Early (6:30am) yesterday morning I was at the bus station to headed off for Bakhchysaray.  Bakhchysaray is a town in Crimea where Genghis Kahn built a palace.  The palace survived the eradication of mosques from Catherine the Great because she thought the building was 'romantic'.

The entrance into the Palace

After walking around the palace I went to find Usta's Workshop.  This is a Crimean Tatar run store where everything that is created and sold is from local artists and then profits go directly to the artists.  They have pottery (see pictures) as well as beautiful jewelry (wayyyy outside of my Peace Corps budget) and some embroidery.  What is really cool about the store is that a Peace Corps volunteer helped found the shop a little over three years ago!  I was able to speak with a man who makes jewelry and another man who made pots.  They showed me all over the store and outside where the fire the pots.  It was a really great experience!

The pots stay inside of the kiln for no longer than 11 hours and  someone has to sit to tend the fire all the time.   

Here is a picture of the pottery room!

I made it home a little before seven Saturday night, it was a trying and long day with several miles walked, 4 buses and 5 marshutkas.  Today has been a wonderful lazy Sunday.  I made apple sauce this morning.  One jar for the librarians to try, a jar for my Russian tutor, a jar for a friend and a jar for my self...  It was the perfect thing to make on this cold morning!
This evening my landlords came over and turned on my heat!!!!! I am so happy and thankful that I will have heat this winter, last night was colddd!  They also were able to shut some of my windows with the help of a few hammers.

yumm 

Hope everyone had a great weekend!