я не понимаю!

This past weekend seemed to be the first in quite a while that we were not traveling and were without guests. Never the less, it shaped up to be an interesting time!

Saturday

• Because of the nationwide H1N1 quarantine and all schools being closed, Michael had to move the location of his English Club. Our church was nice enough to offer space to the club. The pastor came by early in the morning to drop off the keys. As you can see, they have some serious locks:

• In the afternoon, we had a meeting with some local students to discuss plans for a city-wide project on World AIDS Day (December 1st). These students had participated in Camp HEAL with us in August and we are just so proud that they are taking the initiative to actually implement the project plan they brainstormed at camp!
  
• On the way to the meeting, Michael was stopped and questioned by the local police. Evidently they were looking for someone in particular. After a lengthy (yet friendly) interrogation, the police concluded that Michael was not the suspect and continued their search elsewhere.

Sunday

• We went to church and participated in the music as usual. This Sunday however, the sermon and service were shorter than usual. We got out of there in just under 3 hours!
• That evening, our wonderful former host family had us over for dinner. We always feel so at home with them! With anyone else, we would probably be way overstaying our welcome but when we decided to head home at midnight after eight hours, we were met with groans of "you're leaving already?" Cute story: Ira informed us that Lena decided she's getting a bit too much of a stomach and wanted to go on a diet. With typical eight-year-old logic, Lena said she has to wait until after we leave to begin her diet, because all the treats Lauren bakes are just too yummy to give up. Aw!
  
• Recently, they brought back a large pumpkin from their farm and wanted us to show them how to carve it. After a couple hours of explaining, researching prototypes via the Internet and carving, we came up with this friendly, three-faced beauty. The face on the left is Yulia's creation and the one on the right is Ira's:

Here's our work of art, looking right at home in the kitchen garden. The face that you can see is our own creation:

• During the evening Lena and her friend kept prodding everyone to come to their (karaoke) concert. Once we finished the pumpkin, we finally obliged. We were treated to some fun Russian childhood classics.
  

• And lucky for them -- or for us, we're still not quite sure -- there were American karaoke classics, too. So we joined in the fun with some John Denver (Country Roads), Disney duets (A Whole New World and Beauty and the Beast), John Lennon (Imagine) and The Village People (YMCA)!