A night walk along the Volga

New Years day and a Russian Christmas (Jan 7th) in Siberia

We have decided to go and visit Nadia's father in Siberia for the holidays before my 90 day exit. We will leave Yaroslavl on December 28th for the 58 hour train ride and arrive on December 31st just in time to celebrate the arrival of 2008. We will stay until Jan. 8th (the day after Christmas) and then return to Yaroslavl on the same train ride. I am really looking forwrd to it and i only hope that we get a little lucky on the weather. It is not uncommon for the tempature to be below -50 this time of year. It will also be quiet dark as they have less than 5 hours of sunlight in late December. I will take plenty of pictures.

New Visa law

On October 17th, Russia passed a new visa law and my one year visa that expires July 15th was affected. Now on one year visas you can only stay in the country for 90 days before having to leave for 90 days. This means that I will need to leave Russia before Janurary 17th and be gone for 90 days. My current plans are to leave around the 14th and travel to either Africia or Austrialia/Southeast Aisa for 90 days and return to Yaroslavl on April 14th.

Our first snow of winter.

Shinnik, our local soccer team, won the league this year. This was the night we clinched the title in late October.

China

Our visit to China was fantastic. The people were very friendly and the culture is so very different than anything I have every seen. We felt very safe and did a lot of exploring on foot in both Xi'an and Beijing.
Some highlights:
-The Great Wall is better than words can describe. I am still in awe every time I revisit it in my thoughts.
-I have never seen so much construction in a country. Even more than in Atlanta in the build up for the 1996 Olympics.
- I was inspired by the enthusiasm of the children we taught in school. Their smiles and eagerness to learn helped me through my fear of teaching.
- The 8 mile bike ride on top of the wall around Xi'an is a MUST for anyone who travels there.
- The Terra Cotta warriors were cool and abundant.
- The staff at CCS is awesome. Thanks.
- The Chinese are very efficient and their determination to learn English (as a country) and to modernize their country impressive.

The Great Wall