Mayday! Internet down!

Well, I see that it's been a month since I wrote...

My December was busy preparing for a "Russian Language Celebration" and once that was over I was working my tail off trying to get my family's Christmas present put together - a 35 min video of my life here. After many long nights I got the video done and then headed off to Tuva. When I got back from Tuva I was ready to get caught up ... WRONG! The internet in my apartment building stopped working and just in time for all the internet tech people to take a long 6 day New Year's vacation. I finally got through to the tech support dude 2 days ago and he told me that it was too cold to fix the problem. I wanted to respond, "And just how warm does it need to be for you? We live in SIBERIA, buddy! I can't wait until May!!"
I refrained and am now sitting here using the free hi-speed at a cafe that could easy be mistaken for a bowling alley with it's fragrance of cigarette smoke. I downed my cappuccino an hour ago but still have much work to catch up on. Hopefully the waitress won't be so mad once I give her a nice tip (a practice not too common in these parts).

...So that's my excuse. I hope to write more "ventures" soon. (And just so you know, "soon" means anything from 1-30 days).