Trust the dentist?

Above: the dentist we walked past on our epic walk to get internet yesterday. Interesting.

Last night we played hockey. About 16 expats altogether. It was a LOT of fun. It was a small indoor court - 4pax per team. Very few rules (can touch your feet; can catch the ball and put it on the ground; can bounce the balls off the wall; basically anything goes). I probably got a bit too into it as per usual but it was still super fun. We used plastic ice hockey looking sticks and a plastic ball with holes in it. Very different to what I'm used to doing but I stuck to the basics and managed to do okay. I'm sure I looked like a retard playing like I had a wooden stick in field hockey, but it worked for me.



Indoor hockey (perhaps floorball?!) at School 6, UB


Yesterday it was plain ole' jumper weather. Today it's snowing. It's so beautiful. Rain is always lovely but snow just totally trumps it.

I don't want to start work just yet. I'm too busy just being here. Language classes (well, the three that we've had so far) are great. I mean, they're confusing a little - but it's really quite simple. Like reading a recipe. You just have to be patient and start from the beginning every time. I'm not sure how patient I'll be, but it's not AS bad as I imagined. Maybe I've grown up enough to be able to stand my little failures (which are common when you're trying to roll your r's, or remember that a H is actually an N and a Y with a wiggly leg isn't a Y, it's a UU).



A little family crossing the road across from the Nayra Cafe (that serves pretty good {and HUGE} chai tea)

 We got internet connected today - after a massive expedition yesterday. Turns out we've got a business antennae connected to our apartment as the guy here before us ran a business from home. He went through a small service provider. We had to find the service provider (took us 3hours), and then actually tell them what we wanted. It was tricky to get their attention in between playing with their new dart board. Interestingly, the manager spoke english but insisted on talking through one of the women in the office. We also got roped into helping another girl with her english.

It seems to go okay - I just uploaded a photo almost instantly in comparison to a good half hour wait. Hmmmmmm.



A typical downtown view



The view from our very Soviet vehicle - it's SNOW!