I finished my second term at school. I don't know where it went because it seemed to have just started when it finished. The holiday season is always a busy time at school. At my school, each class puts on a performance for the parents. They all pick different themes and they include singing, dancing, acting, jokes, etc. I went to as many of the performances I could and they were fascinating--I've never seen anything like them before. The costumes were incredible and usually tailored specifically for each kid. Many of the costumes were very elaborate. I would have to say the the 1st graders and the 4th graders had my favorite performances. The first graders showed New Years traditions from around the world. They showed Russian, Spanish, Scotish, and Japanese traditions. The 4th graders did the play of Peter Pan AND they acted entirely in English!!! Some of my 4th graders are a bit hesitant when speaking English, but they must have practiced for many many hours since they all did fantastic. Here are some pictures of these two performances as well as a picture of three of my great coworkers Vitaly, Amber, and Boris. Vitaly and Beka are dressed up because they played small parts in the 2nd grade perfomance.
Christmas time was also wonderful. I had Christmas dinner at Daniel and Emily Fisher's home. The Fishers are British friends from church who host a Bible study for young professionals on Tuesday and they invited a few of us over for Christmas. They have three kids: Jude, Amy, and Angus. They are lovely kids. It was very neat because those of us there were from the UK, America, the Faroe Islands, and Russia. For the British food we had bread pudding (my new favorite), and THE Christmas pudding. It doesn't have a more descriptive name, but all Brits eat it at Christmas and before eating they douse it in Brandy and light it on fire. Very cool. For the Americans, we had homemade Eggnog and, thanks to my mom, Ranch dressing! To represent the Faroese, Oli made rice pudding with a hidden almond (with which we played a game! This is another new favorite and I plan to continue the rice pudding almond game as a tradition.
P.S. The Christmas pudding is on fire, even though my picture doesn't really show it.
Emily also made each of us stockings and put a bunch of little things in them. Everyone who came also got everyone something small to put in the stockings, and it was like a bit of home.
While over break, my housemate, Kristin, and I wandered all over the city seeing things we had not yet seen. We went to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts, a statue park, and a museum of Michael Bulgakov, Russia's favorite satirist, just to name a few. We also had quite the ice storm, with sidewalks and branches covered in ice. One of the best parts of break, however, was the day Vitaly asked to meet us. He said he wanted to give us something that would remind us of home. We met him in the metro and he gave us Dr. Pepper!!!! It is very hard to find here and very expensive when you do find it. What a treat indeed!
For New Year's Eve, Kristin and I decided to go to Red Square. Most Russians we talked to warned us about going there. They said it would be packed with people and you would stand like sardines. They said everyone would be drunk and there would be Nationalist riots. They said we might not even be allowed in because there are so many people. They said we'd be so cold we'd freeze our toes off. They said the fireworks would be lame and we'd never get back to the metro in time to make it home. Well, Kristin and I decided to try it anyway. The only thing the Russians were right about was the freezing toes. It was a good experience and I'm glad we went. I won't do it again, but I can at least say I rung in the new year in front of the Kremlin and St. Basil's.
All in all, this has been a great time of year. I miss my family and it would have been wonderful to make it home for Christmas and New Year, but overall I am glad I stayed. For a couple years now I have wanted to see a real Russian New Year. They don't really celebrate Christmas much, and what they do celebrate is on January 7. New Year's is the big holiday here. In fact, as I write this, Christmas is still 5 days away. Kinda crazy!
So Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and Merry (Orthodox) Christmas! God bless us, Everyone!
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