Evil Mosquitoes!

For the past week or so we have been dealing with mean mosquitoes. Its not the number of them that is the problem, its their attitude and persistence. First of all I don't know how they are getting into our place. All of our windows have screens and we don't leave our door open. Laurie thinks they must be coming in when we come and go from the house and we just don't notice them. I call these mosquitoes evil because they attack you while you sleep. Every night, only a couple of minutes after the light is out we hear a faint 'bzzzzzzzz' that inevitably gets louder as they come in for the attack. I must have tasty looking ears because I feel them land on them all the time. However we are fighting back, we bought a plug-in repellent thinger that I'm hoping will help keep them away.

As I look back we had a good week. Monday and Thursday was Russian lessons and practice. Tuesday and Friday we spend time with a friend of ours giving private English lessons. Saturday we had our group English lesson and Sunday was filled with Church services. Laurie also got her hair cut...I forget which day it was but she was a little disappointed. We couldn't completely communicate what she wanted so now Laurie's hair looks a little more Ukrainian, which is not bad but different from what she expected.

On Wednesday we also remembered to celebrate Canada Day. In the morning we painted radiators in the church building, they are all done now. Then in the evening we decided to go out. There is a nice Italian restaurant about eight tram stops from our place. We have only been there once before but remember it well because they have the best salads we have come across so far.

We continue to notice culture differences from what we grew up with. Today for example as we walked to UBI to do some errands an interesting lady passed us. We could hear her from a distance and noticed that she was yelling something. Only one word over and over again, very loudly. At first I thought she must be singing her favorite part of a song but when she walked pass us we recognized what she was saying. She was yelling “MILK” down the street. Ah, then it hit us. She must be the milk lady announcing her arrival to all the apartments close by. Everyone's windows were open so I'm sure they heard her. The picture below is a milk truck where people come with empty containers (like 2L pop bottles) and buy milk.

I imagine this is cheaper than the supermarket but so far I have not been brave enough to do it. I just have so many unanswered questions. Is it fresh milk everyday? How often do they clean out that container? I know that container sits in the heat for long periods of time...do they recycle the older milk or.... For now I think we will stick with supermarket milk, it just feels safer to me.