Fall is here in the city!
We've had a few weeks of wetness and then intermittent sunshine, so we've been trying to get out and enjoy it while it is here.
One attempt to go enjoy the weather ended up being rained out so we ended up at Galleria where there was an awesome display of yarn bombing.
We recently realized that there was an important member of our life in St Petersburg that we had no pictures of: Doma Kitty! (Doma just means "at home." We don't actually know her name.) She is a lovely long hair kitty that lives in our building and is generally friendly and loving. I say generally because apparently taking her picture makes her angry since she clawed my hand shortly before I got this photo.
Matthew recently had his class do travel posters for different cities in Russia. One of our Japanese students drew this gorgeous poster with Cheburashka and the Kremlin and a hilarious shifty eyed Putin.
This past weekend we went to Pavlovsk, which is largely a park outside of the city. There is a palace there but the grounds are the most impressive part and it is very popular in the fall when all of the leaves change color. One of my favorite parts of going there in the fall is when all of the skinny white birch trees change to bright yellow.
Matt and David, a former student teaching here for a year, on the lovely little bridge.
Leaf crowns are very popular with Russians in the fall and we were all very impressed with the sheer size of this little girl's wreath.
A highlight for us was feeding/trying to feed squirrels! The squirrels tend to be well fed since they are novel for everyone and the park sells seeds and nuts. We found this little guy and both Matt and I were able to feed him. It was terribly cute because he put his little paws on our hands while he ate!
Our group! Matt, David, Natalie (my fellow English and theater teacher), Renee (junior high teacher), and me!
