so much to tell...and where to begin?

it's May. the weather is (surprisingly) beautiful. and Courtney has arrived. meeting her at the airport was an adventure in and of itself. Eric picked me up around 3:30 and we planned to meet Sam at 5:00 at Moskovskaya Metro station, which is the last station on the way to the airport. it was the last working day before a public holiday, so we gave ourselves traffic time and figured we could pick up sam at 5:00 and still be in time for Courtney's arrival at 5:30. (the airport sits about 15 mins. from where we would meet Sam). The original plan was to take the by-pass road around the city to where we would meet Sam and then shoot on out to the airport, but on his way to get me, Eric was driving the opposite direction on this same road and saw a big accident (he says maybe 12 cars) on the side we would need to take. About 6km of stopped traffic was NOT a welcome sight. So we had to make a decision: face the known traffic on the by-pass and the fact that there would be no way exits if we came into problems, or face the unknown traffic of the city center, pre-holiday weekend. we chose the latter. We set out and promptly were met with crawling traffic about 2kms from our apartment. what should have taken 5 minutes, took at least 20. we were still hopeful, but doubt began to set in. we proceeded to spend the next 2 1/2 hours crawling through the city, worrying about getting to the airport on time, second-guessing our decision and trying to decide when we should give in and tell Sam to take the bus to the airport to meet Courtney. There were numerous bridges jammed with cars to be crossed, and comments about "Peter the Great" and his lack of vision in seeing what it would be like to have to cross this interconnection of canals and rivers with a car. we decided the best way to get across the city was by helicopter. we finally decided to call Sam and have him go on ahead to ensure Courtney wouldn't be left to fend for herself at the Pulkovo airport. finally out of the traffic and nearing the end of the journey, we had an additional challenge - we were low on gas. after a quick re-fueling stop, we sped the last few kilometers to the airport, arriving at precisely 6:00. We grabbed the bouquet of flowers and ran inside, happy to find Sam still alone, peering into the arrivals hallway. her plane landed exactly on time, but we were saved by the lines at passport control and customs. Finally we saw her making her way through sleepily burdened by luggage and all the wonderful things people had sent for us. There were hugs and introductions, travel stories to be shared, and lots more adventures that were waiting to begin.

the highs and lows of living abroad

of course there are many highs and lows of living abroad, it's true, (and many which are much more important!) but those i am focusing on now are:

low - missing familiar things
high - receiving those familiar things from people who love you

you have no idea how much excitement there is in receiving something like Jelly Bellies jelly beans, or Listerine mouthwash until you have received them in a place where you can't just buy them whenever you want. i am writing about this today because our dear friend, Courtney, from Ohio is planning a visit to "Mother Russia" at the end of April/beginning of May to see us. and she, knowing the joy i just mentioned, has offered to devote one of her two checked bags to us!

i regularly get the question from friends about what we miss from the States and what they could send to us, but i know that typically actually sending those things requires mailing a package overseas, which can be costly even for a small box. so, for those who have thought about it, here is your chance without paying for any mailing! we will have up to 50 lbs. worth of space in "our" bag.

so here is our "WISH LIST":

Drink mixes or Kool-Aid
Crest toothpaste (Nighttime formula)
Starbucks coffee beans
Listerine Arctic Mint mouthwash
brown sugar
bottle of Ranch dressing (i have some dry powder packets, but the taste just isn't same due to the taste of the mayo or sour cream)
maple syrup
dried Parmesan cheese
taco seasoning
chocolate chips
canned black beans
yellow mustard
Jelly Bellies
Goldfish crackers
books - "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini, and "The Diary of Anne Frank" (for the books, used is totally fine!)

if you would like to send us any of these things, please reply to this post with the thing or things you will get, so others can see (so Courtney doesn't end up bring us 10 cans of black beans or something!) and i'll contact you and get Courtney's contact info to you. She would like to have the things ready to pack by April 25th.

thanks so much, dear friends! thanks for thinking of us. we think of you often and dearly miss you!!!

pics i have been meaning to post for a while!

this is Max. (Maxim) he is 11 years old.



i teach him English twice a week at his home

we get a long really well. he's very silly and kind of dramatic, so we have lots of fun together. and he chews on pens incessantly. i don't really get why.



but i will say, he is a very polite kid too. he always offers me a pen to eat as well, although i always turn him down! He once told me that his parents always taught him if he was eating something he should offer to share with his guests. so without fail, i am always offered whatever random piece of plastic he is eating! (thanks, but no thanks!) but this gives you an idea of his personality.

Max and i do Madlibs together in his Tuesday lessons (although that is ALL we would do if it were up to him!) he calls them "stories". OFTEN on Thursdays Max, with great hope asks, "do you have some stories today?" and i say, "no, it's Thursday. not today." and then i get THIS face:



i also get "the face" when we are doing the Madlibs and i won't let him use the same words over and over again. his favorite adjective: "dirty" favorite proper name: "Kirusha" (his little brother's name) favorite adverb: "dirtily" favorite superlative: "dirtiest"...do you see a pattern? other favorites include made up words like "Maximing" which he likes to pretend is a continuous verb, and when i turn him down and tell him "no" because it's not a real word in English, he'll say, "Oh...? Don't you know? it's a new word. they added it to the dictionary after you left America..." then he will argue with me offering several definitions for what "maximing" is. like i said, silly and dramatic.


these are my favorite ads in the metro. they're for an internet company. basically the gist of this is:

"Winter...don't go outside. Go on the internet!"




particularly i love the icicle picture and the scary snowman. hilarious!


these ar some photos from the International Women's Day celebration the guys from fellowship threw for us. They cooked way too much food (again) and served us like gentlemen. they put together a very sweet powerpoint presentation about how God created women. they also made personalized hand-made cards and gave each of us a little cross necklace.

the ladies of fellowship: Sandrine, Amanda, Pooja and Felcy
(yep, only 4 of us this year! and like 11 guys!)


Pooja and Felcy


Carlson, Charlie, Sam and Shumie


Me with my card


Sandrine and Felcy


so, there are the photos i have had just waiting to post for like a month now! i'll try not to hoard them next time.

In other news, our good friend Courtney, from Ohio is going to be visiting us here in good old St Petersburg in May. we'll will have the pleasure of her company for a whole month! so she will be here long enough to get a proper introduction to Russia. We are both looking forward to having her as our first guest and showing her the city.

as for teaching,i am teaching an Upper-Intermediate I class that i really enjoy. and i've also gotten a new student who i am preparing to take the TOEFL exam. of course i continue to teach Max, Pavel, Eldar, and Eric too. in fact Eric and i have added another lesson on Sundays and we've started watching "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" (Eric's favorite movie) in English!

Sam is in his surgery cycle now, which he seems to be enjoying. this week he got to watch a mastectomy. his group has worked very hard this year, so they might be finishing the year early (like the end of April) which means a LONG summer for him. we are still hoping and praying God will make a way for us to go to Namibia/Angola this summer for Sam to do his practical work and so we can visit friends and family.

the days are sunnier these days - more often than for months - and the daylight hours are increasing daily, which means everybody is getting excited about Spring. but we're all still hesitant to get really excited, knowing that it could still snow in April! (Consequently, this morning at 9am it was clear and sunny. By 11am it was overcast. By 1pm it was snowing like crazy. and now at 3pm, the snow has quit and the sun is back out. Just a typical day in St. Petersburg!

Blessings from Sam and I to all of you! Thanks for praying for us and for keeping up with us!

hey everybody, sing along...

I finally remembered to take my camera with me to church today and i took a little video of the worship time to share...

"Blessed Be Your Name"



these are the Russian lyrics to the chorus, which is what is playing in the video.
Go ahead, give it a try! (i used to have trouble, but now i can sing it out with the best of them) enjoy!

Stay Married and Save the Planet

i read this article this morning and thought it was worth sharing. "go green" by staying married!


CANBERRA (Reuters) - Staying married is better for the planet because divorce leads the newly single to live more wasteful lifestyles, an Australian lawmaker said Tuesday.

Senator Steve Fielding told a Senate hearing in the Australian capital Canberra that divorce only made climate change worse.

When couples separated, they needed more rooms, more electricity and more water. This increased their carbon footprint, Australian Associated Press (AAP) quoted Fielding as telling the hearing on environmental issues.

"We understand that there is a social problem (with divorce), but now we're seeing there is also environmental impact as well on the footprint," AAP quoted him as saying.

Such a "resource-inefficient lifestyle" meant it would be better for the planet if couples stayed married, he said.

During the hearing, the senator read out quotes from a U.S. report that advocated his stance.

Fielding, who leads the independent Family First party, grew up in a family of 16 children and has been married for 22 years, his website says.

fact of the day

The scientific study of fingerprints is called dermatoglyphics, a word which has the distinction of being the longest in English with no repeated letters. The only other such word is uncopyrightable.



" The finger of God never leaves identical fingerprints." - STANISLAUS LEC

a long overdue update

so it's obviously been way too long! so please don't hate me because today i am returning with bullet points. but it's the best way to jump start my writing again. i can give an update/round up on life these days without completely overwhelming both you, and myself. so, in a nutshell...here is life lately:

February was...

* a lovely birthday evening celebrated with a home-cooked Mexican feast by my thoughtful husband. quesadillas, chips and salsa, guacamole...yum! he also got me a pair of wooly slippers i have always commented on whenever we've been in IKEA, and a plant of my very own. (right now our prayer plant is mostly his baby) he had planned to get me an orchid plant (orchids are my favorite!), but they're really up-keep intensive, so i now have my own dwarf umbrella plant.

* eric has introduced me to a new cafe, where we have started having our Saturday lessons. i love it for several reasons - the location: right next to the metro, which means i can leave my house a little later on Saturday mornings. the veiw - the HUGE glass windows on the second floor overlooking one of SPB's famous cathedrals. the honey latte - i'm sure that's self-explainatory, but well, it's very good. and last but not least - ITS A NON-SMOKING CAFE! the only one i have been to so far in SPB. and a very nice respite.

* i started teaching a new class - an Upper Intermediate group - which i enjoy because the upper levels are a lot of fun since they have pretty good speaking ability and therefore can carry on great conversation and it makes the classes interesting.

* unfortunately, the same week i began the new class, i also lost 2 individual students (that's 8 teaching hours a week), and also one student who took a break for the New Year's holiday and was going to begin lessons again in February never did. so, i am being reminded that our lives are in God's hands, not mine. and that's a good thing.

* my blog hacked by either Amberpants or her extremely computer-literate dog, Hallie...depending on who you believe.

* a new hair color for me, slightly.

* the days are becoming longer and LONGER, which is making me LONG for summer! but i think that is still a LONG way off!

* experimenting and creating at home - new recipes, making home made yogurt, bread, granola, granola bars, hair conditioner, etc. and i can now make a mean stir fry with home made teriyaki sauce.

* LOST is back, and i for one am so grateful! and i'm glued to every minute.

* trying to figure out a logical schedule to incorporate lessons and planning and still do my cycling more than only once a week, like this week! oops. (one plus of losing students is the added free time, so maybe i have this one covered for now)

* Sam finally back in classes after the mother of all holiday breaks - 6 weeks! he's now knee-deep in Dermatology and completely paranoid about every mark or irregularity. THAT is what medical school does to you, it's makes you a very smart hypochondriac.

* a truly great conversation last Saturday with Eric filled with all the things that matter: life, love, and Jesus.

* Valentine's Day flowers from my love

* last night's dinner for the guys of the fellowship group in celebration of today's public holiday: "Defenders of the Fatherland Day" (aka Red Army Day in Soviet times) or more commonly referred to now as "Men's Day"

* weekly Madlibs with my 11 year old student, Maxime. such fun! i feel like a fourth grader again.

* learning a lot, and thankful for our new church as we study through Hebrews.

* missing friends and family, missing warm African places, missing flip flops and dusty roads, but looking forward to friends selling scooters in order to visit us in Mother Russia. looking forward to flights to Namibia and Angola with summer practical work at hospital for Sam, and looking forward to how God will arrange the finances to make it happen, and trusting, trusting, trusting.

and that, my friends, is February.

TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY!!! SEND ME YOUR BEST WISHES!

(P.S. Happy Birthday from your favorite hacker! Hallencakes.)

Who knew I'd end up enjoying teaching so much?

My most recent class of Intermediate English students:



Unfortunately, we had the final exam on Tuesday, and class is finished. so i won't get to meet with these guys twice a week anymore. but it sure was a lot of fun.

museum fun

sam and i went to the anthropology and ethnography museum near the end of last week. and of course it was the coldest weather we have had probably all winter so far and we had to stand in line OUTSIDE for over an hour and a half waiting to get in. (holiday time so there are lots of people from all over Russia visiting SPB, so the lines were crazy. we should have thought of that.)

the "line"

the little awning near the middle of the photo is where the entrance is

it was 15F (real temp) but the weather forecast says the "feels like" temp was 2F. after about an hour i was ready to give up because i couldn't feel my toes anymore except for the fact that i felt pain in them. and of course right about the time i wanted to give up (after an hour) it was 1:30pm and there was a sign on the door that said they take a technical break from 1:30-2pm. and i really had to go to the bathroom. there was a sign on the door that said the toilet inside the museum was out of order. great. i seriously was about to cry. they had port-o-potties behind the museum and finally Sam convinced me to just give them a try. it actually wasn't so bad...i think all the germs that make those kinds of things smell must have all been frozen because it didn't smell at all and there was actually paper - which is more than i can say for most INSIDE bathrooms in SPB.

Of course when the clock struck 2:00 and they opened the doors it was a free-for-all and the "line" which was more of a mob nearest the front (which we were finally part of by this time) surged forth and jammed through the doors pushing and pulling as per Russian tradition. I lost Sam for a few seconds in the may lay, but he made it in the doors somewhere behind me. at least we were inside.

anyway, the waiting sucked, but the museum was nice. it wasn't the best museum i've ever been to, but there is one exhibit that makes it pretty unusual for most museums. Peter the Great was really interested in anatomy and so he made a decree that people should collect and bring him all kinds of anomalies so they could be studied and to combat the common idea that birth defects resulted from people being cursed. so this one room of the museum has his huge collection of things in jars - lots of babies with rare birth defects, the skeleton of a calf with two heads, and other anatomy/science stuff. Sam had heard about this room and that's why we had wanted to go to the museum in the first place. basically the rest of the place is pretty much like any other museum, but that one room was pretty unusual and interesting. i think especially for Sam. (although it's also kind of freaky to be walking around looking at babies in jars) but i do see the use of studying them. there was actually something on one of the placards that i read explaining why Peter the great collected these things and it was what explained that he wanted to combat the idea that the defects came from devil's curses. and it had a quote of something he wrote and it said something like, these defects aren't from the devil, because we know that God is the Creator of the body and the devil doesn't have that kind of power. it was much more eloquent of course, but that was the idea. i thought that was pretty interesting. here are some of my favorite pictures of our day. There are more on my flickr site. (no photos in that one room i described, so don't worry.)

SAMurai

this has got to be one of my all time favorite pictures of Sam

me, reflecting


me and a friend


Sam and his friend


The Neva River at sunset on the way home


Waiting for the bus


Arriving at home


Snow


Flakes


Home

so many stories to share...

well, for starters i shall impart to you the adventure that ensued on our most recent trip to MEGA - a big mall on the outskirts of the city. some of you may remember last year's tale of the free bus which involved me being pinned against the door and a 4ft. Christmas tree. for those of you who don't, you can reference it in the archives or click this link from Saturday, December 29, 2007 "Christmas excursion, adventure and the like" This year was, if you can imagine, even worse when it comes to the free bus. it involved standing in the frigid weather for over an hour, attempting to board the bus twice unsuccessfully, and fearing for my life the third time when we did actually manage to make it inside. but, i'm getting ahead of myself. this year the trip to MEGA was actually not unpleasant. Sam and i made our way quite easily into the bus and even had some wiggle room once inside. when we arrived within view of MEGA we started to have the inkling that this sight was akin to what it would be like to arrive at a mall in the States on black Friday. it was packed with shoppers, cars overflowed from the parking lots, and jammed the roads going to and from the mall. it took about 10 extra minutes to make it around the turn into the parking area and to the place designated for the bus to drop off. but once we arrived inside we were in good spirits and excited about not only the %50 off sales, but armed with the knowledge that the US dollar is gaining on the Rouble and has climbed from 25/$1 to 30/$1, which means the 1000 Roubles which used to be $40, now costs only $33...sale or no sale. which is nice when you have recently gotten some US dollars in your account for Christmas! we had a few items on our mental list - "Russian Cutie" boots for me, a coat rack, and "under the bed" storage box, and a coffee table. we started our search for the boots and after some looking and debating i settled on some "not so Russian Cutie" boots. i tried. i really, really tried...but after trying some on, even the medium sized heels seemed like something i'd probably be regretting with every step in the future. besides the ones i got were the warmest, the most comfy, and they were Sam's suggestion. so, they are my compromise Russian Cutie boots. here is the fruit of my labor:









boots. check.

next we headed to IKEA for lunch. i know that sounds strange. in the USA i was fairly accustomed to being able to buy some kind of cheap lunch (Chinese takeout, pretty much any fast food, soup and salad, etc) for under $5 but for pretty much the only thing you can eat for under $5 here in SPB is McDonalds and Teremok (kiosks that sell Russian Blinis) so, hot dogs that cost 15 Roubles and fountain drinks with free refills for 30 Roubles...(that is completely unheard of...the price AND the free refill thing) and a deal that must be taken advantage of when at MEGA. so both Sam and i had cheap lunch for a total of $4. (it's the little things that are exciting.) maybe not the most healthy of lunches, but for $4...worth it. next, it was on to IKEA's mammoth-sized showroom to find the coffee table, storage box, and coat rack we had scouted out about month or so ago and put on the mental list of "when-we-have-money-let's-get-those".

coat rack. coffee table. storage box. check. check. check.

now comes the drama. we tied our parcels and braced ourselves for the trip back home. never an easy task on public transport (especially the free bus from MEGA), but especially challenging when carrying two semi-large items such as a coffee table in a box and a not-so-heavy-but-very-awkwardly-sized storage box. the crowd outside at the bus pick up area was already large and growing by the second as more people poured out the doors of the mall, wanting to go home. Sam and i squished ourselves into a spot in the middle of the pack and stood our ground. there's a thing about standing your ground. it's good in the sense that you don't let anyone push you out of the way, but bad in the sense that people just walk around and place themselves in front of you, no matter how close you were to the "front" of the group. in fact after a few minutes you will realize that although you were once about 3 rows deep in the pack, you are now somehow 3 rows from the back of the pack even though you haven't moved. you might think that this means you should have moved forward as others put themselves in front, but that would mean you would now be where they are...standing in the middle of the road, in the direct line of the bus. yes, this is what really happens. and when the bus arrives, more people surge forward INTO its path. and then at the last second when all these super-intelligent people realize the bus will either A) be forced to stop and go nowhere and NO ONE will get inside or B) will run them over (and in my experience B is usually more likely) then, all those people who got in front of you start pushing back and falling back and the whole crowd gets shoved back towards the curb. this is where standing your ground becomes most difficult. i'm not sure where all the buses were...normally they come at least every 10 minutes or so, but this night it was more like every 25 minutes or so. i will spare the details of our first two attempts - but let's just say that with two large boxes hampering our movement, our cat-like reflexes were dampened and we were a bit off our game. during the second try we had both gotten very close to the door, but by the time we were close enough, there was maybe enough room for squeezing ourselves in, but definitely not enough for the stuff were carrying. i had been shoved and pressed pretty hard during the second battle and by the end of that second attempt, i honestly wanted to give up. i think i was ready to forget about going home and just sleep on the floor of the mall that night. i had had it. but that really wasn't an option. this was it. Sam cheered me on and tried to make me forget that i was shivering and couldn't get my teeth to stop chattering. then after another 20 or so minutes, we saw another bus. this was it. both of us were not accepting defeat again. the bus pulled up and the crowd in front of us pushed, tripped, and fell backward over each other as the bus came in. and the rest of the crowd surged to the side as the bus moved, each person trying to end up wherever the bus door stopped. i held onto my storage box for dear life and sam, to my right, braced himself as the bus stopped and people started to push and clamor toward the doors as they opened. we had made it to the head of the pack this time through determination and sheer willpower i believe. i was a few heads away from the door and the crowd started to push hard to the left and i was in danger of getting pushed out of the door line and i leaned in hard, and maybe even used my box as a bit of a shield at one point. i was in line with the door and now i was being pushed forward in the right direction. except there were still one girl in front of me who was trying to step up, but as the crowd surged, she dropped, halfway in, but pinned between freedom and the door frame by me and my box because of too many selfish bodies behind us. she screamed and i used as much strength as i could to lean back and tried to use my free arm to help free her. an older lady who was already inside appeared in the doorway and, grabbing the girl's other arm, loudly scolded the crowd and yanked the girl into the bus. when she was free i stepped up with one foot and then got stuck, unable to lift the other leg which was now pressed smack up against the edge of the step. i felt sam brace hard and push back with his box enough for me to get room to free my leg and lift it high enough to step up. i got away from the door and into the isle as quickly as possible and reached my arm back towards the door to help pull Sam in. we were safe. much more scrambling and scuffling occurred outside and more screams. i was out of breath, scared. but alive. the rest of the bus trip was a bit of a blur. with the traffic, it took about 15 minutes just to get out of the parking lot, but even jammed body to body as we were, i was never so glad to be inside a bus in my life.

i need to buy some Russian Cutie boots

yes, it's something that i balked at at first. but i have been converted. let me explain. "Russian Cutie" would be what Sam calls all young, Russian girls that look to about 20 years old, wear lots of make-up, have perfectly manicured fingernails and weigh about 90lbs. and they all wear high-heeled boots.

at first i thought this was absolutely ridiculous and impractical because of all the walking most women in this city do. the majority of people use public transport, which involves a lot more walking than is required of people who drive. and i thought, who the heck wants to walk in heels that much? but as we enter into the winter season with its frequent snow, slush, and murky, muddy puddles I have come to see that these heeled boots actually do have a practical side. it's called, "keeping your pant legs dry and somewhat clean." if you're forced to walk in a deep puddle or slush/snow that is several inches deep with flat soles, if you are wearing pants that go to your ankle or a bit below, then the bottom few inches of your pants will soak up the wetness and become muddy and then they will rub against your boots and make them muddy. and if your boots aren't completely water-proof after a while your feet will also be quite wet. now, step in the puddle with heeled boots and it's likely that your pant legs will be suspended above the murkiness and maybe only your toes will be submerged in the mush for a second or two, which shows itself to be a much drier solution.

now there are two main varieties, and i will say that i am NOT inclined to get the first sort. those would be Stilletto heels and/or 5-inch heels that look completely contorting and abusive to feet. this first kind of Russian Cutie boots must have been designed by someone...(borrow a line from and episode of "Friends")...who "hates feet and wants them to die." these don't look practical for any reason. and especially not when the sidewalks are covered in mutiple uneven layers of ice, half melted, then re-melted, then covered with a thin layer of snow to conceal all the dips and pockets.

now, the other kind of boots - one with a reasonably sized non-contorting heel of a few inches and considerable thickness for grip and balance...this i can handle. i wish there was an option for Russian Cutie boots with metal spikes on the bottom, because THOSE i would totally wear. maybe i should start designing shoes...

family

these are some pics i haven't posted yet of me and my parents at the airport before i left the US to come back to Russia last month. i showed these photos to Eric shortly after i came back and told him, "these are my parents". He said, "oh, they look so young!" i told him that i thought they'd be very happy to hear that. but i forgot to tell them and just now remembered, so i thought i'd tell the blog world first and they can just read it along with the rest of you.

several of the reasons Sam thinks I'm a nerd...

i baked pumpkin pies for the Thanksgiving Dinner ALM had for all the teachers and students. (this is Tanya, one of my former students. she came over to help me bake)



my killer baking skills (and my dad's pumpkin pie recipe), won the ALM Thanksigiving Dinner Cook-Off. i was so excited! and i got this:





and well...ok, i admit it. i like puzzles.



also, the sheer fact that i took photographs of these things means i will probably have to see him shake his head at me tomorrow.

these are just a few in an ever-growing list of criteria that my husband uses to try to make himself feel like less of a nerd himself. takes one to know one. =)

Me talk pretty one day

today i had the longest conversation in Russian that i have ever had. and it was with a complete stranger in the metro. there was a little old Russian lady - i will call her "babushka", which in Russian means, "grandma" - in the metro sitting next to me and as we came to a stop, she turned to me and asked,

какой станция : "Which station is this?"
это черная речка : "It's Chornaya Retchka (Black Creek)
(babushka smiles and nods to thank me)

and i assumed this would be the end of our "chat", as this is the average length of most of my attempts at Russian. (especially with strangers) but! ...she continued.
and i bolstered myself for some intense listening and concentrating, because now the train was moving again, and i was not only having to concentrate hard on a foreign language, but it was really loud, to boot. here follows our conversation. (and i apologize to anyone who can read Russian because spelling is not my strong point.)

(babushka motions toward the book I'm reading - obviously written in English - and asks...)

babushka: ты читаешь? (You're reading?)
me: да. (yes.)

(i can't remember exactly how she phrased this next question, but basically she wants to know where i am from)

me: я американский, но я живу в санкт петербург : i am American, but i live in St. Petersburg.

babushka: ты говориш по русский? (you speak Russian?)
me: чуть чуть (a little)
babushka pats me on the arm and laughs)

babushka: сколько лет? (how old are you?)
me: тридцатъ один (31 years.)

(then babushka corrects me, because she has asked how long i have lived in St. Petersburg, not how old i am.)

babushka: нет здесъ. сколько лет? : no, here. how many years?
одна года. : oh, about one year.

babushka: нравитсья : do you like it?
me: да. хорошо. (yes, it's good.) (what else could i say?)

(she asks me something else, but i don't understand the question.)
me: извините. я не понимаю (sorry/pardon me, i don't understand.)

(she asks again and motions toward my book, but i still don't get it, and apologize again. she smiles knowingly, laughs and pats my arm again. then we got back to sitting quietly and waiting for our stops.)

my stop came up first, so i got up to leave.

me: очен приятна. до свидания (it's nice to meet you. goodbye.)
(she smiles)
babushka: до свидания (goodbye.)

and there you have it. maybe someday i will speak Russian well enough that little chats like this won't seem like such a victory. but for now, i am going to savor it and bask in the glory that is called learning a new language.

sometimes news is too close to home

10:17am, Tuesday November 25, 2008
A car explosion in Russia's second city, St Petersburg, has killed three people including a small child.

Andrei Alybayev, spokesman for the local branch of the emergencies ministry, said:"A car exploded near the metro station Udelnaya at 8.55am.
"Three people were killed, including a three-year-old child."
He added that the explosion could have been caused by a "grenade", without giving any further details.
A fourth person has been seriously injured by the bombing.
Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is currently in the region around St Petersburg to inspect a new border post with neighbouring Finland.
Although there have been a number of terrorist attacks in Russia in recent years, usually blamed on Chechen extremists, they are rare in St Petersburg.


Sam and I are both fine. We live near Pioneerskaya Metro Station which is on the blue line. Udelnaya Station is the next station on the blue line, but it's not one that we usually travel to. Sam has to travel under Udelnaya to get to the hospital he's currently working at, but the blast was on street-level so it didn't effect the underground operation at all. Please pray for the families of those who were killed in the explosion.

Guess who?