A Lack of Fireworks, but a nice time

I realize that it has been some time since I last posted. Sorry about that.
The last few weeks have gone well. My classes all seem to be on the right track and having a good time. The children's class has been going much better. The textbook we use is called Happy House and contains absolutely no reading or writing assignments. It is designed to be a non-threatening, fun introduction to the English language. While that sounds nice and would be great for 4 year olds, by 7-9 year olds love to write in English. Maybe it is because the alphabet is so different and so it is like a puzzle or maybe it is just that they like to show off, but they enjoy it. So I've been taking opportunities to supplement the workbook with writing activites. This has the advantages of helping them learn more, keeping them more focused on English, and serving as evidence to their parents that their children are learning. I actually look forward to this class all week. Not only is it very different from and more high energy than the others, no other class acts as excited to see me as these kids do.
It continues to get colder and colder here, though it hasn't snowed yet. Tuesday was the Day of National Unity, a holiday not celebrated during Soviet times, and which really still isn't celebrated. Though it was a public holiday and school and work was officially canceled, nothing really happened. They didn't shoot off fireworks, even, and here they often shoot off fireworks to celebrate the fact that it is Friday or that the Volga continues to flow south. We, that is, Ivor, Sarah, Megan, and I, went on a walk to find The Central Park of Culture and Leisure. This park didn't quite live up to its name. While we live in the city center, which is in the northern part of the city, this park was quite far to the north of us, so I'm really not sure what it is in the center of. Also, there really wasn't much "culture" there, though we did see very run-down fair rides that I very much hope are non-operational. We had a good time despite the very noticible cold, windy weather.
Taking notice of the fact that it was Election Day and wanting something American (at least the 3 of us Americans did; Ivor didn't really care), we went to McDonalds for supper. While this is kind of pathetic, the only two American establishments in town are McDonalds and Baskin Robbins, and we were somehow not in the mood for ice cream.
Megan, Sarah, and I were tempted to stay up all night to watch the results. I then remembered that I had class at 9:30 in the morning, so we came up with the brilliant plan of waking up at 4 in the morning to watch. Surprisingly enough, we followed through on this plan and had a good time of it. This was one of the many, many times we were grateful for high-speed internet as we were able to watch the speeches along with the rest of America. While I'm sure some of you reading are far less thrilled with the results than we were, you've got to admit it was a great moment in history to be watching.
While most Russian people know very little about American politics, they do know that they didn't really want Bush anymore, or anyone in his party. None of them have mentioned the Russian president's threatening remarks yet, and I really haven't wanted to bring it up.
I was able to find a church this past Sunday. It is small and meets in a conference room, but it is in English, which is wonderful. Most of the congregants are Malaysian or Kenyan medical students, but many of them speak English very well, and the pastor and his wife are American. The songs are a mix between praise and worship and hymns, and they sing the Doxology in three languages. I'm looking forward to going back.