One Month!

First, a big welcome to anyone from North Hill Christian Fellowship! Love and Blessings to you my friend!
I can't belive it's almost been a month in Moscow for me! Time sure flies! I was told about the "honeymoon phase" of mission trips. I am blissfully still in that stage. I enjoy being here, and I am glad I came. I also love my job of teaching very much, and my students are great to work with. The church family here is also amazing. I go to the International Adventist Church, which does everything in English and Russian (so the sermon goes twice as long, but is twice the blessing!).

It is late at night, and unfortunately I must go for now. Happy Sabbath, and have a wonderful weekend!

Photos!

I promised photos, so here they are! I have a photo gallery at http://photos.ArthurK.com, and I have pictures of my Russia Trip there.

I currently have picutures of Moscow and London, but when I get a faster internet connection, many more will be posted. I also want to post some from my trip across the USA in August.

So please visit photos.ArthurK.com to see my pictures.

Two Weeks Down!

I have finshed my second week of teaching. I am getting the hang of things, but I am also realizing how much time I need to dedicate to things like preparing lessons and grading papers. I am becoming well adapted to life here in Russia, its a good thing I've always been a fan of the metric system. I still find it quite stressful when someone tries to speak Russian to me, as I struggle to bring myself to sheepishly confessing "Ya ni panamaiyu pa rooski."

I'm really suprised at how, given the Russian hospitality I've heard so much about, I have still yet to eat anything Russian that I didn't buy or cook myself. I guess I need to make more friends here, so that I'll be invited to a festive russian dinner.

Week Two

Today was my second Monday here, and I taught a class, and two half hour clubs. The clubs wern't bad, but the students were at a much lower skill level than the classes I teach. My 3B class that I teach on Mondays and Wednesdays if definitely my favorite. They always put me in a good mood. Tonight, they taught me some fun things to do in the winter, like fasten a windsurfing board to skis and take it to the plains outside of Moscow, and wait for a nice gust of wind, while trying to avoid stares from the inquisitive peasants. (This idea was tried some time ago, but I'm not sure how well it worked.)

Last weekend was fun. I spent sabbath reading in the beautiful, spacious Kolomenskya park, which is a 10 minute walk from my apartment. Sunday, I did lots of shopping, and got a really nice coat for about $23 (620 rubles)

This morning, I started the long process of registering for ADSL internet service in my flat, but in the meantime, I purchased a "phone card" which gives you an account for dial-up internet.

Tomorrow, I get to teach 2 clubs, and 2 classes, Tuesdays and Thursdays are my toughest days... Since its already 2:23 am, I dread facing the day, maybe I will sleep in a bit.

Moscow's 858th - Happy Birthday

I arrived in Moscow Russia last Thursday, and have enjoyed my time here quite a bit. It is difficult being in such a large city, knowing so little Russian. I find that almost no one, especially at banks, restaurants, etc. knows English. Those who do know it know it poorly. None the less, my fellow teachers are great people, and I look forward to working with them this year. My flatmate, and fellow teacher Martin, is from Puyallup, the same city I live in at home! (I've never met him, until now)

Monica is from Romania, and is teaching English and spanish, and Navina is from Arkansas (and Canada), and she has been here for three months. Fortunately, she knows how to get around Moscow, and knows a little bit more russian than I do.

There are small anoyances of being here, like the language barrier, and the huge spoons, the lack of peanut butter, and the massive amount of junk and trash that the last 100 tenants have left in your apartment, but otherwise, things are good here. Stuff is cheap, it doen't feel unsafe, and people are very nice.

I start teaching tomorrow, and I am really lookign forward to this. I don't think it will be much trouble, at least not after the first few days.

Paka,

Arthur "Nikolai"

Traveling London

Tomorrow morning I will end my two day holiday in London, and fly on to Moscow. I flew into London Monday evening, and on Tuesday and Wednesday, I rose early, still rather jetlegged, and hopped aboard the various trains, subways, and yes, double decker busses that ferried me into and around London. I've been staying at an Internation Adventist School here, with some friends, and it has been quite enjoyable.

Yesterday, I saw the Parliement Building and Big Ben, Downing Street (not impressive, it's all gated off), Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace (again, gated off), Trafalgar Square, and finally Hyde Park, before having some fish & chips for dinner. Hyde Park was very large. To my disappointment, there were no speakers on the corner giving their timeless rants, however, I did hire me a rowboat and have a go-round on the lake.

Westminster Abbey was my absolute favorite exhibition. It is a cathedral on monestary, which dates to the 1000's, and is the burial site of Britians most famous, and infamous kings, queens, poets, knights, and military leaders, et al. Under just about every plaque, staute, and floortile is the burial site of someone. Also, the cornation chair, used from 1302 to the present is housed in the Abbey. The architecture of the Abbey was also a truly spectacular site. It was astoundingly beautiful. Quite an amazing place, pity no photography was permitted.

Today, I did less traveling around the city on foot, but road aways from Victoria Station, to the Tower of London. I toured the famous Tower Bridge (even on the high footpath, and saw the engine room, then saw the bridge swing open! It was totally silent, expect for bits dirt and gravel sliding off! After the Tower Bridge, came the infamous Tower of London.

This tower, one of the the oldest standing structures in the city was used both as a royal castle, and as a prison. It was the places of many famous executions, and imprisionments. They tour guides took great pleasure in scaring the children with their morbid tales.

There were many impressive exhibits, such as the royal armouries, a Norman toilet, the royal chapel, the traitor's gate, and finally, to top it all of, the crown jewels themself, displayed in a walk-though vault. The two crowns newest crowns (19th and 20th cent.) has every milimeter covered with diamons, or large gems! I've never seen anything sparkle with so much radiance. Ironically, about 10 meters further was a donation box, for you to help support this museum...