Early Winter

Ella's good friend moved to Istanbul this fall. It was a time to grieve. We hope to stay in touch, but know this is one of the most common and difficult parts of our transient community.

I finally traveled with Eric to the city of Kazan. As all who have gone before me have reported, I fell in love with the beauty, historical richness, and vibrant student life! Within the old city walls are both a mosque and a church. Look up the history to learn why! 

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With all the political turmoil both within Russia and with the West, I was pleasantly surprised to find this monument in a park we often go by. The four sides of the stone have different inscriptions--all concerning the victims of the Soviet era. This one says, "To the Prisoners of the Gulag."

One day, I was very surprised to see the monument decorated, and it turns out that October 30 is a day of commemoration for the victims of Political Repression.
 

In addition to the billboards which warn ominously that 'Virtual Extremism leads to Real Jail Time" there are these encouraging public service announcements. Sometimes I wonder how the city government interprets these. This one says, "Respect people--respect each on of them!"

When remodeling  a historic city, you end up with strange piles of set-asides. 

The Neva was freezing. I descended from the racing road, down the steps to the water-level. Icebergs floated by quickly. But the rest of the water was still as glass. I thought it might crystallize in front of me. Breathtaking stillness.

And notice the beautiful sun! We don't see it much--you can see the low clouds. And the height of the sun, of course, is not much more than 12 degrees above the horizon.

But the low sun means that when it breaks through, the clouds are pink for hours. This counts as 'seeing the sun' in my opinion!

Early Spring! (forgot to post a few months ago!)

 This has been the strangest winter we've experienced in St. Petersburg. We had a few weeks of snow in early December, and then two weeks of frigid temps in late January. Other than that, rain and darkness. However, we are enjoying the earliest spring ever in Russia--with temperatures above freezing starting in February! Although many days we have a freezing wind, we have enjoyed more sunshine in the last few weeks. It actually feels like spring.

Ella has been sick a lot, with a nagging cold and daily headaches. She actually missed her birthday at school--but I had to go teach Tima's class for the last hour, and brought her along to celebrate with her class. Here, Miss Lyuba presents a cake that our generous friend, Ani Toncheva, made!

To me, there is nothing worse than rain dissolving the snow away. But my kids wanted to take a picture of the interesting pattern the rain created under the swing.

The river in front of our building is thawing. I'm amazed at how long it's taken--we've had temperatures above freezing for weeks now. I took this photo on Monday, and by Thursday, the river is clear of ice.

Flashback to January--Ella was very excited for her first trip to the Hermitage, on a frigid day during our brief winter.

Touring the City

Our friends sent a Flat Stanley to tour Saint Petersburg. Though we've lived here over five years, we don't explore the tourist sites much. But today, Tima's teacher got married in the center. He helped usher and sang with his class. Then we spent the afternoon in the part of the city that most people travel here to see. 

And thought we'd share our (and Stanley's) adventures with you.

Stanley witnessed the wedding vows at the German Lutheran Church.

Across the street is the Kazan Cathedral

Down  the canal which runs along Our Savior of the Blood Cathedral.

Picnic on the grass. Stanley is hiding by the chips and soda.

Baseball on Mars Field

The police were out in force for a small protest on the other side of the field. I guess they were expecting a lot of trouble.
Ella and I went as close as we felt was prudent.  Which you'll be happy to know, was very far away. (Some of the paddy wagons are just visible here.)

Enjoyed some strange and beautiful percussion-bowl music, and ice cream, on the way home.

Finally, Winter!

Multiple dips in fog, almost 90% humidity and -24C produces spectacularly thick frost!

We are enjoying some sunny days with bitter cold temps.  I haven't tried walking or skiing on the river yet, but hope to soon!

My friend, Ani. She moved here with her husband and family from Bulgaria this year to serve on our National Operations team. We have many common values and our kids are classmates, baseball teammates, and good friends.

Our kids go sledding (or plastic snow-boarding) in the park every day. Even on the -24 day, we went for a short time!

Images of December

Moon over Finnish Gulf

I'm always amazed when driving home by the cruise ship parked along the street. Just a little reminder that we live by the sea, and in a tourist destination!

Every year I long for snow. This year we finally got some in late November. But it quickly turned to dirty slush. I took this picture to admit to my friends who dislike snow that they are right--sometimes it makes things uglier. 

Now, I understand why people come to St Pete as tourists. But when a caravan of RVs showed up in late November, in the slushy snow, I was surprised. They set up a cooking tent in our courtyard, complete with a generator. But it seemed most of their time they spent inside... understandably!

It was very disappointing that our snow only lasted a few weeks. But despite the mess and grayness, it also revealed beauty. Here is the  on the way home from the office. 'Reflections' has been a theme of my art this year, because I've been amazed at the beauty I can see in the dirty puddles.

Our team has been studying the letter to the Hebrews this year, and I've found a lot of parallels between these ugly puddles and suffering. If we focus on what they allow us to see, even the hardest things can show beauty.

Beauty in ice.

Ella and Tima enjoying breaking ice. The river stayed frozen for a week after the snow melted, and created some amazing ice structures!

Six inches of latticed ice crystals, impossible to display in photograph, but fun to crunch!

Attempt at capturing the beautiful crystal structure.

Driving home from picking me up at the airport on Christmas Eve... if you look closely, you can see the famous beauty of the Winter Palace as we cross the bridge.