Deep thoughts?

So if you dump snow into a frozen canal, to the point where the snow you dump into the canal piles over the bank of the canal, and the fence on top of it for that matter, is that considered a flood?
For the record this picture was taken a couple of weeks ago, but I am still pondering the question.

March

So March is almost over. This has been a long winter for us. Locals and the media has told us that St Petersberg has not had a winter like this in 20 years or so. I now know why they changed the climate crises title for Global Warming, to Climate Change. :) Things are improving though, today we took a tour of a palace and wandered outside in relatively warm 40 degree weather. Well on our way home it started raining, but in saying good bye to winter a little rain can be a good thing. Here with the warmer weather as an Ally, the city is finally winning the battle of snow removal.
Which for this winter warrior, could come none too soon.

Because we are just plain tired of this... (I think that is about-9 F)

And all the time we spend indoors, because it is just too cold, icy, snowy and generally miserable outside.

But things are on the up and up, check out this clear sky!

The city can start fixing all the damage from the winter. I actually saw the snow plow run into this streetlight, but I did not have my camera that day. Surprisingly the streetlight has yet to fall down yet, and has remained for a couple of weeks.

I took these pictures on my walk to school earlier in the month, what a difference a few weeks make.

I hope we are done seeing this out our windows. Here is to a beautiful spring!

Happy Women's Day!

So before I dive into my women's day I thought perhaps that some people may want to know the history behind the holiday! Below is cut and pasted from an email I received about the holiday from a gentleman at the consulate- hopefully no copy write infringement with posting it!

A Little Background on International Women’s Day

1908
Oppression and inequality spur women to become more vocal and active in campaigning for change. 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

1909
In accordance with a declaration by the Socialist Party of America, the first National Woman's Day (NWD) was observed across the United States on 28 February. Women continued to celebrate NWD on the last Sunday of February until 1913.

1910
In 1910 a second International Conference of Working Women was held in Copenhagen. A woman named Clara Zetkin (Leader of the 'Women's Office' for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) tabled the idea of an International Women's Day. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day - a Women's Day - to press for their demands. The conference of over 100 women from 17 countries, representing unions, socialist parties, working women's clubs, and including the first three women elected to the Finnish parliament, greeted Zetkin's suggestion with unanimous approval and thus International Women's Day was the result.

1911
Following an agreement reached at Copenhagen in 1911, International Women's Day (IWD) was observed for the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March. More than one million women and men attended IWD rallies campaigning for women's rights to work, vote, be trained, to hold public office and end discrimination.

1913
On the eve of World War I, Russian women observed their first International Women's Day on the last Sunday in February,1913. International Women's Day was moved to 8 March, a day that remained the global date for International Women's Day ever since.

Now i had not heard about the Holiday before moving to Russia- but I must say it is a great day- much like our Valentines Day men are expected to give flowers, chocolate or other special treats to women. My special husband decided to partake in the celebration too! I had been eyeing/ talking about/ begging for one particular tea cup since the day we arrived- and to my surprise Josh surprised me with it today! Isn't my "Winter fairy tale" cup beautiful!

My husband wouldn't be my husband if he didn't always have an extra treat up his sleeve :)
If I wasn't overjoyed enough- Josh decided to truly spoil me and double surprise me with this beautiful tea cup and tea pot set! Happy Women's Day to me!!!!

A weekend in Novgorod

I (Josh- for some reason my computer does not recognize me as a blog poster anymore, hmmm I'll think about that later.) Regardless I went to Novgorod for a couple of days with a friend this week and I was quite surprised at how friendly the people were in a much smaller town here in Northwest Russia.

At the World War Two memorial they had a tank, so I could not resist a photo op.

This is a city/ state government building, it is quite impressive.

At the end of a walking bridge in the center of town was a statue of this footloose and quite inappropriately dressed (for the weather) young woman. Speaking of inappropriate, this day was the first day since December that it had been above freezing, and the River (the Volkov river) was NOT frozen. The river in Saint Petersburg which is much closer to the Baltic sea and should be warmer then this inland river is frozen solid and has been for months. The relative lack of ice in this river was quite disturbing.

In one of the many Churches in this town (this town is almost 1000 years older than St Petersburg, which means a whole lot of time to build lots of churches) the creation story was painted on the wall. I loved the painting depicting the Adam having to go to work once they were kicked out of the Garden.

In 1862 the Czar (I think Alexander II but don't quote me on that) commissioned this statue to commemorate the 1000 years of Russia, as in 862 the first prince of Russia (Prince Rurik) began to rule in Novgorod. For comparison St Petersburg was not founded until around the 840th year of Russian history.

One of the most special things for me about living in St Petersburg is the large amount of international people that I come into contact with- I feel so privileged to learn about so many different cultures. This past month I learned about “Hinamatsuri” the Japanese doll festive or Girls Day.
Here is the explanation from Wikipedia - The custom of displaying dolls began during the Heian period. Formerly, people believed the dolls possessed the power to contain bad spirits. Hinamatsuri traces its origins to an ancient Japanese custom called hina-nagashi ("doll floating"), in which straw hina dolls are set afloat on a boat and sent down a river to the sea, supposedly taking troubles or bad spirits with them. The Shimogamo shrine celebrates the Nagashibina by floating these dolls between the Takano and Kamo rivers to pray for the safety of children. People have stopped doing this now because of fishermen catching the dolls in their nets. They now send them out to sea, and when the spectators are gone they take the boats out of the water and bring them back to the temple and burn them.
The most beautiful display of dolls is set out to celebrate this holiday. There are 7 platforms set up and covered with a red cloth. The dolls are made to represent the emperor, emperors, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period. Below is a picture of the display at the Japanese Consulate. It was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. The detail on each doll was truly amazing, not only was each doll is dressed in the traditional clothing but each had hand panted faces and beautiful silky hair. Here is the significance of the doll order and decorations… to learn about the dolls click here.