Lots of news

I really admire how the Kazanis deal with the snow and the cold. When I walk home from the Metro station in the evenings, there are kids out on the swings on the playground and their parents are giving them pushes. And today when I walked to the store, two little kids were having a great time digging out the little merry-go-round which is buried under 3 feet of snow. Nothing tops the people here from going out to get fresh air. They bundle up their babies and take them for walks. And it’s been below freezing for 3 solid months now. More power to them. They don’t let the weather control their lives. So they big news is that I agreed to a one year contract extension yesterday. My intention had been to do a “one and done” deal. But I want to see this class successfully through to kindergarten. And now that I’ve hooked the school up with a government representative to start a bike program at the school, I’d like to see that get solidly established. The bosses have been after me for awhile to expand and it really was a tough decision. I do really want to really retire sometime and do some more serious riding. But I’m already thing about a bike trip through Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania next year. And the bosses agreed to my terms, so I said OK to one more year. After our discussions, I went with the director to one of our other sites where a group of 5-year-olds put on a production of Thumbellina in English. They did a very nice job on it. Most of the lines were understandable and the costumes were cute. And again I got to see how important it is for the Russian psyche to dress up and perform. It’s really a major part of the school program. They often perform folklore or fairy tales which reflect the Russian culture, but whatever it is, it’s important for them to perform. I just find that so interesting. Today, terry getting stuff down around the apartment, I met Valeriya and Matthew and we went to see Black Panther. It was in Russian of course, but I was able to follow it pretty well. I liked that it combined the traditional and the futuristic. I especially liked that women played very strong roles. It was well done. I finished up my Amsterdam puzzle and started another one of St. Basil’s Cathedral. I’m making pretty good progress already. But some of the pieces are so close, they are almost interchangeable. I hate that. Tomorrow I’m headed for a leisurely lunch then Thomas and I are going to go to the language club and then the history exhibit. Next week is a short work week and lessons are already planned, so I don’t have much to do for school. All I have to do is mentally prepare myself for another fight with the bank on Monday. And on Wednesday I have to go back to the lab to get blood drawn. Then Wednesday night we take off on the train for Nizhny Novgorod. It will be nice to have another break.