Doing my homework

Yesterday Judy and I visited the New Humanities Institute for the first time since last spring. We were soon invited to the pumpkin carving workshops taking place all over the building. I was seriously impressed by the interesting results!

Our brief visits these next two weeks won't only deal with pumpkin-carving! We plan to spend much of next week in classrooms with our students ... and in the teachers' lounge with our colleagues. But first we join them all in celebrating National Unity Day on November 4.

"Poll Finds Russia Needs to Celebrate National Unity Day."

"Non-Russians Warned to Be Wary on National Unity Day." (I don't plan to be "wary.")

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I'm not posting at length today because tomorrow afternoon I'm participating in a panel show on the subject of "Islamophobia." If you know me, you can guess my biases, but I'm woefully behind in learning some of the necessary vocabulary in Russian. So after I post these words and pictures, I'm off to continue immersing myself in Russian-language texts on Islam, interfaith conversations, reconciliation, and A Common Word. Maybe I'll have more to say about all this next week.

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Also next week, I'd like to report on the Friends House Moscow meetings this past weekend.

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Russian blues dessert: "Born Under a Bad Sign."