A note to my students - sick leave & cancellation policy Dear Russian Learners, Unfortunately, I am still sick, so there will be no classes until the 1st of July. I am very sorry for this. As I had to urgently reschedule several sessions during the last days, I would like to explain my rescheduling/cancellation policy in more detail here. The italki system allows all of us (teachers and students) to reschedule a session 24 hours (or more) in advance (I use this opportunity extremely rarely). So if you know you will not be able to come - please send me a request to reschedule via italki (please notice that if you send a request exactly 24 h in advance, I might not be able to answer immediately, and then the session time will get locked). However, unfortunately, things happen, and something urgent may happen in the very day we have scheduled a session for. In this case, please contact me immediately. In general, in such a case you are supposed to pay for the session even if you cannot attend it. However, if a student contacts me a few hours before the scheduled session, says that something urgent has happened and asks to reschedule our lesson, in certain cases we can do it. Unfortunately, in some cases I might ask you to reschedule or cancel a session urgently. I had to do it only a couple of times in the last 3 years, but it did happen, unfortunately. Once I lost my voice right before the session, although I felt fine the day before. I am very sorry for such situations. In such a case I can send you a request to reschedule or cancel the session after it (or you can do it). If we agree on rescheduling, you will be able to choose new convenient time. If you would like to cancel the session, you will simply get your ITC back. I value your time, and I realize how disappointing urgent session cancellation or rescheduling might be. In order to compensate for it, I offer students a discount if they book another session with me (please note that the italki system does not allow me to offer discounts for package sessions, as they are already discounted). If you are late for the session, I will be waiting for you, as I have already reserved this time for you. But we will have to finish on time, which means that our session will be shorter. I hope that these rules will help us communicate efficiently even if something unpredictable happens. I believe that my cancellation policy are quite beneficial for my students, but if you have any further suggestions (or questions), please message me. Hope to see you soon! Elena