Horses, Bany and ATV

Hi again.

A lot of stuff happened over the weekend, so I'll try to summarize it quickly here.

Saturday we were taken Horse-back riding. We got on the horses, and people led the horses around in circle around the arena. While this was fun, I wanted a little bit more excitment. Once I showed some competency in my riding ability, I got to lead/steer my own horse. I wanted to go faster, but I was told that the horse is no good at running. What she MEANT was, she didn't think I could do it.

So I asked a few more times, to no avail. Luckily, my supervisor had to leave, and I got a new one. She showed me how to make the horse go faster, and it was MUCH more exciting.

We have been to many museums as well, and have seen many different Russian artifacts.

Yesterday we went up to the Ural mountains with a large number (25 or so) of our students, and the dean, to a new-looking ski resort. We took the lift to the top, and did a little bit of hiking to get a gorgeous view from the mountain top. Then, we went on an ATV ride (we were not allowed to drive the ATV ourselves, but our drivers were pretty awesome so it was a really good time). There was still SOME snow on the mountain, but not a lot.

After the ATV ride, we went to the Banya, which was very similar to the one I went to in Moldova, and we were informed that it was not a real Russian banya, nor as good as one. This one consited of a suna, then a small pool that you jump into, and a relaxation room.

After the banya we had Shashleek, which is a meal cooked over a wood barbeque. During the dinner many different toasts were made. I tried to do a Russian style toast about the friendship of Russia and Canada, and used the beaver and the bear as the symbols for the countries. At the end of my story, I thought the message was implied, but I learned later that I was supposed to spell out the moral of the story, which I hadn't really thought through.

After eating, we went to play more Russian pool. We have improved a bit, but we are still terrible. The pockets are so small there is NO room for error.

After all of this, this students still wanted to hang out with us, so we drove some cars to the lake behind our hostel and lit a fire and played some music through the car stereos. It was halarious, because one of our student's husband is a police officer, yet it was his car blaring the music/serving the alcoholic drinks. Drinking on the streets is legal here, and the excessive number of broken bottles lays testemant to that.

The weather fluctuates here so much.. in one day it would not be uncommon to experience 3 or 4 rain/sunny spells.

Today after class we might be going out for dinner with two Russian students (not taking our classes), but who have been to the USA on exchange. I believe they are taking us for an authentic Russian meal, and they will want to practice their English on us.

My Russian is getting better, but there are some key phrases that I have yet to master.

Everyone here is so friendly, and the school has been so good to us. There is never a dull moment.

Hope all is well back home!

-Chris