Fall Holiday

One of my fellow exchange friends in the Czech Republic on Facebook- who is more like me than I realized- said this about missing Halloween: "All I really want to do is troll around in some feild untill I find a pumpkin, then take out all the guts, carve a huge ol'American smile on it, and then make pumpkin seeds and pumpkin pie, then parade around town with it and force people to try my baked goods as the pumpkin stares them down." She has a pretty nice way of summing up how I feel in her statuses. She also said this about her two month mark (she arrived in the Czech Republic only a few days after I arrived in Russia): "Two months ♥ if you ask me about my Czech language ability I will be too busy laughing to reply, if you ask me if I like the Czech Republic I will immediately profess on the top of my lungs that I LOVE EXCHANGE. There are ups and there are downs, but its like the great Miley says, Its the climb."

I felt like sharing these because she has such an elegant way of describing things, and they also coincide with exactly how I feel. Interesting how, although we have completely different exchanges, we feel the same way sometimes.

It was really cool to Skype with my parents and show them all the stuff I talk about in my e-mails. It was funny seeing- and mostly hearing- them.  It was also cool that my two sets of parents were able to meet. Like watching two hemispheres colliding, which I suppose really was happening.

For some reason the weather man is always right. I think that comes with actually liking in an area that is landlocked and surrounded by mountains. You can see the weather coming, and there can be no natural disasters (not really). It has also been getting colder. Probably because it is now fall and turning into winter. Yeah, that is probably why. Whenever it does snow, it snows in the evenings. Although it is cold enough to snow all the time. The precipitation just is particular on what time of day it decides to show itself.  The fall holiday lasts a little over one week.

The first night of the holiday Julia and I tried to open a bank account. She had talked to a bank last month and all they said I needed was some money and a valid Visa. Well, they lied, because now they want a translated copy of my passport. In all those spy movies, they never warned me how difficult it would be to open a bank account in another country! I thought it was easy, and that is why they did it!  So now we have to work on that, so it will be a while because finding someone to do that will be difficult.
 When I was walking to meet Julia at the bank and there was some girl crossing the crosswalk with her pony. He was misbehaving- wanting to be all scared because it was snowing and there were cars, but she just jerked on his halter and yelled at him after they got across the road. He behaved better after that and heeled appropriately as they continued on. I am such a creeper that I keep my camera with me always, and took a picture. It was literally the weirdest thing I have seen in a while.

The Excursion group.

The Sunday of my holiday I went to the national park,called "Pillars." I now understand why. It is kind of obvious now, but then it was my first week in and I think my mind was way too frenzied to really figure out why. At the top of the mountains are bald trajectories of rock. They are in different formations and whatnot, but still just kind of randomly pop up from the ground. So, that is why they are called pillars. I could tell they are going to try to make this park into something. They are putting in more walkways and new playgrounds buildings. The playground I saw was at almost the top of the mountain, if you can believe that!
I think the walkways are like what some of the Western National Parks are trying to do- build a wooden walkway above the ground so that all of the human traffic doesn't harm the environment. The problem is is that they already have a paved road that everyone drives on or has been walking on for years only a few yards from the walkway. But it was nice to have that walkway, even though it wasn't finished in sections. It was way less icy and it usually had hand rails. They also put in some informational stuff along the way. About nests, different animals, etc. They are also putting up more little huts for people to stop and eat or relax in. I think it will be a really interesting place once all of the improvement stuff is done. Maybe then people will feel bad for throwing their trash on the ground, too.
Julia and I were ready kind of early, and so we went down to the street to wait for her cousin to pick us up. Arthur decided that he didn't want to go, and would rather sleep in the morning, so it would just be us. For some reason I had a feeling he was going to sit this one out. Her cousin was late, so we were standing around in the cold for quite a while.
It was okay though, because we got to talk, see someone walking their little dog, the sun rise, and some crows and birds. It was pretty interesting. Then her cousin came. His wife was really sweet, and I would say she has kind of a boisterous personality. But she still seemed to know when to talk and when to not, and didn't domineer conversation. I think it is interesting how there seem to be more people here like that than in the US. It must be another cultural difference. Their nine year old daughter seemed kind of quiet, but just because I was new. She pretty much did her own thing.
Julia and her cousin Andre seemed to talk most of the trip/hike. I also didn't embarrass myself too much on the hike. We went a pretty easy pace so I didn't get puffy or sweaty. Of course, I was my usual clumsy self. My Nikes weren't great on the ice, and Julia said "oh, the BEST Chinese shoes!" which to me is still funny. Especially since Nike outsourced to China but still kind of has the reputation of being American shoes to Americans.

A picture of me after one of the many times I fell.

We went to the top and walked around trying to find the right path to the grandfather rock, but we never did. We gave up after a while.! Julia made bliny to take for food, and they brought sandwiches. Well, brown bread with salami and mayo. They made them for even Julia and I, so we didn't consume all of the bliny.
 The way down was a lot more difficult because we were going with the ice and not fighting against it. We went down arm in arm, able to mostly prevent each other (namely Julia and me) from slipping and falling all the way to the ground. Both Julia and I went to the ground once, our impact slowed way down by the arm-linking technique. Once, Julia slid about a yard, trying to stop but she couldn't get her footing but wasn't falling down.
Slap humor gets to me more now than it used to, since language humor doesn't make it to me as much any more. So, I was giggling or flat out laughing a lot of the way down. I think I almost peed myself a couple of times. We left earlier to beat the rush, and we walked past throngs of people on our way down the mountain.

The next day we went to the symphony with the kids from the orphanage. It was kind of awkward, because I really don't have that much Russian and of course those kids don't have any English. The actually asked me to talk in English for a little while just so all the kids could A.) Openly stare at me B.) Hear what English sounds like and C.) Stall until the doors opened for the music hall.
A lot of the kids seemed pretty happy, but I could pick out 5 from the 15 or so kids that I could tell that they were just angry. You know, the angry at life kind of angry. I think the kids were between the ages of 6 and 14. When we sat down in the theater, we had a whole row saved. One little boy went all the way to the edge of the row and sat by himself. So I went all the way to the edge and sat next to him. All the other kids sat together in the main row, with an isle between our four seats and the big center isle. It was that little boy, me, Julia, and one of the helpers in the four seater row. I was able to ask the boy how old he was, if he likes the symphony. . . and that is pretty much it. He is 8, by the way. Weird to think that I am ten years older than this boy!
There were no Rotarians at the symphony today, so Julia and I were the representatives. There were limited spaces, so it was really kind that they let Julia and I have this outing instead of two Rotarians.
This time there was also different music. And the place was full! It was just for kids, but it still was a full house. Julia said it was because it is a holiday weekend. Instead of the Chello wizard, they had an Opera singer. He had a cool voice but even better faces.

I also found out that Arthur is kind of obsessed with cars. He likes to look up prices and different reviews of cars on the internet. I also found out that both him and Julia think that my father is crazy for having had snakes, tarantulas, lizards, turtles, and even a dwarf alligator as pets. And it is also weird to them that he has these animals in the Church. The Western Church is a completely foreign concept though, I mean the fact that my dad has an office is different to them. Could you picture reptiles in a Russian Orthodox church? I sure can't! That is probably why they think it is so weird!