Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! We celebrated with some refugees from different African countries that are now living in Spokane. They prepared African dishes, played festive music, and danced for us in fun costumes.

The girls in my family (Grandma, Mom, Aunt, Cousin, and Sylvia- she's like family) all went to the spa for some time together before we head back to Russia and a celebration of the new year. I love my family!

Our visas are still on hold. It looks like we'll be getting a guest visa, which is only good for 90 days. During that time, we'll apply for a temporary residency, which is good for 3 years. All of the government offices are closed until the 10th, so after that, hopefully the ball will begin rolling with our letters of invitation and visa process (about 40-45 days total).

The other night we went to dinner at the house of a Russian family (friends of my parents). When we got there, we asked where their 7-month old baby was. "Oh, she's outside", they said. We totally thought they were joking, especially because our experience in Russia has always been that babies need to be very warm. Even if it's 90 degrees inside, people will not crack a window if a baby is in a room because of the draft. But pretty soon, we heard a cry on a moniter, and sure enough- they opened the slider to their back yard (in below freezing weather) and brought in the baby! She was very bundled. They said that Russians believe it's good for babies to sleep outside, as long as it's not colder than -20 degrees. They said that if you have a balcony that's safe, you should put the baby on the balcony. But if it's not safe, you need to walk with the baby in a stroller, up and down the street. I had noticed many people with strollers in the daytime walking around in Siberia... maybe this is what they were doing. Of course, much of the winter in Ulan Ude is below the safe -20 range!! hahaha.