Meeting Madina

Today I'm feeling better, as I spent the weekend trying to get over a nasty cold. Today for the first time, Veeka did not cry when she was handed off to me. That is a victory. I continue to meet people here; Madina is the name of a woman I met at the internet cafe who speaks English! Not too many people do that here but Madina teaches English to teenagers here. I'm always grateful for anyone who can help me translate as I continually flub up here ordering things in restaurants, etc.
They say Kostenai is having a heat wave now; temps today were in the 30s which is considered postively tropical here. I am slowly meeting people; have extracted a promise from Madina that she'll have dinner with us later this week. I am slowly stocking up on food in my room for the Little One, as restaurants here have no baby seats. I bought some chocolate (!) breakfast cereal at the local supermarket as I was so sick of eating the odd breakfast at my hotel with the waitress who kind of throws the food at us. She is a bit grouchy. The couple traveling with me tried buying milk at the supermarket; when they returned to the hotel room, they found out they'd purchased fermented mare's milk. We're still laughing about it - however I did cajole Valentin to take me to the market and explain the difference between milk, butter, kefir and yogurt. The mare's milk is in there along with the rest of them.
Am including photos of the Russian kitty and me with Veeka in a good mood.