We started school last week, but this Monday was the Day of Knowledge, a day celebrated across Russia to mark the start of the school year and to celebrate learning.

We started the day on the football (soccer) pitch which had been transformed into an outdoor theater. There was a sparkling photo backdrop, balloons, stage, sound system, dance and song performances, even a fog machine and a golden star confetti cannon. All the classes were announced and paraded in front of the stage. The principals and school director made speeches, as did the president of the Republic of Tatarstan, whose child attends the school. He was announced and proceeded to the stage to the music of the Dallas theme song- as noted by Simon (much of Tatarstan’s wealth is due to its robust oil industry)- I didn’t notice since I only watched PBS during most of the 80s.

It is a tradition to shower the teacher with flowers and gifts on this day- see my haul below. The show and pampering were quite the spectacle, but it was touching to have a day that honors education and celebrates learning.

I am teaching 1st grade this year, and I have the luxury of a class of 13 students and a full-time bilingual teaching assistant who is amazing. It is challenging though. About half the students would be in kindergarten in the states. In fact, Mila, who would have started kindergarten this year in the U.S. was placed in first grade and Alden in 4th. A few more of my students are summer birthdays, so I have had to adjust my mindset that I am teaching more of a kinder class than what I expected for 1st grade. My students are all beginning language learners so I am still figuring out how to best balance their content and language learning needs. I am also adjusting to being back in the classroom after many years as a specialist.

Other than the small class sizes, some other notable differences-

Time spent changing shoes: America 0; Russia 10-15 minutes per day. It is a big no-no to wear outdoor shoes inside here. People wear plastic bags over their shoes when visiting offices and schools. Our school has tried to minimize this due to environmental concerns, but the kids keep separate indoor shoes at school that they change in and out of at the beginning and end of the day and for recess. I am tying lots of shoelaces!

Time spent eating during the school day: America 20 minutes for lunch, possibly breakfast before school starts; Russia 30 minutes for breakfast, 30 minutes for lunch, 30 minutes for dinner (2 pm). As a teacher, I accompany and eat with my kids at all of these meals. The food is decent although it is a bit of a gripe for the primary teachers that there is a more elaborate menu at the secondary school where Simon works and dines.

Enough about school- here are some more fun pictures from our last week’s adventures.

Plov and cake at our back-to-school staff party after laser tag and karaoke. (Note that you can scroll through larger versions of the combined photos in the next few shots if you click on a picture.)

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More cool parks of Kazan.

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Watching fireworks at the day of the Republic celebration over the river from the Kazan Kremlin

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Mila was invited to attend a classmate’s birthday party this weekend. I’m sure we’ll feature this, our trials and tribulations with the customs office, and other quirky cultural aspects of Tatar and Russian culture in our next blog. For now we leave you with this completely not borrowed from anything guy on a bottle of cleaner…Proper!