Overcoming the gloooms

I am slowly getting over the jet lag - sleeping around seven hours straight now - but I'm still up at six, blech. The last few days have been dark and gloomy and I can see why Russian people seem to be so down (or why they drink so much?) I've started to feel a little socially isolated as I haven't had any luck with meeting any English speakers... until two days ago! The lady who owns the apartment came over to deal with our busted washing machine, and her grandson came along. So my first Russian friend is 11 years old and his name is Max. We had to use the dictionary a LOT but his English was far better than my Russian and we were able to communicate... choppy communication. He kept calling her baboushka which I thought was so cute. He was wearing an NHL toque and when I showed him Steve's Leafs jersey he though it was the coolest thing ever. THere's a hockey team here in town and apparently they're pretty good. They've won the RUssian championship 3 times since 2000, and most games are sold out. So Max invited me to go and watch the game with him but I had to decline - I had dinner in the oven... BUT! he came over unannounced yesterday with a ticket for the game tonight - so cute! So I'm going to the hockey game with Max tonight. Steve and Freddy (other Canadian guy who plays on the volleyball team) bought tickets for the three of us yesterday afternoon so I am double booked... what a social life! Steve is training really hard, with two practises a day every day, so it seems like he's spending more time at the gym than he is at home, boo. I am missing the fresh produce that we have in Canada and that we've enjoyed in all of the other (warm) places we've lived. The fresh vegetables in the grocery store downstairs are carrots, onions and potatoes (do all of those qualify as vegetables?) There are also majorly mushy tomatoes... no good. Nyet karoushi. Something like that. So frozen it is. The fruit isn't bad - long distance bananas from Ecuador and yummy clementines from who knows where. I'm still waiting to hit up the big grocery store which will undoubtedly have more options... and hopefully salad. I haven't had a salad since we left two weeks ago... frozen vegetables just aren't doing it for me. I am also running in the snow... yesterday I felt a bit crazy as it was super cold and not really enjoyable; it was -8 without the windchill and it was pretty windy. I did find a yoga studio in town though, yay! so I'll have to find out where it is and how to get there on the bus. Hopefully it's not too far... Steve and the team have a very important, must-win game this weekend but out of town again. Apparently the team is chartering a plane but it is miniscule and has to stop for gas on the way there! Scary. Here are some pics of the park that's close by, where I go running.

People cross country ski in and around the park, and there's a track around this frozen lake that is usually busy...


The main path through the park...


There is also this AWESOME play castle in there... a kids dream.