Today was cold and windy, but villagers and counselors alike faced the change in weather with characteristic Russian willingness to brave the elements. We heated up our woodstoves, had a toasty fire in the fireplace, and piled on the layers – it’s nice to have an architecturally authentic site to keep us warm in culturally authentic weather! The kitchen has also been fixing hearty meals, including a traditional Belarusian dish of potato pancakes, to warm us from the inside-out. In our credit classes, the beginning levels have added one more language class to continue the intensity of their studies, while the advanced levels are beginning to work on their election simulation – the candidates have been chosen, and the advisors are hard at work crafting campaign strategy. In the two-week program, the beginning levels are learning essential village conversations like introductions and asking for directions, while the more advanced levels are focusing on improving their vocabulary and their reading and writing skills. For the evening program tonight, we had a simulation to learn about some of the challenges at the end of the Soviet Union and during the first few years of post-Soviet capitalism in Russia. During the simulation, villagers were divided into their family groups and given set amounts of money and goods, as well as a goal of acquiring things they didn’t have. At various points in the game, however, the rules would change, simulating events such as the collapse of the Ruble in 1998, which made currency virtually worthless. During a debrief following the simulation, villagers shared their experiences and came to an understanding of the experiences of average citizens in the aftermath of the fall of the Soviet Union. Today’s episode of the Лесное озеро serial saw Гарри and his friends meet with Dumbledore and Hagrid (played by two credit villagers), who sent them off to get a special magic wand from Lenin’s tomb. We can hardly wait to see what will happen tomorrow!