How Fresh and Green

We finally had a night of gentle rain and it was so nice to wake up to the fresh smells that the rain brings. The grass and leaves were already mostly green, but I hadn't realized how dusty and dirty everything had gotten. Much like a fresh dusting of snow in the winter, the rain made everything fresh and bright again. And the boys thoroughly enjoyed finding some puddles to play in. The nicer weather has encouraged us to roam a little further from home, so we've been exploring (and promptly "naming") yet more play yards. Finn has a name for every play yard we've ever been to: there's Two Bridges, One Baby Swing, Elephant Slide, Broken Choo Choos, Lady Bug Slide, The Ship Play Yard, and more. It comes in handy when Matt wants to take a break from work and messages asking where we are; I don't even need to switch to Cyrillic characters on my phone and try to figure out how to spell the street names.

We've had a really stressful week here that is finally settling down now. Basically, our landlady (Katya) had refused to register us at our address and we were fined for committing an administrative offense after the police paid

a surprise visit to check our documents. In the process of getting all our paperwork straightened out, Katya informed us that if we extended our lease for another year, rent would increase by 12,000 rubles (30%)! So now we're scrambling to figure out if she just doesn't like us and wants us to leave, no longer wants to rent out her apartment, or thinks we are gullible rich foreigners she can extract significantly more money from. Either way, the relationship seems rather precarious, so we are starting to look for a new place. CAN we pay the increased rate? Sure. But she hasn't exactly been pleasant to work with or good about maintaining the place... I'm pretty sure we can do better. Wasn't it just the most recent post that I mentioned it was starting to feel like home? Oh, the irony. Fortunately, there are three more units for rent in our building (apartments here are privately owned, kind of like condos back home, which means different landlords even within the same building), so I am optimistic we can stay in the same prime location and maybe even find a less unsettling landlord to work with. We hope to look at those places tomorrow.

Paul left for rounds last week and Roman and Ian (who had arrived a few days ago) leave today. They will be gone until early September. It is really hard to see them go; everything is easier when we know they are right next door. And even though we don't spend all that much time together, we still manage to

bump into them a few days a week, ride the tram to meeting together, and have them over for at least one meal a week.

I think Finn has officially surpassed me in Russian language skills. He is always asking how to say things in Russian, or will say a Russian phrase and then ask, "what does that mean?" He still loves school and continues to make cute little crafts and learn new words and phrases. The latest phrase he came home with was "Ne meshai!" (don't bother me!). Lev tries to copy almost everything Finn says, and seems to understand and speak both English and Russian as though it is no big deal. It really is pretty hilarious to listen to! Lev is determined to keep up with his big brother and spends the time Finn is away at school practicing pushing Finn's bike around, or playing with the toys Finn generally doesn't like to share.