Time with Friends, and a Sneak Peek

We are really getting settled in now to our new home. Our friend Will has been such a big help. We were very sad to see him go. Before he left though, we were able to have our first dinner guest! Sunday night after church (which is at 3pm our time) our friend Luda came over for supper. Thomas cooked up some stir fry, so Americans and Russians were eating Japanese food with Ukrainian decorations. We all got a good laugh about those circumstances.

Monday Thomas and I were able to take Isaiah to the American Medical Clinic in St. Petersburg. The clinic maintains western standards of treatment. We were very pleased with the care that we received. The doctor spoke enough English and Thomas spoke enough Russian for us to be able to communicate what we needed. She was able to help us get some medicine for Isaiah (that he takes regularly, nothing was wrong), and she referred us to two possible physical therapists.

Monday night we had a farewell dinner with Will. We already miss him very much and look forward to seeing him again very soon, Lord willing!

Thomas has had two language lessons as of today (Thursday). I hope to have my first lesson tomorrow. I've had several "experiences" lately that have increased my desire to learn Russian. Thomas, Isaiah and I went to Mega (the equivalent of an American shopping mall, but add Lowe's and Wal-Mart in the same building). I was on the hunt for some jeans, and I really wanted to be able to find them without leaning on Thomas for translation. Now, jeans shopping in the States can be a challenge at times, but that's nothing compared to what I experienced.

First, I had to figure out the European sizing (I'm going to keep my size to myself, just in case you're wondering), which uses much larger numbers. For instance, imagine once being an 8 (for example purposes only) and suddenly you're a 30. If not prepared for such changes, it can be a real blow to the female ego. Add to this trying to communicate to the sales clerk that you don't know your size while you don't know any of those words in Russian. Thankfully the sales clerk that was trying so graciously to help me was indeed gracious. She quickly picked up on the fact that I am "americanski" and helped me narrow down the size options. Once my size was discovered, I tried to say that I didn't want jeans with designs on them and that I wanted a higher waist. Jeans without design would not be a problem, but a higher waist?! What was I thinking?! Apparently jeans in Russia come one way--low, low waist. For you ladies out there in America, I hope you understand my dilemma. Modesty over here is not a top priority, not even close. So I continued my search, and finally found one pair of jeans that was in my price range, had no design and was at least a little bit higher in the waist than anything else that I had seen. Whew! I was exhausted!

So besides jean shopping and a few other things, I have also been trying to get our flat to look like our flat. One great thing about Russian flats is that many of them come furnished. One down side to that is that landlords often use the flat to store some of their stuff. Our flat is very nicely furnished, by the way, but almost any space that could be used as storage is being used for storage. I've enjoyed the challenge though of finding a place for our things. I'm still working on where to put the extra suitcases, but I'm sure that something will work out. I've posted some pictures, but just to whet your appetite, here is a picture of our kitchen; complete with adorable little man: