Fun Stuff

We went out to the Georgian restaurant again last Sunday - it's the only restaurant we know so far and it has great food so we went with some friends who hadn't been yet and as usual (okay the ONE other time we were there!), it was really good. 

bacon-wrapped chicken kebabs

 Wednesday is usually our "free" day where we have nothing scheduled so we usually go grocery shopping to Amstore (the bigger grocery store). On they way home we always try to take a marshootka with all our groceries but the marshootkas going from the Amstore bus stop are always really busy. The result is sometimes some interesting seating arrangements, like me with two kids on my lap. 

Dez and August enjoying the view, laughing and giggling with each other like usual. 

The time change in North America was this past weekend and we assumed that the Ukrainian one was this weekend. We asked our Russian teacher about it on Thursday and her response was that "they haven't decided when it is yet." Um, excuse me?! I Googled it today and the first thing that came up was titled: "Ukrainian ministers propose permanent time change in 2013" which at first I took to mean that they were still trying to decide when to actually change to DST! But upon reading further I discovered that they're actually wanting to abolish it altogether so that made more sense! Oh, and our time change doesn't happen until March 31 so we're seven hours ahead until then.

This afternoon we were back at School 25 and they had a surprise for us - it's the week before lent here so they have "pancake week" as we understood it. We showed up to a feast of bliny (Ukrainian crepes) - some filled with meat and others eaten with jam (all homemade and brought by the students) as well as what were called pies (kind of like a giant apple pancake from Pancake House back home) and other various sweets. 

All the kids ready to chow down!

The teacher (of half these students) showed us this book that is the Guest's Guide to Zaporozhye Region and it is awesome!! It has all the information I've been trying to find online but haven't been able to - all the names of the fountains and parks in the city as well as all the attractions - there's a children's train that has an almost 10 km route, there's a zoo and an amusement park around here somewhere, AND you can do boat cruises around Hortitza Island which I thought was super cool! It lists all the monuments in the city and what they memorialize, all the oldest buildings, factories, the history of the dam and there's a section on the Mennonites which I thought was super cool to read about from a non-Mennonite perspective. We borrowed it for this next week and we asked if she could find out where they got it from so hopefully we can get a copy for ourselves. It's just what I've been looking for - I had no idea what this city has to offer and no idea who to ask so this would be a great way to get to know the area. Oh, and did I mention that there's a castle 30 km south of here? I know, right?!!

Let's end with a Quirk:

Another incredibly wheelchair accessible business.

I haven't attempted taking the stroller out yet but I'm almost looking forward to the experience! Today was +14 degrees so spring and stroller season are definitely upon us!