Feeling a bit shattered and a tad homesick.

I think the whole move and everything has caught up with me a bit today.  Funnily enough it was trying to walk along the river on Sunday that made me homesick for the first time, suddenly  I really missed the tidy river with its lovely boats, greenery and views up to Essex.  I have must have walked that walk thousands of times in the 17 years that I have lived in Hertfordshire and I never tired of it, so perhaps it is not surprising that the tatty scrub of land next to the torrent somehow did not seem to be as pleasing. The only thing that they both share is the amount of rubbish people happily hurl about after their day in the country.

However, I had a useful chat with my head, today's classes were a lot of hard work for the students: trying to master one two buckle my shoe,  and I was very grateful for the year one teacher as she stayed in class with me today. She has 21 children in her class and I still have not mastered their names for not only are they written in Cyrillic, which I can just about to translate, but they are written in cursive cyrillic which I cannot understand, and then even assuming I can understand what the letters say I cannot always fathom how to say it.  I have the same problem learning Kyrgis because although I have been given a book, all I have is the English and the Cyrillic and whenever I try and ask people a word that I have carefully translated what they say seems to bear no relationship to what I have worked out.At least I know how the students feel as they try and fathom out what I am saying and writing.

It turns out that some of the children start the journey for school by bus very early, those that come from the outlying villages, and then at the end of the day they do not get away till about 3.30. Most of my colleagues therefore are at work by 8 for when the first bus arrives, but I have demurred from doing that but I am now trying to stay a bit longer at the end of each day.  It means that for the first time in quite a while I am working from 9.- 3.30 each day, and then obviously doing a bit more prep or other work in the evening, rather than mixing and matching having a break, then doing a couple of hours and working 13 hours or so over each weekend.    I have enjoyed my patchwork working at times, there is a lot to recommend it, but I also wanted to see if I could have something more like a career post again. I know that compared with my colleagues who teach for 6 hours each day my effort is tiddly pom, but for various reasons at it seems quite an achievement that I am doing so much but I am shattered so I will leave this today and go and get something to eat.

No one was at the guest house last night or this morning so I fended for myself, which was quite nice, apart from the still blazing fires, but tonight we seem to have a full house.  The guests are always a bit perplexed by this lone female in the corner, but it also can be nice if it ends in a conversation.