Highlights from last night (part 1)

December 31st
11:00pm
We gathered at the dinner table. I was of course the last to sit down, since I was still blow drying and curling my hair at quarter till. Julia's grandma proposed that everyone toasts to the best thing about 2008. When it got to Julia's grandpa's turn he said:

I don't know about everyone else, but I am very happy that both of our granddaughters are still single!

11:55pm
The President of the Russian Federation (that's Medvedev) came on TV. He said a few inspiring words (I assume they were inspiring, but honestly we weren't paying attention), then the Kremlin clocks rang 12 times and it was the New Year. (I thought it was weird without the countdown.) The Russian anthem came next - at which point everyone started singing it, but the older generations was singing the USSR version while the young generation were singing the Russian version (the melody is the same for both). Needless to say, the older generations out sang us. :)

January 1st
12:30am
We went out into the street to set off fireworks. (To go out into the Siberian winter, I put on my Uggs and snow pants under my skirt - it was real classy.) Real fireworks: in the midst of others setting off fireworks in just about every yard in the city. Our fireworks were the most beautiful and loud; they made our dog bark, the parked cars alarms go off and the people driving by honk!

1:20am
Julia, her boyfriend and I changed into warmer street clothes and filed into a taxi to go into the Academic town to see their friends.

2:00am
We arrive by the shopping center in Academic town where there's a slide made of ice and a Santa Clause made of snow! (Yes, I went down the slide and yes, my butt is OK!)

2:30am
We're off to one of Julia's friend apartment. It's quite tricky to walk around on the snow because it's all padded down and very slippery.

4:30am
Genya S. shows up at Julia's friend's! His hair is longer and he shaved off his mustache, so it took some staring to fully accept that it was really him. Genya's family and my family lived in the same 2 room (2 bedrooms and 1 kitchen) apartment when I was 2 yrs old. This is the boy that I saw being brought home from the hospital on the day he was born; the boy I used to take baths with! Genya's family are the type of friends that are really like family to us.

5:00am
Genya and I head out to meet up with his parents at their friend's apartment. It was amazing to see them. We reminisced about our favorite stories from when we lived together. The classic being that Genya and I and our dads used to run around the apartment pretend shooting at each other from wooden guns. Yes, I grew up playing war! :)