Surprisingly, this was a pretty smooth week. We did several double babies days which always fills my heart with joy.
Tuesday we finally got to have our Galina talk. In case you are still unaware, Galina is our Russian mother, protector, and overlord at the CCS home base. She is also pretty much the most badass woman you'll ever meet in all of your life. She told us the story of her life, growing up in soviet times, having children, working for the army, being born in the woods and having her placenta thrown to the wolves while her dad carried her on horseback in his boot to safety, encountering bears in the woods and having the bears take one sniff at her and be afraid of her... The usual. I've never felt safer than when I heard this story and knew she was our guard half the time. When bears won't mess with you, you know you're doing something right.
Wednesday we went on our excursion to my new home, Rostov with Natasha as our translator. Rostov is famous for enamel, so we went to visit the enamel factory and kremlin. It was like my own little slice of heaven. I've decided that when I move to Russia to adopt Sveta, we will live in Rostov and I will work in the enamel factory with the wire. We saw the women working and, while it looked a little bit like a sweatshop, it was exactly what I want to be doing. SUPER detailed wire work, lots of glue fumes, and silver powder that will shut down my ovaries. But don't worry, there are tons of potted plants in there too so that has to balance something out, right?
After making those delightful life choices, we went to visit the kremlin where Ivan Vasilievich was filmed and where a choir straight out of heaven sings. Hands down the best part of the day (possibly of the month) was when Madelyne, a teeny cadet from the Bronx decided to dawn what was supposed to be a Czarina costume but in reality just made her look like a tiny purple wizard with a fuzzy hat. Dressing up wasn't enough for her, though. She then strutted with her bulldog penguin gangster walk in a wizard costume around all the kremlin, pausing only for photo shoots. I don't think Rostov knew what hit them. I don't think we knew what hit us. All I know is that Madelyne will forever be remembered as the tiniest wizard CCS ever had the pleasure of hosting.
Thursday we finally got ourselves together to go to the banya (a Russian sauna that combines a hot room with a freezing pool and physical abuse with branches) because after the last group's banya stories we couldn't resist going. Unfortunately we forgot to BYOB (bring your own branches), so we couldn't hit each other after being in the sauna... But really we were with a group of cadets so we would have literally been hit with the strength of an army so in reality we weren't that sad.
Everyone seemed to have a wonderful time. We found out Geoff can't float so he was given floating lessons by MacBook in the cold pool. Aka sinking lessons for MacBook. I surprisingly didn't combust for an entire hour. Side note for those of you who don't know: I'm allergic to everything including myself. Literally. I'm allergic to salt water and guess what sweat is made of!? Not only that but I also in the four seconds before we left to go to the banya developed a raging cold. I was told though that as long as I didn't have a fever I probably wouldn't die. Apparently my health isn't my biggest concern. But for the last hour I sat in a sweaty ball of congestion and hives by myself in the corner. Lessons learned: nothing screams "do me now!" like a girl wheezing and swollen and sliming like a jelly fish surrounded by a bunch of people with perfectly toned and healthy bodies.
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