Tuesday 30 August
Yesterday was class and between work and class I did not get to the new internet location until 7:45. I actually got a seat among the kids playing a group game. With all of the shouting at each other going on it was interesting but the web mail kept telling me I had been on too long and shut me down. 216,000 seconds is the limit per session and I never even got signed on. I do not know what to think about that but of course the solution is to e-mail the company and ask. The problem, no e-mail working and it would take days to get an answer. So I packed it in and went home where a party was going on. The older daughter and her family were there with a lot of beer. I restricted my self to a half a glass and they let me. We got into a discussion of my grandfathers jade ring and it turns out that Jade in Russian is the same word for a kidney stone that the daughter had had removed. The wonders of language. Everyone at the table fought with her until we looked it up in all 5 dictionaries.
I hope to find out about the apartment today. L said she was to meet with the landlady today and I thought she meant us but I guess not as she has not come into work today. Tonight I am to meet with PC's new staff member for dinner and there is no e-mail from here as to when or where to meet. Also no phone messages. I really like to plan a day and right now the comfort of a plan is helpful.
Today I took over language class and we used flash card questions to make us answer in the different languages. I am at a disadvantage because I get to answer 5 questions to their one. They asked for homework so I went to the computer and used a program that I am very glad that I picked up when I was home and created a vegetable word search. I only gave them English and they have to translate. They looked at the list and once they realized it was a puzzle they loved it. They actually beamed smiles. They like word search and this was a great program to have.
If you visit an office supply store like Staples or Office Max they often have stacks of $5-10 disks of programs and games. If you feel like browsing and see any programs that you think might be helpful at teaching English or making crosswords. I have a good word search program but the crossword program that came with it stinks. This is just something you can do for fun if you get lost with nothing to do. Don't spend a lot but if you think it looks like it will be fun and work go ahead and pick it up.
I checked the tiger direct site and the computer have been shipped. Probably today as the expected e-mail is not in the box yet so I can not check on delivery. This has taken way longer then any thing I have ever ordered from them.
I will check back tomorrow so I hope this finds you. I miss you very much and want you here at my side. L came by yesterday and asked if I thought she needed to add a second desk and how she would rearrange the area so you could get a seat near me. I explained that you where not here as a PCV and we will work out what you are going to do when you get here. I on the other hand have definite ideas about you and what you are going to do. Some of them will require you to leave the house but only some of them. The proposed apartment is close enough that I can come home for lunch some days. I remember coming home for lunch before Caleb was born. That was a very good year.
Sat Aug 29th
I wrote to you but I had not noticed the e-mail from you so I just read it.
I watched three brides finish their weddings today. They come out of the building and every one who attends seems to be outside. I as guessing but I think that only the immediate party goes inside to the service, the rest wait outside and cheer when the bride and groom appear, they gather on the steps to take photos and then they walk three blocks to the center of the city monument and take a few more pictures and leave a wedding bouquet of flowers on the monument. Then they walk back and leave. The one group I watched the groom spent the entire time after the step photo talking on the telephone. Even when he was doing the kiss photo at the monument he just took the phone away for a minute then went right on talking.
I hope you can get to e-mail occasionally because I like to hear from you but if you can not so be it. When you get back from Tucson you should have your visa and should be able to buy the tickets. As soon as you get the tickets let me know so I can plan a trip to Kiev to get you. It will be a new experience making reservations on the phone from here for a room
As you I am writing only to you and not in my journal or anywhere else for that matter. I spend a lot of energy here writing to you and send a lot of me with each letter. It seems that it should enervate me but when I get done I am exhausted and not ready to write or anything. At least when I get home I have a present place to go. Vera does not spend a lot of time on housework but the place always seems neat and put away and very clean. I can not complain about my situation except that I want to be with you and on our own. I want to get up when I want to. Right now I feel trapped in my room sometimes because of sleeping arrangements. This morning I wake and started to head out to the bathroom only to find Vera sleeping in the living room instead of her bedroom and I felt very intrusive walking through the room. I went back inside and held it until I got a phone call and knew that Vera was up. Minor problems but one's I am still not use to.
Well I am off. I hope you get to read these before you leave and get one good letter to me before you go. I will be in tomorrow to write about tonight's visit and see what you have to say.
Love Mark
Sat 27 Aug
Ok just got back from apt #1 and I still have the smell on my clothes. The location is OK just behind the second large market that I found on one of my walks about 20 minutes walk from center of town. The one we though it was looked well from the outside but when we got the landlady or hezeka (?) she took us to a different door and up to the third floor to a small apt that would be ok. 400 UAH a month plus all services. For that price I should be able to do better. No hot water but it has a phone line so you would have internet right away as I think that the area will not be able to get the broadband service right now. The place was small and dirty with beds everywhere. Then we went up to another apt which L thought she was offering for rent but what she wanted was me to move in and she would cook for me, and of course you. She stank of drink and the place smelled very bad. I am afraid that I will not take the first place because of her. I do not think she would be a very good landlord to have, but we shall see.
Tonight at 7 we are to look at one near where I live now and Vera says that the area is much better to live in. I know that the heat plant is across the street from Vera's place so heat would not be a problem. Well I will write about that visit tomorrow because this place will be closed by the time we are finished.
I love you and this is just like going back to our first few places. Only worse. We never lived in a place like that landladies apt. It was large but very messy and much like what you said about where you are at without the pets. I hope that the rest of the apts are not like that.
Well I am off to study for awhile. I have a page of my accomplishments to memorize. My tutor asked me to write up my job experience and she took that information and turned it into a coherent paragraph of correct Russian titles including the term for JOAT in Russian. Then she told me to learn it without the paper. Right now I can not even say half of the words at speed. I have to go very slow and pronounce each word carefully to make sure that it sounds like the right word. If I go slowly I can say it right but people tend to jump in and supply several answers before I get to the end of the word. Faster comes but just a short while ago I cold not even do what I can do now at any speed so I am getting better.
More tomorrow. I love you
msp
Friday 26 Aug
What was the name of that movie, Enormous Changes at the last minute or something like that? L never called last night with the bus schedule so I went to work as usual. I had discussed with her the necessity of making sure that the guy she wanted me to see was in town when we went and when I left yesterday she had not contacted him as yet so she was going to keep trying and let me know. I guess she did not get through. I hope the house visitations for this weekend are still on as planned as there was no set schedule for the visits there as well. These people plan worse then I do. I love you and today I was rewarded. The photos you sent arrived. I went to the mail box for lunch and a slip was in my box. Not sure what to do I ran over to the window and joined the long line. When I got to the front I handed the slip to her and she jumped up and handed me your package. I do not know why she jumped up so fast but she did. I shared the photos with the "Girls" at work and they really liked them. They asked me about my daughter in the first photo only to be very surprised when I said that you were my wife, she is so young. Many thumbs up in approval. They had seen older photos of you but like me they were impressed with how you look how. I liked the photos in the bait shop/restaurant. You look good there and the hair is coming back nicely. That length is pretty good on you...
I will share at home tonight.
Personnel money information being talked about here so do not look.
What you tried to look so I cut it out.
I hate talking about money but I thought that this way you would be in charge and I will not speak of it anymore. I want you here and what you need to do you do. We can live cheaply here. I figure out costs based in dollars and I do not really worry about living. I was thinking about Ira the tutor last night because she wanted to know where to go on the internet to look for work she could do on the internet from here. I pay her the princely sum of 20 grivin an hour for class. That is 4.00 and the grant form talks about salaries and hourly wages for painters and plumbers. I do not know the truth but labor seems to be inexpensive here. They state that the average painter gets 5 grivin an hour, that’s a buck an hour. I do not understand how they pay for some of the things that they have or some of the food that they get but I know that the librarians get something like that for a salary. They do not work hard for that but it is all that they get.
Vera and Misha do very well with their candy stand. It is always busy and they never seem to quibble about costs when it comes to their kids.
I have yet to understand the system but I worked in the back with the computer girls and the accusation room. They came to work at 9 and had coffee and cake until 9:30 they worked for 1 hour and had a break until 11. Went to lunch from 12-1 came back and talked for awhile then at 2:15 had a break and left at 3:30 In between they played solitare on the computer and printed one pamphlet they had previously worked on and just adjusted a little bit
The guy next to me decided he needed a second chair for his little brother and he lifted one in. The fact that my head was in the way did not bother him at all. I got a chair leg in the head and one in the shoulder and not a word from him at all. Actually the shoulder hurts a little. I have decided that this country is not rude; they just do not recognize that anyone else matters at all. Lines, gatherings, crowds whatever. no one matters at all but them. I assume that sometimes they think about others but I do not see it very often outside of family. They drive at 60 in the bazaar and slam on the brakes in you do not jump out of their way fast enough. or they just honk and push you aside with their car. That is in the middle of a crowded pedestrian way. Lines are for someone else but not for them. They just have a question or they only need one ticket, or?
Enough of that. It is just something to live with and know about.
I did see the list about the decrease in baggage but it just matches what you had from Peace Corps before. They limited you to two 50 pound bags. so really to you it should not be a problem. the overage charge is less though. Ben had to pay 175 for the 35 extra pounds he brought and Sidney paid 250 extra for what she brought. This is the first time I heard of a weight limit on carry on though. My carry on when I came was 53 pounds. it was heavier then either of the bags. No one cared though and no one weighed it.
I love you and miss your sweet smile. I am going to go home and look again at the photos I received today in the mail. I want to look at you.
Bye for now and I will keep you informed as to the house hunt. The top of the list I will not even look at even though L thinks Sasha will pay for it and if you were in the corps he probably would. It is a three bedroom apartment in a new building in the center of town with everything. Only 200 dollars per month plus electric and of course everything is electric.
The bottom of the list so far is 400 UAH a month but it has nothing in it. No furniture at all. I have 500 a month to spend including electric and water. We shall see what I can get and just how far out I have to be to get it. Maybe we can spend a little bit more to get something in closer to cut down on transportation costs but that is a minor expense.
Vera explained that I need to be in the center because that way the water will work more often. The further form the center the colder the heat and the more likely for breakdowns. Also Natasha said that I need to take the address to the internet company and make sure that I can get service. I did not realize that it mattered so much because it is satellite not cable or DSL.
Oh well I will work at it and I have four other people working on it as well. They can not understand why I need an apartment in such a hurry though. You are not here and when you get here Vera will be glad to put you up there.
I had for breakfast a cold soup that was made up of chopped boiled potatoes, baloney, sausage, corn, onion, and rice covered with kefir. That is what made it a soup. It is edible but I have had it twice in three days and that is one time too many for me. It tastes gritty and I did not like kifer when I tried it before.
Liquid Yogurt has come to town and taken over. Vera has bought it by the case. They like it a lot and I think that they got it wholesale. They do not understand why I only drink a small glass as they drink it by the liter at each meal. Fat it is.
I love you and I am looking forward to fixing my own meals for us to enjoy.
Bye my love, you live well and fully.
MSP
Thur 25 Aug
Hello my lovely wife.
I rushed around today so much and finally got L to give me her address. I am on the way to class so this will be shorter then usual.
Deleted for security reasons
That is how she gave it to me hope it helps it should
About 3 o'clock L came and told me I would be going to Simperofel tomorrow at 6 am or 7:30. She will call me tonight and let me know. I 'm not sure what for but I think it involves a trip to the library there to see their center and look at what they did. I will see I guess. Today I worked on the machine and I finally got it up and running but shy a few bells and whistles. The internet and such. Hope to finish tomorrow but if I go to Simpoerofel I guess not.
Saturday is apartment hunting day. She gave me a list that started at 200 + electric a month that I had to say no to but she really wants me to live there so she thinks she can talk Sasha into it. I do not think so since Amanda is only paying 60 for her place and tom got 75 for his town. She has others that are better but some have no furniture and others no hot water. All are central city which is better. Most have no phone line so I have to make sure that the internet company can get there with the broadband or it has a phone line. Without that I do not want it... I hate the lack of good internet connection more that anything else in this town. I need that connection and once you are here you will as well. I will have it at work sooner or later but the way it's going It may be Christmas before I get my machine connected and I do not like it.
I love you very much. I had a thought yesterday as I walked around town. I'm glad that I bought the watch. It is the best conservation starter. I get asked the time at least 5 times a day, even by people with a watch. They want to talk to the American but they need a reason and the watch is it. I could have been a little better at choosing but I am glad that I have it. It is heavy and not sweat-proof at all. The band is filled with salt and the face is partly brown from dried sweat but I am glad that I have it. If anyone asks what they need to bring I recommend a watch that stands out so it can be seen on your arm. Then learn to tell time and the world is your oyster.
I miss you my love. I hope that you have a good time at the Radisson and do not worry about the money. I told you how much there was and if you need more give me time to transfer it. Do not wait until the last minute because it will take a couple of day to transfer it.
With what you told me you should be all right but I will look at the bank statement and see what’s going on.
I need to get to the tutors house. so I will be going. I do not know what is happening tomorrow; Maybe I'll get time in Simperofel so we shall see.
I love you
Mark
Wed 24 Aug
Aug 24
Wednesday 1 pm and the sweat is rolling off of my arm on to the table as I sit here and puddles under my arm. At work and home I sit with a towel in front of the computer to catch the sweat as I work. It is really not that hot but I have been walking around the city for the past 2 and a half hours. IT feels good but when I get done here I will head home and work on my homework for Ira Tutor. I need to copy some disks for the library so I can get their machine up and running tomorrow.
I love you and regret that I do not have any good addresses for you with me so I will have to go home and write again with addresses. I know that I sent the library address a week or so ago but I can not find it in the sent file here because it is so poorly set up. But it was just after you said you need some address and about 2 weeks ago.
The address is deleted for security purposes. Besides you can't write it any better then I can spell it. but I would not rely on the spelling.
.
I will get the directors address and we can use that. I will e-mail tomorrow early with several good addresses. Sorry that I am not faster with that. I want you here so I will hurry.
It was good yesterday to show that I could be of some use in the library but I regret that I cold not just lay hands on it and heal it as I think that they lost a lot of information. I asked about copies of data or backups and they looked rather blank about why they needed to have backups. Tried several ways and a translation program but they still looked blank. They do not have any disks for the computer, operating system, word nothing. I do not know how they have survived so far with this. I will instill back up procedures in their heads.
I will be receiving visitors in the near future. On the 30th of September I will have a visit from A S. You meet her in Washington when we crashed the opening ceremonies. She is responsible for project coordination or something like that. She gets to create a database of projects, primary, secondary, old and new, Grant proposals and such and make sure that the entire PCV group gets access to it. It is needed and I think that it will show a better picture of what PCV's here are doing with their time and how much projects have diverted from the primary site project.
Sometime in September I get a visit from Sasha. I really do not know why but he is coming down to a town near here for site selection for a tefel. I think that he just likes to visit Crimia and uses any excuse to get here. J, A's boyfriend, told me that Sasha tried to get K to let him move his office to Crimia so he would be in his area. Their response was to make sure that he had a second region up north instead of two down south and told him no. Rumor? What ever it is it sounds like Sasha.
MSP
23 Aug
Good looking
This will be a short note because I keep getting kicked off the mail program. I have to rush to the bank because rent is due tomorrow and It is a holiday. Independence day for Ukraine.
I went in to work yesterday and the internet company was there setting up the broadband. Poorly I might add. I had to get my stuff and work on setting it up so I got it all together so I could hook up this morning only to find that the library's old computer succumbed to something and lost all of it's data. The drive is empty. I spent all day today finding out that it is really gone and not just hiding so I have to reformat it and the internet connection did not work on my machine because they set it up to accept only the older 98 machine. I will format it on Thursday and set it up. Then I will get the internet fixed. That was today. Tomorrow I will write more when I can. I love you and thank you for working on the tiger direct order but the mail box place is a UPS outlet so they should be able to send it there. I will let the rest of the world figure that out. Thanks for looking at it.
When you come through customs just put one in the bottom of the bag and give the numbers on the form. I sent you copies of the older forms so you could copy them. It made it easier for me when I came back.
Well I must fly to the bank.
I love you very much and will see you soon.
Mark
Sun 21 Aug
Hello my love. I am sorry that I unloaded on you the other day with that e-mail but I need to be able to say things I feel and do not want to voice with anybody else. I love you and I know my role. My role is to be your loving husband and hold you in my arms. Everything else in the world is secondary to say the least. Yesterday was a good day. I arrived at 8:05 in the morning and walked around the bus station area had some coffee, walked around the area some more, had some coffee and tom arrived around 10. We took the bus to the center of town and talked about everything, nothing, people and stuff. Feodosia is a much better set up town then the one we are in. I am sure that an occasional trip to that town will be on the schedule. The beach there is not an ocean beach. Mostly pebbles and some sand, small waves and a lot of growth floating in the water. Yesterday was windy and it sprinkled some. We did not go in the water just walked through the tourist stalls and looked at the trinkets for sale. It was good and when I got home I was surprised to note that my pedometer said that I had walked 26 km. I did not feel tired from walking just from the hours on the bus.
Tom looks good. I think he has trimmed up and lost about 20 pounds. He said no but if he did not lose he tightened up. The food situation at his site got better just a few weeks ago when a visitor from Kiev to the family got after the mother about the quantity of food. She did not realize that a growing boy needed more then a boiled egg for breakfast. Tom's work site is just like mine. Everyone he spoke with at IST or over the net says the same things about their sites. Every PCV in Crimea has changed their original work site for a secondary site. That does not say to me the life is hard that says that site setup is very poorly carried out. I found out that every PCV in Crimea is paying his or her own rent but the rest of the country's rate is only 20 %. Sasha told me he is coming to Crimea in September for site setup for a TEFL in a town 60 KM from here. I went through it yesterday on the way home and it is a small out of the way town in the center of the land area. Pleasant but not a great placement.
Tom and Caroline seem to be tight. No open comment but he did mention her about ten times so he does talk with her. He helped me with my phone number so I can now call people. It seems that if there is a 3 at the beginning of the number you have to either add a + sign at the beginning or drop the 3. This was never explained to me. What happens if you do not is that most of the time the number does not work.
I have to add a + sign to leave the country and call you but I should not have to use it in country.
I love you and as much fun as I had yesterday, this morning I woke feeling down and out. I just could not get anything together and sat and read one of the few books in my possession. I was hit hard with the realization that I was here doing something you wanted to do while you were back in the US doing nothing you waned to do. I need you here as an anchor and support for my life.
MSP
19 Aug
Here I sit all broken hearted
Came to read and was sadly disappointed
Nothing new at all except a forwarded note to Lou.
I guess that I came to check my mail too often this week. I think I will just go to the beach tomorrow and forget about talking to you. Maybe I'll come out on Sunday to see if you answer.
Ok that was a joke. I know that you are in the thrall of your sisters and without any control in your life. I guess I know what that is like. I am looking forward to being able to go someplace where I will be in control for part of the day.
You speak about the grant proposal negatively and I agree with you in general but this one is a small one just within the PC and I feel that it is part of my job to seek it because without it there is no reason for me to be here at all. If they say no then you might as well take me home to live with my wife because without the computers there will nothing for me to do and I will have wasted my time here. Right now I do not know what I am here for. I am window dressing and amusement for the staff who want to practice their English skill while correcting my Russian. I do not mind the corrections but they often disagree with each other over the pronunciation and often argue about it. Then I get to the tutor and she pronounces it another way but I tend to think I will listen to her more then those at work. I am getting better but here’s the rub. I can work out what to say. I can practice it, I can practice it with the people at work but when I get to the window, I can not say anything right without stumbling. Why. I do not know. The moment I am questioned about what I said I get flustered. I need confidence. I need the ability to just do it and not worry about how I sound. I do not know if I will ever get that way, I never have been that way. Then yesterday at the tutor's she told me that A told her she could not understand me in English all of the time. What is going on? I use to be a radio announcer and I spoke for a living, I taught and no one complained but Amanda can not understand my accent in English. I need to talk to her about that. Maybe I need to just speak slowly and distinctly. Who cares? Get your pretty little but over here and let me practice on you. I have lots of ways to practice and some of them require verbal communications while others require tactual cooperation.
I love you and I will be at the beach tomorrow. I leave at 6:20 in the morning and do not know when I will get back as I have no ticket yet. Maybe I'll stay for a while, move in with Tom and his Tartar family. His coordinator offered to let him move in with him after host family so they could share the rent because his family is going to live in Simperofol. Tom could not hide his mirth and discus while he was telling me this. Places to stay there are few and far between and he may have a choice of two places.
I digress. Monday I will push for apt search between discussions of the grant form. I do not think I can get it done in time. I write too much and then think I have it in the wrong place because I should have said that in this block instead of there but what should I say there in its place. And what is third person; I have never understood the persons when they tell me I am in the wrong person. I know what to write but what do they mean write in the third person, please.
Bye for now my love
Mark
18 Aug
Hello Gorgeous.
I am still the same size give or take a pound as I was the last time I saw you. I bought a shirt the other day and it was a 44 neck and fits ok then I checked at another store and they had me try on a 42 and it fit better. How as to American sizes.
Large maybe x-large always. The large fits pretty good if the style is generous. I had to buy two short sleeve shirts for the heat and everything I own is casual dressy and I can wear a tie with it... Sometimes I want something to be very casual in but it does not matter.
Pants 38-30
While you are buying things. I dumped your long coat in Kiev. The holes were bigger then I though and I ran out of room so I hung it on a hook in the closet. It might still be there when you get here but if you see something better go for it. I did save your lining just in case.
The winter coats are starting to come out but they are a little high right now. I saw one that I love but you need to put it on before I spend that kind of money... Dark Brown full length hooded sheep skin coat. I saw one that I liked and before I leave I will get one but I need to figure our budget before I can do that.
I saw the withdrawal and I should remind you that if you can to use a bank of America machine. If you use a machine that is not BOA they charge you a 1.5 to 2 dollar fee at the station and then BOA charges you 2.00 dollars at their end. Do what you have to but look around and see if you can save those 4.00 dollars.
We are doing fine and the tickets should go on the MBNA card. There is about xxx dollars in the BOA account that is just for what ever comes up and that is what you are using so do not worry about it much.
Enjoy the visit and when do you go to Tucson?
I have class tonight so this is lunch for me and I will get back tomorrow for the rest. I just wanted to talk to you a little.
Yesterday the "girls” came to me as I was leaving for lunch and they told me to go home and change for the beach because I was invited to go visit L at the guest house they are staying in with her father. I did as I was told and we took the marshutka for an hour to the beach I swam for 10 minutes ate lunch and had a good conservation with her father. It was ok but I missed the internet last night.
I did find out that the phone line I was suppose to use is out and a high speed line form Kerch Net is coming in but for some reason they are taking their time installing it. Some one is responsible for checking up on it today.
I need to get out of here and back to work but I need to tell you that I love you and would like for you to have a good time at the fair.
Love Mark
16aug
I am accomplishing nothing right now but I work very hard at it. I was told over the weekend that if I can hurry up and finish the SPA grant paperwork before Sept 12th and get it in. I might be able to get it this year instead of waiting for January. They sent out a note saying that they did not have enough requests for last year and had money to give away so they extended the deadline. I have been rapidly working on the paperwork and just now downloaded the needed forms. I want to have a finished or draft of the grant when the director gets back so I can get it in ASAP. do not know if I can do it but I will try.
That and school is what I have been doing. School at work is sporadic and the words are not as helpful but the practice is outstanding for me. I finally decided that I needed to get my own list in the works so I gave them three pages of typed questions that I need to work on ands they loved it. That was today and we went over the list once. Tomorrow we will practice. The good thing about this list is that the questions can be asked throughout the day and that will help me more. I still have a hard time asking questions. They say ask me questions and my mind shuts up. If I have a long list of practiced questions then I will hopefully improve.
My tutor says I need to stop trying so hard to translate the English into an exact copy when I translate into Russian. I work very hard at getting what I want to say down only to find that it is wrong because I have worked to get it just like the English. Not a problem with the sentence structure per say but confusing in the extreme for the normal Russian. I need to work on Russian sentience structure instead of forcing it into English structure.
Endings are a pain in the butt and guess again my love. I will not get to talk to you in English most of the time because we as in you and I need to learn this confounded language if we are going to live here. You get Russian lessons every day and I get Russian practice every day. so much for your dreams of an English home.
I love you and can not wait until you get here. Enjoy the time with your big sis and think of me.
Bye for now
Mark
14 Aug
Just a short note to keep your mailbox up to date.
It is Sunday and I have nothing new to add. I wrote about yesterdays walk but did not talk about Tom's phone call. He called while I was writing and when I finished I called him back. We made a plan to meet in Fedocia on Saturday and walk along the beach and spend the day talking. He seems to be doing OK but I think he needs a friend to talk with. Starry Kreem is a small town and I think he feels a little lost. I need to talk with someone that I know as well so it will be a good thing to do. We will have lunch and come back late evening.
Vera and Katya are heading out Tuesday morning for Harkiev to get katya into her apartment and into school. Vera said she would be gone a week and the men would have to get along without her. That will be OK with me. That means that I get to make my own breakfast for a whole week. Breakfast is the meal that seems to make a difference. Supper or lunch of different foods is OK. I am use to that but for some reason if you mess with my breakfast I do not get the day right and some of the breakfasts that I get are unusual to say the least. Smoked fish and cheese curds for example. Or just cheese Curds and raisins with a dollop of 80% sour cream to mash it together with. They add scoops of sugar but I can not do that so it is less then appealing and my least favorite dish. Unfortunately Vera thinks it is a treat so I get it once a week.
I started asking other people about apartments and they are Looking for me but I have heard nothing as yet. With L gone I am sure that I will not accomplish much on my own. But it never hurts to look.
They want to charge you to look at the apartment, how bazaar that is to me. I have seen some places that I would like to live in from the outside but the inside may not be suitable. The ones I like all have visual charm and nice locations and usually they also have tenants that are living in them.
Tomorrow I have class so I will not write but for class I have to write several essays and put them into Russian. I have spent 3 hours on the first and still have a lot of translating to do. I am trying to do it without using the translation program and looking up each case action to get it right. I am sure that it will be improperly written but at least I will know why I put down the version that I did. When I use the translation programs I can not understand why it uses some endings because they fit no rules I can find. I do not feel comfortable using those translations because I can not explain them.
I had to get out and walk for a bit so I stopped and walked for an hour ending up here. I will go back now and work on it some more after I eat something. I will be back at the cafe on Tuesday to read what you answer. I love you and would like to know more about the trip to Africa that you plan. I think that the trip could be a real challenge to you and good for you. I wish that you did not have to carry all of your stuff with you when you go though. Is there someway to store it somewhere enrooted like Amsterdam? Check into that because 100 pounds of luggage that you do not need in Africa could be a large problem on those buses.
I miss you my love
MSP