Blogs from Minsk Voblast, Belarus, Europe - page 3

A very exciting day. bought two bikes today. Our dear friend Helen helped us get a great deal from her bike shop guy, Serge. We now have some freedom from public transportation. Don't get us wrong We love how easy it is to get around Minsk, but the waiting in the cold and crowded buses get old. Now we can explore more of the city off the main drag.... read more

A new teacher coming to Minsk next school year asked me to talk about some of the surprises we have had here in Minsk. 1. There are many new and modern cars on the streets; not old Russian ones like I imagined. However, we use public transportation to get around the city and find that it is easy to use and mostly reliable. 2. I expected a cabbage-smelling apartment in the soviet style. Instead our apartment is new and has very modern furnishings. It is also upstairs from the high school so our commute is very short. Kevin’s commute was one hour each way last year. 3. We expected that there would be no wine, so therefore we couldn't be disappointed. Wrong. Back home we have grown to love the rich red wines from Washington state. ... read more

Arrival into Minsk The Air Baltic Fokker 50 landed like a World War II bomber and taxied past the usual assortment of old Soviet-era airliners that had been left in a huge field. MИHCK written in large Cyrillic lettering above the terminal confirmed I had indeed landed in Minsk. As I stepped onto Belarusian soil, or rather tarmac, and entered the passenger terminal, I wondered what the country the Americans had described as Europe’s last dictatorship would be like. To be honest, I’d not heard many good things about Belarus, and the things I had heard were mainly to do with its president, Alexander Lukashenko, a man renowned for his poor human rights record and his fondness for rigging elections. This man had once famously stated that if any of his citizens joined in with protests ... read more

Hello everyone! So sorry that we have been out of contact. Everything is fine. It's just that we are feeling overwhelmed with our teaching responsibilities. However, we are finally coming up for air. And we see a light of our first school break coming at the beginning of November. We are planning to go to Krakow, Poland. We wanted to provide a few updates. While life is different here, it also seems very much the same as back home. Especially during the first part of a school year where you work so hard to establish a classroom environment where everyone is working together. Kevin and I are also learning the culture and responsibilities of a small school that is part of a larger, rigorous entity. The requirements and expectations are high here and we are doing ... read more

We are celebrating a week in our new apartment. It is located right across the street from our school. The apartment is nearly 2000 square feet with quaint sloping ceilings on three sides. We are on the top (third) floor up a flight of stairs. Because we are on the top floor we enter through a hobbit door about 5 and 3/4 feet tall (watch your head - George, not Kevin). There are three dormer windows and three skylights. It feels very spacious. There are three bedrooms - one for visitors (all are welcome) and one for an office. The apartment building is small (only six apartments), so we have views out three sides. Most views are of the city skyline. The city is really growing, with many modern buildings, mainly with investment by Russians. I ... read more