Mayle Karely Museum

While we were in Arkhangelsk, Brian and I went to the largest open air museum of wooden architecture in Russia with a group of friends. It was a great museum with many awesome buildings. It wasn't too cold out, the snow was wonderful and we were able to go sledding after viewing the buildings.

This museum was founded in 1964 and reflects the building style of the 16th-19th century Russian North village, churches and homes.

Above is a church.

From what I could tell, these windmills were created to grind grain or corn. the whole upper building is created to be turned into the wind so it can be used at any time.

A typical house might be a home for a few families and their animals during the winter.

Most of the doorways were very small. Not many of the buildings were open for viewing and there wasn't a lot of English for me to really get a lot of history from this place, but it was fun anyway.

 

Now to go sledding!!!

What a crazy experience this was! There was no order or rhythm to the sledding hill. People were going up and down all over and I was afraid of a disaster or a collision. I watched a lot of people go down before I actually went down myself. The hill was steep and very slick and I watched some people wipe out. I found the safest place to go down at and went down with Brian. It was fun, but fast!

Here is Brian, about to head down with one of the kids we were with. It was a fun day trip!

 

 

 

 

Our New Home

We moved. Well, actually we moved about a month ago. But I decided to put a few pictures of our new place up now. Through a friend, we met an American couple who lives here in Russia, and needed someone to stay at their place for five months. Brian and I thought and prayed about it and decided it was a good idea. One catch, there are three cats to take care of. 

Our new kitchen, with much more counter space than before! And more cupboards! The oven only heats up to about 300 degrees F. No warmer than that. It keeps me from burning things I guess. Things just take longer to cook. 

Our bedroom, the cats usually slept with their owners, but we lock them out of the room now. Too  much cat hair floating around while I sleep! 

The cats do have character. This one is Jasper, he is the youngest and was really enjoying whatever Brian was doing on the iPad at this moment in time. 

Living at this new place has been a blessing. We are saving money, we don't have to ride the bus to work anymore and can just walk a quick 20 minutes to work. Excellent! 

Cat hair is irritating and I don't really enjoy emptying the kitty box. But, I can do anything for five months. :)

This last picture is a little random, I know. But I wanted to show people in American that Russians do have Christmas tree "lots" Here are a few trees for sale for anyone to buy to put up for Christmas and the New Year. Cute trees huh? Just a little different than our own tree lots. 

Arkangelsk (the best city in Russia?)

We finally got our first chance to go to a place that could possibly the biggest hidden secret of Russia. This city is located in the far north of Russia, it is level with Fairbanks, Alaska. Arkangelesk is my (Brian) favorite city here for multiple reasons. I absolutely love the people in this city, they remind me of people in Juneau quite a bit. It is only 250,000 people which for Russia is just a "normal" sized city. Wendy and I were there for 7 days and it was so much fun, that we had to split it into two different blogs so stay tuned.

Nothing says northern Russia like a camel wearing a carpet. This is a two humped camel, which they say is the best for packing. You know in case you need to get a load across northern Russia and you don't have access to Train, Plane, Car, Truck or any other more convenient method of transport.  

Our best buds from Arkangelsk Clockwise from top left : Me(Brian), Vitya, Alyona, Lena, Kirill, Nadiya, Emille, Pavel, Lera, Vova, Nastya, Kostya, Wife... oh I mean Wendy. 

 Wendy and I took a fun opportunity to walk across the frozen Северная Двина(Sevrnaya Dvina) river. There is an island on the other side that people live on. When the river freezes over, taxi's will drive you across for a small fee, we just chose to walk.

 This was a main new year festival going on downtown. This was the coolest ice slide ever. There were so many kids and I had to remind Wendy that she is an adult because she was almost pushing kids out of the way to try it. (kidding... in reality it was the other way around)

 We went ice skating at the main Каток (ice rink) called Stadium Dynamo. The line to rent skates was too long so Wendy didn't get to skate. She had fun watching people come out of the locker room and slip and wipe out on the un-expected ice. She said one time this gal fell down and lay there like a lifeless corpse and her husband had to come collect her off the ice.

How often do you see a ice log cabin? That is real art folks. 

There is hardcore fisherman, and then there are those who camp out in -30 in a tent on a frozen lake to drop a hook down hole and hope something bites. I bet you this guy is thinking about his warm sleeping bag right now. There were a surprising amount of ice fishermen. 

And a Happy New Year

We finally got to experience our first Russian new year celebration. We weren't really sure what to expect. Some people had given Wendy (not me) some really bad news that Russians like to stay up ALL NIGHT and eat and party until the early morning (like 7 a.m.). We went over to our good friend Olga's house for the actual up to new year celebration. We ate a lot of food, but we had to take it slow in order to have some room for the next house we were going to visit. 

Top Left going Clockwise: Tomatoes with Shredded Cheese, Salmon Slices, ???, Fruit, Fudge, Fruit (again), Greek Salad, Bread and Cheese, Potato Salad, Fish Eggs on Bread Slices. 

 Going down to the Kremlin at 3:00 a.m. One would think that by this time everything would be just about wrapping up and people would be heading for home.

However, the Russians were just getting started by 3:00 a.m. The Kremlin is on the right and main square straight ahead. 

 Many many random colors. That is one way to explain how people decorate for the new year. If it's loud, it can be used. This was close to the main square. We weren't really sure if it had a purpose or if it was just beautiful.

There were government funded fireworks, but after those were all done, the Russians took it upon themselves to continue the show. 

Also this type of floating lantern was very very popular. There is a little lantern and the heat from the lantern causes the whole thing to float and it goes so far that the light begins to disappear. 

Merry Christmas from Russia!

     Merry Christmas everyone! I didn't send any Christmas cards out, so we'll pretend this is the card! We have moved to a new home and having less space and three cats (we are cat-sitting), we were unable to set the large tree up. So, we used a small one. And I found a perfect place for the tree and our stockings. Russians celebrate Christmas on January 7th, so tomorrow is just another day for most of the country. We were lucky to get the day off work! I am excited to have a whole day with my husband and just relax! And eat good food of course!

     Christmas is one of my favorite holidays, I love the lights, music, presents, colors, tree, you name it, I like it. I love the warmth that comes with this holiday. I am thankful God allows us to celebrate like we do! Especially because the holiday is really all about Christ being born in a barn in Bethlehem so long ago. And it had nothing to do with lights, colors and a tree in everyone's house. It had to do with God coming down in human form, as a little, lowly, helpless baby. In a barn even!! I think sometimes we all need little reminders about Christ being born and what it must have been like on that night.

Isaiah 9:6 For to us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace

Philippians 2:8-10 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth 



Have a wonderful holiday my friends and and family! May you truly believe in our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Party in the Cold

Wendy and I had our Christmas/New Year's party at work. It was quite different than any American party we have gone to. Instead of everyone showing up and eating dinner then talking and maybe a game or two. We got there and started eating and then a show of dances and skits and songs started up immediately (done by co-workers). We were a little confused if we should focus on eating or on the entertainment. There were little breaks, but for the most part it went on for about 4-5 hours!!! We had a good time and it was very fun to party Russian style. 

Wendy won the contest of "who is Father Frosts gradndaughter?" so they made her dress up like Снегурочка (Snegoorachka) I was so proud. 

This is a very small sample of the foods that were at our party. Fish egg biscuits, potato salad with mayo, meat slices and tomato with cheese on top. 

We were blown away at the amount of alcohol at our party. This was served at our table for 4 people. There were 5 other groups of bottles just like this. Co-workers kept trying to get Wendy to drink Vodka so she could be a real Russia girl. 

Our co-workers sitting at there table. Left to right Irina, Rushana, Natasha, Oksana, Anastacia, Olga, Katya. The boys were outnumbered at our party 19-5. 

  Also the temp. has dropped to around - 20-30 degrees Celsius ( - 8-15 F) As a result our walks have come with some humor as well as frozen body parts. 

This morning I snapped this picture of Wendy's frozen eyelashes and hair. Our breath over time begins to freeze onto parts of our faces.
                                                

We also went down to the Kremlin today and saw some really awesome ice sculptures that begged me to play on. 

And Wendy couldn't resist either. 

A Cold Winter Walk

 After work today I took a quick walk down to the Kremlin and around. Quick ended up being about 50 minutes out in ZERO degrees F. BRR. Everything stayed warm except for my face and fingers.

Here are some of the sights along the way! They have put a large tree up in the middle of the square next to the Kremlin. I am excited to see it at night all lite up!

I also found some men working on some ice blocks! I couldn't quite tell what the sculptures will be yet, but we will for sure go down again and look later!

 Here is the mighty Volga River! Almost frozen over. It was covered with ice, snow and frost. But, you can see in the left of the picture there are a few spots where the water is still moving freely and no ice is covering it. Brian really wants to do some sort of polar bear dip in the river if they have one. I think he is crazy. But, I already knew that didn't I?

Looking back at the Kremlin, all the trees were completely covered with frost. I don't think the sun rises high enough in the sky to melt the ice!
At this point we have a little over 6 hours of daylight everyday. Very similar to Juneau, Alaska when we lived there.

Our average temperature for the last week has been at about Zero F. It has dropped to around -10 F during the night. But, with the cold, comes blue skies! And I really enjoy the blue skies during the day.