Thanksgiving Fun!

I just want to start this post off right. Brian really wanted to get this loaf of bread. It was huge! We used most of it for our stuffing in our Thanksgiving dinner. Nice looking head huh? I should have fixed him some eyes I think. 

Happy Thanksgiving! We had a wonderful time celebrating with some new friends we have made here in Nizhniy. The family on the left is from Arizona, living here until May (hopefully for us!).  They are a lot of fun to be with and I am ever amazed at Neeley (the mom) because she came here with three kids! Ages, 4 (not pictured), 2 and 7 months. WOW, and I thought I was brave! Her husband, Tom, is also brave, :) He works daily and gets to enjoy having his family here with him. 

Next up, our favorite Russian family. Valeriya, Asya, and Danik are three siblings out of four who also came to our wonderful meal!

We cooked the works: 2 chickens (no whole turkeys anywhere we could find!), 3 turkey legs, mashed potatoes, corn, stuffing, salad (the wonderful orange salad from Lisa), rolls and rice pudding. 

Dessert included pumpkin pie, apple crisp and some pumpkin bread. 

I have to fit in some Christmas pictures too. Here is the mall closest to us with their large, fake Christmas tree they put up. Even complete with a little snow!

And here is our tree. Warms up the room. I enjoy it every day! I just need to find a place for our stockings. I brought them from home, made especially for us by Pam Welstad! Thanks Pam! Know that your stockings made it all the way to Russia!

We are looking forward to Christmas! I am planning a party with a mixture of new friends we have met in the last few months. My friends, Sarah and Darla, sent me a tree cookie cutter so I can make some sugar cookies! 

More posts to come! Thanks for reading!

A Little More From Our City.

When my mom was here, we did tour around our own city a bit. We took mom to some sights we hadn't seen yet! It was a beautiful day, but, oh so cold...

Inside the Kremlin (our city also has a Kremlin) is the Archangel Cathedral, built in 1631. 

Just a portrait so no one forgets what we look like. 

And then we ventured on to check out a few more churches in the area. 

Brian is actually warming his hands on these small candles...Not sure if that is appropriate or not. 

This is our very own onion dome church. As I like to call it. The Church of the Nativity of our Lady. Started in 1697, consecrated in 1719. 

I love the colorful domes! 

Possibly the biggest Sand Castle Ever!!!

This is really our first blog about things in our hometown of Nizhny Novgorod. We jumped right back into the routine getting up in the morning and hopping on a bus or Маршрутка (Marshrootka) and going to work pretty much at the same scenario every day of teaching kids. Our weekends we usually do one of two things: 1. Hang out by ourselves, 2. Hang out with people. So to sum it all up... hanging out on the weekends.

 Wendy snapped a shot of the sunrise a couple of days ago. Guess what time the sun is coming up now.

 For the holiday of День Единство (Day of Unity) some group of artists carved the biggest sand castle at least we have ever seen.

 The detail on this thing is insane!!! The old woman has all the wrinkle in her face that you would expect to see. It was very very amazing.

 This picture gives a pretty good idea of the size of this thing. When I first saw it, all I could think of was the hours spent carving this thing.

 Here is a football field sized flag of Russia being held by many different types of people who call Russia their home. Although I didn't see any Americans, I guess they wouldn't have been against us helping hold it as well.

 You gotta love Russia folk clothing. I like the guy in the middle all decked out with his outfit and the converse sneakers to match.

The design on the outfits is really quite spectacular. I saw a couple of my Garmoshka accordions at the parade and really wanted to ask to try them, but I chickened out.  

Our Train Trip with Mom

We finished visiting Saint Petersburg and got on the train to Nizhny Novogorod, our home for now. The train trip was about 14 hours.  Luckily, for the first three hours it was still daylight, so we could watch the scenery. After that it was playing games, reading, waiting, eating, and attempting to sleep...

The picture below is Mom and Brian tucked into our spot. We took the cheapest sleeper train which ended up being about $45 per person. This is the Russian third class, called Platzcart. I was rudely introduced to it last summer (2011) when Brian and I were in Russia. I say "rudely" because I was expecting our train trip would be something like the train rides in the "Harry Potter" movies. A nice little cabin with some seats that turn into beds. And doors. And maybe the candy cart?  Not quite. Well, it makes for a funny story now. 

Anyway, we still like to save money, especially since we are only making so much per hour here. Platzcart it was again this year!

Platzcart is made up of 50 bunks in one train carriage. No doors, No curtains, No privacy. I am used to it now. I make sure to have a few things with me: earplugs for the noise, something to cover my eyes (they don't turn all the lights off) and lite clothes, because it gets incredibly HOT! This trip around we weren't so lucky with our position in the carriage. We were right next to the door. So, every time someone wants to go smoke or to the toilet...the door opens, and SLAMS shut. All day, all night.  Lets just say, the three of us didn't slept much. 

The views were fun, flat of course, but we went through quite the weather change!!

A few hours later we were passing through snow! It was lovely!

My mom enjoying her tea as she looks out the window!

Our next train trip I hope to ride "kupe", Russian second class. Four berth compartment. Of course, then you never know who your neighbor will be!! 

The Hermitage

Most people don't know what the Hermitage is. I didn't as of a year ago. Last yea,r when Brian and I were in Saint Petersburg, we opted not to wait in line and go inside this very large museum of art and culture. It is one of the largest and oldest museums in the world, founded in 1764! Wow. This year, my mom showed an interest, so we headed in! Plus, being off season, the lines were much smaller!!
Now I have to admit, neither Brian or I are art fanatics. We can only take so much in visually before we burst! But, over all, I think we both enjoyed it.

The outside of the Hermitage is just as impressive as any palace in Russia! 

The first staircase was incredible! My mom is the tiny figure in the middle of the picture. Massive!!!

For all you art lovers out there. Here is one from Picasso, 1901

Another lovely room in this palace! Many of the rooms were equally as beautiful as the art in them. 

Rembrandt turned out to be my favorite painter in this museum.  This beautiful painting, Descent from the Cross is dated from 1634. 

We enjoyed walking through the many rooms!

And we will complete this blog with a painting from Van Gogh, 1890. 

To really see everything in this museum, one would have to spend a few years in it. It was that big!

Catherine Palace

Catherine Palace, located in Pushkin; just a short bus ride from Saint Petersburg. This palace was originally built in 1717 for Catherine I, the wife of Peter the Great. Her daughter, Elizabeth, finished it off and made it much bigger in 1756. Empress Elizabeth actually had 100 kg of gold used to decorate the exterior of the palace!!

Our welcoming party! They were not too excited to see any of the tourists that surrounded them. I wish I could say they are someone's dogs, but there are many human-less dogs running around Russia. Brian and I thought these two were particularly cute. 

Walking through the palace was pretty spectacular. Also, overwhelming. How did people live in grandeur like this? Here is my mom getting ready to show off her dance moves. 

 This room had such wonderful blue and white tiled stove. They were in many of the rooms.

Another room, but check out the floors! Many different types of wood! 

 Look at the picture above and below this writing. This is the State Staircase which was incredibly striking with the white and red contrast. Then check out below to see what the staircase looked like after World War II. Most of the building was in ruins.

Much of the artwork and some furniture was actually removed before the Germans arrived into Pushkin. Townspeople and people who worked at the palace (it was a museum then) worked day and night to get the artifacts into hiding. But the palace didn't quite stay hidden. Restoration of the palace began soon after the war ended. 

St. Peter day 1

When we got to Saint Petersburg, we didn't really have any plan of attack for the best way to see the city. We decided to walk up and down Nevsky Prospect (Невский Проспект). The main attraction (for tourists anyway) is most definitely Church of the Spilt Blood. It has the classic onion domes and all that which give it the best Russian church look. 

 Walking up to the church. You can see it from so far away because of the funky colors.

 Here is the inside of the church, at first glance you might think " Oh cool pictures... already seen stuff like that." Well think again. Every, and I mean EVERY picture is a mosaic made up of hundreds and thousands of little colored tiles. I cannot even imagine how long just one picture would take.

 If you look at the dark parts of the picture, you can see very small grout marks. This shows just how many stinking tiles they used. Some people are really really patient.

 Just looking at Wendy's mom Diane, you can get an idea for how massive the inside of this church is.

We paused for a picture in front of the church. It was quite chilly this day and the wind only made it worst. However, I am learning that sacrifices must always be made for the sake of a good photo.

More Pictures from Moscow!

Day two and day three in Moscow were pretty fun. The weather was mostly good. I think it did rain a little on day two, but only in the morning. The fall colors were still present and enjoyable for us to see. Brian and I have a friend who we met last year that took us out to two different parks to see the sites. The first park we went to is called, Tsaritsyno Park. This beautiful palace was first built in 1776 for Catherine the Great. But for some reason she had it partially torn down in 1786. So, it remained unfinished until 2007 when the Russian government decided to finish it. The palace and surrounding property is very beautiful! I think we were a little disappointed with how new the building was though. 

This next building is much older, built in 1532 by an Italian architect; The Church of the Ascension is set up on a hill overlooking a section of the city. 

Next up, back to Red Square:

Built in the middle of the 12th century, Ivan the Terrible cut people's heads off to show what happens when they opposed the Tsar.  I tried to get Brian to jump over the fence and put his head down on the block for a good picture, but he wouldn't do it. Next time maybe. :)

Here it is from a different angle. It is right in Red Square, next to one of our favorite buildings. 

Mom and I. 

The FSB (formally know as KGB) building. Like the American CIA. 

The Gulag Museum

Who knows what the Gulag is? Thanks to Brad Christensen, we went to this wonderful museum. Our guide spoke all in Russian, so Brian had his work cut out for him as an interpreter. This is a museum for all the Soviet forced labor camps that came about in the Stalin era, 1930's-1950's. MILLIONS of people were sent to these camps that were all over Russia at the time. Convicts, political prisoners and petty criminals were some who were sent to these camps. Unfortunately, many people were sent here for silly reasons, like jokes about the Soviet Government. They say more than half the people sent didn't even have a trial. 

Miserable camps, some people spent 20 years in these camps, if they didn't die. Approximately 14 million people passed through the labor camps. A few even became present day cities after the camps were closed and shut down. Some of the ex-prisoners had no where to go, so the prison camp became their city!

Mom, sitting on a typical gulag bed. 

Moscow completed! Onward to Saint Petersburg on the night train. We squeezed into our upper bunks and attempted to sleep the night away.