Seasons are changing quickly here in Kazan. Last weekend we went biking/scooting in the park by our home and fall leaves were clumping in the tires of Mila’s scooter. She loves collecting fall leaves, coming home each day with pocketfuls. It’s definitely hat and glove weather most days now, and we even got a fluke snowfall. My students are now showing up in full snowsuits with mittens, scarves, and hats. After recess they hang their gloves and hats on the radiators in my classroom.

Alden attended his first Russian birthday party (he let his dad tag along). As you may remember from a previous post, Russians love themed birthday parties (at least the rich ones). This one was no different and featured a Youtube theme. I’m not exactly sure what that is either and I was there. There were emcees dressed in ridiculous Youtube costumes and a team competition where each team got to make up the name for the other team. Alden was on team Coocoosiki (roughly translated as the coocoo people) The other team was The Haters. There were lots of team contests and shrill yelling from 9 year-old girls. There was also a boy in attendance whose name was Ghengis Khan (no joke). I mostly hung out with the Russian moms and drank expensive French wine.

We finally got to see some live music and Kazan didn’t disappoint. We ventured out with our buddy Jorge to a place called the Rockstar bar to see Max & Co. All the songs were in English and featured a variety of “everyone knows this one” from the golden age of rock and roll. The decor was fabulous as were the vibes and the music. Every table featured a different artist. We had the Scorpions table! We’ll definitely be back.

The following photos are from last weekend. We walked all afternoon and ended the day at the circus. Kazan’s circus is more than a hundred years old. They have a different show every season. It’s housed in a dedicated 2000 seat arena. It was entertaining and sad at the same time. We could have done without the animal acts but it was, nevertheless, a worthwhile cultural experience.