Pictures

We have a lot of pictures on the camera of things that were interesting, but there's not a whole story to weave a blog around. Today is a bunch of miscellaneous, unconnected pictures. Enjoy!

They have an interesting way of doing curbing here. The curbs are all preformed. They dig a trench, "drop" them in place and then put asphalt around them. The wide lip gets buried. It's usually a pretty tall step up to the sidewalk.

Before

After

Russian Cheetos (the package has Chester on it and is definitely from Frito Lay, but the Cheetos aren't what we're used to--they're more like rectangular potato chips)

You thought potholes in Utah are bad? This is typical of many sidewalks, parking lots, and even streets--broken and uneven surfaces, but the Russians all take it in stride. It will be interesting to see how people get around in winter.

When we first saw these as we were walking into the mall we felt like we were in Vegas, but they're ATMs, not slot machines. Russia is pretty much a cash society. Russian credit cards are used sometimes, but we can't use our Visa card. Checks are more of a hassle than they're worth. The monthly funds for the missionaries are deposited in their accounts at the bank and they use their ATM cards to get cash. And you go to the post office to make deposits. We don't know what they do at banks.

Dave thought the hats on the ladies selling meat were cute;

however, the meat didn't look appealing in the least.

Natural gas lines run mostly above ground through yellow pipes. It makes for some interesting configurations to get over and around things. In the first picture you can see lines on both sides of the road--on the left the gas line is by the tree.

They love to play Scrabble. For some reason we don't play it with them.

Elder Holbrook and friend in Barnaul

Just after we got to Novokuznetsk we found out it was Elder Harrison's birthday the next day. We didn't have time to do much of anything exciting, but we did surprise him with a cake at English Club that night. Unfortunately, he's getting transferred this week and will be working in the office. We're sorry to see him go, but are looking forward to getting to know a brand new missionary in his place.
The missionaries presently in Novokuznetsk: Sister & Elder Holbrook, Elder Capps, birthday boy Elder Harrison, Elder Marcy, Elder Terry.

The Russian women love their high heels. Often they wear platform shoes/boots with 6" stiletto heels. We've been told the platform part is great for winter because it keeps their feet out of the snow, but the heels make no sense to us. One night at English Club we noticed one of the ladies had on these sneakers with moderate high heels: