family last night. She is doing well.

She had training on Monday, and started teaching on Tuesday. She is one of 4 teachers in the Kindergarten Program, which are 4-6 year olds, 5 days a week. She is in charge of games this week. (The teachers rotate areas each week.) She will also be team teaching one of the older groups a few days a week, just as a helper. If the other teacher does ok, and doesn't need any help once she gets into the program, then Bethany will only teach the Kindergarten group.

She is finally living with her host family. When first asked about her family, her response was, "They are SO funny! I love them." There is a mother and father, a 5 year old girl and a 20 year old son, who's girlfriend lives with him there at the house. Bethany will be sharing the 5 year olds room. Bethany hasn't met the little girl yet, because she is vacationing at their summer home with the grandmother. And the son and his girlfriend are vacationing in Egypt. They'll all be home next week. The Dad speaks English. Beth said that he doesn't think his English is very good, so he continually does hand signals, even though she understands him! She was told the son speaks fluent English, so she will be happy when he comes home so that she can ask him if they have the internet. The Dad didn't seem to understand the word 'internet'.

Beth lives about 30 min train ride from the school in the middle of the city. She was given a Metro pass to ride to and from school, but her host family has driven her to and from school since she has moved in with them!

She started her Russian language classes on Tuesday night. She couldn't remember the name of the University where they are held, but said it is a very well-known school and many people come from all over the world to learn Russian there. She was told that a decendent of the Romanov family is coming at the end of this month to join their class in learning Russian!

Her phone call was pretty short. She was getting ready to go to work. She just wanted to let us know that she was doing well, and to make sure all of us were ok.