Teaching in Novorossiysk

Marcia and I took the bus over to Novorossisyk again to teach at Anya's school. I think it's funny that there are more taxi drivers in line at the ticket window than bus passengers. It was another hot, sunny day. Fortunately, the bus had AC. Last nights lesson was based around travel. I'd done a travel lesson in Anapa a few weeks previous, so it didn't take a lot of effort to put the lesson together. There are two classes that we've been working with and it's been a lot of fun getting to know the people. The beginners group has only 5 people. Their English language skills are still pretty limited, but they work hard and want to learn. There are 12 people in the intermediate group. Their language skills are a lot better and they're a lot more talkative. We often ditch the lesson (so much for planning) in favor of talking. I'm more of a conversation facilitator than teacher in the intermediate group. After class we went back to the bus station, where the ticket lady told us she didn't know if the bus was coming or not. The driver hadn't called in, yet, and the ticket lady didn't know if he was going to finish his route or not. Fortunately, the bus did arrive and we headed back to Anapa a little after 9 pm. Riding the bus here is always interesting. Last week, the driver had offered a "special deal" to people if they boarded the bus a few blocks from the station and paid him directly. 20 or so people spent the hour long ride standing in the aisle of the coach bus. This week, the driver made a couple of stops along the way so he could get a soda. He just parked the bus in the middle of the road while he went to the store. This is normal here. We got back to Anapa around 10:30 pm. Many of the marshrutka stop running around 10-10:30, so I called a cab for Marcia. The marshrutka to Su-Pseh stop running around 10:30 pm, so I was planning to walk the last 4 km back to the house. Thankfully, there was one final bus back to Su-Pseh and I didn't have to walk back.