My Birthday Party!!!

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

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

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

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!

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!

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!

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.