JUST ANOTHER DAY IN URALSK!!!

Thanks for the comments it is really fun seeing your post! Time spent over here is weird and I would probably be doing the same thing back home, let me explain; we have a pretty nice apartment, not decorated properly but nice and comfortable (I moved the furniture around). We have lots of stuff to do, so time goes by quickly, and the shopping is a challenge but always fun because we get to practice our Russian (Dan quickly makes friends because he likes saying his phrases) he is getting really good at remembering words and making up sentences. The best part is, even if the phrase is crazy and people are laughing at us (hopefully with us) they make their effort also by trying to speak English. When we were at the grocery store shopping the other day, some guy kept following us around, I became paranoid when he asked “if we come to Kazakhstan to take his kids”, before Dan could say “yes” I jumped in and said “we are educators, here to teach”, he responded “where?” That is when I played dumb and pretended I didn’t understand the question and said “Montreal Canada” and we ran away like two little school girls being offered candy by a stranger. Also, when you grocery shop, there is only a certain amount of stuff offered and once they run out well you have to move on to another brand, they may never restock that item. And just to make you feel more like an outcast (the town is small) so if you are a stranger, the security guards follow you around! The first time we took the shopping cart to our car, I turned around and the security guard was right behind us, following us, not smiling. I mentioned this to our driver and he said “what, where, someone is following us?” He started looking concerned, as if to say the popo’s are after him…then he spotted the security guard and said “oh him! He just wants the basket back, ignore him”. By the way our driver is into some heavy hard core rap, singing all kinds of profanities, maybe I should give him my M and M cd, darn I didn’t bring it!!!! He is young (23), he and our translator EL (she is 21) seem much more adult like and mature than us at that age, I guess living here you have to be a responsible adult. I think I did mention this but the drivers are insane and will run over the people on the street if you are in there way and they honk to let you know that they are coming to run you down. The only exception they will make is if you are very young (under 12) and if you are with a stroller, I think we will by one and put a doll in it for now!!! Yesterday on our trek we discovered an entrance at a cross street that lead under ground and looked like a subway, I said lets follow the people…we did and discovered some weird tunnel that lead to the either side of the street, we don’t have to run across the busy street anymore, how amazing I took a picture!