Rosseya

Eric - whom I have written about before - often drives me home after our lessons. He loves St. Petersburg. and He knows a lot of the history and he really enjoys talking about Russian history and St. Petersburg in particular. Well, last week while he was driving me I asked him about one of the historical buildings we passed and he told me about it. Then all the sudden he said, "Hey! What if I organize a tour for you and Sam with my car and I can hire an English-speaking guide to take us on a tour of the city and tell us about the history. Then I can have more practice with my English and you and I can have even more to talk about." He was really excited, and to tell you the truth, so was I. I have been to a number of the sites in the city, but I don't know much of the history and its a lot different and more interesting to see with a guide and a native of the city telling you things about it.

We arranged to go on Sunday, which turned out to be Navy Day. (You see, during Soviet times, practically every profession was given its own holiday and these holidays still are celebrated today. So on Sunday there were many people in the city, especially along the Neva River where there were a number of Navy ships and a submarine and there was a big parade. It made navigating the city a bit more difficult, but it was kind of cool to see the special ships in the Neva.) So, on Saturday Eric arrived to pick us up at 11:00 and we drive to the city centre to meet our guide, Sveta. We got there a bit early, so we found a place to have some coffee while we waited. Let me tell you a few things about Eric - he loves coffee and he is extremely generous. he ordered coffee for us all (cappuccino for Sam and I) and he and Sam chatted about life in communist countries - seeing as they have both lived in them: Eric here and Sam in Angola.

At noon our adventure began. We spent the most part of the day seeing the sites: St. Isaac's Cathedral, Peter and Paul Fortress, The Neva, Marinsky Ballet Theater, and my favorite cathedral: The Church of Our Saviour on the Spilled Blood. The day was so much fun. The basic idea of our day went something like this:

* Eric and Sveta told us all kind of things about the city and argued all day between the two of them (very good humoredly) about the correct perspective on the history

* We drove all over the city, in circles sometimes, because of so many streets being blocked for Navy Day

* we got to do things we probably wouldn't have because Eric paid for us without even so much as a word.

* we got to park places we shouldn't have because Eric is very...Russian. Let's just say we got a primo parking spot, and as Sveta was saying, "I don't think we're allowed to park here..." Eric was getting out to have a nice 'chat' with the guard, then came right back smiling and saying, "see...immediately we have reached an agreement."

After our touring around we said goodbye to Sveta and Eric treated (AGAIN) to coffee and amazing freshly squeezed orange juice that we got at this restaurant beside the Church of Our Saviour. While we talked, Eric called his wife to see if she needed him to come home and as the phone was ringing he was saying, "i hope she doesn't pick up!" (I guess Sam and I weren't the only ones who were having a pretty good time). It turned out that she didn't pick up, so Eric turned to us and said, "Let's go get something to eat!" we ended up at this place called Hemingway, after the famous poet. It was a really nice-looking place and it's one of those places that judging by looks, Sam and I would never even think about going. Because to me, it just looked too nice! But we had some great food and more great conversation. Sam and Eric both had steak and we all shared some fresh veggies, I had tacos! (they were quite fancy tacos, and they tasted great) and i got some hash browns with sour cream. and to give you the feel of the place, it happened to be the birthday of the restaurant so they brought us each a free glass of champagne. After dinner, Eric offered, "desert? coffee?" We were both full, but assured him it was fine if he got more coffee, which he did.

After dinner he brought us home and along the way invited us to go to Petergoff and Pushkin next weekend. (these are two quite beautiful, old suburbs of St. Petersburg that I've heard a lot about) We eagerly accepted, so that's in the plan for the upcoming weekend.

We thanked him profusely for the day (I can't even imagine how much money he must of spent on us that day) and he simply said, "Well, I got to speak English all day, and that was my aim." and he smiled. It is really cool to see someone as excited about learning English as he is!

Below is a link to a slide show on Flickr of all my photos from the day. It was a beautiful day weather-wise so the pics look great. Enjoy!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amandafabiano/show/

picnic in the rain

The All Nations Christian Center annual picnic was yesterday. And of course, it rained. Not only did it rain, but it rained ALL DAY. It rained hard and it was cold. With that said, I'd like to tell you that we still had the picnic and we still had a lot of fun, even with being soaked, frozen and having no place to sit down. We met at a lake on the outskirts of the city. it took about 2 hours to reach there, when you consider the walk to the metro, time in the metro, the bus, and then car that shuttled us from where we got out of the bus to the where the picnic was being held by the lake. When we arrived at the site, everyone was huddled under two small open tents on the beach. After talking to the man who was operating a local shop/bar across the street, (who apparently had pity on us) we moved the tents across the street and combined them with several outdoor tents used for the shop/bar which were completely empty, seeing as it was 11am on a Sunday and it was pouring rain. so we huddled under the tents and wrapped in blankets and tried our best not to have to stand in the puddles. and we had a time of worship. we sang and played music and heard a short message from pastor Kukuli, which he began by saying, "This is the first time I have ever preached in the rain under a tent advertising beer." See picture below. Funny.

There was food, soccer in the rain, and yes, there was even swimming - well, if you can call it swimming...i have never seen so many people that don't know how to swim so excited about being in the water. Sam and I (Sam from the water, and I from the shoreline) did our best to teach Fola and Chuks how to swim. They were so excited...it was like teaching two 8-year-old boys how to swim. We could barely get out a few sentences before they were off trying to do what we said! it was hilarious. Quote of someone watching from the beach, "Are they swimming or drowning?" You can judge for yourself...because of course, I took photos and video.

Some photos that capture our day:

And inevitably...as soon as we got home, it stopped raining. Go figure.

a typical day

i thought i'd take you along with me on my trip to work.

Embarking


24 hour Flower kiosk

If i had a nickle for every time I needed to buy roses at 3am...I'd have, um...
no nickles. But apparently this is a needed service here, because this kiosk is one of many.

Looking back

we live in one of those huge blue and white buildings in the back.

path towards the metro

so many people cut through here that no clover grows in those worn areas.

Teremok - Russian blini kiosk


Construction


Atmosphera

mall/shopping complex with 7 floors. it stands across from the metro station which is nearest our flat.

Komendantsky Prospekt Metro Station

if you look closely you can see the blue "M" which marks the entrance to the metro.

Down


Blur

rush hour in the metro

poster wall

i don't know what its advertising, but...

Close-up

i found it humorous. in case you can't read it, their signs say, "give us money. we are pretty."

Cofe Xayz

the coffeeshop i frequent because its close to work and it tends to be less crowded and smokey than most.

My class

Intensive English class - Intermediate level

thanks for joining me!

My picture is on the ALM website in case you haven't seen it. It's a photo of one of my pre-intermediate English classes.

go here: ALM

Thunder and Lightening, oh my!

I love thunderstorms. but they're not as fun when you have to walk home in them.

Life

the problem with long lapses in posting is that i feel obligated to recap everything i missed because of not posting in so long...and of course i can't think of everything i missed, so i put it off longer and longer thinking that i will remember and be able to organize my thoughts, but it never happens and its a vicious cycle. so, with all that said, i'll just begin with where things are these days.

it's July now and the white nights have passed - i can already tell that the days are growing shorter again. i'm working quite a lot right now. there is an intensive class that i teach 3 nights a week. this class is offered in the summer and students take class from 7-10pm 3 nights a week, instead of the regular 2 nights a week and can therefore finish a course in 5 1/2 weeks instead of the normal 8 weeks. i'm also teaching an evening class at Lenta (basically Russian Wal-Mart) for their corporate business people. so i teach the intensive class on M W F and Lenta on T Th. i also have individual students in the morning/daytime on M W F. things are great with teaching. i still really enjoy it and my students seem to enjoy my classes as well, so that makes me happy. i have been able to have some great talks with one of my individual students, Eric. he is in his 50's and owns his own international shipping business. we have a wonderful time talking in our lessons twice a week. He loves to talk and we never have a shortage of topics to discuss. we have had some great talks about Jesus, in particular. we've talked about sin, about God and i've been able to share the gospel in short as well. please pray for Eric. he is so open to hearing about the Lord. he is very interested in the things of God. for those of you who don't realize, the USSR banned religion and it was not allowed to read the Bible and hear the things of God, and people were told again and again that God didn't exist. Eric lived through this time and when the USSR broke apart and Russia opened up, things like AA came to Russia. this is where Eric first was challenged and presented with the idea that God did indeed exist. he told me that although he's not a Bible-reading or church-going man that he knows God is powerful because even just allowing himself to believe that God was real, changed his life. he hasn't had a drink in over 17 years. pray that Eric will continue to be challenged by God to more than mere belief in His existence, but that he will take the next step and surrender his life to him. and if God wants me to play a part in that in any way, pray that i will be attentive and aware of the opportunities He presents.

Sam passed all his exams and is now doing his practical work at the hospital. he has a certain number of hours he must complete during the summer. he is assisting in the hematology and transplantology departments. he has been changing IV's and learning other things and finally getting the chance to put his theoretical knowledge into action, hands-on.

We have been married for just over 11 months now. it's amazing how fast this year has gone by. so yes, next month is our first wedding anniversary. we're hoping to get out of Russia for a little time to celebrate, but we aren't sure about my visa registrations situation. i had some difficulties when i came back from Estonia at my 6 month mark, because although i have a year long visa and was registered for the first 6 months of that, the visa rules changed during this time and now, not matter how long your visa is for (unless you have a student visa or work visa, which I don't) you're only allowed to stay in the country for 190 days out of the year. it's being dubbed the "3 months in, 3 months out" rule by the foreigners here. well, anyway when Ala, (the lady who helps with my visa stuff) went to get me registered for the rest of my year, they refused to register me because they said i had already used up my days and had been here illegally. the short version is basically that we were able to finally register me, we just had to go through someone else and i had to pay more. thats Russia. but now that we want to go out of the country there's a fear that i won't be able to come back in, or if i can come back in that i wont be able to register, which would effectively mean i'd have to leave. so we're weighing our options. if getting out of Russia won't work, maybe we'll just take a trip inside Russia somewhere, maybe go to the South. the 2014 Olympics will be in Sochi, in the South and i hear it's nice there, so it's at least an option if all else fails.

i have posted pics on my Flickr. hopefully those of you who are faithful readers on my ramblings here have seen them. if not, you can check them out now - including the pics from our 3 weeks without hot water, to our first dinner guests, and the sun shining at 11pm.

in random news:
Zenit FC - St. Petersburg's football team (soccer for the Americans out there) won the Champion's League Cup. and let me tell you, people are crazy about Zenit here. you can always tell when there's a game because everybody wears their blue and white and wears their Zenit scarves and you see people with painted faces on the metro...you always can tell when there's a game. see, unlike Moscow, St Petes only has one football club, so everyone supports them and it kind of brings the city together. the people in this city as a while tend to seem rather individualistic and self-focused, but Zenit is the one thing that seems to unite people. After they won the Champions League Cup, a spontaneous celebration broke out on Nevsky when people poured out into the streets and waved their flags and set off fireworks and sang and shouted and celebrated into the wee hours.

then Russia made it to the semi-finals of the Euro Cup 2008, but they lost to Spain, (who eventually went on to win it).

back in May, Sam and i went to the VE Day parade on Nevsky and that was kind of fun. it was another really unifying thing. WWII is a very important war here and VE Day is a huge holiday, with numerous parades and celebrations and festivities around the city (and the country for that matter). later I will try to post some pictures that I took. but as for now, it's almost 1am and i should pull this to a close.

my apologies for the lapse, and i'll try to remedy it over these next few weeks!

understated as usual

well, thank you for your prayers for Sam's pharma exam. it is finally over. He still has 3 more exams to go though, so we're still not out of the woods yet, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel that's growing ever brighter! So when i cam home the day of Sam's pharma exam I found he was already at home and i asked my usual question, "so...how was it??" and i expected his usual response. "it went alright." i've become accustomed to this answer from Sam on just about any topic. and i've learned to translate this to mean, "good". well this day he surprised me and responded, "pretty good."

Unskilled in translation of this new response, I probed and asked, "so, tell me about it..." and he said he had gotten good questions and was able to answer well. which is exactly what i had been praying that morning as i walked to the metro! i prayed that God would give him good questions that he could answer solidly. God is so good!

Today as we walked home from church I finally ventured another question.

Me: "So what exactly did you get on your pharma exam anyway?"
Sam: "I got a 5"

In Russia they grade from 1-5 (3 being passing and 5 being the best grade you can achieve.) He got a 5!!

Yes. Sam did "pretty good". (Another term I'll have to store in my translation memory bank for interpreting his vastly understated vocabulary.)

So, allow me a moment to brag about my husband's intelligence, diligence, and all-around perseverance that has gotten him this far. (i know he'll hate it) and allow me also to brag on the God who brought him here and will continue to carry him though. They are both "pretty good."

1:30am and all is well

was up late one night about a week or so ago and took this photo through the window.

1:30am. St. Petersburg Russia.


sorry for the lack of posts lately. Exam season has begun, so the laptop is primarily Sam's domain. Big Pharmacology exam on Tuesday....keep him in your prayers!

Progression

the white nights are coming. in June there are several nights in St. Petersburg where the sun doesn't set called "the white nights". Sam told me that leading up till those nights there is a progression from a certain point in May where the sun sets 3 minutes later each night. I work in the evening 7-10pm and usually arrive home around 11pm. after class I used to walk to the metro in the dark, and now it's like daytime! here are some pictures to show you my perspective on the progression in the last few weeks.

Moreover, when i wake up in the morning at 6am to go to work its also bright like midday. such stark contrast to the winter with its 18 hours of darkness and only 6 hours of light!

And now for the long overdue post...

featuring: our apartment

Slide.com is having issues and i'm not able to put them in a nice slideshow like i nomrally do here. Instead, you can click HERE then click "slideshow" which is near the top right side of the page. Or you can see the mini-slideshow to the right of this post.

There are pics from moving day as well as what it looks like now that we're all moved in and settled.

Here's a preview pic of the living room/bedroom:

Moving Day:


Now:


Our landlords are somewhat obsessed with IKEA, so pretty much everything they got for the apartment was purchased there...down to the lightbulbs. so forgive us if it looks a little like a catalogue. And some things aren't finished yet, like some baseboards and doorframes and painting of walls in the kitchen and toilet closet, but all the important stuff is done.

Enjoy!

Estonia...is that, like, a country or something?

this is just a teaser. for the full lot of photographs from my weekend in Tallinn, go HERE.

we found an apartment

yes, that's right. we've found our own place. we'll be moving out of the hostel next month and into our own apartment. its a studio-style apartment, with it's own kitchen and bathroom. it's 2 metro stations away from here - Pionerskaya Metro Station. we've singed the pre-liminary lease agreement and paid a partial down-payment to hold the apartment for us. we'll sign the final lease agreement at the end of this month and move in the on the 1st of May. Please pray for us, because this is a big change financially, from living at the hostel. but it will be good for us, since now we won't have to live on edge, according to the moods wings of the hostel commandant. and i won't have to cosnstantly convince that one lady who works at the desk downstairs that, "YES! I DO LIVE HERE! YOU'VE SEEN ME A MILLION TIMES...AND STOP YELLING AT ME IN RUSSIAN, BECAUSE I DONT UNDERSTAND YOU. SAYING IT LOUDER DOESNT HELP!" so, yeah keep us in your prayers. thanks!

is there a Russian word for...OOPS!!

Today on the metro i knocked the hat off an old man's head. It's not as malicious as it sounds, I promise. First, let me explain that it was rush hour and the metro was packed. So there I was, trying to make the most of the precious few inches of personal space I had. I had left my seat and quickly made my way close to the door as the rush of passengers was getting out at a station, before the next batch of people rushed in, so I could be close to the door for my escape two stations away. When you take a seat in the metro, it is understood that you place your bag on your lap, so as to take up less space. So, now that i was standing i was quickly trying to put my backpack back on my back so that when i exited i would be less likely to disrupt a lot of people on my way out. i had one arm through the strap and was sliding my arm through the second strap as new passengers rushed in to the train. i only had inches to begin with, so i tried to conserve space by using the empty space above the heads of the passengers seated near the door. unfortunately, in my state of being jostled around, the arm didn't exactly clear the head of the man nearest me, and my hand clipped the brim of his hat and knocked it backward right off his head. he shot me an incredulous look as i sputtered my apologies and gave him my best "please-don't-kill-me" look. "isvaneet" means "excuse me/sorry" in Russian. except that the panic that was flooding my brain at that moment scrambled my English-Russian translation abilities and it kind of came out more like, "sorrispaseet" which was a mix of "sorry" in English, "thank you" in Russian and "isvaneet". Thankfully, the man simply replaced his hat and went back to ingoring me. the next 6 minutes lasted a lifetime as i tried desperately not to even breathe on the man until i reached my stop. i was never so happy to hear, "Petrogradskaya", announced as we reached the station.

Zim.

Free and Fair? Hardly.

Poll Officials detained

"Quiet diplomacy"?

Voters share their stories

the Torch

The olympic torch arrived in St. Petersburg today.

and I found an english-language bookshop!

is this still messed up?

hello? yay! i can write in English again! =)

randomness. because i've been falling behind on my posts...

ok, this will be a very random post. full of tidbits and odds n' ends of thoughts i've had of things to share with you.

a few weeks ago our fellowship group went to visit the Wycliffe Bible Translators center in St. Petersburg. A friend of ours who attends our fellowship (Tom, from the USA) works for Wycliffe, and had invited us to come to the center and see what they do. we had a great time of worship together with them, shared tea, coffee and some snacks, and then we watched a presentation about Wycliffe's history and the work they do, and more specifically about Russia and the work they do here. Here are some pics from the night:

i didn't get a picture of it but, as with just about every home in Russia, the Wycliffe center has a small mudroom area at the entrance, complete with a rack for shoes and house slippers for everyone to wear inside.

* I start teaching a new pre-intermediate class tonight.

* I am planning a trip to Tallinn, Estonia next weekend since i have to leave Russia for a few days so i can renew my registration on this visa.

* I think one of my students summed up the entirety of Russian-thinking in one statement a few weeks ago. It was my class at Lenta (grocery store) I was talking with my business-people students about customer service and why its important in business. I asked how it would effect a business if the customers aren't happy with their store, and the answer I got was this, "if they don't like it, they can just go somewhere else." Bingo. i think this pretty much sums up life here. (and believe me, once we can....in 2011...we will!)

* We've switched to daylight saving time now. and its eery, because now its still light out after 8pm. and its only going to get longer and longer, until the "White Nights" in June where the sun never really sets at all. Quite a contrast to the phenomenon of only getting 5 hours of daylight in the winter.

* Also, we've had unusually great weather this week. on Tuesday is was +9 C. which is 48.2 F!! and it's been hovering around there for the past 3 days. add that to the fact that it's been DRY and MOSTLY CLEAR...this equals GREAT WEATHER in St. Petersburg!

Ok, somehow I hit some keys on my keyboard, and I can only type in Blogger in Cyrillic now! When I type anything it looks like this:

црфн фьв Ш щтдн фиду ещ ензу шт Скнддшсю Ершы шы куфддн акгыекфештп!

and actually the keys are not even corresponding to the correct letters in the Cyrillic alphabet, for Russian at least, so I’m not sure what the deal is. Thank God it’s only doing this on my Blogger and its not affecting the whole computer, like Word and stuff. So I’m typing this in Word and cutting and pasting. So for now I will post this and hopefully I can get the whole language things squared away soon! Cheers.

March went out like a lion....

as i walked to work yesterday late in the afternoon in the blowing, whirling drifting snow, i had this song stuck in my head and it just repeated over and over...

"March went out like a lion
a whippin' up the water in the bay
Then April cried and stepped aside
and along came pretty little May"

for those of you who don't have a history of being a musical theater freak like me,(and aren't my parents) you won't know that this song is from "Carousel" by Rodgers and Hammerstein. and until now, you'd probably never heard of it, much less known that i was once in this musical, spray-painted yellow hair and all. and at the strangest of times little bits of lyrics from my past life as an aspiring actress climb into my brain and won't let go...strange times like the one yesterday as i clomped through more snow on March 25th than we seem to have gotten all winter. it was only the above snippet that replayed and replayed itself. i think subconsciously i couldn't even allow myself to think the lyrics to the chorus because at the time they just seemed so preposterous and well, impossible...

"June is bustin' out all over
All over the meadow and the hill!
Buds are bustin' outta bushes
And the rompin' river pushes
Ev'ry little wheel that wheels beside the mill!

June is bustin' out all over
The feelin' is gettin' so intense,
That the young Virginia creepers
Have been huggin' the bejeepers
Outa all the mornin' glories on the fence!
Because it's June...

June, June, June
Just because it's June, June, June!"

sigh. maybe someday. but for now....it just seems LIKE A LOOOOOOOONG WAY OFF.

enjoyment

things i'm finding enjoyment in these days:

teaching and getting to know my students
Sunday night Hebrews Bible study with Pooja, Gracewin, Amadu, Sam and myself
working out with Deepthi
Sam not studying as much this semester
thinking about finding an apartment and hopefully moving next month!
emails from Amber and living vicariously through their summer plans


a few things i've read or heard this week that i find share-worthy:

something a visiting pastor at All Nations Church said that just struck me as truth: "Our children are our investment into a future we ourselves cannot enter."

From the movie "Starter for 10" (which is only ok) but there was this good line that stayed with me: "The people who really care about you don't mind if you make a mistake. It's what you do next that matters."

From an email A sent today. it gave me a great start to my day and it seriously makes me smile when i think about how awesome it is that i know someone so creative and talented in many ways, but specifically as a writer and more importantly as a friend. this just cracked me up and still makes me laugh when i re-read it: "Let's definitely set up a gtalk time. Just let me get through the week and I'll have my people talk with your people. Only my people will be wearing jeans and sandals and your people will be wearing fur hats."

i realized that i've talked a little about the church sam and i are going to, and i've talked more about the fellowship group we're a part of, but never have given much info on either. well, there is a website for All Nations Christian Church and at the site there is info of SFC (the fellowship groups) as well. i actually just looked at the site for the first time today. its a nice little site with a small photo gallery and info about the church and events, history of how it started, etc. so if you're interested you can give it a look. the site is pretty new but is well put-together. and in fact it was designed by Manyo from Nigeria. (my friend Deepthi's fiance') i don't agree with every point of their statement of faith, most specifically numbers 14 and 16 of the points listed there, but this is the church God has placed us in and we have been given good opportunities with individual believers from ANCC in pouring over the Word, to have good discussion on these points. it's funny, but as you look at the photos on the website you might start to think that St. Petersburg isn't nearly as white and mono-cultural as you thought...but really, when you walk on the street it is...i think probably 90% of all the african's, indians and other people of color in this city go to church there! but it does at least make me a feel a little bit like i'm back in Namibia when i'm at church and my white face is in the minority again.

http://allnationschristiancenter.org/

happy belated Easter to those of you in most parts of the world. we here in Russia don't get Easter till later. crazy orthodox calendar...

almost halfway....