Our Tyumen: Guest Room and Corridor

Here's a photo down the hallway. That's the door into the apartment. To the left immediately is the kitchen. To the near left is the living room. To my immediate left is the guest room to my immediate right is the bedroom. To the rear left is the bathroom and the rear right is the toilet.

The Guest room in all it's cleaned glory!

The Ice Sculptures in Tyumen

Talk about amazing - we just love this part of the year. Sure it's below zero... in fact, the other day it was -5F and we were thinking, "It feels so warm!"

Well, when you live somewhere when it's this cold for so long.... you realize that the beauty of snow and ice can really be exploited in ways that amaze....

Enjoy!

The Tyumen Ice Sculpture Gardens

Our Tyumen: the Bathroom(s)

Yes, we have 2 separate rooms for the bathroom. There's a toilet / bathroom split that's pretty common here in Russia.

Enjoy the pics.

This is the bathroom sink.

This is the towel rack that we must be VERY careful of. It actually HEATS the bathroom as well and it's usually scalding HOT.

This is the washing machine/ airplane simulator. When it's in the spin cycle, you're ready for takeoff! Dryers are really rare in Russia...
And the throne.

improper winter attire / proper winter attire

Here is an example of crazy winter attire:

Here is an example of proper winter attire:

Merry Christmas!

Jim & Sally won the Christmas door prize at our special dinner party. It was marshmallow peeps from AMERICA! Thanks to all who sent us gifts for the holidays. It really made us feel special and loved!

chubby bunny at christmas?

Yeah, of course I had to play chubby bunny. Actually, it was a part of a game that Amy thought up. We had a present wrapped up about 15 times, and in each layer was a task to be accomplished. Well, poor Sally got "Chubby Bunny" So in a gracious act of insane mercy, I exchanged with her and did the chubby bunny on her behalf. There aren't really marshmallows in Russia, so I had to do it with strawberry favored zephyr... mmmmm.

Ministry of the stomach

Here's a picture of S and I cooking. You know, at Christmas, you simply must have cookies. It the ministry of the stomach. We made 5 different kinds of cookies for the various Christmas dinners, pageants and parties. S had never made cookies before! Amazing.

A new table!!!

We have a new table!!! This now allows us to have more folks over for dinner and to move from the kitchen to the living room for dining! Jim & I (Jeff) worked for FIVE hours to put this table together. There are some 130 screws just in the table top hinges! Phew. Like any home improvement project, we made several trips to the hardware store... and there aren't Home Depot staff around to help you find what you need... and maybe it's not available. But we still managed to build it in time for the Big Christmas Dinner that we're hosting this weekend!!!

Temperature amazingness...

As we prepare for our day here, we usually take the time to look at the temperature before we leave the house. It's pretty much a smart and required move. For example: this morning. I'm in the kitchen getting a cup of tea when I hear Amy exclaim from the living room, "whoa! it's minus 27!"

guess the long underwear are on for the day today...

Christmas Craft Seminar!

I'm really excited to write this post and let you all know that on Saturday the Christmas Craft seminar was REALLY successful. There were only 20 spaces for the seminar and they were ALL filled. The staff, along with Amy and Sally planned the whole seminar and they raised enough funds to cover HALF of the rent for the month! We're really pleased and proud of them. It's really their first endeavor in trying to fund their own rent here in Russia and we're really proud of their efforts.

I've posted a LOT of photos for you all to look at, here the LINK.

We're feeling the Christmas spirit now which is really nice. It's been a long and somewhat muddy fall so far. The temperature has dropped to -20F (so we read) and Amy is still outside running with Tammy. I'm a bit concerned to be honest.