Day Two

Today we were able to spend a couple hours with the "little guy". I say that because he is little, for sure. He was real reserved today and didn't want much to do with us, but started to warm up after a bit. I guess he was in play time with the other children when he was brought in to see us. We probably are not near as fun as the other kids!

We brought bubbles from home and they have been a real hit. He likes it when they pop and we got lots of smiles out of him that way. He also has quite a ticklish spot on the back of his leg and so we were lucky enough to hear him giggle for quite a while. Pretty soon everyspot was ticklish!

He loves puzzles and has been having a good time with the picture albums I brought along. I don't know that he cares much about the pictures but he loves the shiny coverings on each page. Today he also played quite awhile on a giant rocking horse. That was a hit and he was not real interested in getting off.

He is good with shapes and repeated us when we said the names of the animals from the puzzles. He is very quiet about it, but you can make it out. We will get to go visit him two more days before we return home. The good news is he is not crying the whole time and definitely loves the attention.

I took some pictures from the drive to Achinsk. It is about two hours in a really fast moving car. It reminds me of driving across the top of the Big Horns, near Bear Lodge. Same kind of terrain.

I have not had time to post about the driving yet, but it is a little bit to get used to. I had read about the driving, but you really have to experience it. Walkers do NOT have the right away, or any real rights! Look out is all I can say to that. When they pass, it reminds me of watching a Nascar event. They get real close, jet out quickly, and pass within inches of each others side mirrors! Again, one must experience it to understand what I am talking about here.

We have now ate at New York - New York and a German restaurant. Both of these restaurants have English menus, but it is still fairly difficult since the waitresses don't speak much English and of course we speak zilcho Russian. We point, we grunt, we say spasiba (thank you). I think they are probably rolling their eyes, laughing, and have no idea that we just said thank you in Russian, because most likely we said it wrong!

Well that is all for now.