Saturday with Jess and Alex

Saturday was an interesting day. The day started wonderfully with the smell of freshly-baked buns, which they also call 'peroges', some of which have mashed potatoes in them, while the others have jam (yummm). When I got out of the shower Mama Ola and BahBah were diligently working on this wonderful batch of delicious buns! (see Picture on Left)











After breakfast, I set out to walk towards the Center by myself for the first time. I was supposed to meet with Jess and Orest was supposed to come with me originally, but he had to stay behind to help his uncle build a fence around the house, so I had to venture on my own. I was a little nervous at first, but it worked out fine. I have a good sense of direction, so walked to the theathre with no difficulties.





















Jenn had gone on an excursion with a few of the students in their group, so and met up with Jess and Alexander, another Canadian student currently doing a short-term study program here. They took me around the Center, and ALL the way around a lake and onto a huge forest, which we only explored minimally.The walk was very nice. They have a lot of beautiful parks around here.





















A lot of people like to fish in the ponds and the lake that is near the center. But man, I don't understand how that is even possible. Overall the water seems rather clean, but when you get a close look at the water around the shore, it is very filthy. Of course, you wouldn't catch me dead eating fish, but I think you would have to kill me twice before you could get me to eat the fish that live in this water! Yikes! Nevertheless, it was nice to watch the people fishing. On the water you can see lily pads with some beautiful yellow flowers. You can also see hundreds of snails stuck to rocks underwater, and I even got to see a number of bullfrogs (not my mose precious encounter, haha)


As we walked around, we also noticed that there seems to be a playground in every corner of them hahaha. In fact, however, there are some pretty sketchy playgrounds, not because they are broken, but because they are sooooo dangerous!! My gosh!! There was this insane rocket-slide which was probably three times my height! But that's not even the scaries part. The scary part is the angle of the slide... just check out this picture!! Jess actually ventured to go up there and try it out. I was content enough to watch her scream, safely from the ground, hehehe. The kids around here, though, they took it like it was nothing! They went up and down and up and down, happy as ever... Hahaha.


Once we walked all around the lake, we came up to a forest, so we walked on a beautiful road sourounded by a wonderful canopy of trees... it all seemed so enchanted. Also, we found a bunch of chickens just randomly walking around in the forest, hahaha. We tried to take a picture with them but they kept running away from us, so I was only able to get a picture of them alone.

On our way back we stopped at a grocery store to buy some food, and after that we walked through another park and stayed there for a long time. We had to cross this horribly unstable suspension bridge.
I am not one for suspention bridges, but Alexander started stomping on it to make me scared and that made it even worse Hahahaha... Call me chicken, but the boards were falling apart and there was not much for a rail... I just tried not to look down at the green water 10 feet below us... Never again!! Hahaha...

After the walk, Jess went home and Alexander was nice enough to walk me home so I wouldn't have to go by myself. The are a lot of churches here as well, which I love. Most of them have big domes, and many of them have green roofs, like this one. I also like the streets at th Center, since they are very pituresque. As we walked back, Alexander and I ran onto a group of children on roller blades. It looked like they were a part of a club, and many of them were doing tricks, which was fun to watch. From then on, I think I got a lot more confident and familiar with the streets to walk around by myself more easily, which is great. Plus, I don't mind walking. It gives me time to think and there are always interesting things to see... People to watch, flowers to admire, etc.





On my way home there is always this little dog that chases around cars. I find it kid of funny. I also enjoy taking pictures of the flowers around here... maybe I will post some of them later.

Man, there is so much more to tell and so little time... I still have to tell you all about Sunday, which is a whole story in itself, and of course, what happened today, namely my first visit to the Internat... I will probably have to do that on my own computer since Orest is coming back soon (still no internet on my computer, which is fine), and then transfer it to the blog tomorrow after I come back from the internat. It wouldn't take so long if it wasn't for the pictures, but I think it is worth the wait since the pics make the blog much more interesting. Anyway, thanks for reading thus far... Please feel free to leave comments and rate the blog! Love you all, miss you all. God bless!