Snow Follies

Oksana, a lady who has come to English Club a lot, has been trying to get us to do some activities with her and her son Viktor. Her English is limited and of course our Russian is more than limited, but we've been able to communicate with the help of the missionaries or others who speak English well. She wanted to show us around town, or drive to see the trees in the nearby mountains, or take us to see the people swimming in the river in the middle of winter, or take us paintballing, whatever. Each week she came up with a new suggestion, but we couldn't find a time when we could all get together. Finally, the activity that worked with her schedule and ours was to go to a sleigh riding hill. We told her that we would "only see"--two of the few words we know in Russian, and not participate.

We climbed in the back seat of their car with a pair of skis between us that stretched from the windshield to the back window. After driving for about 15 minutes we pulled off to the side of the road and picked up Viktor's girlfriend, Zhenya. We don't remember the make of the car, but do remember that it was barely big enough for 5 people and a pair of skis. But Zhenya also had a a snowboard. After adjusting and readjusting, we finally got everyone and everything in and slammed the door closed. It bounced back open. It only took about three tries and a lot of wiggling around before the door stayed closed and held us all in place. Fortunately the ski resort was just another 10 minutes down the road.

On the way Oksana asked if we ski. Arline told her no, mostly by showing moving her hand forward and having it tip over while saying "bonk"--Oksana very quickly caught on that Arline doesn't stay vertical on skis in the snow.

Viktor, Arline, Oksana, and Zhenya

As soon as the picture was snapped, Viktor and Zhenya headed off for the T-bar.

Oksana took us around and showed the various activities. It was a resort with a lot of options.

This looked like a fun little sled

The skating rink

Oksana asked if we wanted to skate. One "bonk" and a tipped over hand and she laughed and walked on.

We're guessing this recreational area is used in warmer weather as well. The playground didn't look like it's been used in a while.

We found the tubing hill interesting. They have a rather ingenious way of doing it. One of the missionaries later told us that he's seen a similar thing at home, but we never have. There is a looped cable running constantly. Each tube has a hook attached to a cord. The rider gets situated on the tube and when he's ready, the operator slips the hook on the cable. It's held on by the angle of the hook against the cable. At the top, the snow is first built up and then it suddenly drops down, the hook loses the friction and drops off the cable. They've dug a path around the top of the hill and then a chute down the other side.

Oksana rented a tube and insisted that we join in the fun. Insisted is a rather benign way of stating it. Suddenly she stopped understanding what we meant by "only see, only see."
Arline went first. This is as close to a video as we could get.

Dave's turn (he's a much better photographer than Arline is so there aren't as many pictures of him)

Oksana took a couple of turns as well

After we'd each gone down three times, she decided we were ready for something else. We warmed up in the cafeteria with her friends. Oksana had brought some sandwiches from home and insisted on buying us something so we got bottles of water. A few minutes later she walked over and gave us some blinis, Russians pancakes served with sour cream.
After all that, she tried to get us to go horseback riding, but we absolutely refused. Later we found out horseback riding and winter sports are both on the forbidden list for missionaries--too many injuries!

Here we are after all the activities--safe and sound and happy.

This week in Russia:
We need to to clear up a misconception. I guess we've always gone to bed too early and never saw the snow movers in operation. Last night we heard a terrible noise outside. They don't just brush the snow off the street; they also have machines that look like long, high tractors with a blade on the front that can really move snow.