A pleasant, sunny day

The morning started quietly. I got my wash and my dishes done. I even got my lesson plans done already! The kids can’t write their names yet, but they can recognize the letters in their names so we are going to work on strengthing that skill. Valeriya bought a new bike on Friday so we planned to ride together to Gorky Woods to check out the new bike trail there. It was gong to be a little tricky because she isn’t too keen bout riding on roads. (I’m not either, in Kazan.) But I had wanted to check out Gorky Woods Park because a friend told me bout the great bike trail they had there. To get there involves riding on some of those crazy parallel side roads. And, if We could get there safely, it also meant that I could get to IKEA and Ashan safely because they are both just down the road. So I checked it out on Google maps first and it looked like a go. And,damn, it was easy. It only took us about 20 minutes to get there with minimal encounter with very slow traffic! That means I can get to IKEA in 30,and that’s faster than I can do on the tram, by the time I walk to the tram stop. The park itself is gorgeous. It is absolutely brand-new. The playground equipment is sturdy wooden stuff. The bike paths are parallel from the walking paths. But maybe only about 1/10 of the bike path is marked already. And even though the two paths are separate, it doesn’t keep the pedestrians from walking right down the bike path in front of cyclists! Come on, people. I don’t want to run into you. Let’s have some mutual respect here. There are bike rental places, a skater/BMX-type Park, and a nice little restaurant. The only thing that seems to be missing is that there are no bike racks in front of any of the playgrounds. there should be some place to lock up. We did find a bike rack at he bike rental shop next to the restaurant. We wanted to lock up there, but it was full so we chained up on the water pipe next to it. When we got back, the guy was crabbing at us for doing it. So get some more bike racks! We got cake and coffee at the cafe and just took a nice long break before we headed home again. And again, there was absolutely no problem with traffic. So I think we will be gaining confidence for other rides. I had a couple hours to rest before I took off again on foot to meet up with the gang. Lorene’s parents are here from France so they are doing some sightseeing. They went out to Sviazhk today and then the others met them at the big Ferris Wheel near the river when they got back. To do a ride and see the sunset before we should meet for dinner. I was not up to a ride on a Ferris Wheel so I just met everyone downtown at the restaurant. It was a place I hadn’t been before and it was very nice. But, since we were 7 people, they made us pay a deposit of 5000 rubles and told us our bill could not be less than that. They also said we had to pay in cash; they would not take credit cards. Interesting. So we all ordered and it was the usual Russian style. Appetizers and main courses all came at one time. Strangely enough, I had ordered spaghetti and Fabrice had ordered a pizza. Our orders came 45 minutes after everyone else’s. Our bill totaled more than 5000 rubles and we were all able to pony up enough cash. It’s just a very unusual dining system here. I got the Metro and was home about 11:30. It was good to get in bed.