I'm still alive

After many subtle hints and some outright nagging, I am back on the blog bandwagon (or at least I'll try to be). As I keep on explaining, I've been busy. But before I get to that, here's the current weather situation:

 I woke up to a mini blizzard and an inch of new snow. But that's ok, because I know in an hour, it'll look like this:

Me at Kolomonskoe park

 So then, I'll get prepared to go out and get some "fresh" air, but by the time I reach the door, it'll be snowing again. And the forecast is showing the same thing for the rest of the week- just like last week. I want warmth already!
Last week Petr and I were sick with some nasty cold for the whole week and it's still clinging its last nasty remnants to our raw throats. I don't think the bi-polar weather is doing us any favors.
But as you can see, sometimes we've caught some blue skies, such as the weekend before last when we visited a nearby park in the south of Moscow with several historical buildings and churches. There was someone there playing bells which reverberated through the clear crisp air in such a haunting way. It was really atmospheric. In my usual style, I took a million picks of the buildings. Here is a slim selection:

And an earlier shot from the Red Square when Petr's family came and visited us for a few days in late February (again, I forget to take pictures of people) :

Here's one of Petr and I complimentary of Jitka and Pavel, who do take pictures of people. This was about  5 minutes before the first picture (note the difference in light/weather):

It was exceptionally cold then (-10C) but we bucked up and did the tourist thing, visiting all the main sights. Sadly, Lenin's embalmed corpse was on holiday so we weren't able to view it. Tragic.

Anyways, besides playing tour guide, I've been busy getting a job and working. Two jobs, actually. About 3 weeks ago I started at the local humanities university teaching English to 3 classes of translators. They range from first year students to fourth year. It's kind of unreal because I just showed up one day for what I thought was an interview and ended up signing a contract and teaching that week. No one in the administration speaks English, so I am relying on one teacher who is sort of my go-between if I've got any problems or questions. So far all has worked out fine. The students are nice and I am enjoying the classes. If something is going wrong, however, I'll be the last to know ;-) It's also a challenge figuring out what classroom I'll be in that day, and trying to get the right key from the key lady hoping that she's got my name in her little book or else that there is someone nearby who can translate for me what I need.  Never a dull moment.
A week later I began tutoring at a private school for rich Russian kids looking to get into UK schools. I do this twice a week or whenever they need me and I have some extra time. It's ok so far: the kids are 8-15ish and I only have one student at a time, which is great. However, they can be a bit spoiled and not used to working very hard. That's certainly the case with one little boy I've substituted for the last two Saturdays. He spends most of his time playing his Playstation 3 and can't seem to focus on spelling or writing anything legibly. He can't seem to focus at all, in fact. I blame the Playstation. We're training kid's brains to demand constant, second-to-second stimulation so that they just can manage to focus of a single thing for even a minute. To hell in a handbag, I'm telling you.
It's interesting teaching kids though. I haven't done that age group much, so it's an interesting challenge for me.
In addition, I'm taking on one more private student, the husband of my current Czech teacher. Oh yeah, I took up Czech lessons again. Her name is Magda, his is Zbynek. We are having our first lesson today. So with Zbynek and Radek, my other neighbor/private student, I have every noontime full with English lessons, and every afternoon with either teaching at the university or the private school. In between I prepare for classes. I went from having nothing to do to having too much! I am still trying to figure out how to fit in Czech lessons, and Russian have gone by the wayside completely. At least I know that the university classes will end in late May, so I will have some time then.

OHHHH, and the best news of all: I FINALLY BOUGHT MY PLANE TICKET!!!! For those of you out of the loop, I have been trying to manage a trip back to the States for my brother's wedding. So I got the tickets and I'm coming June 30th and leaving July 27th along with my old roommate Carissa, flying to Berlin, meeting up with my other roommate from college, Brittany, and then the three of us are heading to the Czech Republic to prepare for my wedding on August 13th. It's going to be a busy summer!
I am totally excited to see my family again- especially since many of them are coming up to Cd'A for Kevin's wedding. It's going to be a hell of a reunion! On top of that, I get to hang out with Joanna in Seattle and we are road-tripping it to Cd'A together and she might come over a second time while I'm there for a month. We always manage to get together when we're on the same continent and I'm so grateful for that.
I have so much to do in preparation for the wedding and my trip, it's insane. I'm hyperventilating just thinking about it. When I'm in Idaho, I'll probably have to buy my dress and do a bunch of legal stuff (changing my name on everything) and then I have to get my butt to CZ and try to pull together a ceremony last-minute. I don't even want to think about it. Good thing I've got Petr to help me communicate with the venue and his mom and grandma are so helpful. They are our eyes and ears for the moment and I don't know what we'd do without their help and advice on everything from cake types to accommodation for my visiting family. I don't have any major expectations for this thing- I just want a good party with family, friends and lots of food and beer. Please, forces of the universe, make this happen!

I've got to get ready for my lesson now so I'll finish this off with some pics of my silly cat. She's such a bizarre little monster, but she's definitely becoming more social AND playful. Today she was batting her little mouse around for several minutes. And this is the cat that used to just spend all day under the chair. I'm going to get some video footage of the beast, because the noises she makes are so hilarious. I think she was raised by birds. FYI, her name is Mishka, but we refer to her variously as: Myš, Moosh, Moo, Mooshers, Мыш, Миш (in Russian she is conversely a mouse or a bear), or Petr's favorite: dračku and střevo (dragon and intestine). I call her "turd" sometimes, so I can't judge on the last one. :-)
Our little turd/bowel:

 We both agree that she has the sort of head you just want to squeeze. We're sick, we know. Please don't call animal control on us.