Saturday in Yaroslavl

Olga, and her mother Nina who lives with them, cooked me a nice, light meal at midnight Friday. It was accompanied by tea and brandy.

I am sleeping in their living room on a futon. It is a nice, airy room with a small balcony overlooking the parking lot. Snow isn't shoveled here and the streets and parking lots look like those commonly found in ski areas.

Today we had a lovely breakfast. Olga made coffee for me! We had bread and cheese. und

At 9:30 Alexey and I took the bus to his school. It was a 45 minute trip. I recognized the old monastery from photographs.

Alexey is the principal of this 'middle school'. Today, Saturday, the school had a special assembly in honor of International Women's Day. One is supposed to give women presents on that day. I learned in DC that giving an even number of flowers is bad luck - one only does that for funerals. Somehow I'm going to have to get some flowers tomorrow for Olga and Nina. Hey - I could buy a dozen flowers and give one of them 7 and the other of them 5!

Upon entering school, I was met by a head teacher who will be my translator when I visit again. A young teacher of English also helped. I met the staff and toured some of the classrooms. Obviously the math classroom was a high point. The students had models of the various polyhedra. The posters on the wall were interesting- from a math point of view.

The two hour assembly was great. There were skits, songs, and dances. The little kids were great.

AFter the assembly there was a tea for faculty. Alexey is the only male teacher. During the tea party games were played. Alexey and I participated in one. We, and another teacher, were supposed to draw a picture of a woman - while three others were supposed to draw a picture of a man. We were to do this blindfolded on a piece of paper on the wall with a marker. I (lucky me) went first and tried to draw a head. I drew the hair ina particularly poor way. Fortunately, I was stopped. Alexey drew the body - to the laughter of his colleagues and the third colleague finished the drawing.

We got a ride back to Alexey's flat from a friend of the translator. When we arrived, we at a lovely meal that Olga had prepared. I then took a nap while Alexey and Olga went out to the store.

Later on Saturday evening, we had supper. The tea was served from an old "samoyed". Their cat likes me. He (or she) is very quiet.

Alexey and Olga are spending the evening watching a Russian movie, while I am fortunate to get some internet access.

Tomorrow we tour Yaroslavl.

By for now