Look!!! No Hats!!!!

Busy with Friends

Ooopsies... sorry. We have been getting emails asking if we are ok etc... my bad:) We have been super busy- either being a guest or having people over. Usually I blog at night or during the night if I wake up but I guess I've needed my sleep these last few days:) We lost one hour of sleep too on Sat. night due to Daylight Savings Time. It has been so beautiful out- 8-10 C these days!!! so if we have spare time in the day we head outside!!! There is almost no snow left- there is no snow in our park but we have more sun then most areas.

On Sat we had English club which went really well- 2 more new students (well new this year:) and we'll have even more next week. Then on Sunday we had my russian language helper Sayanna over for supper with Era, Aidash, Aidiir and their new little baby. So good to spend time with them- they love that we are learning Tuvan. All over the house I have little notes up on the wall labeling things and phrases we should learn so they were helping us with pronunciation etc. and giving us many more new words and sayings. On the door I have phrases like "hello" and "see you tomorrow" etc. And by the phone it says "What did you say????" :) If you are bored you can search and listen to some Tuvan words here- I think I have it linked to what my name is in Tuvan:) It is pronounced the exact same as how my name is spelled and pronounced in Russian so I can't avoid it only embrace it:) good thing my last name isn't saly...

We haven't officially started with a language helper but we have really started to get an introduction to the language. It is a Turkic language and though it is harder than Russian in some ways I'm enjoying the ways it is easier right now like the number system and colour names etc. Maybe I should be changing our blog name from Privyet (hello in Russian) to Ekii (hello in Tuvan).

Anyway, yesterday we had 5 of Emma's friends come for supper. I decided to teach them to make pizza- when I started making the dough before they came I realized that it was my first time making it too...but thankfully it all turned out:) We had so so much fun. We giggled and giggled. They taught us more Tuvan words and even how to play a card game in Tuvan. Then they put on some Kongor-ool Ondar (throat singer) and danced away. They did some traditional Tuvan dancing too. SO fun. Emma is so thankful for these friends- so are we. We really really hope we don't have to move out of this building...we would love to spend years and years with these girls!

glad to have Emma back...

my favorite photos are the ones on the bottom, they were through our windows though so they aren't so clear... they were the first time the oldest girl Vika (white and black hat) saw Emma and it was just so sweet to see how happy she was to see Emma was back. We had 5 girls over yesterday- Nastya, Tanya, Vika, Oorlanaa, and Aldiin-Chai. We are anxious for summer so that we can spend more time with them all outside cause the group of girls (if they all came) really is too big to fit in Emma's room to play:)

Huddy's Wii Time

Huddy loves playing the car racing game on the wii- he's pretty good at it for a little guy too. Today I told him that he had to do some exercising first though so we weighed him in, (top photo - he's underweight it says... is 34 pounds underweight for a 4 year old? he eats good so i'm not worried) Then he chose to run as the activity and then finally he got to play his game... He is such a fun little guy lately- Tuva agrees with him:)

Kitchen Helpers

Today while Emma was working on some homework I kept the boys busy in the kitchen making oatmeal cookies. They look so cute in their new aprons that my mom sent.... My mom is amazing with packages....they only take 2 weeks to get to us... we sent some stuff from Three Hills months ago that we still are waiting for... I guess the little bubble envelopes she sends are the best option. Thanks MOM!!!!! They have been keeping busy with all the stickers, colouring, little toys etc. So fun to get fun stuff from Grandma!

Two new students...

Our English Club has been going along well, each week we have the few that always come (mainly the mongolian girls Dolgarmaa, Togi and Nono) and then we have others that come every once in a while like Zhenya, Aldunai, Tuumin, Edik, Zhanna, Sayanna etc. This week we had two new students- Vovo is the young man on the left and Gaihmara is the girl in the red and black. After our formal teaching time we had fun playing wii together- it's so good to play together to get to know eachother more instead of just sitting there feeling awkward and making small talk...so much better to box away the night or play a round of golf. great icebreaker...

Our day so far...

It really is warming up out there- the buildings are dripping from the melting snow on top and the sidewalks are bare and the grass/dirt is stinky and messy. Yay!!! So we are enjoying playing outside more now- don't get cold so fast. If it is like last year it will just keep getting warmer now- doesn't flip flop like it does in Canada. Just a gradual upward slope to summer. The boys are enjoying some toddler computer games we brought back for them- keeps them busy and learning a little while Emma and I are working on her schooling.

The not so great canadian bagel...

One of the things we can't get here are bagels...so today we attempted to make them. I'm sure I'm good at something but it isn't bagel making. They tasted good- nice and chewy but the presentation is lacking:) (I picked the best ones in the picture, the only half decent one is facing you:) I'm not very good with details. Huddy keeps saying bake, boil, bake. ya. the hard part was mixing the dough for me... my blending on highspeed for 3 minutes wasn't so good. maybe a blender is necessary:) Still, worth the trouble...

View from the bridge...

Today is pretty warm- doesn't look like it in the pictures maybe but it is:) We took a walk to the bridge that crosses the Yenesei River so we could get a good view of the frozen river and see our house from afar etc. In the top and bottom pictures you can see our apartment building- it is the biggest one at the far right, hard to see in the bottom pic but it is there on the right (looks like a big black rectangle). Such a nice place to live.... close to the beach (especially nice in the summer:) and the mountain views.... I like it here...

Our Special Treat

At our last English Club (which had a super good turnout btw) we had mentioned that we have never really heard Throat Singing yet while we've been here- just seen it on TV and sortof heard it at bigger concerts but not really right up close. Well, one of the ladies that attends our club said she'd hook us up with a performance. We were thinking we were just going to sit in on the throat singing class at the tuvan arts school but really we were there for a special performance just for our family!!!!! These two guys (who were trained at least partially by the famous Kongor-ool Ondar who was on letterman- watch him here) spent their lunch break singing for us!!!!! It was amazing!!!!! It is so crazy how they can sing producing two/three notes at the same time. I LOVED hearing it (so did Josiah who often tries to throat sing:).

These two guys (who were almost as interested in us as we were in them) only really spoke Tuvan which is to be expected as they are real tuvan boys, having grown up throat singing and really in the tuvan culture. We were at least able to say a few phrases to them in Tuvan like Thanks:) They do understand russian but they were hesitant to speak it and used a translator instead. It was such a treat to be in that room- it was put together by Ondar himself and has all kinds of goodies and momentos from all the famous throatsingers.

I so SO much wish I could post the videos I took of these guys singing. Someday we will have a better connection I hope and then I'll post a bunch:) I don't have many pictures of the two musicians because I was getting it on video instead:(

It was also great to be in their school- no russians attend there so the language you hear is Tuvan of course. We are just starting to get into studying Tuvan so it is great to be able to hear it as much as we can. Yay!!! I am just so glad that we got to learn more about throat singing today and to experience some good Tuvan Culture:)