Spring rolls forward

These trees are still waking up.

Spring is continuing to break. None of the plants are coming alive yet, the snow is still melting. But, yesterday I rejoiced as I walked home from class through the forest. The sun was shining bright and the birds were in full song. The blessing of the Creator was fully with me, and I simply wanted to linger so the moment would not end. The temperature was a very pleasant +12. I got home and took my wife and daughter for a walk to enjoy the beautiful weather some more. It's a good thing too, because the temperature dropped back to +3 this morning. I walked to class in blustery overcast conditions.


Beware of the slush in Spring. It takes a while to melt, as temperatures are still dropping below zero over night.

Through out our time in Russia we have learnt to rejoice in every success, no matter how big or small. This week we had a large success. Melody will apply for her Australian citizenship later this year. To do this she needs to have a police clearance from Russia. I was a little annoyed at first, as the last time we applied for one of these documents it was outside the country. It was complicated, we needed a lawyer, it cost $500 and took about 8 months. You can imagine our joy then, when we believe we have found out how to apply here in country. After asking various people, including the Australian consulate in Moscow, how we could apply for one, we found out the way. A friend made a call to the regional police station. There is a department for internal affairs there. On Wednesday we went in and spoke with the man in charge of the department. He was very friendly and helpful. He took all of Melody's details and is applying for her clearance documents. We should hopefully have these documents within a few weeks. After that we will need to get them officially translated. We were just so happy that we found someone so helpful and that we will have the document in a few weeks time.


On one of my walks around Akademgorodok with Rustam, we came across this statue. It stands opposite the Physics Institute. The statue is of Leonid Kirensky, born 1909, died 1969. He was a Sakha from Yakutia. He must have been famous enough as a Soviet Physicist, but I have been unable to find very little about him in the English language.
There is a time line of his life on the Russian Wikipedia site. He was born in a village in Yakutia, moved to Yakutsk (capital city of Yakutia) when he was 10; a student of the Physics Faculty of Moscow State Univeristy from the age of 22-27. In 1939 he defended his doctoral thesis in the "Magnetic calorhytmic" effect at rotation of a ferromagnetic crystal in a magnetic field. Of course I have absolutely no idea what that means, and I was unable to find a biography of his life in English. He then lived the rest of his life working as a physicist in Krasnoyarsk. He did a lot more research in obscure fields of magnetism. I am sure all of the students who attend the Physics Institute think he was a hero. What is more, he was an Asian Siberian.


Another reindeer sighting in Akadem (the one and only that we have seen previous times). Once again we were on our way some where so Abigail did not have a ride. You can see how small a reindeer actually is, when you compare it to the horse.