Sunday afternoon

The church I attend here meets on Sunday afternoons; I don't even have to be there until 1:00 pm. I'm getting quite used to it and will probably have a bit of a shock when I get back to the States. After church today, Ira and I played with Radik's and Sofia's daughters (Vlada and Yehva) for a little while, which was so fun! I haven't blown dandelion fuzz in ages! The best part is that neither of them care how wretched my Russian skills are.

Vlada

Yehva and Vlada frolicking.

I found these outside the Christian Center.

Later this evening, I went with a bunch of friends out to a nearby village. We walked for probably a solid hour, but the sights were so cool that I hardly noticed. Come morning, I'll probably really wish that I'd stretched beforehand. We walked out to a dam/beach/area where people camp. Some of us needed to return a little early, and we just barely made the bus! We ran the last little bit and jumped on right as the bus was pulling away. I caught a look at the driver's face, and I promise you- he was laughing! I'm pretty sure that he started pulling away just to watch us run.

The beginning of our trek.

Getting out towards the village.

One thing I love about houses here: they're painted in really fun colors. On this particular outing, I also saw 2 purple houses, 1 pink house, a fire engine red house, and several hunter green houses.

Village church. It's fancy.

The dam. The safety bars are SO not safe. Those things are WOBBLY! Yikes!