The Golden Horde

Who remembers their history? Remember Genghis Khan, the leader of the Mongolian tribes? This was all part of his empire. Anna and I went to an exhibit about him and the Golden Horde down at the Hermitage at the Kremlin. It was a well-done exhibit of artifacts borrowed from other museums. And gold was a large part of it. It was interesting to learn how religiously diverse the empire was. And also interesting was the fact that, if horses had not been domesticated, the people never would have been able to travel as far as they did. One friend pointed out to me that the Tatar language may be so guttersl because the rider-warriors had to be able to give commands to their horses above the sounds of the constant wind on the steppes. Interesting theory. And the exhibit was well worth it.
Afterwards, we walked down to Balsamico’s and had a salad.
I had gotten my lesson plans done in the morning so it was a nice, relaxing evening.
On Monday, the kids were off the wall. I think they are excited that spring really IS coming. Most of the snow in the school courtyard is gone. They’ve started bring their scooters and bikes and we’ been sharing rides. I’m raising them all to be Uber drivers! In the evening I met Dmitry for coffee. It’s always an hour of good conversation. When I got home, I booked a flight for St. Petersburg. I’ll travel there Ma1-5. Can’t wait. It’s been more then 50 years since I’ve been there.
Tuesday the kids were still hyper. The terrible thing is that, although it is warming up, we still have to put snowsuits on everyone of them before we go out. Please let summer come soon. Please, please.
In the evening, I went down to my favorite “Home Depot” to buy the sacks I need to pack my suitcases to send them through the post office.  Of course they had them. Of course they were all too small. So now I have to rethink my packing. I may just go to the PO and buy it’s largest boxes. Then I know I won’t be overweight.
So, today is Wednesday and everyone is back in the classroom. And they are still all hyper. But I’ll go play table tennis tonight and work off some of the frustration.