In the freezing water, part 2

Fun fact: Russian currency has special raised marking on it so that blind people can tell what denomination it is. Very clever and practical. So, the polar bear plunge. Sonia and I heard about it and we checked all our sources to find out where it would be. It turns out there are several in the area at this time of year, but we needed one which was close. She found one which was supposed to start Thursday night about 5 and last for quite awhile. She thought. Since she worked till 6, we couldn’t leave until 6:30. We figured we’d catch the subway to the kremlin and walk across the bridge and down onto the peninsula where the monastery is where this thing is supposed to take place. Keep in mind that at 4:30 it’s already dark here. We get off at our stop and wait we figure might be a 10 minute walk takes about 30. We’re walking across this long bridge, seeing no lights or activity at the monastery so we already know we’ve screwed up. She texts Fouad and Rabil to tell them not to bother to meet us there, but who jumps out of a taxi just ad we get to the steps going down to the peninsula? Fouad. And Ravil. Since we’d made all the effort, we figured we might as well walk out on the peninsula and see where the action would take place, because the guts had heard that it would be at 11 a.m. today. And. Both of them said they intended to go in the water. As Sonia and I were crossing the bridge, we noticed as we looked down, that a lot of people cross country ski on the river. So we didn’t think to much about it when we walked out until we decided to look on google maps and we were actually walking on the ice of the river. A tent was standing and a hole had been cut in the ice. It had frozen over again, but not to the depth that it was originally.Even if nothing was happening on the ice, it afforded us a lovely view of the illuminated Kremlin. Afterwards we took a trolley to the mall where we had a cup of coffee and yakked for awhile before we had to catch a bus home. Of course I couldn’t go back this morning because I had class, but Sonia has Fridays off so she and the guys went. And the guys actually went in the water.sonia took lots of pictures. She said the priests blessed the entire crowd, so I wonder if there is any religious significance to this practice. Now a quick note to the picture of my boots with the plastic booties. You are not supposed to walk into our school with dirty shoes on. You must c9ver them with these plastic booties. This has also occurred at several museums and at the health clinic where I get my blood work done. It’s also related t9 the fact that you can’t wear shoes inside an apartment. I don’t know that it’s so much about cleanliness per se as it is about a fear of spreading germs. I’ve never seen it in stores or malls. In any case, that is the way things are done here. Tomorrow I’m headed for the movies again. I’m going to see the Russian film about how the Soviet basketball team beat us in the Olympics. I’ll give you the full review tomorrow,