Snow, ice, friends... Russia! :)

Well, I'm back in St. Pete and back in the swing of things! Those three weeks at home were exactly what I needed- restful and relaxing. It's a good thing, too, since the moment I got back our crazy busy social calendar picked up where we left off. Until this weekend, hardly a day went by when we didn't hang out with people. Dinner with the Germans, billiards with Arina, dinner/games with students, ice skating with students, Dasha's birthday party, Anne's 'moving party,' visits from both our teammates in Vologda... the list goes on. You won't hear me complaining, though!

One of my favorite outings thus far has been ice skating with Arina and some of our former students last Tuesday. Neither of us had been skating in years, so there was a bit of a learning curve. At first I could only make it around the ring once before my ankles started hurting and I had to take a break. But even the breaks were fun, including such antics as Arina and I "ice dancing" (oh yes, there's a video!) and Erica and I teaching them the motions to the YMCA song. At first they thought we were crazy. But we explained that anywhere in America when they play this song, people know (and often do) the dance. By the end of the song we had them all doing it (some of them a bit reluctantly) and it was hysterical! I can't wait until the next time we hear that song with them!

Anyway, here are a few of the pictures I took. If you leave me nice comments, maybe I'll post the ice-dancing video later! ;)

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I was trying to 'be dramatic' for the camera, but we usually only caught me almost falling down afterwards

Ella, Lisa, Natasha, me, Paul, Arina

Christmas x 3

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I am currently in Las Vegas, soaking up my last days with my family, going out with only a light sweater, and TV in English. My parents' gift to me was to fly me home for the holidays for a much needed break. It has been a wonderful, relaxing three weeks and I feel much better prepared to face the semester ahead. Not to mention all the American goodies (mostly food) I'm bringing back for my teammates, my friends, and myself!

This post is actually one that I meant to write before Christmas, but once I got home I was so busy that I never got around to it.

Before I left, Erica and I hosted two different Christmas parties at our apartment. The first was for our students. We invited all our classes, and as much as we would have loved to celebrate with all of them, it was something of a blessing that only 11 showed up. Seventy-some students in our apartment would have been a bit crowded, to say the least! We had a white elephant gift exchange, broke out the guitar (it turns out that several of our students have studied classical guitar) and had a merry old time!

Gena, the Christmas elf!

The most surprising event of the evening was when one of Erica's students presented us with a DVD player! This particular student has been to several of our movie nights and has witnessed first-hand our many struggles with the old one. Apparently he'd had this one for some time but never used it. I only wish you could have been there to see my reaction!

Our second party was for our international posse. Most of our German friends had already gone home for the holidays, but it was still a pretty good group of us.

We made it a pizza party and everyone brought their favorite toppings. It was so much fun (as parties with this group always are), and the pizza was delicious! While we ate we introduced the non-Americans in the group to "The Princess Bride." Someone gave us the game Jenga, so after the movie we decided to play. And as if Jenga isn't stressful enough, we made it even more interesting by saying that whoever knocked it over had to do the dishes. Talk about incentive! By the end of the game we were trash talking each other ("You hear that, Arina? It's the dishes calling your name") and trying to psych each other out as the tower got higher and more unstable.

The moral of the story: we have awesome friends and students. It was such a fun weekend. And then a few days later I got to fly home and spend Christmas with my family for the first time in 5 years! What a way to end 2010!

PS. All photo credits go to my roommate, the photographer! Actually, you can probably assume that for most of the cool pictures I post here!