I have smiled

Sometimes it's tough teaching. Sometimes it's tough being away from home. Sometimes it's tough when the only people you can talk to or spend time with are the people you work with. But sometimes things happen which make you smile. These can be very small things, or big things, and if you focus on them the harder stuff somehow seems easier to deal with.

I was having a tough day and one of my classes bought me chocolate for teachers' day a couple of weeks ago. That made me smile.

I went to the market at the weekend and saw these little guys sneaking a feed without paying. That made me smile.

I was walking past a 16 floor high block of flats and I saw some large writing on the ground. I stepped back to read it. It said "Julia, I love you. You are all I need" (in Russian of course). That made me smile. Similar things can be seen all over the city, and the love messages outside the maternity hospital really make me smile.

I was walking past Maternity Hospital No. 1 the other day. A proud father was posing for a photo at the entrance, holding a new born baby. He was wearing his best suit and everyone had balloons. That made me smile.

We have had the first snow. It melted but it looked beautiful on the tree outside my flat. That made me smile. 

It was sunny this morning and a Great Tit landed on the tree. I couldn't get a picture, but that made me smile too.

I know it's partially caused by pollution but this pink sunset made me smile. 

Lots of other things have made me smile: words from friends, family, colleagues and students. Funny things people (often students!) have said, finding Kleenex Balsam tissues in the supermarket, seeing a child try to catch snowflakes, but most of all, waking up every day and realising how lucky I am to be able to do a job I love. At this precise moment in time I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.