Finally.... the SUN!

An apartment building close to our place...

The sun is out! Finally! So this will be a short one... maybe. It's amazing how the weather can govern your life... maybe not govern, but influence. So yesterday our internet cut out and it didn't work until this afternoon - Steve worked his magic and somehow got it going. It's pretty frustrating not being able to rely on the connection - we need internet! I don't know what I'd do without it. Well, yes I do - I'd be completely out of touch with friends, family, news, the world... etc. Boo.

Last night we went out to the Dublin Pub, a small place attached to a hotel in town. There weren't many people, but there was beer! Yum. We were joined by a Russian couple that was trying to decipher our accents - their guesses were American or British but weren't sure... yikes - we immediately set them straight. They were pharmaceutical reps on a business trip from St. Petersburg, but have medical degrees - one is a psychiatrist and the other a urologist, and get this - it is more lucrative to work as a pharmaceutical rep than as a doctor in this country.... wild! They told us that a doctor makes around $500 USD a month here! (Dentists make more apparently...) I know that Daria and I talked about this last week, but when she said that a health care worker made around $500 I assumed she meant a nurse or a care aide or something... eep. They were really nice and their English was pretty good so it was enjoyable, save for the smoking - they sheepishly admitted that yes, it's very unhealthy and yes, we tell all of our patients/clients NOT to smoke. We asked them what they thought about the recent elections (when I said that he parenthesized "elections" with his fingers) and Medvedev's victory. They seemed disappointed and convinced that the election was a fake - Medvedev was a shoe-in, and in reality, the public had no voice or say in the matter. However, when I asked him if he thought free elections and a true democratic vote would be better he said no, that Russia wasn't ready for a democracy. He also kept saying that Russia was stuck in medieval times, save for the larger cities. Yaroslavl doesn't seem stuck in medieval times... but there are parts of town that seem stuck somewhere. Anyways, it was refreshing to meet some new people and have a good conversation about Russian politics and life in general.

It was still snowing this morning, and there's now a thin coat of snow on top of the frozen ice-slush. I had to get out and do some exercise so I went for a run in the park and somehow managed not to fall and not to twist an ankle - lucky. Tonight we're going to a hockey game - first playoff game of the season for the local team... so that should be fun. Not much else - I'm about to start a new book, yay. It's either going to be Wayne Johnston's The Custodian of Paradise or Salman Rushdie's Shalimar... haven't decided yet. Okay, the sun is shining... must get outside!

Here are a few pics from Saturday's win: