Excuse me please, where's the goat?

Today I said something a little funny. Accent on a word is everything in Russian. We were in the shoe store buying some sandals for Abigail. I asked where the cash register was, but put the stress on the wrong part of the word for "kassa." The girl looked at me with a blank face.  She would have heard "excuse me, where is the goat please?" Thankfully someone standing next to me understood from context that I was asking for the cash register and not the goat. The right emphasis is so important.  :)  The only thing funnier is to think how many times in the past this has probably happened and I didn't even know it.

We will finally have our year long visas in our hands tomorrow.  I had to do a lot of running around today, there's so many steps to staying in country sometimes.  We have more joy ahead of us, as we are intending to apply for residency permits.

The highlight of our day today was not my Russian lesson (formal letter writing.... yes, yawn..), but sitting in a little office ordering IKEA.  There's no IKEA store here in Krasnoyarsk.  But there are a number further west in Russia.  IKEA came to Novosibirsk just as we moved to live in Krasnoyarsk.  Furniture is certainly over priced here, and we had been putting off getting kitchen chairs and a high chair for PJ.  We had been making do with a couple stools and putting PJ on our laps.  Our lack of chairs was highlighted for us when we had guests this past week. 

We had noticed a sign outside some shops "IKEA orders and delivery."  The guy working there was really nice, the process of ordering IKEA furniture was really peaceful.  It was so good to have someone do such a good job of customer service.  Vasily (the IKEA guy) started up his business just a few months ago.  He has a partner in Novosibirsk who purchases the product and ships it over on a truck.  Our four wooden chairs and high chair will arrive in a week's time (and all at a cheaper price than other furniture here).

I guessed correctly when I asked Vasily if he was Khakas.  It seems I am learning to tell indigenous people apart by their appearance.  Vasily and his wife and daughter will likely come to our place for dinner in the near future.  It's fun when God takes simple daily tasks and turns them into opportunities for meeting people.

A bit of a recent photo gallery-

More flowers from the forest surrounding our home.  Now that the pool has closed for July and August, I have taken to going on brisk walks in the forest for exercise.

Peace to the world, says Lenin.  Recently at the Day of the City celebrations I saw a couple of girls wearing t-shirts with Lenin on them and the phrase "I'll be back."  No commentary, just curious. :)

I stuck my head into a little museum-gallery recently.  This piece is a picture of Lake Baikal, the deepest and therefore largest by volume fresh water lake in the world.

"Winter Sun."

A couple more shots of the Yenisey River.  Krasnoyarsk really is a pretty city.  Hope you get to visit some day!