Men's Day

Yesterday was Men's Day... I don't think a day will ever come when I can understand Russian holidays- Russians don't even know what half of them are, or when they will be, or if they will be a "holiday" this year...It's crazy. Anyway, The children were off school yesterday and today (Thursday and Friday) but because they had a 'holiday' they have to attend classes Sunday- so strange to me! The same for many businesses- because they had Thursday off, they will work Sunday. This all causes me to think- why have a holiday then if you have to make the day up on the weekend?!

So, back to Men's Day. Of course, we had classes- but it was a relaxed day because we spent the second half of class on the Main St downtown (we're studying about "our city" right now, so we talked about some stores and monuments and stuff downtown). We surprised the guys in our class with cards and candy in honor of them! Apparently Men's Day used to be a military holiday (it seems most holidays here used to be military or communist holidays) so there were programs about soldiers all over the TV.

We bought 5 red carnations and a big box of chocolate to take next door to Stas, and wrapped up some Reese's Cups to give to the boys. Of course they invited us in and insisted that we stay for a little while- even after we repeatedly told them we would only be a minute! Gavin wrestled Zhenia and Stasic while Stas showed us his photo album of the 2 years he served in the military- it was so interesting to hear about the guys he served with and how difficult it was to be a believer- it seemed like most of his pictures were of guys gathered around drinking tea and for each one he would say "these are friends of mine, they're believers..." He told us how he wouldn't ever want his sons to be in the military, especially b/c it was so difficult to be a believer. Then he showed us a picture of his church when he left for the military, he was 20 and Inna was only 15- she looked like such a little girl! So, after tea and cake we gathered up Gavin, congratulated Stas again, and headed off to a Superbowl party!

Yes, I know, the Superbowl was quite awhile ago... And even though we've already seen it (thanks NICK!) we enjoyed the hot wings and fellowship of our classmates! As well as watching it of the 'big screen' c/o Robert's projector! Surprise- the Steeler's won! I could barely believe there were people at the party last night that still didn't know who the winner was! I love it!