My first visit to the dentist

Oh boy I was scared to go to the dentist here. Last time I was in a medical place in a country where I did not fully understand the language, I failed to convey I wanted a full anesthesia before the Bavarian surgeon fixed my broken nose with his bare hands...
It turns out the experience was great. The office was all new and shiny and the staff was very nice and helpful. I asked for teeth cleaning, and the dentist counted my teeth (24), took her calculator and typed 24*120 rubles to calculate my total bill. I was very appreciative of this simple and reliable pricing model. I was also comforted by the fact that her financial incentive was in line with me keeping as many teeth as possible during the intervention. To seal the deal, I simply opened my mouth and let her work on my teeth.

The first beach party 2009

The 2009 beach season has officially begun, and we were not going to miss this opportunity to put on our light clothes and go play by the lake.
I am embedding a few pictures below to show how the lake looks like in the early part of the season. It sets a new and challenging benchmark for "white sand beach", doesn't it?



It was also our chance to go see the island that is 1.5 km away from the embankment, without swimming. We put on our skis and went to have a peek "on the other side". Simply amazing: more birch trees, more cement blocks and steel. It also sets a new benchmark for "a remote isolated island", doesn't it?

The end of winter!!

We officially celebrated the end of winter last Sunday. If you ask me, I think it is a bit early, and one has to be pretty visionary to foresee the end of winter when it is -13C outside. But I didn't want to bring other people down, so I put on my light winter jacket, my 1-layer nylon winter hat, I shut up and went to the local school to celebrate like everybody else.
The celebration of the end of winter is called "Maslenitsa". It actually corresponds to the celebration before the great Lent. Maslenitsa represents the last chance to partake of dairy products (lactose intolerant people, this is litteraly your last chance), and those social activities that are not appropriate during the more prayerful, sober and introspective Lenten season.

During the Maslenitsa at school, the activities included:
-wearing colorful dresses and sing with friends.
-eating home-made chicken soup, pastries and blini.


-burning Lady Maslenitsa and dancing around in circles while holding hands. At the end, Lady Maslenitsa's ashes are buried in the snow to "fertilize the crops". Very enjoyable...


Now, it is all done, and I am ready to enter a period of sober, introspective Lenten season.