Straus vui dana (haha hello, sort of)

It is about 6:00pm here... 9:00 am at home. Most students went out to dinner, but i bought a 'ticket' today for internet time and later found out it must be used today and the lab closes at 7:00... soo here I am. I'm so exhausted after daily activities anyway. Went to bed early again, 9:30 but i awoke around 1:00 coughing but i finally fell back to sleep. Breakfast was amazing.. kind of. Every meal is supposed to be a 5 course, but the cooks got annoyed that we weren't eating everything and cut it back to 4.. lol but thats ok 4 is plenty. We always have bread on the table, and at breakfast a type of pastry. This morning it was really delicious, kind of like a pancake-cake kind of thing.. with icing and sprinkles. The 'hot meal' at breakfast was honestly boiled wienies and mashed potatoes. A little strange for us. Breakfast here is much heavier than what we would eat at home. Lunch usually consists of some kind of salad, yesterday was a 'slaw' kind of with tomatoes and cucumbers, and today was a crab salad with corn and sweet peas. Everything is amazingly fresh and tastes great.. so far. Then some kind of soup is served, and today it was followed by a grilled 'pork chop' with a white rice and carrot mixture. That mix was kind of gooy... not real apatizing. (excuse my mis-spelling) After lunch we took the tram to an open market, it is mostly clothing items... i specifically went looking for a belt because mine doesn't seem to have gotten packed? But I ended up with a fantastic pair of heels instead! haha... The market is quite similar to most 'flea market's' in america really. We were told this one is mostly comprised of Chinese and Turkish vendors? i couldn't tell.. .they were all speaking Russian. But the helpers were really nice to all of us. 1 of our groups of girls encountered a lady who thought it was entertaining to frustrate them with Russian questions but other vendors stepped up and told her to leave them alone. The girl who sold me my shoes was really really sweet. She didn't know much english but we worked well together. It seems the shops must be connected together, because she had the left shoe in my size (Which in apparently a 36 in Russia) but had to run down to another shop to bring me back the right one! lol I paid 900 rouples (about $35) i could have gotten them cheaper if i haggled, but i thought it was pretty good for my first real purchase in Russia, and she was so nice. Anyway, i thought it would be entertaining to ya'll that i bought my first pair of Russian shoes before I tried any Russian vodka ;)

I probably won't have new blogs everyday because the only computers that seem to support this sight are in the pay lab... which isn't expensive or anything, just not necessary. Its like .50 for 30 minutes, i think i've said that already? i don't know.. but anyway its good to hear from people, i thought you'd like to know what i'm eating and doing... i should have some pictures in a couple days. We are still working on getting internet in the rooms, i might have been able to do it on this computer but i forgot my camera cords.... Have a good day- kait