Сообщение для зимы--Soabsheniye dlya zimuy-A post for Winter

                    It is not quite spring here in Russia, but the good news is the temperature is getting a bit warmer. Now it is on average about 5 degrees farenheit as opposed to -15. In a few weeks there is this thing called Maselnitza which is a festival to say goodbye to the winter and hello to spring. I'm pretty excited for that.
           For now though, while it's still winter, I'll do another post with a few things that come along with this sometimes unbearable though usually enjoyable (and beautiful) season.

1) Before you can experience the winter for yourself, you'll need to go outside. It'll take about ten minutes to одеватся, which for those of you who don't speak russian, means to put on clothing, in this context for going outside. Even if you're only going to the store across the street you'll need a few things:

• куртка (jacket)
• воришки (mittens)
• шарф (scarf)
• шапка (hat)
• колготки (leggings)
• джинцы (jeans)
• носка (socks)
• ещё носка (a second pair of socks)
• рубашка (a shirt)
• ещё рубашка /(another shirt)
• свитер (a sweater)
• ботинки (boots)

Also, if you are a girl anywhere from the age of 16-35, you'll need to dress fairly nicely and wear makeup. Of course, this isn't true of every young woman in Russia, but if I were to pick one off the street at random, it is more likely than not that I'd find her in a dress and at least partially fur coat with a fair amount makeup. 

Which makes me wonder what the typical (or rather stereotypical) american woman might dress like. If you're in the US right now (and are so inclined) please make some observations and get back to me.

2) So in the US we have strollers. In Russia you probably also have strollers in the summertime, but in the winter, it'd be pretty difficult to wheel your baby around on snow and ice. Don't worry though. There is a solution! I'm not sure what they're called, but I have seen a whole bunch of parents pulling their children across icy roads and sidewalks in these little baby sled type things. You have no idea how cute it is to see a two year old in a  snowsuit being pulled in a baby sled. So I'll attatch a picture.

                 Unfortunately, I did not take this. I haven't been able to get a picture of one of these, because as you might have already guessed, I am not quite familiar enough with the Russian culture to know if it is acceptable to go around photographing babies that I don't know. I am also not quite familair enough with the Russian language to ask. Google images did a pretty good job of supplying me with the following photo. 

I was also going to write about tea, but this post is long enough, and I think tea, and russian tea drinking deserves an entire post all to itself, so I'm going to wait. 

As for the various aspects of my life: School is getting better. I'm understanding more and more (though not enough to do my homework for thу most part) and making a few friends. My family is doing well, on Sunday we went to Tarasiha for Babushka's birthday, the whole family--cousins and all. There was a lot of food, beer and vodka (the latter two were for adults only, don't worry). Laura being her adorable self recited poetry for Babushka. My seven year old cousin David, being his adorable self, took me on a walk  around the village and showed me what everything was. This promptly turned into a race from snow covered house to snow covered house, and I did a lot of falling, and (after making sure I was alright) David did some laughing. He reminds me a lot of my brother Daniel. 

Hm... What else? 

I don't know, I think thats about all for now. I wish everyone in the US a happy presidents day.