Morning weather report: 26, feels like 26. Projected high: a 39 with fog (we won’t even hit 40 today!)
Meanwhile back in Memphis: Overnight low of 54, heading back to 75 (missing that weather!)
This morning was COLD! Even Masha and Sasha added another layer today. Since I had not been wearing a hat up to this point, they figured it was time to help the hapless American find something to keep him from freezing his Голову. Although there wasn't any accumulation, a very fine power was coming down when they picked me up for our shopping trek. Since Nov 1st is the "typical" date of the first snowfall in Petropavlovsk, Sasha commented that the weather had arrived right on schedule!
A few days ago I had mentioned that I wanted to get a hat after seeing several gents wearing their traditional Russian hats (yes, it’s true. They don’t just wear them in the movies! Sasha wanted to steer me toward a very practical hat like his, a leather cabbie hat with a fold-down flap to keep ears and neck warm when it gets really cold (-20 to -40 in Jan & Feb). It only took a moment to explain that I brought a nice knit cap (which fits in perfectly with the locals), so I’m fine in that department since I don’t plan to be here when it’s THAT cold. (I just don’t wear it since my hair stands up when I take it off.)
After explaining to Masha that I really wanted something that would be more of a souvenir than something I would wear here or at home, we headed off to the big market. The market is a little like a flea market in some areas (you can buy a lot of re-cycled car parts, tools, bicycle parts, and handicrafts), in others it is full of small shops, some indoors, some outside, where you can buy all sorts of clothing and who knows what else. First we went to a really nice shop which had top quality, genuine mink hats. I tried on a couple for size, but had to pass since they were so expensive (I’m sure they are worth every nickel, but they ranged up to several hundred dollars for the best ones).
After thanking the gracious shopkeeper, we headed to a smaller shop/stand around the corner which had excellent quality rabbit fur hats which were more in line with the budget. One with genuine fold down flaps was about $100, but they also had ones which look the same, but the flaps aren’t functional. Finally settling on the $50 model, I took a couple minutes to try on some of the others as well. Despite all of the interesting situations Masha observed while shopping with us, she never did more than smile and offer kind recommendations to steer us in the right direction. 
Today she let loose some serious laughs as I went through the styles, so I must have been completely out of character, especially when trying on a fox hat which made me look like Chevy Chase in “Spies Like Us.” She did like the one I selected and said, “Now you look like a real Russian.” (Except that I continue to wear my faded jeans and docksider shoes instead of the darker clothing and pointy-toed shoes the locals favor.) At least my dark blue Columbia parka fits in, and is perfectly suited to the weather (I had to zip the fleece liner back in a couple days ago once temps started hitting the low 30s).
Next we were off to look for women’s hats. Now that’s a tough one! Women’s hats, boots, and jackets are high fashion in Kazakhstan. Since many people live in small apartments or houses, they tend to have fewer things (due to space limitations), but tend to be much more dressy than most Americans. There were too many to choose from, everything from very nice fur hats, to poofy 1970’s disco-style hats (which in my humble opinion look like a large melon) to close-fitting, stylish hats. Since Cathe admired one of Masha’s hats, we went to a shop selling those and I selected a nice black one with scarf. Masha was kind enough to model it for us.Even with all the laughs and a few photos, our shopping adventure was less than 45 minutes end-to-end, so I still had some time to prepare today’s activity for the kids: Naming common household items in English. Armed with a pad of sticky notes (thanks Masha!) and a marker from the Zebra store (great place to get greeting cards, across the street from our apartment and only a few doors down from the Birch Store), I scouted around the apartment jotting down English names of things from the front door, bathroom, living room, and bedroom areas, and arranged them in categories on the coffee table.
You should have seen the looks of dismay after “fetching” the kids and returning to the apartment after their long day of school. The last thing they wanted to do was more homework! (kids are kids everywhere!) They had some pretty long faces and Kate tried her best pouty pose when they noticed that the computer was put away and the coffee table held an array of brightly colored sticky notes, English-Russian dictionary, and a couple note pads. Their dismay quickly turned into curiosity when we explained the purpose of today’s exercise. I also dropped a few hints about a “surprise” at the end of the drill. (Masha helping David on the first few).
The stickies were written only in English. The kids had to look up the English name, write in the Russian name, and place the notes in the appropriate location in the apartment. After working a few easy ones like Door and Window, they got a little harder. Perhaps the hardest thing is that there are a lot of similar letters between the Latin and Cyrillic alphabets which are completely different (e.g. our “C” is an “S,” and our “P” is an “R” in Cyrillic), but they got the hang of it and their curiosity turned into excitement as they proceeded from one item to the next and we worked our way through the apartment.
Last stop was the kitchen. David figured out the refrigerator, cabinets, and drawers while Kate handled the stove, oven and freezer. Kate had the last word, “Ice Cream Cone,” thought about it for a minute then went back to the freezer and labeled the treasure. There was only a momentary pause while she figured out the meaning of the last one, and ran back to the freezer to pull out the treats, which were quickly enjoyed by all.
We had a few minutes left before our appointed return to the RBS, so Kate went exploring and asked about the hats, insisting that I model mine. She giggled when I came out of the bedroom wearing Cathe’s new hat, then just had to try on my new hat. She really looks “High Fashion” wearing the oversized men’s hat with her Tennessee Titans shirt!Sadly, our time was up. I won’t be seeing them tomorrow, but we are working on plans for the weekend to celebrate the end of their school term, their last in Kazakhstan before going home.
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