Sunday, March 8, 2009

It is snowing in Yaroslavl

It has snowed all day here. I'm glad I brought my LL Bean boots. Alexsey and Olga showed me around the old part of the city. Their friend, a pathologist who knows English, came along with us. When we got to the center of the city, a former student of Olga's who works as a tour guide met us and accompanied us around the town. His English and knowledge of the town were good. We went into many Russian Orthodox churches and saw aspects of their Sunday services. We saw the spot where Yaroslavl himself slew the bear which led to the founding of the city 999 years ago. We walked to the banks of the Volga which appeared to be about a mile wide. It was almost entirely frozen over. Today was Sunday, International Women's Day. Lots of people were walking around enjoying the fresh snow.

People were ice fishing on the river, sledding, and cross country skiiing. I saw one woman walking her cat.

We had lunch at a Soviet style restaurant - that functions as a relic from the past. There were photographs and posters on the wall from the Soviet era. The photographs included some of Kruschev and Breshnev. The menu was meant to be oldstyle too. We had borscht, red wine, salad and bread. It was very pleasant.

Tonight Alexsey and Olga have invited guests over for dinner. One arrived early and I shared the Banneker year book with him. Unfortunately he doesn't know English.

I showed Olga some math games that I will share when I teach some lessons next week. She showed me some games her (college) students play - which included tic-tac-toe and battleship.

Tomorrow we are off by car to Tutaey city and Rybinsk city which are said to be beautiful.

Bye for now

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