Old Friends

First off I would like to apologize since it has been 5 days since last posting. For all of you who sat at your computer hitting the reload button waiting to see what's new... I commend you, the wait has paid off. 

Well for the last 4 days I have been here in Snegiri working behind the house on a brick project. Last winter a pipe burst and so they had to pull all of these bricks up to dig 5 feet down to the pipe. That little dirt patch was the whole area until I started flattening and re-laying the bricks back down. The bricks are shaped like two hexagons stuck together, so in order for them to fit in the given area is lake playing a massive game of Tetris. I actually had them all set and then the last row wouldn't fit so I had to take about 80% out and start all over again. It was a good test of patience. But as you can see I am about 95% done and just have to do some touch up and whoo hoo... Done Project.

MY BRICK PROJECT IS ALMOST DONE. BUT THERE ARE ABOUT 4 OTHER BRICK TASKS JUST LIKE IT SO AFTER THIS, IT'S OFF TO THE NEXT.

So while doing my brick project, my friend Nadia told me about this radio station called ЭХО МОСКВЫ (Echo of Moscow) and it is just a talk radio station. I realized that while talk radio is sometimes very hard to understand 100% of what they are saying, it is a great tool for learning new words and phrases in Russian. They have several programs throughout the day. My favorite program is one like Dr. Laura in America, except this lady is a real doctor and people call in with little ailments and she gives them home remedies for things like: aching stomachs, constant headaches, sore muscles. I was thinking that if this program existed in America, eventually this program would get sued because some knucklehead would go overboard with her advice and hurt himself. But all in all Russian talk radio has been a very fun and useful tool.

I LET MY FRIEND NATASHA BORROW MY CAMERA TO GO TO CHEIBEKSARI FOR TWO WEEKS SO I TOOK THIS WITH MY COMPUTER. HERE IS MY LITTLE RADIO.

Yesterday I met some great friends of ours: Brad and Emily, down in Red Square and I got to show them some of Moscow. They are traveling from London back to Hong Kong where they live on the Trans-Siberia Railroad. You can check the progress of their trip on there blog. They are on our blogs we like link under Brad and Emily.

I really like them so much and they were a lot of fun to spend the day with. Brad really wanted to see something "Soviet" so I took him to my new favorite place in Moscow... ВВЦ Park. It really is the most Soviet place in my opinion. 

 THIS IS ME AT ВВЦ  STANDING IN FRONT OF A BUILDING THAT STALIN HAD ORDERED TO BE BUILT. IT IS CALLED PAVILLION NO. 1

LOOK IN THE BACKGROUND OF THIS PICTURE AND YOU CAN SEE A YELLOW GO CART. THEY ARE AVAILABLE FOR RENT TO DRIVE AROUND THE PARK. AND PEOPLE DRIVE THEM LIKE RUSSIANS ON THE HIGHWAY (WITHOUT RULES) SO YOU HAVE TO BE CAREFUL AND WHEN YOU HEAR A LITTLE "MEEP MEEP" YOU GOTTA GET OUT OF THE WAY

We had such a great time together. They will be in Moscow for two more days then it's off to the far east for them (Irkutsk) where they will get on a bus and ride to an island on Lake Baikal and stay with a lady for two days who doesn't speak one word of English. Brad said he was actually a little nervous about that part because they don't speak any Russian but Brad has already learned to read Russian which is actually quite amazing. 

 THIS IS BRAD AND EMILY (NOT IN RUSSIA) THEY ARE THE BEST TRAVELERS WE KNOW AND WE REALLY WANTED TO GO WITH THEM ON THE TRANS-SIBERIAN RAILROAD.

HERE IS A MAP OF THE QUEST THEY ARE EMBARKING ON. MOST PEOPLE SAY THEY ARE BONKERS FOR WANTING TO SPEND 5 DAYS SITTING ON A TRAIN STARING AT FLAT TUNDRA. I SAY THEY ARE AWESOME!!! YOU SHOULD REALLY CHECK OUT THEIR BLOG FOR DETAILS ON THEIR TRIP.