Hi! Danny here! We didn't really have time to post anything this weekend so I thought I would do one now.

So, I started a profile on the website vkontakte.ru which is the Eastern European version of Facebook. The profile will be an English learning resource for our students. I am working to get some activities put up on there. Anyway, every week we will post audio dialogues or stories, video skits, or text-reading activities on the page (which will automatically inform our "friends" when we do) and our pupils can go there and do the activities and email the answers. Every month we will award some small prize to the winner (i.e. two tickets to the cinema or a DVD or something). Hopefully, this will get the students interested in learning English. I am working with a local Ukrainian who has provided me with a nice microphone and mixing board on which I can get a good sound for the audio activities. The vkontakte page is called "Shark-Monkey English Weekly". I need a logo of either a half-shark-half-monkey hybrid or a shark and a monkey with their arms around each other. I will work on that soon or if you're bored and want to try to come up with it, feel free.

Shannon has been working with her pupils to prep them for a Romeo and Juliet play so she is happy. She is also taking on more and more responsibility at her school which is great. She also got her picture taken by the staff photographer so she will soon be on the official staff wall of photos. This is a very funny story that I will let her tell you later.

Shannon and I were enjoying a very beautiful two days of snow over the weekend, when, yesterday, the temperature rose to 46 degrees Fahrenheit which turned everything into mush and then last night everything refroze so it's super slick and extra wet in places. It's sort of miserable to walk in without waterproof boots...which we have thankfully.

Yesterday, we went on a picnic with Davidson and Sveta to the tallest hill in our oblast which was fun but the temp went from 45 to 33 in the short time we were on the hill so it got uncomfortable quick. We came down and went to a local cafe and ate borscht and drank hot coffee to warm up. It was a fun day.

Saturday, Shannon and I made gumbo and it is SOOOOO good. I think we will eat it for the rest of the week. The recipe yielded around 10-12 servings so we have a easy menu for a while.

The Russian word of this week is a two-for-one:

aкула - shark обезьяны - monkey

I hope all is well in the States. We will be at a birthday party in Kupansk this Saturday so we will not be online. We may be on here on Sunday though since the party is not very far away this time.

We love you. We miss you. We will talk to you soon. Thank you for reading.

-Danny