9-04-08-Kostanai

September 4, 2008: 1:10am (3:10PM at home)

Here are some pictures of the restaurant we went to “Knights Café”. Zhanat (soft ‘j’ janaught), Dina, their husbands (drivers), Doug, Kelly & I all went out.

Later today I will take some outside pictures of my place. Here are some inside pics of my apt.

A few things to note:

I blew my surge protector & after 2 hours it still smells in here (yeah, big spark! It actually blew out of the wall when I plugged it in…oops)

There is no hot water throughout the city until September 8; so I figured (always thinking) I would heat up some water & use to wash up…the stove needs a lighter & it was after midnight when we got back from dinner.

So as I’m packing away my stuff tonight I look for towels…there aren’t any except for the one hanging in the bathroom. I made the mistake of smelling it to see if it was fresh, almost gagged & in a kneejerk response, threw it in the little front loader with waaaay too much soap. LOL

There isn’t a dryer, but at least I’ll have a clean towel.

Dina took us shopping for water, bread, cheese, coffee, vodka & wine. Yep, what else do you need? (hell, I could go for some towels & some matches)

Dina & Zhanat are AWESOME!!! Zhanat is beautiful (~50yo). The women here are striking.

Kelly & Doug are typical coastal Maineaks & fun to be around. They brought Scrabble.

…I kick ASS in Scrabble.

I need to get some sleep. Laundry is still trying to get rid of those damn suds…

Later today we will go to the Ministry of Education for permission to visit the babyhouse…then, we go there & meet Dr. Irena. I still don’t know if I see any of the children.