Month: February 2016

A photo has arrived for Lisa’s text about the school

http://beinginamerica.com/2016/02/18/первый-день-в-школе-лиза/

Nadia’s view on the first day of our eldest at school. With Lisa, you’ll definitely not be bored!

http://beinginamerica.com/2016/02/18/потеряться-в-америке/

On BeingInAmerica, there’s a great story by Lisa about her first day at school – her first blog post. She really put a lot of effort into it!

http://beinginamerica.com/2016/02/18/первый-день-в-школе-лиза/?ccd

Last time I shared Lisa’s diary from 8th grade. Today, Masha from Spring Hill brought her own diary – which also serves as a “textbook”. The correct name is Planner. Follow the link for a PDF with my comments.

http://beinginamerica.com/2016/02/18/дневник-маши-4-й-класс-спринг-хилл/

Continuation about the self-service industry in the USA:

http://beinginamerica.com/2016/02/18/1249/

At this stand, you can rent a powerful carpet cleaner and cleaning agents. Since almost everyone has carpet here, it’s logical to assume that

a) thorough carpet cleaning isn’t needed every day

b) specialized products are best suited for this task

c) dragging the carpet somewhere is clearly not an option, and hiring someone means you’ll be paying for their time and other overhead costs and their interests.

Therefore, such self-service kiosks are common here (http://www.rugdoctor.com/)

And here is a kiosk selling socks: (https://www.sockfancy.com/)

(See this and other posts about life in the USA at http://beinginamerica.com/)

I wonder if there is any logic behind all these requirements? Especially “Password must be 8 characters long” or “Should not start with ? or !” or “password is not case-sensitive”. But then again, it’s SAP…

Pregnancy Q&A

I’m not having any luck with running here. On my first day in the USA, I ran 10 km in new sneakers and got such a blister that I spent the next 2 weeks limping. Last Saturday, after the brunt of the blizzards had passed and the paths were cleared, I decided to run around the stadium and collided with a stretched rope, which is why I am now walking around with a red injured nose. Yesterday, I decided to run home for lunch (it’s less than a mile from work). Since I ran in regular shoes, not sneakers, my heel hurts now—it seems I bruised it on the asphalt. Next time, I don’t even know what to expect.

We can’t go to school at all. Initially, it was postponed due to snow – it suddenly fell here, the temperature being slightly below zero, then they announced freezing rain, and today it has been a regular light rain since morning and plus 10-12 degrees Celsius.

They are sending SMS and emails:

Based on current road and sidewalk conditions, FCPS is changing its operating status… All Fairfax County public schools will be closed

Perhaps it’s no revelation to most of you, but in the USA there are informally two official languages: English and Spanish. About 15% of the legal population speaks Spanish, and almost all illegal immigrants do, in California and Texas – that’s a good half of the population (and in Puerto Rico, almost everyone). Spanish is used for official business, and in this language, as well as in English, one can interact with government agencies. This is even noticeable in Virginia, where less than 5% of the population are Spanish speakers.