More Adventures with Mom and Dad

I forgot to include details in the last post about New Year's Eve and how seriously it is celebrated over here. Dad was really hoping I would get us invited to a real Russian New Year's Eve party (I think he was joking?), but I was unsuccessful. Apparently it is quite the gluttonous event, somewhat like our Thanksgiving except with extreme quantities of mayonnaise in everything instead of cream and butter. Anyway, we had Nadya and Aleksei over for supper and some games, but mom and dad were still battling jet lag so they went "home" well before midnight. Did I mention they are staying in the brother's bach just a few outside entrances down from ours? The brothers are away on rounds so they kindly offered up their very nice spot while my parents are here. Matt stayed up to work, but myself and the kids went to bed on schedule. At midnight I was awoken by fireworks literally bouncing off our (7th story) balcony window! I got up to see the show and not only were there fireworks right outside our window, but there were also 20-30 firework displays that we could see across the city! And they went on for a full hour! Shortly after midnight people starting pouring out onto the streets to celebrate together. Due to the fact that I'm still in the sleep-is-precious stage of motherhood, I didn't stay up for much of the excitement, but the fireworks sounded like popcorn popping all through the night.

Lev woke me at 4 and again at 6 and I was still hearing fireworks! Crazy. Mom had not slept very much at all since arriving here so I was feeling bad for her having to listen to that all night, but she slept right through it all!

Last week we took mom and dad to the large Central Market here -- they were awed by the massive animal carcasses that were wheeled in and hacked into pieces. The hardware section is also interesting, with little booths/stalls crammed from floor to ceiling with things you would find in a hardware store. The inventory is so random that I'm pretty certain everything has been harvested from the rubbish and cleaned up for resale. Its actually rather genius! Additionally, there are clothing stalls, an entire floor dedicated to fur coats and hats, and also fresh produce, herbal teas, and spices in bulk.

Yesterday was the warmest day we've had since November so we got brave and took my parents on our "North Shore" adventure. It was pretty cool to take

the electrichka (electric-powered train) again, and I had forgotten that the tickets were only $1.15 round-trip for each adult! I don't think we'll be very eager to spring for the North Shore Scenic Rail ride when we come home -- this is the real deal, with silent unsmiling Russians to boot! The first time we did this trip to the Ob Sea in October, we had noticed a few people disappearing into the woods on a narrow footpath. The station is really remote so we couldn't figure out where they could possibly be going, but when we got home we did some research and learned there was a town about 1km back through the woods. It isn't actually as remote as it sounds as there is a road and bus service to the village, but the only way to get from the station to the town is through the woods on this little path. We had just over two hours at the Ob Sea before the next train would take us back, so we wandered off into the forest on the little footpath. It was so nice to get out of the city and into the woods again! Beautiful, quiet and still -- a real treat for us these days. The town was right where it was supposed to be, as was the quaint little Buryat (native people from the Lake Baikal region) and Mongolian restaurant we had scoped out on the internet. We sampled a delicious assortment of soups, salads, and entrees and had more than enough food for us all for only $18! Good thing we had our nice little walk through the woods

to help burn off the excess calories. We even had enough spare time to go down to the shore of the reservoir, but the snow was too deep to really explore around very much. Matt tried to walk out to some ice fishing holes to see how thick the ice was, but wasn't able to find them once he got out there. Dad and Matt had fun talking ice-fishing with some fishermen who were trying their luck on the lake.

The train ride home was rather crowded so we split up in order to find spots to sit. It was funny to watch everyone try to maintain a reasonable amount of space on their bench. Seats are arranged in club seating with benches facing each other -- while each bench can fit three people rather snugly, two was definitely preferred. When we boarded the train, most of the benches already had two people each, but some older ladies kindly made space for me, probably because I was holding Lev. At each stop closer to Novosibirsk, as more and more people got on, folks would wander up and down the aisle looking for a spot to sit, but nobody would scoot over and make space for them! Some people were completely unfazed and would simply plop down where there was the littlest bit of available bench and then wiggle and smoosh until they got a sufficient piece of real estate. Others were too uncomfortable to do that and would look pathetic until someone took pity on

them and made a little space. The trip home was otherwise uneventful and I'm really glad mom and dad got to see yet another facet of the Russia we've grown to love.

Dad has been adjusting Finn and I quite a bit since being here, and the other night I came into the living room to find Lev trying to adjust Finn -- budding Chiropractor!