Teachers Day

This saturday we celebrated Teachers day at my college [high school]. I was walking to work with my headphones in like any other day and as I walked into the front entry way a line of students, dressed to the nines, chanted :

Мерекетіңізбен күтті болсен![Mer-e-ket-ingiz-ben koot-tuh bol-cen!]

Which literally translates as: "With your holiday, be happy!"

I was so surprised that all i could muster was a whispered thank you and a shy smile as I continued onto my teachers room. When I got there, there was food and tea and everyone was in a celebratory mood. I've described in some detail before how the system, especially college, is set up. First there are the students, regular teachers, administration, zavuchs [principals/vice principals] and then the head honcho, the director. This person, in my experience has usually been a woman, is treated as if she were royalty. Her decisions are absolutely final, she doesn't have to bend to anyone else's time and she won't, EVER.

Our director is actually really wonderful most of the time, she has a very strong character and I do admire that about her. Nevertheless, she knows what she wants from everyone and she demands it.

With that being said, my teachers and I went to wish our director a very happy Teachers day. This ended, after only 40 minutes, with me having ingested almost 4 full shots of cognac [on a relatively empty stomach], being practically proposed to by one of the other male teachers and successfully [though probably not gracefully] giving a toast to everyone in 3 departments in Kazakh.

My teachers day was full of fun and was a day of very unexpected events. My college is the private college in my town, whereas the other college, university and most secondary schools [minus the Kazakh/Turkish lyceum] are all public. What this means, on a very basic level, is that my students [who pay tuition directly] have more of an opportunity to "compensate" for missed classes, assignments or even full semesters. With that being said, I tend to have students who are active in class but don't really see the point in putting forth tons and tons of energy. I've come to learn this early on, thank goodness, and now really focus my efforts towards the students who are willing to learn from me. This has proven to not be so challenging as it may seem. I have a wonderful group of girls that I interact with on a weekly basis, whether it be through clubs, yoga or simply seeing them in town. They have given my service a new and very fulfilling direction. I'm finding things to be settling into a very nice rhythm lately, and I am very looking forward to the weeks and months to come.