Week Three

Here's my update for the last week, which just happened to be a holiday week here in Russia. They call it "Maslenitsa," which is partly pagan, partly Christian in origin, and it celebrates the end of winter and the beginning of spring. They celebrate this holiday with tons of blinni (pancake-ish food you can put jam, honey, condensed milk, or whatever you want on it).

There were Russian Troikas (three horses pulling a sled / sleigh / carriage), people singing and otherwise celebrating, and selling food by the truckload all over Ploshad Lenina (Lenin Square).

Here are my pictures:

The Russkaya Troika (I know there's only one horse, but it was a small troika, like for a kid...)

Selling meat...yummy cow's head...

Party Time on Ploshad Lenina

Chuchelo (er...maybe she's a chuchela...) on FIRE! :)

It's ME! See how happy I am to be eating?

Okay, so those are my maslenitsa experiences. Now for some random other stuff...

The classroom...

And this was the sidewalk on the way to school...yes, that is ice under my feet, and, yes, it was like that the entire 45 minute (somewhere around 2-3 miles) walk...

Some good old fashioned American fat-filled food...I actually went to 'Makdonaldts' in Russia

...and finally...

this is what the electrical outlets look like in Europe:

If anyone has anything specific you'd like to know or see here, let me know. I'm busy trying to stuff hundreds of words, bits of grammar, and customs down my throat and don't always think of what might be good to update here. Onto another week full of snow, walking, spending lunch money on the gym, amazing food, and, of course, learning Russian.