Okay time for a new chapter...

I have internet access in my hotel finally. Thanks to some very crafty people. I wouldn't be surprised if they were reading this as I type it. Haha.

Anyways, Friday was the last day, so we'll fill you in since then. Saturday was a work day. Nothing special. Came to the hotel after and played some cards with the guys. Drank beer of course.

Sunday was a complete write off. We were invited out to Maslaneetsa. That is the annual festival here welcoming springtime. The whole town came out in -10 C weather.



So, the afternoon we gathered with food and drink (vodka) and celebrated with the locals. The people from work took us out and they showed us how to celebrate Russian style. We played "don't try to keep up with the Russians". So, after 4 bottles of vodka and 6 hours, we went ice skating. I found out that there is absolutely no edge on Russian rental skates. Could not scratch a nail with them. Might as well be spoons taped to the bottom of my shoes kind of bad. Now, I have hip bruise, but the pain was only felt on Monday morning for some reason. ey-ey-ey...head was not that sore.

The crew we have here are very good natured. Awesome sense of humour. When we translate our Russian back to English we mimic Tarzan talking and it is absolutely hilarious. We sound just like that. Simple words to get a message across. The same comes back to us by some that learned English in school and never used it (like Canadians and French). So, as you can tell from my typing, I am communicating in baby English and distorted by Russian.

I am now able to order a complete breakfast and get what I hoped for. Orange juice (fresh, fresh squeezed), oatmeal without butter?, 2 yogurt, black tea, and sometimes a ham and cheese bun thing. The bun thing I still have to point at in the menu, but other than that, I am speaking the order.

What else....counting. I can count to 10 and I am working on 11-20 this week. Some odds and ends just get written down on paper. Paper is a wonderful thing. Even better when you remember your pen. Big numbers I just say each number from left to right.

The language is easier to say than to read. That's why we have our translators. They are very good. Technical translators. Worth their weight in gold. So, we treat them to cognac and such. Well, just give them a bottle and let em go at it.

Well, now that I ahve internet in my hotel, I will update more frequently. Hope everybody is doing well, and we'll talk to you all soon.

RJDK