An hour from the Mountains

This is a picture of a village about an hour away from the mountains. Things are greening up and starting to bloom. It isn’t every day you get to experience two seasons.

Who says it can’t snow in April?

Before we headed home we traveled higher up the mountain and encountered snow. This made pictures and even walking difficult.

A Little Fun

While we were at the mountains all those healthy enough enjoyed a little extreme sledding on the bottom of a ski slope. The dots in the picture on the left is us getting ready to slide down. We were able to get some serious air on this slope. Marvin was disappointed he didn’t get to sled due to his ankle, but it gives us a reason to go again next year.

Meet Some Neighbors

When this group of teenagers found out we were Americans we automatically became their friends. Most of the young people where we live have learned a little English in school. So every time we go out for a walk, or to buy some fruit we have a group conversation with these teenagers. Now I say group conversation because it takes the group to put a sentence together. They work well together and if they don’t know a word they will yell to a person walking by and ask if they know the word for ______ in English. It is quite entertaining.

Isn't she a BEAUTY!

PTL we got a washing machine. We thought we would share the good news.

Our first injury

Marvin has enjoyed playing basketball every week, and until this week there have been no injuries. We thought we would share a picture of his ankle. Since he twisted his ankle he has been hopping all over the apartment, tomorrow will be his first time out of the house using public transportation, we will see how sympathetic people are to people on crutches. Be thinking of him as he recovers, he is eager to get back on the court.

What we see everyday

Above is a picture of the backside of our apartment building. When we look out our window we see kiosks and another apartment building. Our apartment is the first row to the left of the concrete center (a stairwell), three stories up, the apartment above us has laundry hanging out.

This picture was taken on our walk home from the grocery store, as you can see there are children out playing due to the warmer weather. Usually you will see a group of older women chatting by the woman selling sunflower seeds. This area is behind a elementary school so there are almost always children playing here.


Our neighborhood has everything you could ever need. They sell milk, eggs, juice, cheese, bread, canned goods, fruits and veggies, meat, household supplies, cell phone minutes, clothes, office supplies and a few stores even carry Pepsi. We love our Kiosks!

Erica's Language Helper

Since we have arrived we have frequented a store that sells everything you need for your home. The family that runs the store and the girls that work there make us feel so welcome every time we go into the store, so I decided to ask the owner if she could be my language helper. (It is ideal to have someone who doesn't speak English so it pushes you to learn.) So through translation via cell phone she decides that since she doesn't know English so she can't help me, but her niece can. So she calls her niece and tells her that she needs to help me. So I talk to her niece, get her phone number and I tell her I will call her about a day we can get together. So after this ordeal, we sit down for tea at the store, and the owner is helping me say the words of my lesson, and then she starts saying something that involved the words you, telephone, and go by car. When she asks me if I understand, I say I a little. I thought she was saying I can call her and then I can go over to her house. But apparently it was a question because she stands up puts her coat on and tells me to it is time to go to the Route Van. This is the point where I put it all together and learn we are going right now to her niece’s house. So what do I do, I get in a route van that I have no idea where it is going or how I will get back home and go meet her niece. During this 20 minute ride the lady is graciously helping me pronounce all the words on my paper, while everyone on the route van stares at the foreigner.

In the end her niece is very nice and we have a lot in common. She is having a rest from work right now so hopefully the niece can convince her aunt to help me when she has to go back to work.

Solar Eclipse

Life was a little exciting in the middle of the afternoon one day last week, as we were able to watch a solar eclipse. As I walked home from the store everyone was standing on the sidewalks awaiting the eclipse. Soon the moon covered the sun and it became pitch black at 3:00 in the afternoon. Here is a picture that we took out our window.