Saws, S'mores, & Swimming

So, after being without tools, I finally bought some when I went to the bizarre with Natasha. I bought a hammer (for normal uses around the house), a saw (to cut down all the dead branches off of the trees around our house), and a sickle (to cut the grass). And I did create a lot of laughter for some people, me, a girl, buying such items. One guy looked at me weird and asked me where I was from- I told him NY. So this past Saturday, I went around and cut down most of the dead tree branches, big and small, that I could do safely by myself. There are still some more to be taken care of but, by the guys that you can call to do things like that. Sometimes they are referred to as ‘rent-a-men’, they come and do what you need done, like cut down branches or fix the roof, etc. Yeah, it sounds a little weird. But then again, on Wednesday, garbage day, the garbage men drive around on a dumptruck-like vehicle and honk the horn up and down the street and when they are on your street, you run your garbage out and hand it to them and they add it to the pile. So, back to the tree branches, then I had a little help sorting them into small, med and large fire wood. Which we used for a fire this Wednesday night. Isaloo was leaving for the southern part of the country on Thursday morning, so we had a party for her. We had some traditional foods, like ‘monty’, and some salads and sausages. Then we went outside for a fire and made some s’mores which the items were so kindly sent by my mom :) Everyone liked them! Though some took a little practice roasting the marshmallows without burning them. :) It was a good night! The others stayed up all night, but I went to bed because I was going to go swimming the next day! Ira and I had planned to go to the pool, my first time swimming here. But I didn’t really know how to get there so she met me at one major intersection. Since it took us a while to walk to the pool, we missed the entrance time; you swim and pay by the hour here. So we decided to go over our plans for English club and go for the next hour. It was really hot, really hot, and we were outside of the sports center and you could smell the chlorine and so we were really looking forward to swimming. When the time came, we went to the desk and Ira saw a sign that said you needed a swim cap in order to swim in the pool- a new rule since the last time she was there. They said we could rent one for 5som or go to the store by the door and buy one. We didn’t want to rent one, so we went to see how much they cost at the store and they were 70som! So we decided not to buy one and try to go to the “Sports Palace” (translation) on Friday. Well, Ira said she would call and see about swimming there before we went, and it was a good thing she did. They are repairing their pool and they don’t know when they will be opening. Eventually we will go swimming. But for now, we are stuck in what seems like a running gag.