Vacation! We have a small break from teaching because of the holiday unity day, which is on November 4. The holiday is supposed to be a celebration of the unity between all the different nationalities that make up Russia, although the holiday is pretty new, and people don't seem to have embraced it as anything but a day off work.

Unity day is Monday, and we also have Tuesday and Wednesday off, so another teacher and I decided to do some traveling. We're passing through Nizhny Novgorod to get to Kazan. We're taking a bus to Nizhny and overnight trains to and from Kazan. It will be nice to have a little break from Vladimir, and I'll be sure to take plenty of pictures.