Last Saturday I had prepared a couple of topics for the English Talking Club I look after for Interhouse. Now we have a car, it is a lot easier to get to the office, and obviously cheaper than a taxi or quicker than walking through the park. However, Saturday saw some roadworks and lane line painting going on, meaning it took an extra five minutes to get there. Rushing into the office to print off the day’s topics (I try and prepare at least a couple in advance, in case the students aren’t as interested as I hoped in the subject), I said my “drast vidya”s and checked no-one needed the PC. Sitting down and plugging my thumb drive, I apologized for my tardiness, and was told not to worry, as the previous lesson was over-running, and so we’d need to start a bit late anyway. By the time I had the documents open and ready to print, they told me to go on in to the classroom. I explained I’d not yet printed what I needed, but they just (politely) insisted I should go in now. Upon reaching the frosted-glass panelled door, I noticed the lights were out, but no-one had left whilst I was at the desk, so I assumed, this being Astana, that there’d been a problem with the fuse box, and that we’d just open the blinds if it got too dark.
When I opened the door, I saw a small source of illumination (candles in a cake), and suddenly all the students were singing Happy Birthday to me. To say I was (pleasantly) shocked would be an understatement, I think I was probably blushing TBH. They’d decorated the room, and informed that today there would be no Talking Club, in it’s normal format at least, and that we would eat cake, have drinks (soft, there are some school age students there), and talk about birthdays instead 🙂
I grabbed the nearest chair and was further embarrassed whilst each pupil raised a toast in my honour, and I sipped down some coke. They asked me questions about past birthdays, and I slowly regained my faculties and droned on about birthdays I’d had both here in Astana and back home in Britain. I received some lovely presents and a card, and despite it being about 10 days since my birthday (talking club is fortnightly, and in general people don’t celebrate birthdays in advance over here), I felt like I was having a second bite at the apple 🙂
Interhouse Pupils Surprise Me
May 5th, 2011 12:00 am
hank you so much:)
May 5th, 2011 12:00 am
No need to thank me, I was the lucky recipient of a nice evening. Thank you!