Sunday, December 11, 2011

2nd to Last

Not too much has been hanninin' here in Moscow. We finished up a good couple of weeks teaching at the school and are now looking forward to our LAST week of teaching. We have some fun things planned!

Last week as we were walking from the preschool to the elementry school, we took a quick detour. Seeing at christmas was 3 1/2 weeks away, it was time to get festive. We needed a Christmas tree! The area where our school is located looks like a Washington campground; surrounded with trees and trails. We trudged through the forest to find the perfect mini Christmas tree. Once spotted, we pulled the little sucker right out of the ground, wrapped it in a towel, and stuffed it into Julie's backpack for the two hour ride home.

That night we decorated our christmas tree as a family and shared a delicious pot of hot chocolate. The tree is in our kitchen on our window seal. It's PERFECT! The spirit of Christmas is alive in apartment 48 in Moscow, Russia.

With it being so cold here, half the Russian population is dressed up in fur everythings.Jenny made up a game to keep us entertained our last week here; Grope fur game.
Objective: Recieve as many points as possible throughout the day by touching/ rubbing/ groping the fur of any persons coat, hat, boots, etc.
1. Anyone living in our apartment may participate
2. Fur coats= 1point (this includes hoods, lining, outside, or inside of the coat)
3. Fur hats= 3 points, due to difficulty & danger level of both yourself and the hat wearer
4. Fur boots= 4 points due to difficulty and rareness
5. No fur item can be touched more than once
6. You may only use your hand to touch  the fur. It doesn't count if you just rub up against them
7. If you are caught by the Russian with whom the fur belongs, points are not elegible.
8. Participants may award style points to other participants for creativity, style, and effort.

We are a pretty competative group of girls. It gets nasty!

You know what else has gotten pretty nasty- the protesters. We recieved an E-mail from the ILP offices warning us to stay away from Red Square and the popular metro stations surrounding it. Some elections and political demonstrations were held this past week in Moscow and have caused some uproar. dont worry, we are entirely safe...mom.

With 9 days left  in Moscow, I am still waiting on more than one lousy inch of snow! It has been cold, but apparently not that cold. I was warned multiple times before leaving to Russia of how I would freeze my bal...toes off, but I have managed, even witout a pair of gloves.

Merry Christmas

1 comment:

  1. I am surprised at the no snow. usually it is so butt freezing cold right now that your nose hairs fuse together and you feel like you got a million bats in your cave. oh man i would love to play that game. if you wear gloves it will be harder for the russian to feel you touching them. can you use an elbow for any other part of your body to play or does it have to be your hand? i am in my brain playing this game with you right now. oh, how many points do you get if it is a cop or military guy??? those should be some mega bonus points! please stay safe. i was there and got to see some crazy communist rallys. and on new year's day, i saw a dead man on the metro steps with police just loitering around him. so sad and freaky.

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