Our New Grandpa

Anatolik - our new grandpa, who we always accidentally call Anton

Every time he answers the door, he has a huge smile and he says "please! Come in!" 

Once, when we flooded the whole bathroom, he made us clean the whole bathroom. While we were cleaning, he cut a pipe in the kitchen and was yelling at our Grandma to get out :) 

One morning, Anton brought Lydia a подарок - "Cold!!!" And he smiled a humongous smile, as he handed her a huge bottle of compote:):) (compote is boiled fruit drink with sugar)

One day we bought ice cream (every day), and we asked him if he wants some. He said "I will!" Larissa said "well...if this is a treat, then of course" 

Soap

When we were washing dishes, this lady came up and tried to convince us that we needed to wash dishes without soap because she believes that our soap makes children sick and is very harmful. 

Then she brought us soap from Michigan to prove that our soap was bad because 1. It had a bad smell and 2. Bad taste. Her soap was safe for even drinking and came in concentrate to save money and you could even give your pigs the dish water to drink with this soap. she took a dish and rubbed it - and it didn't squeak, then she used her soap and it squeaked. She even had toothpaste from this company, which she fed us. There was only one problem with her soap, she wasn't willing to give us any. But somehow this proved we shouldn't wash with soap.

Church

On Sunday we went to the Catholic church. It was a cathedral and a Bishop and three priests were concelebrating Mass. The church was very echoey so Mary had a hard interpreting. However, the liturgy was the same format so we could still follow along. The singing was beautiful. Some of the tunes were even the same. Mary could understand the song numbers so we were able to follow along in the hymn book. 

Incense was used and during communion pattens were used. Communion was only in one form. At the end of Mass, the litany of the saints was said. 

This afternoon, we went to Maksim's church. Mary was able to interpret some of that, the text was Acts 27. After the sermon and discussion, we talked and ate chocolates. Little Dasha was at church. Mary decided to not eat a chocolate right away. Oh dear! Dasha and her friend sat and ate them all, one after another. 

People and Places

Mary and ice cream

Ice cream comes in tubes

Dishwashing Defense Strategy

We took over washing dishes because all the Fedewas had gotten very very very very sick- very. 

1. Move in to position at the beginning of the meal

2. Do not abandon the soap container 

3. Allow other women to help- with the rinse only. 

4. Be bossy 

5. Send a delegate to get your food, so you don't have to leave your post 

6. If a sweet little girl wants to help, block her from the view of the mean grandmas who will hit her and yell at her to go away. 

The end

Sea Stories

This is a reminder to have the group tell you about the new friend Dennis found at the camp. We don't want to tell this story over Facebook, because it is too good of a story. Mr. Nate and Audrey - zippy the lippies.

Angelina (Audrey's sister)was worrying about how she and Audrey could stay friends...and Mary said "Just pee each other all year" instead of "write" - Oops

We took down 10-15 tents, rolled 50 sleeping bags, 30 mats and picked up 5 bags of trash...we were so filthy, we went to take sand baths in the night.

We found the jellyfish that glow neon colors when you touch them!!!!!!!! It is so amazing...We also went diving and found the floor of the sea covered in hermit crabs, who try to fight you.. Dennis went to pick up a huge shell, when it sprung open and actually- was a huge crab.

A different day the sea was so cold, no one was swimming. Mary and Dennis went swimming- it was so cold it made our feet hurt.

Lydia also has a hilarious story about a boy and his balloon...ask her to tell it. You will laugh-100% guaranteed

Dennis went scuba diving with Vova or Volvo as Haley called him. They also went fishing, but Dennis says fishing here isn't real because they don't go out deep.. While he was scuba diving, the van came to take us to the city...so we gathered up all of our stuff (two tents and luggage), put it in the van, and waited for Dennis to come back. Then Lydia had a great idea - not to tell him everything was gone. Eventually, he came back and then he sat down and talked to us for awhile at the dinner tables...we kept suggesting for him to go get some potatoes for us to make for dinner...but he didn't go..finally he went and came back "I think someone stole all our stuff and tents" :D

Snail Delight

We floated a mattress to the deep and dove for shells. 

Then we boiled the shells and the meat came out and then we pulled off the nasty part and boiled the meat. Then Sasha and Pasha added spices and cooked them with carrots and onions.

Then we tried to wash the smell of snails off our hands.

Then we ate the concoction. Haley and Lydia liked the taste, but not the texture. Mary liked the texture, but not the sweet taste.

P.S. Dennis liked it but was feeling ill so is unsure of his complete opinion.