Some Dangers of Winter. ...
The roads don't really get plowed in Kokshetau. The snow gets packed down and will stay packed down until May, I think. Cars take a goodly distance to ski to a stop. Under such dangerous driving conditions, one might expect marshutka (minivan-as-autobus) drivers to be meticulous about keeping their windows free of frost. No such luck - usually, the windshield is usually the only non-opaque surface in the marshutka. Under such even more dangerous driving circumstances, one might expect the marshutka drivers to pull out into traffic cautiously, since they can't see if anyone is coming or not. No such luck. I imagine that, to avoid accidents, drivers must slow down and get into the next lane whenever they see a marshutka stopped at a bus stop. But I'm not really sure what happens because I can't see out the windows. Whatever happens, it usually involves a lot of honking. Where the brake, mirror, and window fail the Kokshetau driver, the horn must hold sway.
"Neither fluff nor feathers" is a Russian idiom meaning "good luck". I would say to you, "Neither fluff nor feathers!", in response to which you would most commonly say, "To the devil!".
I helped run the school's English language olympiad, which was overall an extremely antagonistic affair between me and my counterpart. When I first wrote this entry, I thought I'd catalogue everything that went wrong with it, but when I was done it was two pages long. You don't want to read two pages about how badly the school olympiads were run. But there's a bright side - my students evidently didn't do too well, which made me worry until I saw what the olympiads actually consist of.
In the end, she attributed our differences to me being the kind of person who "always follows the rules". Which is a frustrating disconnect between us. I suppose I do try to stick to rules like "you shouldn't decide before the olympiad who is going to win irrespective of their performance" and "a multiple choice question with all correct answers is a bad multiple choice question" as closely as I can. But I'm willing to bend a little on the Peace Corps' rule about spending six months with a host family, for example.
By the way, I've finally put my finger on it. My host father sounds like Popeye
"Neither fluff nor feathers" is a Russian idiom meaning "good luck". I would say to you, "Neither fluff nor feathers!", in response to which you would most commonly say, "To the devil!".
I helped run the school's English language olympiad, which was overall an extremely antagonistic affair between me and my counterpart. When I first wrote this entry, I thought I'd catalogue everything that went wrong with it, but when I was done it was two pages long. You don't want to read two pages about how badly the school olympiads were run. But there's a bright side - my students evidently didn't do too well, which made me worry until I saw what the olympiads actually consist of.
In the end, she attributed our differences to me being the kind of person who "always follows the rules". Which is a frustrating disconnect between us. I suppose I do try to stick to rules like "you shouldn't decide before the olympiad who is going to win irrespective of their performance" and "a multiple choice question with all correct answers is a bad multiple choice question" as closely as I can. But I'm willing to bend a little on the Peace Corps' rule about spending six months with a host family, for example.
By the way, I've finally put my finger on it. My host father sounds like Popeye
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