Day 17, Friday We have decided that there must be something to global warming, as we have gone from 40 F to 0 F, to rain and upper 30's F. It has rained all day, melting the snow and creating hazardous road conditions. Our coordinator was shaking her head, saying that this is very unusual and not normal Kostanai weather.  We brought long underwear, gloves, hats, scarves--but did not bring one umbrella. After sloshing our way to the boarding school, we started our visit with more card games before moving on to animal creations. We brought a craft set of puff balls, popsicle sticks, pipe cleaners, glitter, blinking eyes and glue. The girls had great fun coming up with various animal look-a-likes and gave some of these creations to our coordinator Dinara, and some to Kevin & I. At the end of the day, we determined that it would be hard to transport them all and the decision was made to give them to the group. Luda, Lily (Luba) and a girl from the group named Natasha came down to help carry them upstairs. After slipping and sliding our way back to the hotel, we are back in the room, watching a Russian version of the "The Dating Game" on Russian MTV. The more things change, the more they stay the same...

Day 18, Saturday Our world is one big ice arena. We tried to walk to dinner last night and kept finding ourselves surrounded by large patches of ice. We inched along the edges of the sidewalk where perhaps there was a little water or snow to provide traction, but there were places where there was no choice but to cross very large sections of ice.  The most amazing thing was that the locals walked across it fearlessly. We did see one young man almost go down, but everyone else seemed to keep their balance nicely. When we arrived at the Bavarian, they were full. Since it seemed too hard to try to negotiate the ice and find a restaurant that had availability, we decided to go back to the hotel and eat. The girls had a lot of fun visiting with each other today in the group room. They played Barbies, made a fort out of blankets and enjoyed looking at the photos in the magazines that Mom brought from home. We brought two little Toy Box candies for the girls, and they delighted in playing with the little toys that were enclosed. We also brought the Leapster and Luba (Lily) loves playing with it. Not sure she understands the instructions, but seems to be occupied with something! We've been watching the Australian Open. Luda was crushed when Maria Sharapova lost today. Stacey, however, was cheering for Serena Williams because of her real woman physique. :)  Right now, we are watching women's curling between Russia and Canada, on Russian ESPN. (exciting!!) We didn't have the camera the boarding school today, so our photos are some of the hotel. It has just begun to snow again, we are praying it will continue so that we can venture out again without fear of hitting the pavement!

Day 19, Sunday More rain, making it easier to get around in some ways but setting the stage for the supreme slip when the temperature returns to freezing on Monday. We spent a little time "magazina", which means "shopping" in Russian (bet you didn't know that, did you?) There are a couple of small shopping malls near us, so we sloshed through the slush to do a little shopping for Lily (Luba). We found a practical, yet cute pair of size 34 boots, one pair of nice blue pants, a pair of jeans, two shirts and a pink/green sweater. Luda had fun helping to pick out the clothes, as fashion is her greatest interest and shopping her favorite past time.  A pair of tights, some underwear and socks ended our purchases for the day. Luda, who earned 1500 tenge ($15) for babysitting the other night, searched the mall for something that piqued her interest. Indecision reigned and so she left having enjoyed making purchases for her sister, but without anything for herself. We headed back to the hotel with her money still secure and the plan that perhaps she would try again another day. To break the tedium of the weekend, we rented the pool/sauna area for an hour today.  The pool, while about six feet deep, isn't very large, about 20 ft. by 15 ft.. It was plenty big enough for a ten year old to expend a bunch of energy! She practiced all her swimming moves taught to her by Ms. Jane last summer (many thanks to Ms. Burkhalter!) and ended with several beautiful, yet shallow dives. Luda has become quite the swimmer. Mom & Dad did a little swimming, but mostly dog paddled the perimeter of the pool and ducked into the sauna to warm up. The photo that you see at the right is a wonderful creation by our friend Jeff Boone! Our plans are to take to the local photo shop, take a copy to the judge for court and frame a copy and give to the director of the boarding school. Many, many thanks to Jeffrey for his thoughtfulness, sensitivity and creativity.

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