HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO PAUL

We wished Paul a happy birthday this week. His birthday fell on Friday (June 20) so we were free until 4 in  the afternoon. When asked what he wanted to do for his birthday, his response was to go to Metropolis Mall and have a Wendy's hamburger. Go figure....so much for going out to lunch at a nice restaurant.  

That is Michael who is hard to

see because of the lighting

In the morning, I baked Paul's favorite kinds of cookies - chocolate chip and snicker doodles. I very seldom make them here because there is no access to shortening and I don't like the end results when I make them with butter. Elder Genys, Elder Burton and Michael, who came by for a 10:30 a.m. skype lesson, didn't seem to care. They ate several, both before and after the lesson. When they left, we headed for the mall and lunch at Wendy's. Paul was a happy man with his hamburger and his 15 ruble softie ice cream cone.  He keeps saying he's a simple man.  He sure proved that statement to be true this birthday.

Paul's favorite lunch -

...but on his birthday 

they put onions on his burger 

and didn't have dressing for

 his Baja salad.

 We came home to teach Isaac his seminary lesson and then were off to game night. One of Paul's favorite things to do, since being on this mission, is relaxing by working a puzzle during game night. Those who come to game night play their games in Russian so we are there just as a presence.....hence time to work a puzzle.  We had bought a new puzzle this week....a 1000 piece one of the Christ Savior Cathedral here in Moscow, and that is what we worked on during game night. We came home to calls from all our children to wish their Dad a happy birthday. That's the best part about getting a year older. 

We did decide to go out to dinner on Saturday night to do a little bit better job celebrating Paul's birthday. Before going to dinner though, we met the Piersons up north and walked to a huge food market (Reenok). We wished we could have taken pictures while inside the market's big building but we were told not to even try. We went to the meat department first where we found, on display, stingrays and octopus, skinned whole pigs, turkeys, chickens and rabbits.  The meat butchers were cutting up the beef right out in the open with large sides of beef hanging all around. Most interesting. We wondered about refrigeration as we saw no evidence of ice or refrigeration units.  We passed on buying any meats but did buy some wonderful bread and fruits.

Outside the market where there

were several other vendor

After coming home and studying for a bit, we walked to dinner in the rain. We wanted to try a new Italian restaurant we had noticed a couple of weeks ago, not far from where we live. I thought it was called Pron to Pizza. Paul insisted it was Pronto Pizza. Check the picture of the sign and see what you think. Well, as usually happens, Paul was right. The menus said Pronto Pizza.  It was a beautiful restaurant, especially sitting in the atrium area, and the pizza was very good.  We especially love it when we find a restaurant where the menus are printed in both English and Russian. It makes eating out so much easier. After dinner we watched a movie at home....a wonderful way to end Paul's birthday celebration.


NOW FOR THE REST OF THE WEEK......
Because of travel schedules of some of our elders, district meeting was held on Monday. At district meeting, we celebrated three birthdays...Paul, Elder Hoffman and Elder Beachimen all had birthdays within the week. After lunch, we served a cream cheese type dessert with a fresh strawberry topping. It made a pretty nice cake on which to put candles. The 'transfer of miracles' was discussed at our meeting and many goals were set for our district, in order to successfully do their part in the upcoming three week mission plan.

Blowing out the candles

The note on the bank door

Tuesday, we went out to pay the utilities bill.  There are no checks here in Russia so all bills have to be paid at banks, or at machines, or on line with credit cards. A few months ago Paul had found a bank at which he could pay two of our bills, but when he walked down to that bank on Monday, he found a note on the door and the doors locked. He came home so afraid this bank had been closed by the government. (The bank where we paid our bills when we first got here was closed several months ago and has not reopened.) Paul used Google translate to figure out that the note said the bank was closed for remodeling, but that other branches were still opened.....

Our new bank for paying bills

........Much relieved, we set Tuesday as our day to discover another Sper Bank that had the same services. Paul remembered seeing a Sper Bank on one of our walks so we headed there and luckily found that they offered the same bill paying service.  We took a number and waited.....and waited.......and waited....and finally, after about 45 minutes, the job was done.

The infamous bill

paying machine

An interesting side story:  Some bills, like the phone and the internet bills, we pay at machines located in businesses or malls. We haven't had much difficulty paying the phone bill but the internet has been a trial.  Two months ago we found a very convenient machine for paying the internet.  It was close by at a little mall where we sometimes go for a sub sandwich. This last month, Paul went to pay the internet bill and put into the machine what he thought was a 500 ruble bill (about $16). The machine flashed up the number 5000 rubles ($160) as record of payment.  Paul quickly realized he had put in the wrong kind bill and ended up paying enough to keep our internet up and running for the rest of our mission and for 4 months after we leave. He couldn't find a way to cancel the transaction or get change back. To look on the positive side....we don't have to worry about paying that bill for the rest of our mission. 

Wednesdays are always spent putting together our Institute lesson for Thursday. While I was typing up our lesson outline, Paul was calling potential Pathway students for a new cohort in the Fall semester. We were quite encouraged to find several who were interested. Now we just have to motivate them to apply. We need a minimum of 10 to start a new group. Each applicants has to pass an English proficiency exam before he/she can qualify. Wednesday night, Paul administered our first Pathway English test under the new test format. After spending some time in the afternoon helping Vadim get registered, we gave the test to him and to Sasha, a beautiful young woman on our YSA planning council. Sasha did really well as she spent a year studying in the US a few years ago. She speaks like a native English speaker. Vadim struggled a bit more, probably because of the time constraints of the test.  We will have to wait to see if they are both accepted into Pathway.  

Our speaker and his wife

Thursday, after setting up our classroom for Institute, we attended Senior Council. We had a very interesting speaker. He was one of the first members of the church in Russia. He and his wife were the first Russians to be sealed in the Helsinki temple. He told us about life in the Soviet Union in the 1980's where he considered himself a loyal communist and an atheist. His conversion and baptismal stories are surrounded with many miracles. He was drawn to a family because of the behavior of their children. The family was LDS living in Finland, in a small city close to the Russian border. It was through a friendship that developed between this family and him and his wife that they were introduced to the gospel.  We were sad we had to leave this most interesting discussions early to go teach institute.

Our lesson for Institute was on the gifts of the Holy Ghost, of prayer, of the sacrament, and of the gathering of Israel.  We wove all this together with the movie, The Ultimate Gift, comparing it to Heavenly Father's ultimate gift and the things we are required to do before we can gain His gift of eternal life. Every week we are so grateful for the opportunity to study the Book of Mormon, in depth, and to teach our Institute class.  It is such a blessing in our lives.




And then it was Friday....Paul's birthday.  Wow, how the weeks fly by. 

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

The flat bread  in the back and the

squished peach type fruit in the front

While at the reenok on Saturday, we noticed many strange fruits and vegetables and we had no idea what they were. Again, I wish we could have taken pictures. We have seen one type of fruit at our local markets and had often wondered what it was. It looks like a squashed peach. One of the fruit vendors was trying to get us to buy his fruits and so he was giving us samples of his apricots and cherries. He then cut into one of the squashed peaches and offered a piece for us to try. It was absolutely delicious....kind of white fleshed peach texture with an incredibly sweet taste. We immediately bought three. He was a good salesman.

Also at the reenok, we watched a man make the flat bread we bought. It is a flat piece of dough pressed up onto the sides of a very hot kiln. He must have put twenty pieces of dough into the kiln and then covered the opening. We are thinking one side of the bread is baked with the heat of the kiln wall and the other side is toasted from the heat of the fire in the kiln. Whatever, it is a delicious, flat bread.  We came home and immediately cut off a couple of pieces to eat.....along with some newly purchased fruit....a great lunch.

At the Metropolis Mall, we noticed a welcomed sign. Shake Shack, the hamburger place we love, is coming to that mall in August. It is being built in the place where a Mexican restaurant used to be.  We are pretty excited as we are up towards that mall more often than where the only Shake Shack is presently located. When Paul has his craving for a Wendy's burger, I can get a Shake Shack burger and we are both happy. The Russians obviously are beginning to love the American hamburger.

.......AND THAT DOES IT FOR PAUL'S BIRTHDAY WEEK

DEFINITELY A MISSIONARY CENTERED WEEK

We had many missionary happenings this week. Most days we were either with the missionaries or they were in our home for discussions, emailing, printing documents, or having meetings.  That's the kind of week we love. There is nothing better than rubbing shoulders with the missionaries and feeling of their spirits. We agree with President Borders when he says, "the Lord sends only the best missionaries to Russia." It is a hard mission with a very hard language and the young men and women sent here have to be really strong in testimony and stamina. 

Elders Hoffman and Howard tuning in to

an all mission district leader's meeting

Our week began early Monday morning with two sets of elders coming to our home at 8:45 am for a meeting with all the district leaders in the mission. The mission has a new device that makes it possible to hold such a meeting on line. It seems to work better than skype or google.  When the meeting was over, Elders Hoffman and Knight stayed to email home for the week.  Later that afternoon, the International sisters, Sisters King and Miller, came by to email also.

We love how President Borders turns the conference over

to his young mission leaders and just sits back and enjoys.

Tuesday was Zone Conference for our West zone and the North zone. We are always so impressed with the wonderful training and inspiration presented by the President, the AP's and the Zone Leaders. The main thrust of this zone meeting was a new program the AP's presented entitled 'A Transfer of Miracles.'  They have set out a three week period, within this transfer time, to meet specific goals.  Each week focuses on something different, including what material to study in Preach My Gospel, as well as goals for investigators, working with the members, and baptismal dates. There will be a reporting system throughout the mission each night to check progress.  That is how this mission has attained previous big goals so it seems to work well.  It also inspires great unity within the mission when everyone is working toward the same specific goal or, in this case, goals. We will be excited to see what happens in the next three weeks.

One of the activities presented by our sisters.

After zone conference, Elders Shepherd and Burton brought Wally over for a discussion.  He is from Nigeria and speaks English, somewhat. He was very hard to understand but loved to make comments about what he was being taught.  We had to listen very intently to figure out what he was saying so we could keep the discussion going in the desired direction. We were so impressed with his desire to do God's will. 

Wednesday was the only day without contact with the missionaries.  It was our day to make our final preparations for our Institute lesson as we had to hold Institute and Pathway a day early due to another Russian holiday. Our lesson was on Christ's sermon to the Nephites. We especially focused on the Beatitudes being a pattern for Christ's life and steps for us to take toward a celestial life. We are loving teaching about the events of the Savior coming to the people in the Americas.  Four of the BYU students came to our lesson this week and added so much to the discussion.  We love having them in our midst.

We had some extra time before our class started so we finished this puzzle.

It is the last of the 1000 piece puzzles in the Institute cupboard. 

Now we will have to tackle the 1500 piece one.

Thursday was the Russian Independence day celebration and the only way we got involved was watching a fireworks display out our living room window that night. It was at 10:30 but the skies were still so light that the fireworks were more smoke than brilliant bursts of lights. One thing we did do on this day was to take the English Proficiency test that the Pathway students will have to pass before they can join the program. It is a new test so we thought we'd better know how difficult it was.  We both felt the questions were a little difficult as you had to decide the best answer out of 4 answers that could be right. The amount of time given to complete each section seemed to be a little short for a non-native English speaker. We will see next week as we give the first tests this coming Tuesday.

Paul concentrating hard to get the right answers on the test

In the afternoon, Sister King had to be on line exactly at 4:00, Moscow time, to register for classes at BYU Idaho for the Fall semester.  We were glad to make our computer available to her so she could do that. She is leaving in another transfer and so had to start making plans for school. It is really hard for these missionaries to have to start thinking about home when all they want to do is continue their dedicated service here.

Thursday night was our Senior Council meeting.  We love to get together as a group of senior couples especially when we are being taught by Sister Lawrence. She is the wife of the outgoing Area President.  She taught us about the three degrees of glory and had some very insightful information to share. It was a lesson Paul and I had heard before but repetition is good. 


We jammed a lot into our Friday. Our District Leader called in the early morning and asked if we could move district meeting to Monday instead of Tuesday. The AP's and office elders had to travel to another zone conference on Monday evening and would be out of town most of the week. Of course we said yes, but quickly had to make up a shopping list and do our weekly shop on Friday instead of Monday.  We came home and put groceries away just in time for one of two discussions with investigators. Elder Shepherd and Elder Burton brought our friend Justin over at 2:30. He is amazingly bright and understands the Bible with clarity. We loved the discussions with him and hope he will soon commit to baptism. He goes to church each week, reads the Book of Mormon, but wants to go through all the discussions before he sets a date.  At 3:30, the elders brought Henry to our home. He had been to our home once before. They presented a great discussion on the Plan of Salvation which Henry accepted readily.  He had a baptismal date for the 27th of this month.

At 4:00 we taught Isaac, our seminary student. I finished up the lesson with him while Paul got on line at 4:55 to try and book reservations at the WorldMark Resort in West Yellowstone. We want to hold a family reunion there in the summer of 2015 and needed 5 units. Paul was only partly successful, getting 6 units but 4 have only one bedroom and a pull out bed to sleep 4. That really won't work with the configuration of our families, but he booked them anyway just to have something. 

As soon as he got off line, we raced out the door to the metro.  We needed to travel an hour up north to the Piersons where we were going to have dinner before a performance of Riverdance at 8:00.  We made it to the Piersons by 6:30, ate quickly and then traveled, together with the Piersons and Milestrips, two metro stops south to the Crocus City concert hall just before it started.  The Riverdance performance was wonderful, of course, and a perfect ending to a very busy day. We got home around 11:30..tired but happy.

The enormous concert hall in

Crocus City

An impressive number performing a Russian folk dance

in the Riverdance style 

The finale

By the time Saturday came around, we were ready for a low key day.  We waited for a 2:00 discussion to happen with Elders Howard and Genys. Their investigator said he would meet them at the agreed upon time, but then didn't show. We did get some studying done for our Institute and Seminary lessons for this upcoming week while we waited. An interesting thing happened in the late afternoon. We went into our kitchen and there was a pigeon walking around on the floor. We shooed him out and 5 minutes later he came into our living room window and was on our coach. Our windows have no screens so he had free access into our apartment.  It will be really hot in our home if we have to keep the windows closed all summer because of pigeons.

Just come right on in......

Paul spent the late afternoon on line with World Mark, trying to rearrange dates for our family reunion. By starting a day later, he was able to get 2 more two bedroom units. Now we have the 4 two bedroom units and 1 one bedroom unit which is what we needed in the first place. Hopefully, it will all work by starting on a Tuesday instead of a Monday.


Sunday highlighted the whole week regarding missionary work. After church, Sister Hunter and Sister Taylor brought Tatianna and her son, Alexey, to our apartment. They have been attending church but haven't wanted to meet with the missionaries. The night before, the sisters had arranged with us to have Anya, an investigator, come over to watch the hour long movie on Joseph Smith after church. When she didn't come to church, and on a whim, Sister Taylor approached Tatianna and her son and asked if they would like to come to our home and watch a movie after church. Surprisingly, they accepted the invitation. They came at 1:30 and didn't leave until after 3. Tatianna told us her religious background and expressed her concern about offending God from whom she said she had received salvation and the Holy Ghost. We answered a few questions about what was different about our church and then watched the restoration movie. We sensed the spirit was present by the end of the movie as Tatianna was so much more receptive. After the movie, Tatianna had lots of questions which she directed more to Paul than the sisters. As a result, Paul did most of the teaching and testifying. By the end of the afternoon, Tatianna asked for a Book of Mormon and committed to read it (a big change from her previous 'questioning to prove us wrong' attitude). After Paul testified to her about it being the only way she would be able to know that the church was true, she said, "Well I guess I'd better read that book." She also committed to read it for understanding, not just for the plot, by pondering what she read.  We challenged her to pray about it and promised her that the spirit would testify to her of its truthfulness if she would pray with a sincere desire to know. It is amazing what the spirit can do to change a heart. Her son, Alexey, committed also to read the Book of Mormon.

....AND HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO PAUL

A wonderful day with the missionaries

 and a favorite dinner

made just for him....Hawaiian Chicken.

During the movie, the sisters got a text from Anya, who wanted to meet with them. She came over to our apartment just after Tatianna and Alexey left. We watched the hour long movie about Joseph Smith with her and another member, Luda. The movie helped Anya recognize that the prophet, Joseph Smith, was even willing to give up his life for the truth of the gospel. She was very touched by the movie and a good discussion followed. Anya has a baptismal date set for two weeks. What a wonderful way to spend Father's day and to end our missionary inspired week.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Often while riding on the metro we see people trying to sell things to the riders. We have yet to see anyone buy anything. They move from car to car with each stop of the train. This man was selling a toy that spins up in the air when shot from a hand held device.  

Not a good picture, but we were

both moving when I snapped it.

We thought this man was very ingenious in figuring out a way to carry his purchases. He has his packages tied onto his back back in every place possible. Packages get very heavy when carrying them with our hands. We often wonder how people get their large amounts of groceries home from the store, as most of them do not own cars. There are always many taxis out in front of the store we shop at, so many people spend money to get home with their groceries.  Not this man though. We are always grateful for our bobcart.

The other day I looked over at one of the house plants we have in our apartment and noticed this most interesting bloom on it.  I have enjoyed watching it open up. It will be interesting to see how long it will last and if we will get more blooms. 

AND THUS ENDS OUR WEEK....AND A GREAT ONE IT WAS.

START WITH A RIVER CRUISE AND END WITH A SPECIAL BAPTISM ..................... AND YOU HAVE ANOTHER WONDERFUL WEEK ...................

Once again we have had a wonderful week.  It all started on Monday. After studying and shopping, we took the metro to Gorky Park where we met the Hays and two couples with whom they used to work. The two couples were visiting the Hays and seeing the sites of Moscow. First, on their agenda, was a river cruise on the Moscow River. It is a wonderful way to get a glimpse of Moscow, giving the passengers spectacular views of many of the famous sites of Moscow. We joined them as we had never experienced the cruise and it was on our list of things to do before we leave. It was a two and a half hour cruise and very much worth the time and money. We enjoyed getting to know the other two couples, too.

Inside the boat

A special lemonade - green?

On the river

A statue sitting

along the river.

One of four of the 'Seven Sister' buildings we saw

River view of the Christ Our Savior cathedral

Paul enjoying the sites and

the cool breeze.  It was mighty

warm inside the boat.

Looking at the wall of the Kremlin

The Grand Kremlin Palace 

The tops of two of the four cathedrals

inside the walls of the Kremlin

Dessert - cookie pizzas

Taco salad lunch

Tuesday was district meeting. We welcomed three new elders. It is such a small world in the church. One of the new elders, Elder Johnson, is a native of Heber City. In fact, he is a good friend with our next door neighbor, Parker Davis. They played basketball together and Parker's Dad, our friend Mitch, coached them in summer ball. Elder Johnson is our new assistant to the president. We are totally impressed with his abilities and spirit. We are also impressed with our new district leader, Elder Hoffman. He has only been in the mission field since October and speaks Russian well enough already to translate for us at church. He was a district leader before joining us, plays the piano and has an incredibly beautiful singing voice. We look forward to getting to know Elder Jones, too. He is now working in the office with Elder Welch. We are amazed how quickly these missionaries become friends. As we listened to the conversation before and after lunch, one would have thought these 8 missionaries had been friends forever. 

Elder Johnson

Elder Jones

Elder Hoffman on the left 

Wednesday was a perfect missionary day. It went like this - prepping our lesson for Institute, getting ready for Pathway, and then studying the scriptures for Friday's seminary lesson with Isaac. This was followed by the International ward sisters coming by to Skype with an investigator and the international ward elders bringing Justin over for a discussion. After a quick dinner, our elders, Hoffman and Knight, dropped by to talk about some ward stats. The day ended with us completing the YSA newsletter, working on Pathway, and finishing our studies for Isaac.....and we never left the house.  A very productive and good day.

Justin and Elders Burton and Shepherd.

Chris Hopkinson, on the left, is a high school senior

out with the missionaries for the day.

At senior council, on Thursday, Brother Belnap, who is head of the legal department here, talked to us about a unique experience he had living in the New York City Stake. He was the stake president at the time the Manhattan temple was being planned and built. He had to keep the secret, even from his wife, that the brethren were considering a temple in Manhattan for over a year. A most interesting story. We always have to leave senior council early to teach our institute class so we didn't get to hear the whole story, but what we heard helped us understand the process of the brethren in determining temple sites.  

Our institute lesson was from 3 Nephi and the coming of Christ to the Americas after His resurrection. We talked about all the destruction before his coming because of the wickedness of the people and then about his glorious coming. As we played the song 'We Heard Him Come', Paul read the account of his coming down from heaven. It was quite effective.  In fact, one of our students, Margarita, came up afterwards and said, "When you teach, it is like the Savior is right here in the room with us."  We told her that was the greatest compliment she could give us because that meant that we had invited the spirit into the classroom to be the teacher....our goal for every lesson.

Friday was a fun day. In the morning the international sisters came by to Skype with Gessell, a new member.  When they left we hurried off for a lunch with the Jensen's, a couple on vacation here from Arizona. We met them Sunday at church and hit it off instantly.  We told them about serving here in Moscow and our assignment responsibilities. They said they had been thinking it was about time for them to start considering serving a mission. We encouraged them to do so and, if they wanted, we could let the powers to be here know they were interesting in taking our place when we leave in January. We exchanged emails and Thursday night they contacted us and wanted to meet for lunch. We talked some more at lunch about serving a mission in Moscow. They said they would keep in touch with us.  Wouldn't that be incredible if they truly replaced us. We are so afraid we won't have someone to take over our responsibilities with the young single adults when we leave. That would be so sad as we do feel like we are needed here.

This is where we need to put in a plug for senior couples to serve in Russia. Many are called to serve here but many refuse.  We are in desperate need of couples in the Russia Moscow mission. Seven couples are leaving by the end of the summer and only two will be replaced. That is so sad for the missionaries and the saints here.  If you are thinking about serving a mission....think about the wonderful opportunity of serving here with these wonderful people. A mission is a life altering experience - we have always had a testimony of our Savior and His gospel, but never before have we felt His influence in our lives so completely. As we taught our seminary student this week, our feelings were put into words we have tried to express. Mormon is lamenting what the Nephites could have had if they had remained faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ.  He said the Nephites could have been 'clasped in the arms of their Savior'. We have felt 'clasped in His arms' for the 11 months we have been serving this mission. It's an incredible feeling.

Now for the end of our week........

Ira and Timur.  The flowers

were from Timur.

Saturday morning, we had the privilege of attending a very special baptism. The beautiful sister's name is Ira and she is the wife of a member of our ward.  He was Muslim but joined the church a few years back. His wife, a Muslim, started taking the lessons a few weeks ago and readily accepted all she was taught. She does not speak Russian, only her native tongue of Uzbek. The sisters would teach in Russian and her husband would translate so she could understand the gospel message. Her baptism was amazing. Mohammad, a young single adult who is also a converted Muslim, gave the talk on baptism. He would first say a sentence in Russian and then say it in her language so she could understand what he was saying. Her husband's cousin, Timur, baptized her. He was in our Pathway program and it was his cousin's father that introduced him to the gospel. The elders sang hymns while the participants were changing and the sisters gave a combined talk on confirmation. After the bishop's welcome, her husband and Timur bore their testimonies. Such a spiritual experience. Sunday, Ira was confirmed. The bishop said the confirmation prayer in Russian and the husband translated it for Ira, again so she would know the blessings promised her. A special experience, for sure.

Our elders singing after the baptism

Doing the Chicken Dance

Besides the baptism on Saturday, we also went to a ward couple's party in the late afternoon. It was a dance and was very well planned. One of our young singles was the DJ and another one was the director of activities. Beside introducing many different kinds of dances for us to do (ie the Charleston, the chicken, etc,), he had us playing a fun dance game. We had to dance with a DVD case held between us in some location on our bodies. He would call out head and we would dance with the case held between our heads. Each part of the body was called out (arms, hips, chests, etc.) until all had dropped the DVD case but one couple. We were disqualified on the back to back position. It was fun. 

Blowing beans

through a straw to

hit a target on the wall.

This YSA returned

from his mission

to England yesterday

We left the dance early to go home and change for a YSA activity. At the last minute it was changed from being at a park to the institute room due to rain. There were 35 to 40 in attendance and all seemed to have a good time.  The night was an Olympic sports theme so the group was divided into two teams.  Each team had to decide a country name, flag, language, and anthem. After presenting their countries they competed in a couple of team relay type games to determine a winner. They ended the evening singing songs with their favorite guitar player. A good evening but we were tired when we finally got home for dinner at 10:30 at night.

LIVING IN RUSSIA SPOTLIGHT

Interesting art work

More art?

From the back windows of our apartment, we overlook three buildings.  We have come to discover that it is an art type community. One building is a dance studio, one is a music hall where many concerts are performed on weekends, and one is an art studio which opens its door for exhibitions occasionally. It is interesting to watch the many people coming and going from these buildings. These buildings have the same address as our apartment building. Too often someone trying to find our apartment building goes back to those buildings first.

People waiting outside during an intermission at a Friday night concert

We have mentioned the pigeons on our window sill before. We have made an interesting observation lately. The pigeon who lands on our sill first and begins to eat the crumbs we have put out becomes very protective of the area, chasing off other pigeons that lands anywhere close by. The pigeon, though, does not seem to feel threatened by a smaller bird. Often they eat side by side.

AND THAT DOES IT FOR ANOTHER WEEK