Another storm

Friday night Sonia and I went out with some other friends to see the new Aladdin movie, which is well worth it, by the way. Will Smith does a great genie. In any case, when we left the theater the others wanted to get something to eat but I headed straight home because the school had graduation on Saturday morning. I went to bed and woke up at about 1:30 to one of the worst thunderstorms I’d ever experienced. I got up to close my window and the rain was just coming down in sheets.
Saturday  morning at graduation, Sonia showed me a video of the rainstorm. The others had been driving home from downtown at that time and the streets were absolutely flooded. Her videos are really frightening. We both were wondering if it caused any flooding in the subway stations as well, because it just did not stop.
But let’s go back to Monday. We talked about America all week in school so the kids will get the point that I won’t be returning and they can see what my life is like in Rochester. They are having trouble grasping the concept because all of them go on vacation and all of them have been in airplanes so hasn’t really sunk in yet. After supper I went downtown for my cup of coffee with Dmitry. We walked through the park and on the way, that’s when I got that beautiful picture of the sunset.
Tuesday was a bike ride through town. Claudia let me know about it. She saw it on one of the websites about things to do in Kazan. It was a great ride with about 50 people on some streets where I previously had not been. The weather was gorgeous and I ran into Aigul from couch surfing, who was also riding along. The only negative was a teenager who thought he was Bobby Badass and had to try to weave through the other bikes and between pedestrians at unsafe speeds. He rode in front of a car and fishtailed. I thought he was a goner. He’s the kind of jerk who gives cyclists a bad name. We did about 13 miles and then Claudia and I split off. She headed for home and I caught the subway back home.
Wednesday night was table tennis and I was soundly beaten by the other three. My only consolation is that I can see my improvement and really want to find a group to play with when I get back.
Thursday evening was stay home an get things done evening.  Then we did the movie on Friday and Saturday morning was graduation morning.
They got lucky because the bad storms stopped in the early morning and it was pure sunshine for the ceremony. The event was the usual pomp and circumstance with the usual Russian pageantry thrown in. The kids had to practice songs and dance routines for two months and the drill sergeant of a dance teacher was yelling commands from the sidelines. For my tastes, it’s all a little overblown, but this is the style of Russian celebrations. Sonia, Matthew and I stuck around until about 1:30 talking with people and eating the great pilaf the guy always cooks over a wood fire for these events.  I went home and putzed around then rode quickly to the subway station to add more money to my transportation. I met Jennifer and Jake on the way.  Jennifer had been shopping and Jake had been at the dog park with Teya.
When I got back home, I changed and headed to the bus stop because I was meeting Anna for dinner. We went to a really posh place called  Marusovka. I’d been there before and loved it and had wanted to go back. I figured this was the perfect opportunity because I had to be downtown at the sports bar for the Champions League game at 9:30 so I wanted to enjoy an nice, leisurely meal beforehand.  We both had a seafood salad which was exquisite. The food was just so tasty and enjoyable. We sat there for more than two hours.
Then we walked back to the main square in town and I headed over to the sports bar where Jake, Sonia and a bunch of others had reserved a table. Jake is a rabid Liverpool fan who never lets a game go by. He was three sheets to the wind by the time I got there. It was an intimate little bar which was packed with soccer fans. The atmosphere was great for watching a game with lots of singing and slogan shouting. But the game itself was nothing spectacular. Liverpool won, to Jake’s relief, but it was a very poorly played game. Oh well.
I took a cab home because it was so late, left my jacket in the car and Ravil had to call the cabbie for me and have her bring my jacket back. Oh well again. And I didn’t even have anything to drink!
Today the sun is shining again after some rainy threats last night. I’ll be headed out for shopping in a few minutes and this evening I’ll be headed over to Claudia’s. Here parents are here for a visit and some of us will be going over to meet them.
This coming Wednesday the parents have planned an end of year picnic. We’ll sing things like “She’ Be Coming Around the Mountain” and “I bought Me a Cat”. The kids have been so funny. They love it when we do science experiments. The other day one boy’s little sister, who always brings him to class with mom, was picking up chewing gum off the ground and putting it in her mouth. when her mom asked her what she was doing she replied, “It’s and Experiment.”