Hello everyone!
We’re back in school already! Half-term seemed to fly by quicker than a shot of vodka flowing down a Kazakh national’s neck. You could say quicker than Sir Chris Hoy on a cycling track…
More about that later. A little over a week
after saying sayonara to the students of Haileybury Astana we were once again
at the front of our classrooms teaching the future elite of the country about
subjects ranging from Jolly Phonics to Victorian orphans. After the tumultuous week
I had had I was actually looking forward to returning. Nothing like thirteen
children simultaneously craving your attention to focus your mind!
I returned to school to find that my
display boards had fallen down, but they could wait. Our return date was
October 31st – Halloween. We had been under specific instructions
not to host any extravagant event, but mine and a Year 3 class decided to
combine to hold a small, spooky reading session in the final period of the day.
What I hadn’t expected was to see my kids return from PE and change into
full-blown, life-size costumes of cats and devils. It was a wonderful, scary
sight. One of the mothers also brought in a large Halloween cake from her shop,
which also went down well. Not to mention quickly.
We spent the first few days slotting back
into our pre-break rhythm. Within the school (adults only) there is a cider
brewing competition which my house have decided to have a go at. Without any of
the necessary equipment, of course. We have tried our first batch…it tasted
like wine. Room for improvement.
On the Thursday evening a team of five of
us went to the U.S. Embassy. Before you ask what I did wrong to be summoned
there, let me back up a couple of days. Some people around the school now see
me as a ‘social coordinator’ who is able to locate and populate events in
Astana with our school staff. The Deputy Headmaster forwarded me an email on
the Tuesday morning from the U.S. Embassy inviting teams of five to be created
for a scavenger hunt across the city. I’ll go into details next time. The
deadline for the team creation was…Tuesday afternoon. Cue a scramble around
school for those members of staff who spoke Russian (expats only, before you
get cocky) and had a car. The slots were quickly filled up, our application
sent, and two soirs later we were at
the launch event in the Embassy. Which had a free bar…
Needless to say school was a chore the next
day. We survived on fumes, but also with the knowledge that we were heading to
an internationally presitigious event in the evening. If you hold cycling in
such high regard…
Well the British cycling team did, as they
sent a host of past and future Olympians to the first leg of the UCI Track
Cycling World Cup. It was the first time Astana had played host – the other
three legs are in Cali, Beijing and London. It contributes significantly
towards the decision the bosses at Team GB have regarding who to choose for
London 2012. A host of other countries also took part.
We visited on the Friday night and the
Saturday night. The velodrome itself, which from the outside resembles a
cycling helmet, is splendid. The food – chicken samsa with the bone protruding
through the pastry?? – less so. But it was great fun, and we were a select few
to be cheering on Team GB, which inevitably got us noticed. We were displayed
on the screen a couple of times and, on the Saturday, were able to scream our
hellos and best wishes to Ed Clancy and Sir Chris Hoy, he of quadruple Olympic
gold fame. He blew a kiss at us as he left the arena. I say us – clearly he
meant me.
We watched him win silver in the keirin –
impressive as he seemed to be in fifth storming around the final bend. I’d
never been to a cycling event before – they go very fast!! Due to scavenging in
bitter winds and -13’C temperatures I didn’t get to go on the final day,
Sunday. Events there resulted in my two housemates meeting all of the team and
blagging Team GB tracksuits. They are girls, so I don’t know if I could have
pulled that off anyway.
A great story for school on Monday,
nonetheless. Just one of many to come out of our first week back after
half-term…
Love you all
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