Per aspera ad astra

This may not be a particularly coherent entry, but at least it has pictures!

The incredibly friendly people we met at the hostel in Moscow did end up coming to Vladimir on Thursday. After an hour of wandering around trying to find them, Lukas managed to find the AH and we went for lunch at Telega (they had been in Russia for quite some time and had been largely living off of McDonalds). After arranging a hotel for them and giving them some tips about the city, they were off to explore and we were off to teach. Fortunately, after work we met up again and went to a quasi-sports bar for drink (and pseudo-spaghetti for me). Good times were had by all, and I hope to see them again sometime

Helen (Australian) and Lukas (Swedish)

In other news, when I arrived at work yesterday, it was just beginning to snow lightly. By the end of the day, it was still snowing, but now it was snowing heavily and horizontally- making walking to the pizza place down the street incredibly difficult. Overall, we got several inches of beautiful pristine snow that will inevitably turn into a brown-grey mush on the streets. But we’ll enjoy it while it lasts!

Aaron, Alexei and Bob play snow-softball outside Joanna’s apartment. I tried pitching and apparently not all of my long-dormant softball skills have vanished, because I throw a mean snowball.

On the walk home from Joanna’s, Molly was struck with the urge to make a snow angel, and as usual, I captured it on film.

Recently, Nicole and I decided that we could not deal with ourselves much longer without getting haircuts. Fortunately, we know this excellent gentleman named Alexei whose mother works at a beauty salon downtown. Here he is, in all of his manly glory (I’ll clarify that the hat wasn’t his, but it just looks so fitting, eh?)

A few words about Alexei, since he’s apparently read my older blog. After scruntinizing my criteria for the perfect Russian man, he declared himself the almost-perfect man. Unfortunately, he has one tragic flaw, according to my criteria:

The Manpurse.

Irregardless, his mother is a hairdresser (and a wonderful woman to boot) and we were two devushki (girls) in need. Off we went!

Nicole’s cut turned out fabulously.

As for me, the jury’s still out, but I think I’m lookin’ alright.

Also, if any loyal readers happen to be enthusiasts of the game called Set, a few of the teachers were playing a while ago and came upon this mathematically improbable occurence- fifteen cards and absolutely no Set.

Any guesses?

Edit: fifteen minutes later, Nicole found a Set. Congrats!