Moving Again

I’ve had friends who bought houses, after renting for so so long, and they always say:

I’m never moving again.

Well: I have a new house.

Please go visit my fabulous new blog designed by the outstanding Lucie.  Enjoy its colors, its pictures, its absolute outstanding original delightfulness.

You don’t even need to bring me a plant as a housewarming gift!

Signs of Spring

Well, spring has come to Barnaul– one day we went down to the river and saw icebergs piled up all along the banks, and only a little water flowing on one side. The next day, the river was flowing and the bergs (now tinier) were being carried towards the Arctic (I don’t know why it’s disconcerting to me that the Ob River flows north).

I bought flip-flops, I leave my hat and home, and the other day I only wore a t-shirt, with no long t-shirt overtop. I’ve seen green bits of grass, and even some shoots of some sort of flowering thing. It’s grand.

However. Have you heard of the steppe? Wikipedia will tell you facts, but here’s the skinny: the wind blows here, and it blows from Mongolia to Ukraine. And there’s a lot of dust between Mongolia and Ukraine, and it all gets picked up by the wind. And then it blows into our windows. Today it rained a little, and this is what the raindrops did to the dust on our windowsill.

And lest you think I have somehow been transformed into a filthy dirty person, I cleaned this windowsill YESTERDAY with hot water and a clean rag. So this was about 30 hours of dust. The good news is that maybe this rain tamped down some of the dust, and also encouraged some of those super exciting green things to get a little bigger!

Refrigerator

When I was little, I had a small cabinet in my room next to the heater and under the window.  I called it “my refrigerator”.  It was always a little colder than the rest of the room, and especially in winter when it was cold outside.

Little did I know that my childhood fantasy would some day become a reality.

This is our “refrigerator” in our Barnaul apartment.

It’s just a cabinet.  Under the window.  Next to the heater.  And it was fine when it was -5 C outside.  It was even fine at 0.  It didn’t keep things frozen, but it kept juice and stuff cold enough.  But now…

Well, Siberian extremism is showing another side.  We’ve gone from averages of 0 C to suddenly +20 C (today we saw a thermometer that was +23) (that’s 74 F) which is nice in its way, but our juice is now tepid.

Blagodarnost

We got a really sweet email from one of the students here, but she only speaks Russian.

Благодарю! .Для меня йога началась с семинара 2009 года Джона и Стефани.Обучаться у таких профессионалов большое счастье.Чувство ответственности и такта , профессионализма учителей выше всяких похвал.Еще раз примите мою благодарность.С любовью и почитанием
В Благословенном потоке
Елена.

We only speak English, but our translator has been working all weekend, so we decided to use an online translator to see what the message said.  This is what we got.

Thank you! . For me, yoga began with a seminar in 2009, John and Stefani.Obuchatsya from professionals such great schaste.Chuvstvo responsibility and sensitivity, teacher professionalism is beyond pohval.Esche again, please accept my love and reverence blagodarnost.S In blessings flow, Elena.

Our favorite part is the blagodarnost.

In case you were wondering

We can see a statue of Lenin from our bedroom.

The Only Living Girl in Barnaul

I get the news I need from the weather report.

I gather all the news I need from the weather report

Today we went for our walk and I had only ONE pair of pants on, my jacket off, my hat never came out of my bag, and I felt that my socks were TOO HOT for this day.

A few more days of this, and we might actually see something green.  Ah, how my heart sings to dream of seeing something green!

Follow-Up on the Barrel

There have been a few questions about the barrel.  Apparently, I have tapped a heretofore unknown wellspring of barrel interest.

First: the barrel is made of cedar.  It was explained to me that there are two kinds of cedar.  There is a tree that grows in Siberia that they call a cedar tree but is, in actuality, some other kind of non-cedar tree.  These barrels are made of the real cedar, “like in Tibet”.

Looks cozy, doesn't it?

The next question: No, I probably could not have scratched my face.

The top of the barrel is two panels, each with a half-circle neck hole cut out.  Then there were towels packed in around so that the steam stayed inside the barrel.  Luckily, my face was not itchy at all, as this would have driven me CRAZY.

Which brings us to the third and final question: could I have escaped, had I wanted to?  And I am not sure, but the question has tinged any future barrel visits with a mild panic.  The aforementioned panels are made of the aforementioned cedar– and the whole was as big as my neck, not my head.  So in order to get into the barrel, Lilia slid one of the panels away and I brought my head through, then she slid it back.  I’m not sure that I could have moved the panel using only my neck strength (though I do have a very strong neck).  Perhaps I could have gotten my fingers in around the towels and pushed.  Perhaps there was an “emergency escape” button somewhere, though how I could see it and push it at the same time I don’t know.

Any other questions?