From Russia With Love

Last week, every school in Moscow was closed for the week, except of course, mine (I could have used that extra week off, too...) due to swine flu.

All around the city you see people wearing those paper doctor's masks like on the metro, walking to work, in the grocery store...at first it made me a little nervous but then I stopped worrying about it.

Except now I have to at school.  They gave me a doctor's mask and told me I was supposed to wear it all the time and I could wear it under my chin, but if someone coughed or sneezed, I had to pull it up.  Every teacher now has a mask to wear and even the security guards and the secretaries wear them.  It is so weird.  Plus it's kind of funny to see all the teachers in their uniforms wearing a white collared shirt and a scarf or tie and skirts and heels and slacks...and a paper mask.  And they get really itchy so of course I took mine off when I could get away with not wearing it.