Classes, "Spring?" and more

Well, I guess I'm putting up about one post a month, I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but it just is.  Most of the exciting things that recently happened to me took place in the last post, since then teaching has resumed as well as a few extra activities.  Within the first two weeks of February my new schedule for this semester was "set" (it has changed a bit since then, as usual).  So my new basic layout is: I have four classes at the university that meet every week, as well as two more that meet every other week.  Four of those six are lectures on a topic they call "country studies."  So I get to talk about America, UK, Australia, and other english speaking countries, which is great since I know so much about the UK and other countries.  Let's just say this will be a very American heavy class :)  But so far it has been going pretty well, I will be giving them their first exam for this class next week so I will see how it is really going.  My other two classes at the university are more loosely structured and it is with students I have had last semester.  This is more of a discussion class where I pretty much have free reign to do whatever I want.  So far we have talked about Black History Month, read Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (Harrison Bergeron - so far I have not gotten in any trouble for this), discussed the American education system, and who knows what else we will do (supposedly I should know).  As well as these classes I am still working at the School every Thursday, just like last semester.  The kids there have been great, as usual, in fact during the week of valentines day they even made me this:

So, needless to say, I'm enjoying my days there.  I have also started to do a movie club at our local American Corner (American center in a library).  Actually, I am continuing the club from a friend and fellow fulbrighter who has moved this semester to another city.  It meets every Sunday for a couple hours, so we watch half a movie (stopping to discuss every 15 minutes or so) every week, in English of course!  We are currently half way through "Thank You For Smoking" since someone asked me a couple weeks ago "What is lobbying?"  And with a holiday coming up I won't have to plan the next movie for a couple weeks.

Well, that is the more professional side to my life right now.  I've also been trying to do more things in the city this semester.  So I have been to a concert in the main concert hall downtown where there was a special performance with an alpine horn!! (альпийский рог).  It was pretty cool, the main guy who was a horn specialist went back and forth between the alpine horn and a french horn.  He played with an ensemble and the first half of the show was mostly classical pieces, but in the second half he played some funk with both horns!! It was great, I've never heard anyone play french horn like he did, in a funk kind of style.  Here is a poor photograph I took of his alpine horn solo (as with all the photos, click to enlarge!):

Without transition, the Kazan Hockey team, Ak Barç (Ак Барс), is in the Championships for the Gagarin Cup (their stanley cup, named after russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (stress on second "a")) and we are currently in a best-of-seven match off with Ufa (Уфа)!  One of the other Americans in Kazan has season tickets, including to post-season matches, so I was fortunate enough to tag along to a game!  It was quite exciting and we won the game I saw in overtime, scored within 2 minutes of overtime starting.

This is from the first period, after that I was too busy cheering and watching to remember to take more pictures.  After our tense victory a couple of gentlemen sitting next to us were so excited about the victory that we got invited, or more specifically, I got invited for some vodka in the stadium restaurant (my friend, Erin, is a woman, so Russian men do not ask her to drink vodka, usually).  Naturally, I did not want to be rude, so we went and talked/drank with them for a little bit before heading out.  Interesting guys, and knowledgeable of the NHL as well, talked about some american teams and Russian players over there.  All in all a successful experience.

Well, this is mostly what is new in my life over the past month, who knows when I will write again, but that is really dependent on how soon something worth writing about happens!  Much love to you all, and send some of that freakishly warm weather my way pleeeaaasseeee!!  Lastly, a special shout out to my grandmother, Margie, I received your letter and it warmed my heart and made my day, love you!!!  To the rest of you, until soon!