The blizzard and the weekend.

Right now roads are closed to and from Kazan and the airport is totally shut down. The wind is blowing like crazy and I waded through waist-high drifts to get to school today. (Yes, don’t tell me. My waist isn’t high.😁) But it took me 10 minutes longer to get to work and the cars in our settlement were stuck in drifts. People could not move. I’ve only got 4 kids in class today. One of them lives near me and walks, and one is the boss’s son. So it’s a relatively quiet day. Except that the boss’s kid threw a tantrum for 45 minutes. Thank god they’re all asleep now. And I’ve go one little guy, who always cleans out the lint between his toes befor he puts on his pajamas. It is a hoot. But let’s go back so I can fill you in on the weekend. Friday evening we had tickets to the women’s volleyball game. That’s where Sonia took my picture with the ladybug mascot. Emma, Fouad, Ravil, Sonia and I all met at the stadium, which happens to be near the university close to our apartments. Holy cow, these ladies are good. They won in 3 straight sets and are at the top of their league. I noticed that volleyball has changed since we played it in high school. I remember we only got points when we had service. And I remember how the games dragged on and on. Now it doesn’t matter. The point is scored no matter who has the service. After the game we rode one quick trolley stop to the corner and walked to Amigo Miquel for some good Mexican food, since we had missed the opening times a couple of times now. Man, it was terrible. Keep in mind, we had Ravil with us, who speaks perf3ct Russian. So there’s no way the waitress could have misunderstood us. So, she takes our order, Sonia repeats several times that her quesadilla should not be too spicy. The waitress walks back to the kitchen. 15 minutes later, she comes back out to the table to make sure she got the order right. Hmmmmmmm. She couldn’t have down it right away? This was a waitress we had never seen here before. So, starts bringing out the food, one dish at a time as it is prepared in spite of Sonia asking her to bring her fries and the quesadilla at the same time. And the quesadilla was so spicy, she couldn’t finish it. My burrito was even too spicy for me. The snot was running out of my nose and my eyes were tearing up. Then Fouad and Ravil both ordered French fries and the waitress brings them all on one plate for them to share. Not acceptable. We figure the place is under new management and it’s definitely the last time we’re going there. We did have a great discussion comparing Soviet Russia with Russia today. Didn’t get home until midnight but slept nice and long. Saturday was another fun Museum day. They have a museum of illusions and a museum of giant things, which Sonia had always wanted to see. Fouad met us there at one and it was just goofy fun. the Museum of Illusions is actually very cleverly done. Some very talented artist has painted scenes on the walls and floors. If you stand in a certain place in front of a particular painting, it looks as if you’re getting eaten by a crocodile or murdering someone with a chainsaw. ( There are also less violent paintings.) then there is a picture of a camera on the floor where you can stand to get an optimal shot. Some of the pictures look hilarious. Sonia and Fouad took lots and lots of them. Then, before we walked over to the Museum of Giant Things in the same building, we went through a maze of ribbons hanging down from the ceiling. This was NOT easy. But I did manage to find my way out in a reasonable amount of time. The Giant Museum was just two rooms of oversized props which you could sit in or on to take pictures. I will post some more later. After the museums, we walked down to Basilio’s for some good Italian food. Sonia and I shared a calzone and lasagna. The lasagna was superb. Then we sat there for a couple of hours planning our spring break. St. Petersburg, Estonia, Istanbul and Yerevan all came into question. We had to look at who could get visas to which countries, and how quickly. After much discussion and many calculations, we settled on the following: we will fly to Krasnodar in Russia and stay for two days before taking the overnight train to Sochi, a resort town on the Black Sea. Josef Stalin had a summer home there, so I will be visiting a few historical sites. Then we’re going to fly to Istanbul for 5 days. That should be very exciting. I’ve been to Marmoris in Turkey, but never to Istanbul. Sonia and I will fly back to Kazan after that and Fouad will fly to Beirut because he hasn’t been home in awhile and it’s only a two-hour flight from Istanbul. We stopped on the way home to get some groceries and that was it. It was a pretty productive day. Sunday was a trip! A Dina and I had won a pass to Aquapark, a water park-type of place, at the school’s New Years party. We had to use them before next week so we decided to go yesterday. She was going to go to the gym first, so I should meet her there at 12. I check out which bus I need and walk to the bus stop. The electronic sign says i5vwill come in 11 minutes. The wind is starting to blow, it is sleeting, but I am warm and waiting. 11 minutes go by and no bus. I ask another lady and she says this bus is very unreliable. About 10 minutes later we see it coming down the street...and the damn thing blows right past us. Didn’t even slow down, let alone stop. Crap. What to do. So I get on my Russian phone and call a text a taxi. I actually do it righ5 and it says it’s coming. But I never see him. The driver calls me and I answer my phone, but i can’t hear him. after several back and forth messages, I still can’t find where he’s parked. By this time it’s about 11:45 so I’m the nking, screw it, I’ll never make it. So I texted Adina to let her know. It turned out she hadn’t gone to the gym. She had gone cross-country skiing in the woods behind my apartment. She was just about to take a cab to the pool, so she had the driver stop at the corner we’re I was waiting and pick me up. I got lucky there. So, remember how I told you once that, in order to go to a swimming pool here you have to have certifications from a doctor saying you don’t have skin diseases and what-not. Also , you have to wear a bathing cap. Well, not at this pool. And you know that, with all those kids there, somebody has to be peeing in the pool. I’ll bet you somebody paid somebody else a lot of money to look the other way on this one. In any case, it’s a real adventure here, with slides, tubing chutes, straight drops into 10 feet of water from a plastic pipe and all sorts of exciting things. But the place was overcrowded and it really just is a wet amusement park. One time was fine. I’m glad I used the ticket and saw the place. But that will be enough of that. I have to skype in a few minutes, so I am going to write more later.