The week of the final exams is upon us!
My students are taking their final assessments, in all of their classes. They only come in the morning, take their two final exams, and leave. Teachers stay to grade the exams, clean up classrooms, and wrap up the school year. This whole week, in the afternoons, the school is quiet. I like it.
Russia trip is coming up. In total I am going for 11 days, not counting the travel. With travel days, it’s four more days on top of that. So two weeks total.
Flying through Türkiye, having an overnight stay in Istanbul, there and back. Trying to put a positive spin on this very unexpected, expensive, long and anxiety-producing trip.
In Istanbul, I have about 24 hours before leaving for Moscow. My hotel has a cool name – Dream Bosphorus, named after the canal and the continental boundary. I’ll be on the European side of Istanbul.
Coming back from Russia, I also have a long layover in Istanbul and my hotel in on the Black Sea, and not in Istanbul. A different location but closer to the airport.
In Russia, I will be renting a car and renting an apartment. I could stay with my mom and brother but, as many of you know, my relationship with mom is volatile, my brother works a lot, so it’ll be better for everyone if I have my own place. It’ll be better for my mental health.
Of course, I will be going to the hospital to visit dad probably every day?.. Chelyabinsk has a lot of lakes around it so maybe I’ll visit a few, just to spend some time in nature.
Ever since I got the news about my dad’s stroke, life has been NON-stop.
R’s jiu jitsu, the end of the year at my school, L’s piano recital, and R’s graduation from preschool. Father’s Day and our anniversary are also coming up. My sister-friend H’s birthday is June 20th so we will have an informal gathering.
Last weekend was all about planning the Russia trip, booking tickets, apartment, and car. Comparing prices. Things got complicated when I could not use my American-issued credit card to pay for my Istanbul-Chelyabinsk ticket. No Visa or Master card in Russia! Thanks to some folks on the Internets, I was advised to use a website that is .com versus .ru and my payment worked! Example: Aviasales.com vs aviasales.ru.
I can keep on babbling about this trip but it’s getting late…
Mom of Children 