Pikiranku

So Many Events...

2011-11-06T05:34:00.000-08:00

...I don't know where to start.

So I decided to start with my friend's wedding. She was beautiful and as far as I know, it all went off without any problems.

Then a week later a birthday party that I didn't want to go to, but still went to in spite of the desire to relax at home. It was a ton of fun. The minute I stepped in the door, the birthday girl asked if I would be willing to french braid her hair. We enjoyed playing UNO and chatting till late.

I was invited to a Latin-Gala concert. It was so beautiful. We got the front row because our seats were occupied on the second row. :) Not a bad spot. We got to see All the expressions of the musicians.
I took my friend to get her hair cut. She needed a translator and also loved the girl that I usually have do my hair. I was doing really well with the whole translating thing until she wanted a manicure. I don't have that vocabulary. I can talk about a car and getting your hair done in Russian, but you try to get me to explain what I need in a manicure, I am at a complete loss. :) Needless to say, the lady who was doing my friend's manicure, understood the word "buff". :) We all had a good laugh, when we found out that was the one English word she knew. I was saved!After Sunday fellowship, a bunch of us meet at a food court. This was the crowd that gathered this time. Huge! Sometimes it is only one to two tables. This time it was a ton of people. It is always fun getting so many people together.

Until next time.

Moving Around

2011-09-13T23:33:00.000-07:00

I got to go to a summer home with one of my friends. We got to see and eat a bunch of home grown veggies.

A couple of months ago I wanted to and was encouraged to find a home with locals. It took some time, but the right one finally came along.

My new place: I am living in an 3 room apartment with 4 other girls. It reminds me of a dorm situation, except we all have our own things like toilet paper...

I share a room with one girl. It has been amazing just how things have worked out and how I found the place.

Snapshots

2011-07-18T01:02:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine was determined to make me pose. Yes, it was torturous, but with a smile! :) I just don't pose in pictures, but if you have happened to see any pictures of the local people you will notice that they pose for pictures all the time. Sooo...
These trees of padlocks... When people get married, as part of their wedding day they hang a lock, usually with their names written on it, on one of these iron trees and throw the key in the river. These are some of my friends that were with me on a walk by the river one day.
Of course, the parks are beautiful. :) We went out, sat on the grass, and played UNO to our hearts content. It was just a relaxing day. The park was crowed, but you would never know it from this picture.
A friend of mine wanted to go for a boat ride up the Moscow River. It was another beautiful day.
Some more sites to see with friends that find it amazing that I haven't seen them yet...

While at a friend's the other day, we were getting ready to eat some cake that she had made, when we noticed their dog was also getting ready to eat it...

3 Feet from the Stage

2011-05-30T00:13:00.000-07:00

The other day I went to a play "Dead Souls." It is a classic, here. I got to sit on the second row back! The stage was 3 feet in front of me! Crazy! But a good place to be to hear what was being said and see what was going on. And of course, since the play was in the local language it was helpful to be able to hear.

This was the view behind me. Amazing!

I also had the opportunity to go to a conference a couple of weeks back. It was a refreshing but very busy time. These are some of my friends that I was there with.

And of course, the living accommodations were a bit tight. 6 ladies in this tiny room. It was fun, though.

And meals were interesting. Exact amount of food for 8 adults at each table. Bread at every meal. Local food each time. Not bad.

21st century hanging out with friends:
We would chat occasionally, but a lot of time was spent on ipods, ipads, or phones seeing as this cafe had wireless internet.

There and Back Again...

2011-04-11T19:53:00.000-07:00

Spending time with friends 2 days after I got back

Mom is doing really well and back to work

The Florida sun was amazing after a very long winter here.

One Extreme to the Next

2011-03-08T22:51:00.000-08:00

Wow, what to say... So much has happened since I last wrote.

To start with... Mom caught this expression from me while I was talking to a friend just the other day. My friend had sent me a box of wool socks from the States and it never arrived to me in Moscow. She sent it in November. When I left the country the end of last month I still had not seen it. She called the other day and told me that it was JUST returned to her, the contents in a plastic bag! I guess the box was so dilapidated that the post office did not think it was worth saving. At least the socks were not lost!
So... since I last wrote... I have had surgery. The day after I was given the "all-clear", mom wrote to tell me she was just told she has cancer again. Wow, "what is Father doing", was my thought. I know He has it all under control, but sometimes things just don't make a whole lot of sense to me. I decided, after going on my knees many times and Mom unofficially asking, to go back to be with her. So that is where I am at at the moment, spending a lot of good time with her, and helping her after her surgery to recuperate. I am the driver in the family at the moment and probably will continue to be until I leave as she is not allowed to. I am also the cook, housekeeper, and sometimes secretary. Oh and I am keeping up with language lessons a couple of times a week. So, yes, I am somewhat busy. Here are a few pics of life before I left Moscow.One last moment with my friend who works in a belt shop.
Ohh, the fun we can have...
Our little guard lady was such a good sport, obviously not terribly happy at what we were doing.

Hanging out with a group of friends for Julie's birthday party. This is a typical crowd at out place. So there you have it. Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Communal Living

2011-01-16T22:47:00.000-08:00

I just came back from an orphanage in Smolensk. It is a city about 6 hours west of Moscow. I went with some friends from a fellowship that I don't usually attend. It was a wonderful weekend to get out of the city, but sad to see so many kids without families.

We taught English class for about a hour on Saturday. It was a ton of fun and a good time to get to know the kids.

Everyone ate all meals together in a cafeteria. In fact, everything was done together/one big room: eating, sleeping (girls in one room, guys in anther), restrooms (one for girls and one for guys) and, studying.

Unless we went out for a walk, there was no time when you could be alone. It would be hard for me to live like that for a long time. I had a great time and thoroughly enjoyed the kids.

Christmas and New Years

2011-01-02T13:49:00.001-08:00

So much food!
How did I get roped into singing with a group of friends? I have no idea!

I got to go to a play and we had wonderful seats!

For New Years we got to take a ride in a limousine!

A Crazy Day!

2010-12-19T11:50:00.000-08:00

Wow, what a day! It all started when I kind of agreed the night before to allow the small group that I go out to lunch with on Sundays to come over after the service for a quick lunch and then we would be off to ice skating. I did some cleaning the night before so that they could come to a half clean apartment. (I didn't know if they would be coming over for sure. That part was never agreed upon. :) ) So left I home, met a friend on the way to the service and walked with her. We got there a bit late and just found any seat. Some friends that were sitting behind us told us we might want to move. I asked "why!" She said that she would tell me later, so we stayed where we were. Bordering on a bad idea. The guy that was sitting 2 seats away leaned over and shook my hand, then he proceeded to smell the coats the ladies behind us had laid on the seat next to me. The guy wanted to talk the entire service, and did sometimes just talk in a normal voice while everyone else was listening to the speaker.

After the service I was trying to figure out what was going to happen for lunch. One of the ladies came up to me. I asked her where we were going for lunch. She said, MY PLACE. My thought was, "I have to leave right now to get home and finish cleaning up." One of the ladies said she would take me, so I waited for her to get ready to go. We just kind of stood around, and kept waiting. More people kept talking to us; we found more people to talk to. It was finally decided that if we were going ice skating as was the plan, we needed something quick. So off to the food court we went.

After a quick lunch, where my brain was already tuning out of the language, we started out with 9 people in 2 cars. By the time we arrived at the place we were going we had 7 people. It took so long to get there that 2 people decided not to come.

Then, after skating for almost, our allotted hour, one of the ladies fell and split her chin! There was blood gushing everywhere. It was crazy! We got her off the ice and sitting down. There were no paramedics, just a lady who brought out some cotton and peroxide and tape, to tape the cotton on the wound! We got the cut to stop bleeding and headed for the nearest hospital. It was nuts, because of having to follow each other and loosing each other constantly.

After being refused at one hospital, we went to the next that would only be open at 7pm. It was 5:30pm by this time! We couldn't wait that long. One of the guys called the ambulance. We all just stood in the street while the ambulance arrived, and checked out our friend. They said she needed stitches so would need to go to the hospital. (I saw the gash after cleaning the blood off her chin, back at the rink, and knew it was pretty bad.) We all got in one car by this time, because there were only 4 people left. 2 had gone in the ambulance, and the last had been dropped off at the metro to catch a train out of town. We lost the ambulance on the way to the hospital, so had to find our own way. Our friend got stitched up, and we left to go get something to eat somewhere. We ended up meeting back up, with everyone that we had lost along the way, at this lady's home, for pizza at 8:30pm, and of course fellowshipped the rest of the evening, until 10:30ish.

It cracked me up at how crazy things got, and how everyone just kind of took it in stride. It was also interesting to be along for the ride, and try to keep up. I feel like life here is never boring.

Beautiful out!

2010-12-11T07:32:00.000-08:00

It has been a while... In the last 2 months I have been pretty sick with pain in my side and anemia, but I am back on my feet, Thank you, Father! The pain in my side, now, only comes when I overdo it, and as for the anemia, well, I have many doctor's appointments to come, to try to figure that out. Hopefully sometime in the next month I will have that figured out. As for now... it was beautiful out the other night as I walked home... snow falling... not too cold...

I was at a friend's place for fellowship with other brothers and sisters. It was a ton of fun. The only tough part was translating between one of my friends who speaks very little Russian, Jessie, and the others who speak very little English. It was/is good practice for me though.
It is kind of funny... My friends from this group only speak with me in Russian, and I can only speak with Jessie in English, so can you imagine the confusion when my brain is going back and forth between languages constantly!? They also get onto each other when one of them speaks to me in English. They know I am trying to learn Russian so they try to just stick to that. I do love it though. They are such a good group.

I will leave it at that for now. Maybe more later...

Sights to see!

2010-10-19T11:19:00.001-07:00

It is getting cold out!!! I love it. I should say, it is not just getting cold, it has been below freezing already. Katrina and her family and I went for a walk one Saturday evening into town. It was so nice out. The fountains were still going in the center. Not sure if they are still running now or not. It is only October and cold!

I am not sure if this is our 1st or 2nd snow. But it is one of those 2! That was almost a week ago!
I got to join a group headed out to Suzdal and Vladimir this last weekend. It was a planned trip, but by the time I found out I was actually going it was totally last minute! I had a ton of fun though, and loved the quietness of the town and just being able to walk from one end to the other. I had wonderful fellowship with the people I went with, friends from small group. We had fun playing games together and walking around to see the sights.
The place we stayed was a hostel, but it was like a mini resort center. Beautiful in the middle of this run down little town. And of course because I was the only American in the group I got to do translating the minute we walked in the hostel for some English speakers who were trying to travel across the country and didn't speak any Russian.
The cathedrals were all so beautiful! It was such a peaceful time! So there you have it. Some photos and thoughts of what I have been doing. I might include more later, as I am getting more photos from others in the group. But, that is all for now!

Fun Times

2010-09-23T06:54:00.000-07:00

I am staying quite busy. We were on our way out of fellowship one Sunday late in the afternoon when the guy that was driving asked where were going to go for lunch. One of the girls asked me if we could meet at my place. After hoping the place was not too messy, I agreed. It was not too much later we all went to my place, made lunch/supper, and played Uno until 8:30pm. Good day!

I also occasionally get to watch the little girl of my coworkers here. She is a cutie!

Time with Friends

2010-09-04T01:31:00.000-07:00

Enjoying time with friends. I usually hang out with these folks on Tuesday nights and Sundays.

We are just hanging out at an apartment of a friend on a Sunday afternoon. Most of the time it is a day of speaking/listening to Russian from 10am to 6pm. Long day, but good fellowship!

Having a girl's night out with Katrina. Shopping, then watching a movie over tea and cookies! So fun and relaxing! And trying only to speak English until the language helper calls and needs a problem solved. Still relaxing, because she is able to understand when I make mistakes.

My Birthday Party!!!

2010-08-22T07:33:00.000-07:00

On Thursday night some friends of mine threw me a birthday party! It was a ton of fun. They asked me to invite my friends since they didn't know who they all were. 27 people showed up altogether! It was quite a crowd, but we had fun!

I could not decide what cake was my favorite so Katrina and Bobbie made me a cheese cake and an apple pie! I even had help with the candles from the son of a friend.
So many good friends.

Such good fellowship in a mixture of Russian and English!

Of course, the kids livened up everything!
The food was excellent! It was the first cool day we have had in about 2 1/2 months so it was perfect for just hanging out and relaxing. I am so thankful for everything. Father is so good to us!

Internet

2010-08-07T10:51:00.000-07:00

I got out of Moscow to Kaluga for a few days. It was beautiful there.
Met with some friends for a birthday party.
Just yesterday I decided to finally get the internet back up and running here in the apartment. Last week the wireless router over heated because the temperatures here are just plain hot all the time. I got that fixed over the weekend. Then, on Tuesday of last week the modem quit working. With all the heat it didn't surprise me. I lasted a few days without internet, then, after trying many things decided I needed to ask for help. I was told to get my teacher, Viola, to call the company and ask them to come out. When V called them, we were at that office. She was trying to explain everything they said to do and ask me all their questions that they had about the modem. (Remember we are at the office, not at the apartment where the modem is.) So, after that explanation, I came home and attempted to do what I had understood.

After trying out unplugging things like I had been told and still not getting any response, I decided to call the company myself, determined to get the modem working again. My thought was, "There has to be someone there who speaks English that I can explain all this to." No such thing to start with.

When I called, I got the technical department and immediately asked if he spoke English. The response, "No, I'm sorry I don't." I figured out what he wanted. He patched me through to the next lady. Once again I asked, "Do you speak English?" The response, "Unfortunately I don't." She put me on hold saying she would ask around. She came back on and said she couldn't find anyone. She then took my number and started telling me what I needed to do. As she spoke slowly and clearly, I was able to figure out what I was supposed to do. I did all that she asked. (I think) (This is all going on in Russian!) We got the modem to working, but the computer would not acknowledge it. She asked me to restart my computer. Okay, I have no idea what the word for "Restart" is, but I certainly didn't understand her. I asked her again. She said to turn the computer off and back on again. Ahhh! I understood. The internet still didn't work! She finally said, "Someone will call you in an hour." And hung up.

After she hung up, I unplugged the modem and router again just to see if restarting them would help. It did! I was back online! Now to wait for the call from the other tech, only to tell him that it is all working. :)

Within the hour I did receive the call. This time the guy spoke almost perfect English! Oh, if I had only had that before! He asked what he could do. I told him I had fixed it and the internet was working. He response, "I guess I am suppose to say goodbye." Click. He hung up the phone. He obviously didn'tknow what else to say. I thought it was a find of funny end to that conversation, but it ended it. So there you have it. The internet is fixed! I love getting things accomplished.

Fun at Red Square

2010-07-12T02:30:00.001-07:00

I know it has been a long time since I have written anything, and I apologize for that. It has once again been a busy month. It has been somewhat tough to get things done in the last week because I have been sick, but now I am feeling some better. I just wanted to update you all a bit and let you know how things are going.

Last week I was down at red square with a friend and got to see some interesting things.

The dome behind us is about the top half of the world in globe form. The little tiny bunch of buildings you can see on the top left is where Moscow is supposedly located. It was the first time I had noticed that in all the times I had been there.

There were some people dancing to this band playing in the garden right next to Red Square.

I tried to get a video uploaded for this but it didn't work. The pictures will have to do, but don't have quite the same effect as being there.

That is all for now.

A Rose and Life

2010-06-20T10:10:00.000-07:00

So, there is a story behind this rose!

It goes like this... I was walking down the street and a lady came up to me and handed me the rose. I was walking with 4 other friends although only one was near me at the time. She just asked me if I wanted it, then proceeded to hand it to me. I asked her how much it was. She just shook her head and went away. So, now I have a beautiful pink rose in my possession. My friends just looked at me. I have no idea what made her give me the rose, but it happened. I love it. I asked her how much it cost because just the other day I was in a food court with a friend and a man came up to our table and laid a bracelet with a note down on our table. The note said that the bracelet was a 100 rubles. Neither of us wanted it so we just let it lay there and he came back a bit later and took it back. I was not sure if that was the same deal for the rose - she would give it to me then want money for it. It did not happen. I still have the rose!

On other topics, life here just remains interesting. After my computer crashed a couple of months ago, I traveled to Kaluga and visited the cosmonaut museum. Shortly after that, I had some friends visit from my home town. After they left I had a friend visit from Yakutia, and we went to a play! That was very enjoyable! I will post a few pictures to describe this.

While my friends, Dillon and Codie, were in town we went to a Georgian restaurant and got to see some little girls dancing.
Codie and I hanging out in a friends 1 room apartment.
The play "the Cherry Orchard." It was a ton of Russian, but fun to be able to understand much of it.

So, there you have it. A bit of life for the last few months.

Some Think -29F is Spring!

2010-04-03T03:50:00.000-07:00

So this is fun! I am back from Yakutia a week, thawing out, and getting back into my schedule. I am needing to decide if and when I will be heading out there. And to top it off, I fell while I was out there, hurting my hand. I am in the process of trying to convince my friends here that I don't need to go to the doctor, because my hand is not broken. When I fell out there, I hit my elbow, but I had pain in my wrist. It feels better when I don't use my hand. My problem is, not using my hand. It does not help that I used that hand to carry my suitcase when I arrived back a week ago. Then fell on that hand again this morning stepping off my bed. I am finding out how dependent I am on my hands.
I had a wonderful time in Yakutia. It was -34C/-29F when I arrived, but warmed up to -18C/-1F in the mornings by the time I left 2 weeks later. The people are very nice, and the place is beautiful. I was in the living the coldest city on earth and the largest city built on permafrost. But, hey, it is spring! Not so cold from their perspective. :) Oh, and it was 6 time zones away from here! Talk about jet lag on the weekend that daylight savings time kicked in, making it a 7 hour time adjustment.
So I arrived back here to life above freezing. It was an adjustment, but it is beautiful here as well.

More Pictures of Thanksgiving!

2009-12-14T07:28:00.000-08:00

I almost dumped the turkey all over myself before this guy, Vanya, came to my rescue and helped me.
We fit 14 people in our kitchen with a ton of food.

And my first attempt at gravy!

Ground Cloves on Tongue - Bad Idea!

2009-12-10T07:46:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving time was a wonderful time of trying to cook the turkey for the 1st time in my life, making stuffing, attempting to make pumpkin pie without canned pumpkin, grinding cloves in a coffee grinder because we couldn't find ground cloves anywhere, grating a wedge of parmesan as a topping for boiled broccoli, figuring out how to make cream of mushroom soup without a can of soup, and trying to have it all ready for the 14 people that showed up starting at 1:30pm on the Sunday after Thanksgiving.

The turkey turned out, after deciding that about 20lbs. of peices would be enough! It was so fun realizing that I could actually cook the turkey!

I tried and accomplished making pumpkin pie from some baked pumpkin Julie had frozen. It worked, but I had to make 2 crusts because only half the filling filled the 1st pie crust. I made a 2nd crust real quick and it all worked out.

I would NOT recommend tasting cloves that have been ground, regardless of whether it looks like coffee or not. Julie and I tried to find ground cloves, but couldn't, so I decided to try grinding the whole cloves in a coffee grinder. After I had cleaned the grinder to make sure there would not be any more coffee in it, I ground the cloves. When the cloves were ground, I pulled the container out that had the ground cloves. It looked like ground coffee, so I tasted it to make sure it wasn't. Nope! Cloves! Nice and Hot! Oh well, a bad mistake on my part. I started coughing and between laughs tried to tell Julie what I had just done. :) It was too funny. I had a burnt part on my tongue! I felt it for a few days, but it just made Thanksgiving memorable.

It turned out to be a fun group of people from 5 different countries. We had a wonderful time. I have a few more fun photos of the meal, but will post them at a later time.

Cookies and Liver!

2009-10-23T13:29:00.000-07:00

The other day I was really wanting some "syrniki". It is a Russian desert patty that is made from cottage cheese. My teacher told me that I could buy them in the grocery store next to the frozen "blini", which are thin pancakes. So off I went!

Well, the one store I went in did not have any, but they did have some blini which, I thought, said that they had cookies in them. I asked a worker at the store if they had sour cream in them and she said yes, after telling me they did not have the syrniki that I originally wanted.

I read the word "печень" and understood it as cookies. So I thought I was getting cookies in my blini.

I got home and fried a couple of them up. As I tasted them I could not believe the taste in my mouth. I was tasting salt, onion, carrot, and some sort of meat in the blini. I was thinking, "Wow, this is an interesting tasting 'cookie' blini." I admit, I am not a big fan of liver.

That must have had something to do with the taste in my mouth. So I finished eating what I had prepared, then left the rest for later.

The next day while I was at class, I asked my teacher what "печень" meant.

She was like, "Oh, it's liver." Right then I could not believe what I was hearing.

The whole time I thought I was suppose to be eating some cookie filled blini, and yet, I was eating a liver filled blini. Oh to understand the differences in this language sometimes!

"печень" is liver!
"печенье" is cookie! Such a surprise! I now know if I want cookie filled anything to make sure of the spelling before I buy it!!!!

Language

2009-10-09T03:25:00.000-07:00

So Yeah, language is coming along. I got use it quite a bit the other day while picking my friend up from the airport, showing him around the city, then taking him back to the airport. It was fun and comical all at the same time.

For instance, while we were out walking around Moscow State University we stopped to get some food on the side of the street. I ordered our food. A guy came out of the booth and started to talk to me. I was understanding enough that he wanted to know if we wanted a roasted chicken. Daniel is standing next to me asking me what the guy is saying. I had to think in order to attempt to translate for him, but it was fun actaully knowing some of what was being said.

When I took Daniel back to the airport we were going through the initial security. I set my bag down and walked through. No problem. Daniel set his back down and the lady did not like the side he set it on. She proceeded to say something. He looked at me. I asked her again. She said something else. I had no idea. Daniel turned his bag on another side. She did not like it. He turned it again. She still did not like it. Finally, after 3 or 4 attempts he laid it on the right side. Who would have thought there were like 10 sides you can turn your back on, and only one is right. His response afterwards was, "She could not have turned it herself?" Of course not. Granted it was 3:30am. Oh well.

The next time he was going through another place. Another lady asked him what flight he was on. I told her the flight number. She asked again. I told her again. She still did not like the answer. I said "Amsterdam." She asked "Rome?" I responded "No, Amsterdam." She was finally satisfied. This whole conversation was in English. Once again. I think it was because it was early. So, life goes on and language sometimes progresses.

2009-07-22T03:43:00.000-07:00

These posts seem to be getting fewer and farther between...

I am just prefacing that I keep trying to write more often, but somehow it just never happens. :) I have been somewhat busy with traveling, that is no excuse.

After getting back from Germany we (Julie, Nathan, Matt, Julie's cousin, and myself) have been trying to rest and catch up from constant travel for 2 weeks. I have been so tired it feels as if I have been a fog for quite a few days. So evidence of our trip...

The Electricity!

2009-06-01T12:12:00.000-07:00

So... it all started when Julie and I woke up to crackling one Saturday morning. Neither one of us knew what was going on. My computer was on the floor and we looked to see if it was making noise. Nope! We continued to hear it. Finally, I figured out that the outlet on the other side of the room was sparking! We then decided to call our office lady who could get an electrician to come and fix it. We forgot until Sunday to tell her, then decided to call her on Monday to have the guy come.

Well, the office lady called the electrician on Monday and they said they would be here SOON. She decided to come over and help us describe what was happening. I had gotten home from class by this time, around 2pm. She arrived an hour later to help me talk to the guys who arrived, since Julie was still at class. I taught Larisa how to play cards while we waited. That was a chore and half, but so much fun because I accomplished it. Then Julie arrived home at 5pm. The electricians still had not come. We all chatted for while, played a game or two, then decided to go out to get food since we had had to turn off the power for the all the outlets because the outlet in our room was smoking and sparking and the stove and fridge were both electric.

So we walked out to KFC, got food, came home and ate. The electricians still had not come. Larisa had stayed at the apartment while the rest of us went for food. Half way through supper, at 7pm, the electricians finally arrived. And here is what they did.

They were here for about 5 minutes! They decided that 2 outlets were too close to each other and so decided to disable one as a permanent solution! Larisa took care of the whole thing and the guys left. This is what we saw! They totally cut the wire from the outlet! So now we have one less outlet in the apartment.

It is all good! No more smoke, no more sparks! Thankfully!

A Day In the Life

2009-04-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

I wake up at 7 am, ready to leave the apartment by 8 am. After leaving, I walk the 5 minutes to the bus stop where I wait with a few other nationals for the bus to arrive somewhere around 8:15 am. If I am late for that bus I get to wait 15 minutes for the next one. As the bus arrives everyone pulls out their bus tickets ready to slip them through the machine as we all step onto the bus. After getting on the bus, I find a seat, turn on my mp3 player and start listening to Russian lessons.

One particular morning as I sat on the bus in traffic, it had stopped and let off some passengers then, closed the doors and turned off its engine. I did not have anyone with me to ask what was happening so I just sat there and waited. I continued to study from my notebook and listen to my lessons. The bus eventually started again about 15 minutes later. No one else on the bus seemed worried or in a rush. I was only going to be about 10 late to my language helper! No big deal.

It is usually about a 15-20 minute bus ride to the metro station, 2 stops on the metro and another 5 minute walk to my language helper's office before I am ready to begin reviewing lessons with my language helper. This is a typical start to a long day. The rest of the day: I take the metro back to the stop that is closest to the office for classes, walk the 15 minutes to class from the metro, spend 2 hours in lessons with my teacher, walk the 30 min home from class, probably stop along the way at the store for some food or just to browse, make lunch at home, do homework, then relax for the rest of the afternoon before supper. Julie and I usually make supper together then I continue to study while she has friends over to practice language.

One other day, I decided to take the metro to my language helper's. Bad idea that morning. I ended up having to stand next to 2 drunk guys who were half sleeping on the metro. As I was getting on the next train I was standing behind a guy. Another guy got off the train and hit the guy I was standing behind in the face. He fell back and knocked me back. I composed myself and walked around the fight to get on the train. The same day my phone ran out of money and I did not realize it. I had gotten off the wrong exit of the metro and could not call anyone for help. I pulled out my map to figure out where I was. Then, had to use a text from my language helper to get past security to go see her. She was able to put money on my phone for me, thankfully since later at the office the security there would not let me in. I had to call my teacher to come out and help. She was able to figure everything out. Long Day. I learned so much that day!

The Name, Elisabeth

2009-04-26T11:08:00.000-07:00

It has been amazing to me how much time has gone into picking out a name for me. You would think that my name is the best to use. But, Oh No! The process went something like this:

"What is your name?"
"Elisabeth"
"What do you want people to call you?"
"How does Elisabeth sound?"
"No, but we think of the queen when we hear that name. It also sounds very foreign."
"Is that bad?"
"No, What do you want us to call you."
"What is a different form that would be more acceptable?"
"What about Eliza? Or Elizavieta?"
"I would prefer Eliza." (pronounced Eleeza)
"Are you okay with us calling you Eliza?"
"Yes, when I introduce myself, I will say my name is Eliza. Is that what I need to do?"
"Yes"

This conversation happened with at least 3 people within the first 2 weeks that I was here. I was trying to work with them all and get ideas of the names. There were other ideas of why my name would not work, but I can't remember them now. Each conversation about my name took at least 10 minutes to finally come up with a name. Each time I came up with the same name.

I found this very fascinating, can you tell?

Wow, So Many New Things

2009-04-09T09:18:00.000-07:00

I have started language study! Woohoo! Julie and I have a wonderful plan of cooking then watching some show online while we are eating.

I have bought a McChicken from McDonald's, a little roll from the metro stop, a bus ticket, a metro ticket, some groceries, and all of these things I did on my own! I also have used the metro and walked to our coworkers apartment on my own. Talk about accomplished! :)
I am using language such as "I don't understand", numbers, and greetings. It proves to be more difficult than imagined to come up with the right phrase at the right time.

Another Chapter of Life Begins

2009-03-29T13:09:00.000-07:00

Wow, here already, in the country I have been working toward for a very long time. Hard to believe as I walk the streets and read signs from a language I am only slightly familiar with. I arrived Saturday afternoon. Since then, I have met my coworkers, begun unpacking, bought a cell phone with my coworker's help, done some grocery shopping, slept some, went to visit Red Square, took the subway, and tried to adjust to this schedule. It has been wonderful to be here and experience where I will be living.

Crazy Weekend

2009-03-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

Wow, Quite the experience.
I was headed to see Mom in Savannah, GA when I hydroplaned and lost control of the car, to end up in a shallow ditch of water with the car on its side. The car is basically totaled. I am fine, just sore. So now I am sitting at home while my brother uses my car for work and I get stuff done like, taxes, emails, thank you's and the like.

The trip to Savannah is hopefully my last trip before I head out to Moscow on March 27th. My tickets are bought, and I am just finishing last minute things. I am very excited, but feel like I have so much to do still.

It snowed on the way home. I got to get out and build a snowman on the side of the road. So cold, but so much fun.

Traveling is Almost Done for a Bit!

2008-12-17T10:04:00.000-08:00

I feel like I am going crazy at times! But not really! I have just been doing a lot of traveling. I am staying in Missouri at the moment and enjoying the relaxing time of being with my brother and his wife. I have recently driven to New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and this last Friday I drove out here to stay until after Christmas. I feel like so much has been accomplished and so many people have been seen and visited with. It also seems as if anywhere I go I run into snow or ice so I have had a good preparation for heading out to North Asia hopefully in February. I am so looking forward to it.
I am headed back to North Carolina on the 27th of December hopefully, and planning to stay there until I leave. There might be a couple of weekend trips up north to say goodbye to friends and family during the month of January. Nothing is set in stone though. So that is all for now!

And Life Continues

2008-07-23T08:36:00.000-07:00

I am currently in Texas, enjoying a vacation for a week. This does not happen very often. I am so thankful for a short time to rest, get some sun, catch up on reading, and spend time with friends.

I have enjoyed sharing with people about what I am doing, working at a local restaurant, and preparing to head out for North Asia. I am so thankful that I have been able to stay in good health since my life is very hectic. I have been able to visit with Mom in Florida, see my little brother graduate from college, spend some good time with family, watch support continue to increase, and spend some quality time with friends. I have done some traveling to share about my life and what I plan to do.

So life goes on. I am excited to see where I am headed. My life is never dull!

Back from Colorado

2008-01-30T10:48:00.000-08:00

Snow, Ice, and more Snow. Slippery roads, snow pants, and warm coats. I just came back from Colorado where I spent a week enjoying the company of 7 other friends while skiing, ice skating, and hiking. We had a wonderful time hanging out! There were many times when I could not stay on my feet! It was a ton of fun though!

Back in Missouri

2007-11-19T09:19:00.000-08:00

Saturday, November 17th, we all headed back to Missouri. It is so nice to be here in my apartment again. Now, to get down to writing out all I have learned while in Oklahoma... I am hoping to have much of it done by Thanksgiving so I do not have to think about it much while my mom and little brother are here.

I also need to get my car worked on since it quit many times on me on the way back from Oklahoma. It made a 4 hour trip take 9 hours. Quite the adventure. We all learned how to change the fuel filter and spark plug wires. I had another girl in the car with me while one of the guys was following us. Needless to say, we were all tired by the time we got back home.

Living in Oklahoma!

2007-11-14T15:25:00.000-08:00

It has been a wonderful time here in Oklahoma living among the Cherokee Indians. We have been analyzing their language. In many ways it is a different culture entirely, although when you go to Wal-Mart everything is still the same.

The great part is that we leave on Saturday! Imagine that. I am still excited to leave, knowing that I will be going back to my own apartment with a bedroom, kitchen, livingroom and bathroom. Here we have a bathroom shared by what used to be 14 people but is now 8 after the other class left. The kitchen is across camp and the office is in the building about 30 feet away from our dorm building. I have loved it though. I really can't complain.