North to St. Petersburg

This weekend is a National Holiday, namely Labor Day, or 1 May. Since our term ended today, we teachers are heading out to visit Russia's other city for a few days. So, tomorrow morning, bright and early, we are catching a train and heading North.

We were fortunate enough to have some connections that are providing us with basic accommodation. Hopefully this will be a great trip, and I will come back with lots of pictures and souvenirs. As if I wasn't behind enough already on uploading my photos to my gallery!

40 Days to Go!!!

So, I am down to 40 days left in Russia. Man, these months have flown by! So, I am going to be home in June, and hopefully I can visit all you chicos and ch at Walla Walla before the last day of school on 6 June. I look forward to see all my family and friends (and car) again. I do know that I will deeply miss my friends in Russia. Moscow is starting to becoem very beautiful again with such lovely spring sunny days too. I know I will enjoy my last month here, and it will be a very exciting, wonderful time.

Привет, Muchochos

So, in my ever-so-badly procrastinated quest to learn Russian, I have not given up yet. I still don't know enough to converse. I can get around a store, and comunicate some basic ideas. I can read some and understanding a little of what I hear -- however it's far short of what I hoped for after 8 months in Russia. Unfortunately, having to learn on my own time, with so many competing distractions, has not helped my learning of the Russian Language.

On Friday, I bought a Spanis-Russian lesson book and dictionary -- not a word in English. This might be a good approach to try, as I have had 2 years of Spanish, and I find it a much easier language to understand. Not that I know Spanish, either, but I'd really love to. And perhaps, I can work on both langauges at the same time. Wish me luck!

A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery

I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. Winston Churchill (1939)

Russia is a fascinating place. It is beautiful, yet neglected; large, yet sparse; sparse, yet crowded; poor, yet rich; powerful, yet remote; humble, yet arrogant, European, yet Asian; East, yet West.

Certainly Russian has emerged from a painful past, into a difficult present. Russia is a great place, with a great people. The friends you make some of the best people you'll ever spend time with. The strangers on the bus, and cashiers at ticket windows are some of the rudest people you'll meet. The language sure is complex and cryptic, and has been a challenge that I have not overcome yet. There are a great many uncivilized people here. I've seen young drunk boys urinating in a subway station pillar. I've been scolded for being an American. Answering cell phones in class or church is the norm here. Yeah, there are some rude, lazy, uncivilized people here. Corruption is a big problem too. But, we have these problems in our country, I suppose.

At least Russians are honest about who they are. If they like you, they are your best friend. If they are irresponsible, crooked, or rude, they don't act smooth and try to hide it like we Americans do. Around the world, there are people that do what's right, and people who are destructive to those around them. Most people are wonderful, good people. The actions of a nations rulers guide their people into wealth or ruin, freedom or slavery.

All in all, I've enjoyed my time spent in Russia; it's been a fantastic cultural adventure, and I am happy to have friends here. I definitely look forward to visiting as in the future, and pray for its progress as success. For a look at the other side of the world, please read my post about the situation in the United States on my other blog.

Nutcracker in the Kremlin

You can't get more Russian than the ballet "The Nutcracker", and it's score, composed by Tchaikovsky are uniquely Russian. I had the privilage of seeing this ballet last week. I not only saw it. I saw it in the KREMLIN! Moscow's Kremlin! Amazing indeed. I never imagined ballet being interesting, but this was a fastastic experience. The beautifully painted backdrops, the artfully dressed dancers doing their sport, and most of all, the live symphony were simply wonderful.

Greetings from Puschino Pathfinders!

This weekend, I went with my flatmate to the town of Puschino, which is about 120 km south of Moscow. His family lives in Puschino, and he visits once in a while. Desperately needing a break from the 10-million-Rat Race that is Moscow, we set out for the town of 26,000 people very early Saturday morning. We woke up about 7:00 AM, and made our way to the Yuzhnaya bus stop to catch a bus to Puschino at 8:30. We arrived in time to walk to the church, which was located in a modest classroom in the spartan building of the Institute of protein Research. Puschino was established as one of Russia's premier centers of Biological research, and this industry employs most of the town, including Vitaly's father.

At church, I was asked to go up front and tell them about where I was from, and what I do in Moscow. I made many friends that day, especially with the Pathfinders we spent the afternoon with. Vitaly and I were invited to a Pathfinder leaders flat for dinner, and over the delicious dinner, we enjoyed conversing and talking about everything and anything. There were six children of about 11 to 15 years old, and I was a celebrity to all of them. These kids (one of them knew English, another sort of did) were so excited to have an American visiting. They all were overjoyed to learn that I was a fellow Pathfinder as well. They asked for my autograph! They didn't just ask, they mobbed for my autograph! They handed me little slips of paper, then their Bibles, and wanted my autograph, a note and my email address. It was such flattering experience, to the point of being embarrassing. I have never been asked for my autograph before. I had never been mobbed for it, either!

So after lunch we played a variety of indoor and outdoor games. I never thought of making paper-rock-scissors into a game of tag. There were a few others, which the children had much better skill at than I did. We also sung, and I taught them the English for the song "When I Remember That He Died For Me" (They had just sung the Russian). We also sang the Pathfinder song. Isn't it incredible how music is a language which transcends all others, a language that all hearts were born fluently knowing and treasuring? Our evening "tea" was at a nearby apartment where we talked over cookies, bagels, and of course tea. The owners here fish-a-holics, with a kitchen consumed by four large aquariums, and a variety of beautiful tropical fish. They also had a handsome Siamese cat. I enjoyed the hospitality of this town very much.

Sunday, I slept in late, getting 9 hours of sleep. Sunday was a very relaxing day for us, as we ate a nice breakfast, then went on a long walk around the small city. Across the city, we stopped at a market, and bought some stuff for lunch. I also bought a pair of dress shoes, for only 400 rubles ($16, much cheaper than in Moscow). After he got a haircut, we walked to the large, ice-choked Oka river. The river, which was behind a beautiful Orthodox church, was clogged up with many ice flows, which were an astonishing sight to watch drift by. They drifted quickly down the flood-swollen river, occasionally colliding, or hitting a thicket of trees. Their collisions made low grinding noises, much like crunching, as the ice was literally chewing itself apart against the obstacles. An old man was perched on the river bank nearby as he painted the amazing scene on a canvas sheltered under an umbrella in case of rain. He, and I were capturing scenes from the hand of God, who was chewing up the thick ice on this flooded, icy river. It was so nice to see something natural again, to hear only sounds of the world, and taste only the crisp, cold country air. I needed this break from Moscow, and I appreciated having it. It sure is a beautiful world we live in.

01:02:03 04/05/06

I was lucky enough to catch a moment of history. I snapped this picture of Firefox's Foxclocks plugin at precisely 01:02:03 (AM) on April 05, 2006. (04/05/06 in American Nomenclature). This is a neat moment in history that only happens once per century. My clock was set by the atomic standard too :) If you are not American, but go day/month/year, then this will happen on May 04, in about a month. What's up with the USA's screwed up date format, anyway? We seem to be good at violating international standards, don't we?

New Teaching Jobs

I started teaching a new class today. On Sundays, I am now teaching a three hour "issues" class, it is an interesting class, and my students are very bright, but three hours is a long time to teach one class. Today we ran out of material, but I had brought a National Geographic Adventure magazine, and we thumbed through it, discussing the fun things to do in Californina, the US Southwest, and other places in the world. This week, on Thursday and Friday, I am going to start teaching onsite at a company in Moscow which is responsible for movie distribution. Yeah, so I am going to be teaching English to a company that distibutes American movies. Pretty cool, huh?

News About Summer 2006

I found out this week that I will have some schedule adjustments concerning my time in Russia. I was planning to return home at the end of May, or first week of June. Due to the fact that I will be the only native speaker here this summer, I have to stay in Russia until September 1st. This will fulfill a year's comittment too. I am kind of bummed about missing summer at home, but I have heard that summer in Russia is really awesome too. I have a lot of friends here as well, and I like the idea of spending more time with them. It's a mixed bag, I suppose, but all in all, it will be good. I might see about flying home sometime this summer to visit though.