Spring Break

Hello!

We had a busy but very fun spring break with two of our friends from college who came to visit us. They were a lot of fun to have and we were able to see, do, and eat a ton of different things! 

Of course we did all of the usual things (the Kazan, the Spilled Blood, St Issac's, etc) so I'm just going to hit on some of the highlights.

The first day they were here we took them out to the gulf by our house. The ice was still frozen (it was March!) and it was a very windy -12 C! 

This clock gives a countdown to the Sochi Winter Olympics. Unfortunately the snow makes it look like I've been redacted from the picture, but it's still the best one. :-P

On the same pedestrian street there is this statue of Gogol. He's famous for "The Nose" and "The Overcoat." If you take a closer look at his own nose you can guess why! He's an excellent short story writer and much of his writing falls under absurdism. 

When our friends went out exploring on their own they encountered this scary spring event. If you look closely you can see that the huge drainpipe was frozen solid and that the weight actually tore it off of the building where it then shattered on the sidewalk! Depending on what the winter is like this can be an extremely dangerous part of spring!

We all went to the Russian Museum which is one of my favorite museums I've been to. The art is all from Russian artists and the modern art is wonderful. 

Here's a picture of our friends "looking Russian" (a.k.a. not smiling) with a bust of Dostoevsky. 

This is one of my very favorite things there. It's Madonna and Christ and I just adore how beautiful it is. It's very detailed and the black and white makes it very striking as well.

Three of us hanging out in front of the museum.

We also took them to Vyborg, which is a city on the border of Finland that Matt and I traveled to last summer. We were able to climb the tower and wander around on the river surrounding the fortress. 

We also climbed the bastions across from the fortress.

We visited the Buddhist temple as well. We were very impressed by how lovely and colorful the temple was. 

Since we are all Dostoevsky fans we did a walk that covers major sites from the book Crime and Punishment. Above we are on a bridge where the main character stands and stares into the river. We also visited the last flat that Dostoevsky lived in. Below there is a tobacco box with the date of his death and the words "Today Papa died" written on it by his daughter.

Our guests were very brave and decided one of the things they wanted to do was visit a banya. Banya is like a sauna. You have a room with very hot, dry heat and you alternate between that room and another that has colder water to douse yourself in. We visited a nice public banya near our church and it was a wonderful experience. There was a grandmother there who was very enthusiastic about helping us get the most out of the experience as well, coaching us on what to do and hitting us with birch branches (it's considered to be like a massage). :-) She was very sweet and gave us an orange. In the banya you wear felt hats to cover your hair and keep it from being damaged so we have a picture of us with our hats and  the orange. 

Another site we went to was the Peter and Paul fortress. Unfortunately the tower was under remont but we checked out these cool chairs instead. There are 12 of them in a circle and designed by different people, and they are based on a famous satire book called "The Twelve Chairs." In the book two men go looking for each chair of a 12 chair set because they know someone has hidden jewels in one of them. The main character, Ostap, was so well loved that though he dies at the end of the book the writers brought him back to life for a sequel. 

Sadly we couldn't get into the mini St Petersburg but there is a very large series of statues of the planners of the city next to it. One can't help but do fun poses with them!

On our guests' last night with us they treated us to dinner and we went to a place called Ruski Kitch. As you can see it lived up to it's name! 

The four of us split a samovar of tea, which I had never done before. Samovars are essentially large kettles for tea but the style is very Russian. 

And our lovely food! In the center is hachipuri, which is a Georgian bread filled with salty cheese. Easily one of my favorite dishes here!

Now our attention is solidly focused on the school play coming up on April 27th. It seems so close and like there is so little time (!!!!!!) but I think the students will do well. Pray that things go smoothly and everyone stays healthy.

A last prayer request is for a car. We no longer have a car in the US and will be searching for one the next couple months. If you know of anyone who might have an extra car we could borrow, please let us know!