New Photos

I posted a bunch of new pictures to my photo album: check them out!
photos.ArthurK.com

Snow! Moo-Moo Bazaar McDonalds

This morning at 8:30, the ground was completely dry. Two hours later, my flatmate says, "Hey, look out the window!" Sure enough, the ground was a nice blanket of fresh, white snow, and flakes filled the air. During the afternoon, about 5 centimeters (2 inches) of snow fell, and stuck to the ground, cars, trees.

Currently, at 02:00am it is 4°C (40°F) and the rain that we had this evening has stopped.

I went with some friends to visit a monastery in Moscow today; it was very beautiful with the fresh snow. We also took a stroll through Russia's most famous cemetery, which is adjacent to the monastery complex. Tomorrow morning, I will have the pictures in my gallery.

After being out in the cold for a while, we warmed up in the dairy cow-themed restaurant "Moo-Moo". For my dinner, I enjoyed a salmon coleslaw salad, then a milky rice soup, and mashed potatoes and fish. That whitefish and spinach dish was just wonderful!

Also, I want to tell you about my experiences buying clothes in Moscow's huge bazaars. These massive (several blocks square) bazaars are in covered buildings--which is good, it was pouring rain last Sunday--and are run mostly by Vietnamese or Caucasian (from southern former Soviet areas) merchants. Each small booth has three very high walls just covered with apparel. Almost no prices are marked, and they are doing all they can to lure you in to buy their stuff. Often, they will offer a price which is quite high, but with a little haggling, cothing can be found for a decent price. The language barrier is a major difficulty, and I think I will bring a Russian speaker with me next time I decide to do this.

On Sunday, for about 1300 rubles (USD $45), I managed to purchase a very nice, thick sweater, two warm sweatshirts, a pair of gloves, and a winter hat. Today, I was very glad I did that! For a few dollars more, I had cherry pie and an ice cream sundae at McDonalds. Alaskans and Russians are the two peoples I know of that will down copious amounts ice cream, regardless of how bleak and cold the weather is.

First Snow!

It snowed briefly this morning! Just two day's after Anchorage's first snow. Also, today is my last day of classes for the first quarter. We will start a new quarter next week.

I received a large envelope from Walla Walla College. It arrived around the 20th of October, and was postmarked in WA, USA on 30 September, so things will probably take half a month to reach me.

Also, they addressed it in English, which worked fine (although, I'm told takes slightly longer). They used the Following address:
Arthur Ketcham
English Language Center-Moscow
Kasnoyarskaya #3
Moscow 107589
RUSSIA

The Day the Internet Died

So, this morning (last night for the USA), much of the internet was inaccessible worldwide. That was rather interesting, and though I could get to what I needed, my friends in the US were having a more difficult time. It turned out that two of the handful of large companies that control the internet backbone systems were knocked offline due to technical problems. One company was completely offline, bringing millions of websites and customers with it. A very bad few hous in the history of the internet.

In other news, I had my Friday Russian class today. It is sad to admit that I am not spending much time on my studying of Russian, and I am feeling the effects of this. I really do want to learn the language, but I know that if I want to acheive this goal, I must put much more effort into learning it. Languages are not learned by listening to people talk on the street or TV.

This week was the last week of my first term of classes. I have a few days off next week, which will be a nice break. Perhaps I can do some programming in my free time, as well as boning up on my Russian.

Speaking of Russian, I have become more and more interested in Linguistics in the last few months. A professor at WWC, Tamara Randolf, got me pretty interested in this discipline, which for me has been entirely self taught. I had the priviliage of sitting in on four Linugustics classes at Cornell last summer as well. I am very interested in studying the history and evolution of languages, as well as phonetics in general. I bought a book on the topic in London, and I am now teaching a small class on Phonetics and Pronunciation as a supplement to my English intruction here in Moscow. Unfortunately, my wonder university has one single class in lingustics which is offered every other year, which is pretty lame, especially for a $30k/yr. university. Perhaps I should think about graduate school if this field is so interesting. In the meantime, at least I have the internet.

A Time of Thanksgiving

Today was a very interesting day. We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving today (almost a week late) because two of the other teachers are Canadians. We had a great party with an abundance of food, dessert, homemade buns, and so on. It was delicious. I always say that I eat better (and more) in Moscow than I ever have before. Today was no exception. The only things missing other than the turkey and stuffing, was cranberries and pumpkin pie -- we wanted to find and make these both very badly, but cranberries and pumpkin are unique to the west, and Moscow's stores do not have them. Regardless, the meal was delicious. I ate until I was stuffed... I still feel stuffed a few hours later!

In the spirit of thanksgiving, I realize I have a lot to be thankful for. Security is definitely one of these things. Last night, at 2:45 AM, someone rang the doorbell to my apartment. Just the day before, I read about how a man was mistakenly stabbed to death because his murderer had the wrong apartment. My flatmate also heard of someone who was shot through his door while investigating who was there. This is a very crowded city, and it definitely has its share of crime, especially agaist those who don't blend in -- the rich, the foreigners, dark skinned people, etc. All megacities do have their crime though. Be glad if you live somewhere safe.

Another unnerving event happening today was when I got on the Tram (bus on rails) and sat down. Right across from where I was sitting was a large, brand new baby stroller -- it looked like it had never been used -- and no one was standing near it, it was just sitting there, with its wheels locked. Inside it was not a baby, but a small, new looking suitcase. This seemed very suspicious, especially in light of the fact that two days earlier, Nalchik, a SW Russian city was raided my extremist Muslim militants. I made a very fast exit at the nearest stop. This might have cost me an extra 40 cents, but it was a wise choice.

Moscow Mailing Address

I was recently emailed a good address to use for mail. This is the address for the Adventist Division office, which will deliver mail to me. The following picture is that address, which is written with the Cyrillic alphabet. Please print this on a label, or write it very carefully.

At Home in Moscow

This email I sent to a friend is a really good general decription of my life so far in Moscow -- So good, that I had to post it here:

I am really enjoying Moscow. I don't feel like I'm on a mission trip; I feel like I live here, which is good. Perhaps I feel more at home here than at WWC! The only difficulty is not knowing the language, which isn't as big of an inconvenience as one might think. I can buy just about anything I need, and get around quite well on the metro (subway) and public transportation (which is excellent, and cheap). I do need to get a haircut soon; that might be a bit more difficult.

The city is crowded, but my apartment is comfortable, and I have my own room -- the walls of which are covered by many old calendar photos of Washington state, wild animals, auroras, and pictures from outer space -- oh, and two maps of Washington and Colorado! I also brought a lot of John Denver music with me, so I am quite comfortable. The markets have a lot of inexpensive food, and I have developed my culinary skills such that I eat better here, than I did at Walla Walla. I'll post my recipe for Russian Haystacks on my blog sometime.

My teaching is going very well, it is not difficult, and most of my students seem to grasp the material really well. In addition to English, I teach some interesting classes like geography and issues (where we study interesting, current, or sometimes controversial topics). As well as being a teacher, I am also part of a two hour, once a week Russian class with the other teachers. (It is taught by the director of the English Language Center), which reminds me, I really need to do my homework soon!

A member of a big family!

I now have broadband internet! I am very happy about this, since I can have access to the internet and education resources for my classes anytime I want without having to worry about minutes used, or tying up the phone line. I also have Skype, which lets me call my friends and family in the States for 2 euro-cents per min. Last weekend was rather enjoyable, as I had homemade Russian pirozhki, did a lot of walking around Moscow, and helped in the church work-bee on Sunday. I am making friends with so many people at the international church, and they are of such diverse backgrounds. I have two friends from Haiti, both speak French and English. One speaks less Russian than I do, but also knows Spanish. (which I know a little) I also have several friends who work at the Adventist Dental Clinic. Thier are about 15 Adventist churches in Moscow, and I enjoyed the friendly community we have.

I am told that when the new church is built, we will fellowship with two others at the same time in this large, three floor building! It should be interesting to see this family of families.