Apartments, and today's activities

So I decided to go to the international branch today to see what it was like. I met a couple ILP students (English language teachers) yesterday while I was sightseeing. They said they were meeting someone in the metro, so I figured I would find them there. Well, they never showed up, so I called my old mission companion Kostya and he told me how to get there. After walking around dom 13 a couple times, I finally saw someone through the window of what looked like a bishop's office. He pointed me to where the unmarked door was and I made it to the meeting.

While there, I met sister Politova, who I met in the MTC ages ago. We both thought the other looked familiar, and after a while, we finally figured it out. The branch was small, mostly ILP girls and a couple institute families, and a surprising number of Ukrainians who apparently like to go to church in English. Turns out the branch president (President Coe??) used to be Sterling Haring's boss (one of my other mission companions). Anyways...

I also ran into Lauren LeDuc, who is from my hometown and whose dad taught at my high school. She is here with ILP. Small world. Anyways, there was a fireside with some BYU professor who was visiting, so she and I went to the other church building near the center to go to that. It ended up being too long and kinda boring, but oh well.

In other news, I figured I should start looking for a place to live since my current situation is not permanent (I live with a friend of Kostya's whose wife and kids are out of town visiting relatives). Anyways, they were going to be gone for 3 weeks, but I found out this morning that they will probably be coming back next Sunday, so I need to move! So I've spent the last couple hours emailing about 10 different apartment services trying to find something that won't be super expensive. It would be kind of hard to rent a regular apartment for just 2 weeks, so I have been looking at the daily apartments. They start around $40/day, so it's going to end up being pretty expensive. But that is kind of what I expected. Anyways, at least this time around, I have more time to look, a better idea of where to look, and I am awake during Ukrainian business hours, which makes communication easier. So it should work out fine.

In other news, the BYU folk dance team is coming on Tuesday, so I will be going to that. And according to What's On Kiev, David Moore, Shane Sparks, and Wade Robson are coming here to teach hip-hop classes. I'm going to call tomorrow to see if I can get into one of them (preferably with wade, since he's the most amazing dancer ever...) Anyways, those are some of my plans for the week. I'm getting hungry. Time to cook up some pelmeni!