Riga: or "How I Spent My Halloween"

Last week we finished up the first quarter. That Saturday I proctored the ACT for 4 students. It was weird being on the other side of standardized tests. We finished classes on Tuesday and then we had 2 days of parent-teacher conferences. I was really not looking forward to those. Dealing with parents is a rather terrifying prospect for me. But, as it turns out, the meetings went really, really well. I think part of it is that there are 6 teachers meeting with 1 or maybe 2 parents, so they are the ones that are intimidated when they come in. For example, the Korean consulate-general has 2 children in the school. He comes in and turns off 3 of his cell phones and we began. This is a very influential man here in St. Petersburg and here I am telling him I'd like to see his son participate in class more and do better on his homework.

My visa expired November 1st, so I had to leave the country yesterday. I met up with the director of the school and her husband and we headed off to Riga on the overnight train. We were joined by a Russian gentleman in our compartment. We found out his name was Gorbachev. Any relation, we asked. "Praise the Lord, no," he said. I slept almost the whole time, except when we got to the border and were rudely awakened to have our documents checked. This happened at or around 3:00 AM. And think about it: when you get up in the morning, what is the first thing you do? I usually head to the toilet. Of course, on Russian trains, they lock the toilet during this time, so no sneaky foreigners can hide in the bathroom from the border guards. Normally, this wouldn't be a big deal, but when it takes hours for them to go through the train (there are 3 rounds of checks and inspections) it can be frustrating. Wake me up in the middle of the night, ok. Poke around my luggage, no problem. But keep the bathrooms locked for several hours during the early morning hours when people would most desire its use, criminal. Especially as this is the best time to go in a train: when it's not moving!

Anyway, we arrived here in Riga and found our hotel with little trouble. It's quite nice, actually. And there are several television channels in English here!  Right now I am watching a special on European rodeos. There is this German banker, Gunter, who goes by the American name "Garfield" when he rides on the weekends. Germans are weird. Apparently it is fashion week here in Riga and they are having fashion shows at the hotel. So, the place is crawling with Latvian models. I walked out of my room to go to lunch and was nearly ran over by these rail-thin 6'5'' girls practicing their runway walks. Landed on my feet again, eh?