Winter Break and Christmas

School went on break for us on December 17th and we have been staying preety busy since then! :-)
We've been busy getting out and walking around in the snow.

This week we went to a Christmas Market on Nevsky Prospekt and went to a new mall here called Galleria (it has almost 300 stores in it).

We've also been watching plenty of Christmas movies and we had a get together with our WP team Tuesday. Yesterday we went to the Hermitage ( a MASSIVE art museum here with TONS of art from around the world).

We went on a walk to pick up a package in the mail and we passed by these very cool houses. We always pass them on the bus ride there but we were actually able to get some pictures. If you enlarge the picture you can see some really cool old style wood work on the peaked roofs.

Below are the many presents we got from students and other teachers. We had several bags full of presents! We definitely felt very appreciated and loved!

New Year's lights on Nevsky. New Year is celebrated similarly to the US, but here it is a much bigger deal. Like Christmas in the States. So the street decorations are New Year's decorations!

Here is a New Year's tree in front of Kazanskysabor (Kazan cathedral) on Nevsky.

A large light bear at the Christmas market on Nevsky.

A New Year's tree on the way to get the package.

A statue of Peter the Great by the Gulf of Finland.

Beautiful sunset (at about 4 pm!).

More Christmas market! They had stalls lining a park with various foods and such.

A statue of Catherine the Great that stood in the center of the park the market was around.

Frozen canals!

These statues hold the building up at every corner and column on this building.

The massive Galeria.

If you click on the picture you can see the little man on the roof better. They hire people here to shovel snow off the roof and to hack of the icicles. The insulation here is terrible so we get massive icicles.

The Hermitage all snowy and with a Christmas tree.

They lit the Alexander Column for New Years. This is from Palace Square facing the Hermitage.

A lovely and huge archway that leads from Palace Square to Nevsky. Another New Year's tree and the Hermitage behind it.

We will be going to Estonia (Tallinn specifically) on the 27th so we will bring news of that with us when we return! And of course pictures.

In other news, I had a dentist appointment on Tuesday. All in all it went better than any dental work I have had done in the US and she was very through. They found that I had a cracked filling and so hopefully that will be the last time that needs to be taken care of!

Thank you for all of your prayers and blessings this holiday season!

Winter!

Greetings once more!

Well another week has ended for us and another new milestone is accomplished: first semester grades are in! We have one more week before the actual end of the semester (and the start of our three week break! Hooray!), but grades have to be turned in the week before. Amanda and I have now officially completed our work as real teachers for a full semester. The semester has been a tremendous experience and has flown by so quickly- perhaps I'll do some sort of reflective retrospective on it later as I try to process my thoughts about being a first time teacher in Russia. But for now, I'm content to sit back and enjoy the slower pace.

As our thoughts are brightened by the prospect of Christmas and several weeks of recovery and relaxation, we are continuing to enjoy winter weather. We've gotten lots of snow in this past week and according to all weather accounts we are in no danger of losing it anytime soon. We will no doubt be blessed with a white Christmas this year:-) Having as much snow as we have right now is unusual for St. Petersburg at this time of the year. Last year was one of the coldest and snowiest winters ever for St. Petersburg and early indications suggest that this winter may give last year a run for its money. The amount of snow and the temperatures aren't that different from what we've experienced back in northern Indiana, but we get the added benefit of ice cold blasts of sea air coming down on us from the Gulf of Finland.

After church today, I went outside to take some pictures around our apartment building and courtyard to document our first taste of winter in Russia. If temperatures stay like this, we could be in for quite a bit of snow since January and February are usually the coldest and most wintry months for St. Petersburg. After getting to experience the hottest day ever recorded in August, we get to enjoy the opposite now. The days are continuing to get shorter and shorter as we approach the winter solstice in a little over a week. The sun barely gets up over the horizon on the days when its clear enough to be seen at all, and it remains dark until between 9:30-10 in the morning and is dark again by 4:30 in the afternoon. For some people the lack of sunlight can be very challenging, but we feel blessed that so far neither Amanda and I have been too bothered by it. We appreciate your prayers and know that they are helping us!

Here are some pictures of our winter wonderland to get everyone in the Christmas spirit! Click on the photos to enlarge and zoom in so you can appreciate the full rich detail:-)


Here is the view looking down Kanareechnaya Ulitsa, the little street that we live on. The trees make a lovely canopy of snow.


This is our apartment building from the front. We live on the second floor and our apartment faces the opposite side of the building. Our apartment is directly behind the one with the white balcony to the right of the red door.


I love when the snow falls in thick, sticky flakes because it means that it will stick to tree branches and form beautiful designs like the one on this tree that is in front of the school right across from our apartment.


This is our courtyard. I took this standing at the far end of our building looking down its length.


Falling icicles are a very real danger in St. Petersburg and occassional cause deaths. Our building has some of the biggest icicles of any of the surrounding buildings, at least on the backside of it. It's about time someone comes to shovel off our roof!


Here is our apartment! Its the one with the chair on the balcony and the open blinds with the light on. I took this photo standing on our playground.


Here is one more photo looking down the length of our building. You can see the snow and icicles bulging over the edge of the roof.


This photo isn't from today, but it shows some fun winter accessories for Russian children:-) The little child in this photo is pushing a sort of sled stroller that is very common here. I think its a great idea- you can still take your baby places in the winter thanks to the stroller sled!


And finally, one more photo that we took a while back but hadn't posted yet. This is to show you how bundled up all the small children get here. As Amanda likes to point out, babies and toddlers here all look like the Michelin Man:-)

Well, its a good thing that Amanda and I both love snow:-)

-Matt

Beginning of the Christmas Season!

Greetings once more friends, family, casual acquaintances, and anyone who has arrived at this page by accident.

Well the snow and the cold temperatures have continued to bless us with their presence over this past week:-) Temperatures below freezing, and several days with temperatures below 0, have been the norm so far.

With wintry weather and the end of the semester breathing down our necks, what else can we do but begin to think about Christmas?

This weekend our goal was to decorate our house for Christmas. As a part of this goal, today we made yet another voyage to our favorite store: IKEA! IKEA has rapidly gone from a novelty store catering to the slightly higher-end hip/mod consumer to a necessity. In the U.S. we had gone to IKEA a grand total of 1 time, and that was only about a month before our departure. However, upon arriving in St. Petersburg we have paid 5 visits so far. Prices are higher in Russia, but quality often is not in the world of home wares, so IKEA has become our go-to place for affordable things that won't quickly break. But this is not an advertisement for a Swedish furniture retailer, it is a post about how our latest trip to IKEA has provided our recently acquired Christmas tree with ornaments!

Technically, what we have is a New Year's tree since New Year's is the big holiday in Russia, but we thought we could put it to use on multiple holidays:-) As usual, we have a few pictures of our decorating.

Moving quickly to our other main preoccupation here, life goes on quickly at school with the semester ending in two weeks and grades due at the end of this week. To top it off, we have our Christmas play and band/choir concerts this coming Friday. As you can probably imagine this has created something of a frantic atmosphere at school as everyone realize that there is too little time to get too much done.

As an added bonus, people have begun to drop like flies due to sickness:-( We have teachers in and out all week as various strains of the flu strike St. Petersburg. So far we have been blessed with good health, but just yesterday Amanda started feeling sick and went home early from school. Thankfully, she is feeling much better today, but it's just another reminder that this is the time of year for viruses and flu bugs and colds to strike. The biggest problem has been the number of teachers affected. With such a small school we don't have any substitute teachers so if someone is sick that leaves all the rest of the teachers scrambling to cover their classes. As a school, we would greatly appreciate your prayers for the health of our teachers and students so that we can finish this semester strong and in good health!

And now, some photos to get you in the mood for the Holidays!


Amanda decorating our wonderful (artificial) tree!


Some fun window decorations that Amanda's family mailed us recently.


Our box of wonderfully Scandinavian-looking straw ornaments!


Our tree:-D We decorated it with tinsel to make it look like the Russian flag.


Ornament close up.


Another ornament close up (please forgive the glare from the tinsel)


In lieu of an angel atop our tree we have . . . Hello Kitty!!!


Whoa, who is that handsome devil?


And to top it off, two red straw reindeer to sit atop the windowsill in our living room.

That's all for now!

Matt