С днём города Владимир! That's happy city day Vladimir for the non-Russkiis out there. I think city day is a celebration of the city's birthday, although I'm not sure how anyone knows exactly what day Vladimir was founded because in fact no one knows even how old the city is exactly (there are two main variants--Vladimir was founded in either 1108 or 968). I guess the real date is inconsequential; suffice it to say that Vladimir is a really old city.

We celebrated city day first by having a games at the American Home in the afternoon. We teachers were a bit afraid that no one would show up, but actually about 25 people came, and we played outdoor games like frisbee and football (Russians were very confused about how to throw and catch a football) and indoor games like scrabble, durak (the classic Russian card game), and mafia.

Then, after polishing off a bowl of pelmeni and close to a pound of chicken sashlik, we headed into the center. The streets were closed to cars and packed with people. It was sort of like a county fair mixed with a street festival, and there were performers, carnival games, and concerts. At 10pm there was a really good fireworks show above the 12th-century cathedrals in the city center. Here's a picture of the festivities: