Diving in

Day 16 August 6Adriana climbed in this hole and asked me to take her picture. Nikolay has been teaching me about how to use the camera, so my pictures of the day might be improving.

Day 17 August 7
At swimming lessons, Ariel has been having a hard time keeping her chin on her chest for diving in, so we decided to practice at home in our "soaking tub." I guess it paid off because, today at swimming lessons, Adriana got to try diving for the first time and did it like a natural. Ariel was so proud of her. After much perseverance and patience on the part of the swimming teacher Ariel got it too.

On another note, last night I was telling Nikolay about my plans to go to NYC with the kids and much to my surprise he said that he wants to go with us. We'll probably be going next Saturday. I can't wait. Up until now, he has boo-hoo-ed all of my notions of venturing out.

It is funny, I don't really feel like I am living "out east" yet because we are surrounded by cornfields and shopping is further away than where we lived in Holladay. Someone from here asked me how I like living here and if it is a lot more fast paced, because she had heard that the East is more fast paced than the West. I just laughed to myself and smiled. I catch myself laughing a lot because I think that people are trying to be funny, but is just that I am not used to the New Jersey type accent yet. It seems like in the movies people with that kind of accent are always comical so my first reaction is that they are joking, then I realize that that is just how they talk. Like I heard some ladies conversing rather animatedly in the store and I busted up laughing because I thought it was a big joke and they just kept going and going and I realized that they weren't joking at all. It is really fun.