Everyone is having their potluck Thanksgiving. I was invited but chose not to go. Just wanted to give a shout out to all my friends and family a Happy Thanksgiving. For art today the kids all made turkeys out of construction paper. They seemed to like it. They are also excited because swimming starts on Thursday for them. I am excited too, as I don't have to teach those periods anymore! Yeah!

I had numerous parents come to visit me today. One was in regards to this girl in my class. The grandmother wanted to know how she was doing. I informed her that this particular girl was struggling in the classes to stay focused and was experiencing issued on the playground with her aggressive behaviour. They would like for her to be tested for a learning disability as if she had problems learning they will take her out of the school and place her in another that is not expensive. I actually have a few in my class who seem a bit unreachable.

Tomorrow is the meeting with BG's parents, the principal and the grade 4 teacher, Laurie. We will discuss the chance for BG to move up to 4th grade. I know he, and his parents are all for it, as am I. Though Chandmani is on vacation and Khulan B is in the hopsital, it still is a full classroom. I'd like for it to be one, maybe even two less. If Animaa tests poorly she may get moved out. She scored 0 on the science test. Edward says his family is going to America at Christmas and may not come back. It's just that in the 4th grade there are only 14 students while the rest of the primary grades are packed to the hilt!

I did get a chance to show the kids my photos of Terelj. They liked them. They are always trying to correct my pronounciation and I just can't get it. It's all horking and gutteral sounds.

I got a bit frightened today as I was coming out of the local store near my house and one man was pummelling another. I hightailed it out of there! It's so sad to me because it's easy to see this is an aggressive culture. I see it everywhere, even on the playground. We are hypothesizing about it and first thing is the parents are not around. The kids are pretty much left to raise themselves. They are also left in the charge of a sibling not much older than them. There are many who have moved from the countryside have this same aggressive attitude. Countryside living is tough and the kids have to get roughed up to become men.

It is also sad to see the amount of drunk people here, usually men. On Sunday Doogie and I went shopping and one man was lying right in the middle of the sidewalk, sleeeping and had peed his pants. She said that they can not afford to eat so they buy this cheap liquor especially manufactured for them. It is very inexpensive. She said they drink until they die. Some people have said it's an Asian thing where they cannot hold their liquor, but it also is a poverty issue. So far no one has troubled me. If I see a street kid I give him my leftovers but I wonder what the growing cold and winter will bring.

It has gotten cold here very fast. I woke up Saturday to see snow and though it is still sunny, it's very chilly. Everyday the kids and I take the temperature in the morning and after lunch. This morning it was the coldest yet, 18 degrees!

I finally did laundry again as I was out of socks. The washers here are kind of screwy and sometimes it looks like their working, then when you come back they have an error or just didn't wash. I can't tell you how many times the cycle says it's done and won't open the door! The tried and trusted way of all women to fix things, by banging on them, works everytime though! I also got spoken to by the principal as I wore flip-flops on Friday (because it was a Friday) and was informed my dress was too informal. If the kids get to have dress down day, why can't the teachers too? I apologized. He told me some nice things though too and I like working for him. For a brief instant I thought he was going to fire me. Why, I didn't know, but he said "No, no, no!" He says he sees me with the kids and knows how they love me, and I them. Phew! That's me though, always expecting the worse. Here I thought I was getting fired for some unknown reason and it was all due to the fact I wore flip-flops!