Day 6 is Sunday

Here's Benjamin enjoying a book. He actually sat through a whole reading of "Brown Bear" tonight. Usually he just forces the book closed and then tosses it somewhere, but tonight he seemed genuinely interested. Maybe he's getting used to our strange language.

We had a lot of fun with him today even though our time was short. We shot a few videos of him, but of course we left the cable at home that transfers the video to a computer. In a pinch, we can shoot a little video with our "still" camera.

This morning we went to church at a local Catholic church. Nina had one of her students escort us to the church. We met her on the first trip to Novosibirsk. Her name is Irina, and she enjoys speaking English with us Americans. She is from Kazakhstan, but goes to school here. The mass was in three different languages. We didn't understand any of them. I did recognize the Lord's Prayer, spoken in German.

We had lunch today at an authentic Russian "PECOTPAH." That's how you spell restaurant in Russian- or at least it's close. Once in a while I can actually read a sign over here. The food here was really good. We both had soup. The picture of the soup to the left is what I had. It consisted of diced ham, olives, dill, sour cream and a slice of orange. There's probably some other stuff in there too. Linda had perogies filled with cherries for her entree. Very good.

We did end up going to the ballet this evening. We didn't have tickets when we arrived, but with Nina's help we managed to score a couple of seats for the going rate. The ballet was sold out, but like any somewhat major event, there were people with extra tickets looking to sell. The opera house here is quite spectacular. I'd have to say it's one of the most impressive structures here in Novosibirsk.

The ballet itself was outstanding. The whole production was top notch. I really kind of figured that I would be nodding off before the first curtain, but I found it to be quite entertaining. I took a picture at the very end. Two of the three ladies sitting to my left had their cell phones ringing during the production, so I felt right at home.

Well time to get some sleep. I just wanted to make a quick entry here, but of course it takes longer than expected.

Linda isn't feeling the best tonight. She really hopes she is not getting sick. If she is we probably won't be bringing Benjamin with us tomorrow. So let's hope a good night's rest will have her feeling better in the morning.

Ed