Pumpkins!

The kids were wanting to carve a pumpkin so we wandered around all day Saturday looking for one.  They don't have them often but usually you can find one somewhere...even if it's little and slightly green...  but we couldn't find any:(   kids were kinda sad but they know it's not easy here...  but on the way home we saw our friend Era and told her we couldn't find any. Anyway...later that night Era called us up and told David to come to a certain little street vendor where David found her husband Aidash guarding 3 big pumpkins for us!   So thankful.  They were so glad to have made our day happy and we are touched by their care for us.  They were really cheap too.  $5? for all three.   crazy.

English Club

Every Friday night we have English Club- I teach a little lesson and then we just have fun hanging out/playing games. They probably learn more American/Canadian culture than they do language but that is one thing they can't get normally here so it's all good.  We enjoy getting to know these girls (and the occasional guy).

When I was walking past the living room today I saw Emma practicing the moves that she had trouble with in her first class.  She is determined to perfect them before her next class. 

Emma's Classical Dance Class

Emma's dance teacher helping her get on her hands and feet.  This was Emma's first real class and boy was it tough but she LOVED it.  Her teacher is quite strict (if they have one less pin in their hair than they should it is unacceptable) but she is very nice too.  Emma is really going to like this I think.  Soon all the girls will have the pink outfits like the two in the front (they are on order from Moscow).

Emma's dance class is right in the windows behind the wooden building at the temple (so if the teacher closes the door we can sit and watch her class from in there)

new things at the temple



there's a squirrel up there :)





the superheroes...





ready for blast off..



A little trip up north...

Last week I went on a fun little trip with my australian friend Elisabeth up north..  It's only 5 hours away to Abakan- a bigger city and much much more developed.  She needed to buy winter clothes to help her survive winter here in Tuva.  And I couldn't turn down a few day wandering around the shops and talking in English!  Such a nice relaxing and fun time.  Our legs were quite sore everynight after roaming around the city in search of something great.  Kinda like a girls equivalent to a hunting/fishing trip :)  

you're not in tuva anymore....

Our purpose in going was finding good winter clothes but for sure a highlight was going to real restaurants and cafes and having things like salad and steak and cappuccino and salmon and good pizza etc.   Funny what a difference a 5 hour drive makes.  We even had an English menu at the Irish Pub!   super fun.

the drive up to Abakan

This time of year is a great time to drive up north...  it's still brown and fall-like down here (you can kinda see in the last picture with Ben) but then as you drive up into the moutains it's a winter wonderland..we even slid around a bit...  Of course Elisabeth, being from Brisbane, was SOOOOOOO excited to see the snow.. giggled the whole way through it.  I like it too.  i just don't giggle anymore :)   But then once we get out of the mountains and further up north it got warmer again..good thing cause we didn't bring our winter boots!

Emma's first dance class!

Emma's dream has finally come true..she started her first dance class today.  David went with her this morning and she hasn't stopped practicing and talking about it all day.  I'll take her next time and hopefully get some photos of her class.  She is the only non Tuvan girl- not even any Russians in the class.  hopefully she'll learn some Tuvan dances as well as the classical and ballet types of dances.  The picture is just the poster advertising the class a month ago or so.

it's working?

just testing if i can actually put pics on here...       just huddy enjoying the new lego motorbikes i brought him back from my little trip...more photos coming soon if this works :)

Update

Hi!  Well we paid and it went through and it says we can put picture on now but still it won't work.  :(  but just wanted to tell you all we are fine. 
I just got back from a little vacation up in a bit bigger but much nicer city with my australian girlfriend Elisabeth.  (just to clarify this is Erin writing :)  )  It was a fun little trip- she needed to buy good winter clothes/coats etc.  It's already like australian winter right now and it's still 5C.  she is gonna have quite the chills at -46C!!!!   We had fun wandering the shops and restaurants and coffee shops and chatting away in English. 
I have quite the collection of pictures to put on here from the last week and a bit.  We are doing great..we just can't show you yet! 
K.  language session is in 15 min. so i better go prepare for that.  Thanks for checking in..  hopefully we'll be back to normal and next time you check they'll be some pictures...

testing to see if I can post pics this way :)   so far so good...

Hmmmm

Well that wasn't so fun.  We just survived a couple of days without electricity.  We have power outages/or water shutoffs here a LOT, but it's usually for an hour or two while someone in the building is fixing something or who knows why.  they are always without warning and usually right when you are about to make supper :)  But this time it just never came back on....and we kept waiting and waiting...  At first it's fun and exciting and relaxing and even romantic, house filled with candles, reading books instead of being on the computer/tv/wii, no need for cleaning in the corners (just making sure you don't trip on things as you navigate with your lantern.) and so on and so forth.   But then after 10 or so hours you start getting a little bored and you so badly want to do the laundry or anything that just would make a noise in the house.  after 30+ hours I was playing solitaire with real cards!  we had all the stuff in our fridge on the balcony- hoping the fall air was cold enough to keep it from spoiling. Anyway, we did survive fine and somehow they fixed it just now in the middle of the night.   So now I should be posting some of our fun candle pictures...but I have another problem now.
I guess I've used up my free photo space on the blog.  Strange eh.  You'd think I would have done that YEARS ago.  but anyway.  seems to be the case and although it seems fairly easy to fix ($5 per year) everytime I click on the button to do so the next page won't load up for me.  SO I'll keep working on it.  I wasn't finished putting on my last set of pictures when it filled up and i've got a big stack of em to put on for sure now.
Thanks for checking in with us.