Today, we explored (with pics)

Nadia (our fabulous translator) picked us up this morning around 9:20 to bring us our cell phone. (Communication on the go is great in a strange land!) She took us to exchange our money, we stopped and had coffee, and did some site seeing. We met up with Oleg at the SDA for a little while (we needed to know how to walk there for our appointment tomorrow, our friends appointment is before ours and so Oleg and Nadia will be unavailable to pick us up; it is close, so no worries!) We visited 2 beautiful churches, St. Andrews and St. Michaels. I wish I could have gotten pictures of the insides, because the art and architecture were breath taking. They are both traditional orthodox churches, but did not require head coverings, so we were good to go! Behind St. Michaels is a wishing fountain, not like we have at home, but very cool. You take a coin, dip it in the water to make it damp, hold it to the end piece and make a wish; if your coin stays, your wish comes true; if your coin does not stay,keep trying until it does, LOL! We then had lunch with Nadia, and then she left to pick up our RR friends from the airport. At this point she had spent almost 4 hours with us showing us around the city and making us feel much more comfortable here. We returned to the apartment after walking around a bit more and sat down to relax and fell asleep, we did not wake up for almost 4 hours! (I think that is what they call jet-lag, lol!) After naptime, I was able to speak to several RR families that are in country on the phone and was even able to meet up with 2 families for our adventurous dinner. That was an experience! We went to a cafeteria style place (you can just point to what you want and go with it). They also had a pizza place within it, where you could order your pizza (no pointing though, just straight ordering!). One of the other families called her translator and ordered through her and then gave her phone to the pizza guy for the official order. This system worked great and Bill was able to make his order this way as well. It was worth feeling lost to see the look on pizza boy's face when he realized why he was being handed the phone, I'm sure they will be talking about us for days!!! We had an enjoyable meal (I'm not sure what I ate, but it had meat...vegetarianism is going on hold until I am back in the states!), and enjoyed being with other families as well. I didn't get a picture of us all, although one of them did. Hopefully there will be many more opportunities for group photos real soon! After dinner we found a grocery store and picked up some things for the apartment. Our appointment is in the morning at 11. It is now 10pm here and we are going to get some much needed sleep. I think tomorrow will be a long day.

I will post again later with pics, I do not have a highspeed connection, so the upload is taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R!!!!

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