My Adventures Where in the world is ….

One morning I took my camera and took a picture of the building our office is in.

It is on the top floor you can see the circular lobby area which is often well lit.  When the elevator is working we enter in this lobby and look out on the city.

Here is a picture of the building our office is in – it is on the top floor and has a large circular lobby entrance – when it is lit it is very welcoming. The building is on the corner and the bottom floor is an office, the third and forth floors are a day care.

Here is Carl all bundled up outside the entrance to our building. Notice his nice warm hat with ear flaps and his new scarf. The bag holds the dough I made for making rolls for our mission leader luncheon.

In the middle between the two streets of traffic is where the trambaii goes.  There is one going each direction.  Here is a picture of one.  I wish I could a get a picture of the one that is all lit up for Christmas – maybe I will another day.

Trambaii coming just across from our office.

The snow just stays on the ground as it has not been above freezing since we arrived.

It has only snowed three times but not much each time.

The snow just stays around where it is not driven or walked on.

We are able to find most things here but they are packaged much differently.

Here are a few examples ~

This is my baking cabinet, bottom shelf. From left to right: baking powder, baking soda, basil, chicken broth mix, sugar. Behind the sugar is brown sugar and salt. Also I have a few other spices (oregano, cinnamon and cayenne).

This is inside the refrigerator on the door. Top shelf: Philadelphia cream cheese, strawberry jelly, apricot jelly, yeast. Bottom shelf: two bottles of milk (1 liter each – sometimes it is sold in cardboard wax containers but we like the bottles best), mayonnaise, orange juice.

Chocolate, vanilla, and cherry ice cream.

For the ice cream – you can slice it or squeeze out in small lumps.  We usually slice it and it tastes very good.  The vanilla is especially creamy.  We haven’t tried the chocolate yet but the other one you see is cherry and it is delicious.  We also have a large bag of frozen strawberries that we take out for cereal and we have put them on ice cream as well.

Meat is usually sold in vacuum packed bags.  I bought some chicken breasts and they were so large we got two meals and several days of sandwiches out of one breast.  We also had a roast which was very good and we had several days of sandwiches, three meals of beef stroganoff  and I made a big pot of stew which we still have.  We bring our lunch to the office most days as it is just easier than going out.

We have not yet gone out to eat but we will.  We have heard there is a Ukrainian “cafeteria” near here that has lots of delicious foods and the Clendenings usually eat for under $10 for both of them with lots of food and even taking some home.

This morning we had oatmeal with apples in it.  The apples are very good here.

There is a sweet woman who making nativity nesting dolls and they are really beautiful so I decided I would get one for myself.  When she delivered them she got three more orders from two missionaries and the other senior Sister missionary so she was very happy.

She also puts the faces of family on them and some of the missionaries have gotten them to take home to their families.  One had such a large family he had to get two sets as she only puts six dolls in each set.  They are computer generated but very nice.

Five of my nesting dolls set together – the largest one is Mary, Joseph and Jesus, then there are two with shepherds on them and the smallest ones are sheep and donkeys.

I set these together on the other side of the room as it is Mary and Jesus and the other one is the wise men. Since the wise men came to visit Jesus later I like having them separate.

I probably will keep them up all year as they are so beautiful.

The flowers are from our mission president’s wife.

There were white flowers as well but they already died and these are not far behind.

Today is our “P-day” or preparation day – our day to prepare for the rest of the week.  The young missionaries have Monday for their preparation day and for them it is really critical as their days are very structured so that is when they do laundry as well as find an internet cafe to send e-mail home.  Sometimes the cafes are too busy and they stop by the office which makes Mondays a little crazy but it is good to get to know them.

We decided we needed to get Dad/Grandpa/Carl some boots so he would dry shoes to wear in the office so we went to the mall.  It is an easy walk – maybe a mile – and mostly flat so no steep hill to climb which is good.  I took some pictures to show you how it looks here.  We ended up buying boots, nice Russian hat and scarf for Dad/Grandpa/Carl and new fleece lined (not like US – much warmer) gloves and a small purse for me.  We walked around two different malls – only two floors in the first one but all three in the second.   Then we stopped for a snack.  Walked around a little more and then walked home.  Dad is now walking around our apartment breaking in his new boots.

An apartment building on the street we walked on to the mall – like most it is very tall but seems newer than most.

Street on our way to mall – notice the rutted street – sidewalks are not much better.

Close up of the street sign – top warns of speed bumps on road, then children crossing, then 30 km/hour

Approaching the mall (Passis – different than that in Russian but close). It is one of the bigger ones here and very modern with upscale stores. It is five stories high but each floor is smaller than most malls so probably comparable in size to most.

Giant show outside the mall. It is made of pots and lids, but they added a sleigh and reindeer for Christmas.

Me standing in front of the shoe.

Close up of the shoe

Varus European mall – we didn’t go in here but it is across the street from the malls we did go in.

Dad in front of the carousel between the malls.

Close up of Dad by carousel – this was before we bought his new hat and scarf.

We had a snack at KFC for less than a dollar we had three small spicy chicken pieces – it was delicious. They don’t have cole slaw or mashed potatoes – only french fries. They also have quesadillas and burritos with chicken and some desserts. We will probably go again as it is a really good deal.

Pretty typical street. Most of the buildings where we go are very old and look similar to these. There are lots of cars but it seems there are lots of people walking or riding the tram (trambi) or the bus (marshrutka) and some use the taxi but that I think is because it is so cold. Today it is to warm up to 19 F. we will see what happens. If the wind is not blowing (and it often is) it is not too bad but when the wind blows it goes right through. Our US coats seem very good for now but I am wondering if a hood might be good. I looked at a few today but nothing that I loved (although the prices are pretty impressive).