The start of the week

So, they are doing something with the water pipes in our subdivision and we will not have warm water for two weeks. Crap. Not that the cold weather’s going, they replace it with cold showers. I’ll live. Monday night we got tickets to a free soccer game. The rumor was passed around that Vladimir Putin’s was going to be there. It looks as if they passed that ru,ore around just to get people to get tickets to the game and fill the stadium because the game was pretty crappy. And it turns out that FIFA, soccer’s world governing body was using this match as practice fo4 the s3curity measures for this summers World Cup matches here. This means that ALL traffic (buses, trams and cars) have to stop one kilometer away from the stadium. The cars get rerouted, public transportation just stops. Everyone hops out of the buses and trams and walks the rest of the way. It is really neat walking on a 4-lane highway with thousands of other people over a bridge on the Kazanka River to the stadium.once we had all gathered, we went in to our great seats and watched Rubin Kazan have ten great chances to score and not be able to sink one goal. Pretty pathetic. After the game, we had to walk back over the bridge to reach public transportation again. Fortunately, there were about 10 trams waiting in a line, so none of them was overly crowded. Tuesday was a shortened day at school, which is always the case before a holiday. In the morning the school did a little pre-Memorial Day ceremony. Kids dressed up in uniforms and sang patriotic songs. So today was the really big ceremony. We headed down to the area by the Kremlin early and found out there was only a certain entry for spectators so we ended up walking more than a mile around the perimeter until we could get in. By the time we got in, of course all the best places were taken . I was basically peeking out from under somebody’s armpit. It was still interesting. Not only is there a parade, there is folk dancing, military songs and speeches. And all around the area they have parked tanks and other military equipment which everyone is allowed to climb all over. You could take pictures with weapons and eat at a mess tent. The concept is very interesting. It looks as if they are making the military attractive to young kids while at the same time honoring the fallen soldiers and veterans. After the parade, we all caught the tram to Victory Park. That’s where Thomas and I had been 3 weeks ago and there was still ice on the lake then! This time it was a little warmer. The park was just as full as the place was at the Kremlin. But this was more like a July 4th celebration atmosphere. There wereall sorts of crafts and activities for kids, including shooting a machine gun. (No joke.) again there were concerts and folk dances and people climbing all over the military equipment,including on the helicopter rotary. There were food stands with shashlik and others with cotton candy. Somebody was flying kites. And many people laid flowers at the eternal flame. It’s such and interesting conbination of remembering the fallen while building enthusiasm for the military. In the middle of the afternoon we all split up and went our separate ways. It was such fun meeting Lorene’s parents. I was even able to understand a lot of what they were telling me in French. They leave to go back to Nice on Saturday. Then it won’t be too long before it’s my turn to leave.