Big Night Out!

Hello! We just got back from our big night out with our translator Elvira! She asked a few days ago if we would like to go with her and her friend to listen to a band that some of her friends are in. We said, "Sure!". So today at 4:30 we walked to the park behind the Kremlin and met her there about 5. We then got in the car with her and her friend, Monir, who was driving. He took us to the place and we met up with her friend Tanya. We thought it was going to be a restaurant, but it was a very small theater like place. It looked like it should have held about 50 people, but I counted about 65 people there. It was crowded, and hot. But, the music was good. Some songs were definitely better than others, she called it psychodelic rock. They used a lot of synthesizer type stuff and had a video on a screen behind them playing during many songs. I liked the screen; one song's video was the inside of the Kremlin there and all the clock gears which we can't see right now because it is under construction. They used some interesting instruments that I liked. One song had a recorder, two used an accordian, and one of the guitar players used a bow at the end of his guitar from time to time giving it a violin/cello sound. He had a solo once with the bow and his guitar that was very good! There was a girl singing on about half of the songs, and the bass guitar guy sang along on one. He had a good voice. The drummer was excellent! He really set the tone for the group, they all looked to him for tempo changes, he was a very impressive player.
After the concert, which lasted from about 6-8pm, Elvira, Tanya, Wade and I went to a restaurant. They just had tea and dessert, but we split a salad and a pasta in a white sauce with shrimp. It was very good, and Wade had been wanting pasta! Then we walked a little and saw a part of town that we would not have seen on our trip if it weren't for her invitation, and then Monir picked us all up and dropped Wade and me off at the hotel! He also brought us some of the dried fish that everyone says is so good here. We will try it for lunch tomorrow. It was a really fun night, a 'once in a lifetime experience' type thing. I'm really glad she offered and really glad we decided to go!
We spent about an hour outside this morning with Jill. One window must be her room because she'd wave at the lady in there and the lady would talk to her every time we came around to it. Then the last hour we spent inside reading her favorite Dr. Suess ABC book, and 'sorting' stringing beads into cups. Tomorrow we don't visit, so we'll do laundry and maybe go to the mall that is a little farther away that has a Subway in it. Speaking of laundry...we planned to have the hotel staff do it. They have a washing machine and we were told we could either hand wash in the room or they could do it in the machine for a charge. We took all the laundry down and asked how much it would be. The receptionist said she did not know because the lady who does it is not here yet. She told us to just leave it and she'd give it to her later and we could just pay when we pick it up. I was not so sure about leaving it with no idea of the cost, so we took it back upstairs. Later that day we took it down again and the laundry lady was there. She also said she could not tell us how much it would cost until after she did it. I really didn't like that idea. I asked if it was per pound, or per piece, she said she'd have to count. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw a sign that said, pants...shirts....etc. I said, "Are these the prices?" She said yes and repeated that she would count it as she did it. I looked over the prices (of which I'll convert right to US dollars and not list what it said in rubles) and they were....$6 per pair of pants, jeans, shorts,skirt $4 per shirt, $2 per pair of underwear, $1 per pair of socks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!We would have had well over $200 worth of laundry! So, it bugs us that the lady never pointed out the sign to us, that she just wanted to take it and then surprise us with the cost when we picked it up. Another 'surprise' we got last night was when the couple from TN left and were charged 3,000 rubles ($120) for internet! We thought internet was included in the room! Vika, back in town just for today, called and asked about this; they said, "why would internet be free?" she said, "it is at the Azimut!" Apparently it costs 5 rubles per MB. We don't really understand this and are very worried about how much we'll owe as I've been working on the school yearbook, we've sent and received many e-mails; some with pictures, and then there's the blog that I uploaded some video to. We have no idea what it will be. We were told that Galina and Elvira would speak to the staff on Monday about it. Galina seems unhappy that we were not told this cost when we checked in and they set the internet up for us. We can't find it posted anywhere and we can't find it in any of the information books about the hotel that are in our room. So, if suddenly we quit blogging and e-mailing that's why. And sorry school people, our ship date for the yearbook was early August, but now I'm not going to finish it until I get home (and I only had 3 pages left!) so, it will probably ship early September, I guess that's not too, too late. One thing I am considering is typing a blog each day on Microsoft Word, then walking over to the Azimut, sitting in their lobby where there's free wireless internet, and 'cut and pasting'the word document into the blog quickly and FREE!