Amusement!

Summer is here and we are, as we said before, busy with reading and getting ready to go back to the US.

About two weeks ago one of our friends here left for the U.S. as well and so we had a picnic! There was a very friendly squirrel that perched on a tree right next to Matthew and we walked around the island above ours. Half of that island is a park so there was a lot of space to walk! At the very end of the island there was a very unexpected bell tower!

There are stairs leading up to the top in the two legs and it just stands by itself on the end of this island. It was quite a surprise!

On the same island there is a small amusement park called Diva Ostrov. You can actually see the rides from the end of our island since they aren't too far apart. Since we went to Cedar Point for our honeymoon we decided to go to Diva Ostrov for our third anniversary! It is nice because since you pay per ride you can come and go as you please and you aren't trapped there. So here are some pictures of the awesome rides we tried out!

These swings go up a very tall central pole and you get a really nice view of the city! I was very glad that they were in benches!

These two small roller coasters were a lot of fun! The first one is called the Screaming Squirrel (in English, the Russian name was different) and has two inverted falls drops. This was scarier than it looked since you couldn't see the track and it looked like you were going to fall off! The other was a corkscrew.

One of the crazier rides we went on was called the Hoppla. It is shaped like an anchor and the whole thing spins while each car also spins. So you end up going headfirst toward the ground and then spinning around. We thought this one was a lot of fun! 

The very craziest ride we went on was something we had been eyeing for over a year. It is called the Rocket and it was very scary but a lot of fun! You sit in a rocket shaped car with just a shoulder harness. It lifts you up so high that you can see the city center and then it starts to swing you in a circle. Once that starts, the rocket car starts to barrel roll. Every time you go upside down you lift off of your seat so you are hanging by your shoulder harness! It was very cool but it gives me chills thinking about it!

You can see the teeny people on the ground for size comparison. We were amazed because the ride before us only had one woman all by herself; very brave! 

In less than a week we will be in the U.S.! It's been two years since we've been back so we are looking forward to seeing family and friends. Two prayer requests would be that we have safe and uneventful travels (we've both been under the weather the past few weeks) and that Matthew's visits to speak to different professors about grad programs give us a really clear sense of what to do to get ready for life after Russia!