Fifth Sunday in Siberia

Hopefully we're more than halfway through our visit. Have we mentioned lately how COLD it is here? (-35c when we woke up today)When the Russians comment to us about the cold you know it's cold out! So what did we decide to do on this cold Sunday in February? We visited Angarsk and Judy, Skip and Harry Holmes!

It started in the midst of my meltdown Friday when Brian asked if I wanted to visit them… and continued when Judy welcomed the invasion by us. It's easier for us to travel than for her to with two small boys. So we asked Irena to give us directions as I wasn't sure our IRK guys would be able to as well (they're more used to taxis and private transportation). Irena gave us very clear directions and she and her husband even picked us up in Angarsk. But first, a little about our first bus experience.

We left the house at 10:30am. We were told the bus ran every 15 minutes so we figured we'd be able to catch one easily. We stopped at a friendly store on the way to the bus stop to purchase some soda and candy and with the purpose to break some of our bigger bills into smaller ones to pay the bus fare. Nice lady runs that place! We continued on to the bus stop by the Art Museum on Lenin St and waited about 10-minutes until bus #572 to Angarsk came. The fare is 55rubles per person each way ($1.57 for a one-hour trip). The bus was pretty full but was chilly – we both got very cold toes on the way! We got off at the first stop in Angarsk like Irena had instructed. She wasn't there immediately and every minute felt like an hour in the cold! I had just gone inside a small store to try and call her…their public phone only took phone cards but a nice lady behind the counter was dialing it on her cellular! She dialed wrong first as she couldn't read my numbers (talk about horrible American printing being pointed out! LOL) But then Brian said "she's here" so I said "spasiba" and we left. Irena's husband drove us to Judy's apartment. Along the way SHE too commented how cold it was and how the kids in school like these days as then there is no school – there is no school when it's really cold or when the flu is going around. Last week when it got a little warmer apparently was the "flu break".

When we arrived at the Holmes Skip gave us big hugs but Harry was shy. He had only met us the one time before. We had brought a few little presents of coloring books – Skip readily opened his but Harry waited. But after awhile he opened it and their joint gift of a magna-doodle type toy. Harry loved playing with that! We're going to go back and get another one for Nathan – good airplane toy! We quickly warmed up our toes. Judy had made a beef stew type dish for lunch which we readily ate and then Skip and Brian played the DS for awhile (until the battery died). Then Brian and the boys played with paper airplanes for a long time – Harry had come out of his shell by then! After that Skip wanted to play Hide and Seek. I had asked him earlier if he played that with Harry and he said Harry didn't know how to play it. So I counted and Skip hid (in his super secret spot that I found right away!) – Harry observed. Then Skip counted and I hid. I had hidden behind the curtain in the living room…Skip couldn't find me and he said to Brian "where's your woman?" Man, that made me start laughing! Skip was still trying to find me when Harry whipped away the curtain and found me! Well he had figured out the game by then! So we had him count (with Judy's help) and he looked for us – and did good finding us. One neat thing is that Judy had been saying how Harry doesn't like dark places – remnants of memories from the Baby Home – and always needed to be in lighted places. Well after Harry had seen Skip hide in two different closets Harry WILLINGLY went into those places and waited quietly… I was very impressed by this! And one time Skip hid with a sheet over his head and I thought maybe that would be scary to Harry also but no, he did that next round! Then Brian played some more with the boys – flying them around in the air like airplanes, holding them to the ceiling like he likes to do and making them into supermen with capes. Hopefully he wore them out a little bit for their mom!

But soon we figured it was time to get heading back to IRK. The bus stop wasn't too far from their apartment so they all walked us there. It was a cold walk! The bus came after again about a 10-minute wait. This time it was a very modern bus with cushier seats and music playing. It was FULL! Every seat was taken. We weren't exactly sure of the route but once we got into IRK I eventually figured out where we were and where the stops would be. We got off the same place we had gotten on and said "we did it!" Our first solo public transportation ride in Russia! About time, eh?

So we ate some leftovers once back "home". My chicken cutlets from the other night turned out to be more like "mock chicken legs" – very good but just not what I was expecting! Worthy of another meal tho if we run low on menu ideas.

Now we're watching "Pirates of the Caribbean" in Russian on TV… and just saw a commercial for a Russian version of Survivor. And we're waiting for tomorrow to hopefully hear we can go get Nathan and bring him to his "temporary home" but his forever Mom and Dad!

And by the way - it's -20F right now!!