Rocky Mountain High....Colorado

so amber told me that only posting a link to my photos from my blog is lame. but seeing as she totally stole the photos from my camera and posted most of the good ones already, it felt slightly repetitive. so for those of you who read both our blogs, sorry for the photos repetition. but i'm sure i will also post some different ones than she did. so here goes:

I was greeted at the Denver International Airport by the welcoming committee





Welcome to Colorado

















Amber and I made a trip out to Colorado Springs to visit the "Garden of the gods"




















more to come...stay tuned!

happy birthday, amber

Today is my dear friend Amber's birthday and I am so happy that i get to be here in the US and in Colorado to celebrate with her. i have been having a great time enjoying good company and the comfortable conversation of friends. not to mention taking in the beauty of the mountains and wonderful sights of Autumn in the West. Plus, i have had the honor of being slathered in the "puppy love" of an actual, extraordinarily adorable puppy named Hallie. There are lots of new pics posted on my FLICKR of our times spent so far here in CO. But here below i will take a moment to post just a few of amber and i to celebrate and honor her beginning another year of life.

in the good ol' US of A

I'M IN THE USA! sorry for the silence till now, but i was just too busy soaking up America. EVERYONE IS SO DARN FRIENDLY HERE! refreshing. today is my first day in Colorado visiting Amber and Josh. I am enjoying every minute of my break from Russia... except that I am missing someone very special who is stuck in Mother Russia attending Clinical Russian classes, getting soaked in the dark wet raininess, and baking banana bread by himself. And I miss him dearly.

There is a blog that I follow: Photo-Africa and its just amazing. not only do I love the amazing images, but the site's main photographer and writer, who works in the Madikwe Game Reserve near Jo-berg in SA, always shares stories about daily life in the reserve, about the animals, which they know by name, and about how he and the other great photographers got some of these terrific shots. I would totally recommend checking out his site. Here are some examples of the great images he shares daily. Enjoy!








If you like what you see, don't forget to check out the site.

i am...

* finished reading the English translation of Mikhail Bulgakov's book, "The Heart of a Dog."

* waiting for my invitation letter for my work visa and hoping it arrives in time before I leave for the States.

* enjoying the leaves changing colors and 2 SUNNY DAYS IN A ROW!

* looking forward to seeing my family

* anticipating Autumn in Colorado

* slowly reading Psalms

* enjoying Russian salads

* happy with our new furniture set-up in the living room

* thankful for Sam and little moments

* keeping a notebook to write down new Russian words and look them up

* always entertained by Newsbeat's weekly "Odd Box" video on BBC

* wondering how you are....

Coming to America

yes, sports fans, its true. Next month I'll be in the States. my current Russian visa will expire towards the end of October and I need to apply for a work visa - which I am very grateful to be able to get for working with ALM. You can't apply for a work visa from inside the country, and its suggested that the best place (and sometimes the ONLY place) you're allowed to apply is in your country of origin. (I'm told I could apply from Ukraine, but to save me the hassle of the language barrier and figuring out the eccentricities of yet another Eastern European country, I think it'll be a perfect opportunity to visit my family and also see certain friends who've relocated West.) so...from Oct 15 - Nov 5 I'll be in the good ole' US of A in the lovely states of Pennsylvania and Colorado. Mmm....Fall on the East Coast and in the mountains of the West. not too bad, I think.

Some people have inquired in the recent past about sending packages to us in Russia, and yes, it does work. (and they are extremely well appreciated by us, believe me! I tend to get all giddy and I'm sure Sam shakes his head at my silly excitement. He gets excited too, but as previously mentioned his excitement appears outwardly something to the tune of, "yeah. that's cool.") and so far (as far as i know) we have received all packages that were sent (minus one anniversary card from my parents that mysteriously disappeared). I mention all this to say to those of you who have entertained the idea of sending something to us, that if you would like to forgo the cost of international mailing you are certainly welcome to send things to PA, in October. I'll be traveling very light in order to stock up on all the things we miss and carry them back with me!

I must apologize to all my wonderfully-Ohioan friends, in that my trip this time simply doesn't afford the time, or finances to also make a pit stop in the Dayton area. But you would be most welcome in Amish country if you wanted to make a road trip to Lititz for a visit! Sturgis Pretzels, Wilbur Chocolate, and horse n' buggys....what more could you want?

An Ode to the Marshutka Drivers*

Long are the days sitting upon your seat commanding the wheel of your minibus
Rain or shine (mostly rain) you toil -
Weaving adeptly through traffic, making change with one hand, changing "lanes" with the other
Jumping curbs when necessary, dutifully delivering your passengers to their destinations
Oh the joys of swerving to avoid pedestrians and eluding the police
Cleverly laying your seat belt across you without clipping it in place
The appearance of safety and adherence to law without the pesky bother of either
Your skill at squeezing your marshutka between a tram and oncoming traffic is to be admired
As all passengers stare amazed into each others' widened eyes
And so, Mr. Marshutka Driver, I salute you.
Drive on, my friend
Drive on.


* note: marshutkas are minibus taxis and are my predominant mode of transportation

I really wanted a shower but...

I decided to wait.

me. curly.

and some MORE pictures

a few more favorites from the trip. This is the last batch of faves. You can see the whole bunch at my Flickr.
















PS - THE SUN CAME OUT TODAY. MARK IT ON YOUR CALENDAR. (BUT I ALSO HAD TO WEAR MY WINTER COAT. IT'S SEPT 1ST. ICK.)

SOME MORE pictures

a few more of my favorite shots from the trip to Finland and Sweden

SOME pictures

here are some of my favorite photos from our trip. I'm beginning by posting from the end to the beginning, so these first photos are from the end of our trip, and the ones i'll post later are from earlier on. for more photos go to my Flickr site.

football


sunset from the ferry


me


gull


us


ladybug


net


boat


karin

Ok, I admit it...

It's been a LONG time. i am truly sorry. but for those of you who have been faithful and have hung in there with me and haven't given up on me....you will receive your just reward. today. you're about to get an overload of posting from me - pictures and stories of life this last month and tidbits of things that have been filling my days. and there has been a lot. so sit back, grab a cup of coffee and spend some time with me.

Ok, so i'll begin with a list. because i'm fond of lists. and they don't take up too much space, yet cover a lot of ground in short order. so, with that said, here are some things i've been enjoying this month:

1. I WENT CLIMBING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN A YEAR! (and i suck.) Pavel, my student who is also an avid climber invited me to one of the climbing gyms he frequents. (and when i say "frequents", i mean he goes climbing about 4 times a week and he climbs at about a 5.10-5.12 level. for those of you non-climbers...that is GOOD.) i was way rusty and this particular gym was completely bouldering, which is not my forte' but i still enjoyed myself like crazy, and went home exhausted, sore, with a blister on my forefinger, and totally happy.

2. it has been raining in St. Petersburg for about a month. and when i say about a month, i mean constantly. rain. rain. rain. everyday. rain. ugh.

3. the days have grown so much shorter at an alarming rate. (not that it's very light anyway these days since i haven't seen THE SUN here in forever.) but it is definitely dark now when i wake up in the morning at 6am and it's dark when we go to bed at 11. much changed from a month ago.

4. books i have read and enjoyed this month:
Watership Down
The Old Man and the Sea
Pride and Prejudice
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

5. Russia and Georgia had, and continue to have, a conflict which i'm sure you know about unless you've been living under a rock. it has been a hot topic of conversation here, obviously.

6. Sam and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary. I actually had the whole day off work, so we slept in, had a relaxing day around the house, then went out for dinner at an Italian restaurant, which had been recommended by one of my student. the tiramisu was excellent!

7. We took a trip to Finland and Sweden for a week's break from Mother Russia. We took the bus overnight to Helsinki, spent the day viewing the sites, and stayed a hostel located in the 1952 Olympic stadium. The next day we had more time in Helsinki, did some shopping at H&M (so much cheaper than shopping in Russia! and i don't feel like shooting myself because i'm not an anorexic Russian cutie that wears size 2...which the majority of the clothes are.), and then we boarded the ferry to Stockholm, Sweden. We spent a day in Stockholm, went to the Royal Palace and Old Town, and had the best falafel ever. We spent the night in a brand new hostel which we will affectionately call "IKEA-land" because it was like living in the IKEA showroom. everything down to the silverware. We watched the changing of the guard at the palace the next day before catching our bus to Hudiksvall (4 hours to the north) where our friend, Karin lives. Karin is Swedish and graduated from Sam's medical school last year and is now doing her internship in Hudiksvall. We had a blast there enjoying the company and hospitality of a good friend. she showed us the town, we had a picnic on the beach, watched the ships sailing in the harbor and had coffee and ice cream and the local place in town. we went to a party her co-workers were having, and even though he went early so as to catch them before they were extremely drunk, we must have arrived too late. it turned out to be a fun and very entertaining evening, complete with paper hats, Swedish songs, popcorn, crayfish and dancing to songs from "The Little Mermaid" blasted on the stereo. We left Hudiksvall after 2 days there are we wished we could have stayed longer, as it was probably the best part of our trip. It was beautiful and peaceful and the air was crisp and clean. just lovely. we returned to Stockholm on the bus in time to get onto the ferry back to Helsinki. We over-nighted on the ferry again to arrive in Helsinki at around 9am and had the entire day in Helsinki again until our bus left at 11pm that night. we didn't have any plan of what to do or anyplace to go, so we put all our stuff in a locker for the day and basically wandered, trying to fill our time. we shopped a little more, went to the market for lunch for the small whitefish from Lapland that Sam couldn't get enough of the first time around; we had coffee, surfed in the internet on the free wifi, and i fell asleep in the train station for a while. Finally at around 5pm when we had run out of ideas, we ended up at the bus station where we ate our dinner and basically wished it was time to go. but i leafed through a booklet on Finland that we had picked up and stumbled across the fact that there was a football (soccer) match at Finair Stadium going on at that very moment. and, since we had stayed overnight at the olympic statdium which is right nest to Finair statdium, we knew that the hill next to the stadium overlooked the pitch perfectly, so we hopped a tram and snagged spots on the hill with some other locals and enjoyed a very good match and a glorious sunset to boot. the bus ride back to Russia was a fuzzy blur, as i was so exhausted from the previous night of "sleeping" (or lack thereof) on the floor of the ferry, then wandering randomly in town all the following day. so i pretty much sacked out the whole trip, with occasional wakings to change position or go through border control. we arrived in St. Petes at 6am loaded our increasingly heavy packs onto our backs one last time and trudged (through the rain of course) back to our apartment. upon arrival we immediately got showers and slept till noon.

pictures for this trip will follow! I've posted some to my Flickr already, but i have a lot, so i'll post in stages.

so, if you've made it through with me....congratulations! this was my month. now i'm back to work - my 3 individual students and 1 class - and sam is set to begin his 4th year of med school on Sept. 1st! Please pray for all that goes along with that.

oh! one last thing...my hair is curly again! it has gotten quite long and finally made it to the point where i wanted it so i could go curly again. yippe! yay for new hairstyles. and for new jeans which i got at H&M. this is a big deal, as previously stated in my story. Ok, enough from me. be on the lookout for pictures as the days proceed!