From Russia

Well, it’s been a while since I’ve been able to post on this blog; I apologize for that. Guess what? I’m in Russia! It’s beautiful here – it’s been between -10F and -20F the past week; winter is so beautiful here! I love it. 8 days ago, we arrived safe and sound in our village – it was an interesting journey, though! Wow. Y’know, it’s a long ways from here to there (or, rather, from there to here…) – first planes, then busses, then the Moscow metro, then a train, then another bus. Altogether, we left Portland Thursday evening and arrived at our Russian ‘home’ Sunday afternoon. J

This past week hasn’t been boring. It’s amazing to be back; the funny thing is, it’s really as though we’d never even left! We moved back in with the director and his wife, which is awesome. They’re amazing people.

So in order to live in Russia, you have to have a visa. Not only do you have to have a visa, you also have to register that visa. We got visas – that was the easy part. The past week we’ve had all sorts of adventures trying to get our visas registered. Finally today we got the paperwork right (after not one, not two, but five trips to the passport office) – the ‘Federal Passport Services’ officer is a lady who found out that what makes her happiest in life is making everyone else miserable.

I don’t blame her for not liking us – after all, it’s not like Americans show up at her office every day – I think we’re the first and only ones in at least 10 years. Anyway, the dear woman thoroughly enjoys telling people very loudly and clearly that they haven’t the slightest idea how to do something properly, and sending you to fill out forms, over and over again, until you get them right. Today she went over the applications for registration with a fine-toothed comb, and when at last she couldn’t find anything wrong with them, she scolded us about how long we’d taken to get this done, about how she’d told us what to do and we had ignored her (she actually didn’t ever tell us that, but hey, it’s okay – that’s life), how our attitudes reflected the entire United States of America, and therefore it made sense why everyone hates the USA. When I asked her what else I could do to make things right, she just looked at me and said ‘nothing, nothing, get out. I already told you, I’ll only register you for 180 days and that’s just the way it is.’ When I said that’s fine, thank you very much, she just said ‘well….you’re welcome. Now leave – there are people waiting in line behind you.’

Ah, yes. Good times. J

Other than registration, we really haven’t had any crazy things happen; culture shock didn’t really happen – mentally, that is. Emotionally, mentally, and spiritually, this place feels like home – like I never left, and like I’m supposed to be here forever. My stomach takes a little longer to adapt, though. I think I’m still trying to make up for those few sleepless days of traveling; usually I can stay up ‘til 12AM or later and still jump up at 7AM, ready to shovel snow and face the day with a smile. I’ve yet to quite be able to do that, though – up until yesterday I couldn’t keep my eyes open past 9PM!

Russian food definitely agrees with me, though. I can’t believe how much I love soup, tea, salo (salted pork fat…yeah, that’s right, you read that correctly), rye bread, salted herring, and other things I never would have dared eat in the USA. Yesterday we had pickle soup. Guess what? It was really good! (did I just write that?! Oh, heavens….)

I’m back to teaching English, as well. Between working in the woodshop, Russian lessons (yes, that’s right – now we’re writing compositions, extending our vocabularies, studying advanced grammar, and all sorts of other scholastic things. This is good for me…I just keep repeating that. Never mind I could care less why something is right as long as I know what is…apparently it’s not enough to speak properly in another language; you have to be able to explain why you said it properly. Pity me – I’d much rather just speak and memorize how to say things right, as opposed to learning all the particulars…isn’t language all about communication? If I can communicate, what’s the big deal? Okay. I’ll stop whining. That is the ultimate carnal sin in this country – whiners are worse than murderers to most Russians! J ), being with the kids, cooking, and having tea with everyone in our village, we’re already quite busy!

What a life. I’ll keep writing; y’all keep praying! God is amazing – He is working here, and I am humbled to be a part of things!