Hayall Hotel Kazan

... good floor when people are rushing in. 27. Don't break your arm! 28. Now wait all the way for that nice floor with 20 to 30 others in a normal sized elevator not certified by Cherie Berry. 29. Take the stairs to 13th floor. 30. Wait outside teacher's lounge for your teacher. 31. She will eventually give you your key. 32. Take stairs to classroom (changes daily). 33. Wait for teacher. 34. Enjoy class?

... smell it.  Mostly we all just lie around and speak of doing things that we keep putting off. Still don't feel too bad for us.  We are on the other side of the world visiting destinations like Moscow and St. Petersburg and having adventures with Russians who give us ice cream and tell us we are the most beautiful girls they have ever seen.  It is just that right now I am split in two.  Half of me wants to go home ...

... game, Hope saw the French guy that she had been drooling over, make his way go over to a fan and sign his autograph. So she went to get one as well and dragged me along so I could take her pic with him. He was a massive fellow and actually very friendly.  Since we were already on the court, we decided to wait for the two American players from Kazan to pass us by and yelled over to them in English.  Stanley, the MVP from the Olympics, was the first ...

So the election is drawing near.  I don't know about you guys but I am terrified. I don't really like anyone and that is what is scaring me the most. I do have to admit however, that I am leaning McCain because he has more experience.  I felt like I had to admit this because of the following blog.  So bare with me Obama lovers, I will not bash him.              Anyway, you should hear the news here.  It is all Obama.  Obama at childhood ...

... Free.  All this for not a ruble except for the yummy ice cream that they come around and sell for 10 rubles (.38 cents).  Yummm, ice cream!              So anyway, I think I lost the point of this blog at ice cream but all I know is that sports are big here and they are fun to watch.  If you have an opportunity to go to any sport event other than the one's that are common..... go.  It will be fun and who knows, you might meet an Olympic champion.   

... accent draws attention, but then of course, all of us draw attention.  I thought never in my life would I be used to being stared at all the time, but hey, that is just they way things are here.              But anyway, there was a group of people in a table near us and they were just staring.  We looked over and saw them, but we really didn't think anything of it because of the whole "hey look. Those are foreigners! Let's stare at them" thing ...

... house.  Liz went in to get the program for the upcoming months and when she returned we saw that they were having several Tchaikovsky ballets.  We saw that they were doing "Swan Lake" and decided to go ahead and buy tickets.  We went inside to find that most of the tickets were already sold out and if wanted to go then we had to buy tickets right then.  So we did and then as a sudden inspiration decided to go ahead and buy tickets to any other ones that we wanted to ...

... down we saw men on the main floor with their shoes off and on their knees.  There was a floor above that one that the women were allowed to worship on since men and women are not allowed to worship together.  Then this slip of a boy came in and began to sing/chant and the prayers began.  It didn't last very long but it was quite interesting.  On the bottom floor was a museum and it was telling the history of the ...

... in this new  building.  It was really an awesome thing to see and something that I probably wouldn't have found on my own.             Then at the end, we decided to get something to eat and were joined by this Tatar student who joined us in the middle of the tour.  He was pretty cool and told us that he lived in Kazan all his life and wanted to show us around but it was getting late and we were all tired.  So we separated and headed home.  It was a good day.  

I woke up this morning to the sound of the Ric*************g, " Right Here Waiting," which ironically enough is the ringtone of Babushka's machinery toting son. (See previous blog for explanation) As usual the room is filled with the voices of my babushka and her family all, of course, in Russian. I sigh, the thought of switching my English speaking brain to a Russian speaking brain is more than I can bare. Already I start to get a headache. It really takes so much out ...