Observations

1) The days have been melting together in a blur of early wake-up calls, back-to-back classes, eagerly-looked-forward-to mealtimes that culminate only in hungry disappointment, and daily swims which, to be fair, are pretty awesome. And its already been one week! Only three to go!

2) I've been spending an hour every day before dinner reading on the dock in the sun - Doris Kearns' book about FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt, lent to me by Evan - and it is such a peaceful, happy time in my day that I (almost) find myself falling in love with camp. Almost.

3) Met the girls' basketball coach today. He's a barrel-chested middle-aged man with a bit of a beer belly on him, but very solidly built, tanned and hairy. How do I know so much about his chest? Because he coaches them shirtless. There's something about this that makes me think North American parents would not be okay with their little daughters being yelled at by this man, but then again, this is Russia.

4) They don't really differentiate between meals here, and there tends to be a belief that vegetables are best digested in the morning. Hence, I ate an odd, mayonnaise-y beet salad for breakfast today. Oh Mini-Wheats, how I miss thee...

5) There's a Lady here who is in love with Evan. She's about fifteen years older than us, and seems to think I'm her competition because she glowers at me whenever I walk into the room, and then makes a point of ignoring me while falling all over him. If Evan plays his cards right, he might just get to become a Lord...lucky guy.

6) There was a TV news film crew here yesterday and they filmed part of my class! I was teaching the kids about syllables in English and then getting them to write their own haikus. Fortunately for me, I've been assigned a proper classroom where the kids are basically forced to pay attention to me, whereas Evan has been assigned the ballpit as his classroom (I am NOT joking...he has to teach in a giant ball pit like those ones you see at McDonalds' playplaces!) and as a result, his filming segment was a bit crazier than mine!

Well, that's all for now. Off to bed, with the curtains firmly drawn - it stays light here until about 11:30pm, then its sunny and bright at about 4. Definitely makes up for the four months spent in darkness over the winter! :)