Birthday Adventure

As mentioned in my last post, Erica had a special surprise planned for the Sunday after my birthday. After church I was handed a note instructing me to look at a certain Psalm to find out who had my next clue. What followed was a city-wide scavenger hunt that we dubbed Molly's Birthday Adventure!

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First I was sent to the nearest underground station to find the horse-drawn train...

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However, I got there before my next clue- so I was told to follow Joshua's example and march around the train 7 times (slowly, if you please!) After all, what are birthday adventures for but making me look as foolish as possible? :)

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On about my 5th time around who did I spot but Arina, bringing the next clue leading us to the restaurant where we had lunch...

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After lunch I was sent downtown to a bookstore Anne had discovered in the fall. Forbidden to take public transportation, though, it became an impromptu walking tour. One stop along the way were some griffins gaurding part of the Neva river. Apparently you're supposed to rub it's head and make a wish. I added the stupid face all on my own...

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Pause for a touristy picture across from St. Isaacs Cathedral...

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Once we found the bookstore, I had to go up and introduce myself to the cashier to get my next clue which took us to the пышки (doughnut) shop a few blocks away. One of my favorite little places in St. Pete, this restaurant/cafe has been around since soviet times. It's one of those hidden treasure type places, and it's always filled with locals. The line is usually almost to the door and the tables are always so full that if there are extra chairs at a table, other customers will just come sit down with you.

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Arina, me, Erica, Anne

What you can't see in this picture is the dozen or so Russians behind the camera, looking at us like we're crazy! But it was worth it!

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The doughnut shop was the end of the scavenger hunt, but not the end of the day. Afterwards we walked back across the Neva and home where Erica made grilled cheese sandwiches and cookies and we all watched a movie. All told, I spent 12+ hours with these wonderful ladies, and it was such a fun day! What great friends I have!

Spring has Sprung!

Well, it's not exactly t-shirt weather here yet, but it's starting to feel like maybe it will be eventually (in the dead of winter, summer just seems like an insubstantiated rumor). Some signs that warm weather is around the corner:

• I haven't worn my hat, gloves, or a scarf outside for over a week now
• The snow and ice are starting to melt, though it's still piled taller than me on the side streets and in the parks
• The sun is out most days (as opposed to the 3-4 times I saw it throughout the months of November and December)
• On a walk with Anne earlier this week, we had our first encounter with Russian sunbathers- men and women who strip down to their underwear and stand (in the snow) against the wall of Peter and Paul fortress to soak up the sun!

March also brings with it Maslenitsa (or as I call it, blini week- blini being the super thin pancakes they make here), International Women's Day, and my birthday! It's a good month. :) To celebrate Maslenitsa, some of Erica's linguistics students from the fall (the same ones we went ice skating with) invited us over for blini. It was delicious, and a lot of fun, too. One of the girls had found a classic Russian movie with English subtitles, so we watched that after lunch. It was hysterical. I almost cried I was laughing so hard! Now I want to find a copy for myself to take home with me.

Women's Day was relatively uneventful for me, except that one of my linguistics classes gave me tulips. I told them that tulips were my favorite flowers, and they remembered and brought me some more for my birthday!

For my birthday, besides the shower of candy, flowers, and congratulations I got all day, My wonderful roommate promised to try her hand at homemade bagels! They were delicious, especially with the cream cheese she gave me that morning. And apparently there is some sort of birthday surprise in the works for tomorrow, but she's being very secretive. All in all, it's been a pretty awesome birthday. I'm telling you- March is a great month to be here in Russia!

Flea Market

This morning I went with the Germans to a flea market they had heard of only a few metro stops away from our flat. It was so cool! Actually, it was outside and therefore freezing (!), but it was totally worth it. They had everything from antique books, teasets, and even military uniforms (fairly old) to computer keyboards and universal remotes (not so old).

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I ended up at one booth where the guy had a huge pile of old watch faces. Now, you wouldn't think they would be much worth selling, but some of them were beautiful, and all of them were interesting. I hardly knew what I would use them for, but for only 10 rubles a piece (about 30 cents), I couldn't pass them up. The gentleman selling them asked me if I was planning to make earrings, and I would have said "I am now!" if my Russian were good enough. What a unique souvenir that would make!

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So now it's late, and I'm off to bed- with visions of art projects dancing in my head!

Billiards

One of my favorite things to do here is play pool with our friend Arina. There's a great pool hall not too far from our flat. We meet on the corner near my place and walk there, more often than not stopping to get сосиски (sau-SEE-skee- basically giant pigs-in-a-blanket) at her favorite little bakery on the way. It only costs about a dollar each to play for an hour, so it's a relatively cheap and fun way to spend an afternoon.

My beautiful billiards partner

Anyone who has ever played pool with me will know that I'm terrible. But with all this practice I'm getting better. Arina, on the other hand, is awesome. But today a miracle occured! Due to the combination of me playing the best game of my life and Arina suffering from a spectacular bout of bad luck, I actually won! For the first time. Ever. Recognizing that this will probably NEVER happen again, I decided to take a commemorative photo- this is me aiming for the 8-ball for the first time ever. That's right- I've never even made it that far before!

Who says miracles don't happen? :)

Snow, ice, friends... Russia! :)

Well, I'm back in St. Pete and back in the swing of things! Those three weeks at home were exactly what I needed- restful and relaxing. It's a good thing, too, since the moment I got back our crazy busy social calendar picked up where we left off. Until this weekend, hardly a day went by when we didn't hang out with people. Dinner with the Germans, billiards with Arina, dinner/games with students, ice skating with students, Dasha's birthday party, Anne's 'moving party,' visits from both our teammates in Vologda... the list goes on. You won't hear me complaining, though!

One of my favorite outings thus far has been ice skating with Arina and some of our former students last Tuesday. Neither of us had been skating in years, so there was a bit of a learning curve. At first I could only make it around the ring once before my ankles started hurting and I had to take a break. But even the breaks were fun, including such antics as Arina and I "ice dancing" (oh yes, there's a video!) and Erica and I teaching them the motions to the YMCA song. At first they thought we were crazy. But we explained that anywhere in America when they play this song, people know (and often do) the dance. By the end of the song we had them all doing it (some of them a bit reluctantly) and it was hysterical! I can't wait until the next time we hear that song with them!

Anyway, here are a few of the pictures I took. If you leave me nice comments, maybe I'll post the ice-dancing video later! ;)

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I was trying to 'be dramatic' for the camera, but we usually only caught me almost falling down afterwards

Ella, Lisa, Natasha, me, Paul, Arina

Christmas x 3

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I am currently in Las Vegas, soaking up my last days with my family, going out with only a light sweater, and TV in English. My parents' gift to me was to fly me home for the holidays for a much needed break. It has been a wonderful, relaxing three weeks and I feel much better prepared to face the semester ahead. Not to mention all the American goodies (mostly food) I'm bringing back for my teammates, my friends, and myself!

This post is actually one that I meant to write before Christmas, but once I got home I was so busy that I never got around to it.

Before I left, Erica and I hosted two different Christmas parties at our apartment. The first was for our students. We invited all our classes, and as much as we would have loved to celebrate with all of them, it was something of a blessing that only 11 showed up. Seventy-some students in our apartment would have been a bit crowded, to say the least! We had a white elephant gift exchange, broke out the guitar (it turns out that several of our students have studied classical guitar) and had a merry old time!

Gena, the Christmas elf!

The most surprising event of the evening was when one of Erica's students presented us with a DVD player! This particular student has been to several of our movie nights and has witnessed first-hand our many struggles with the old one. Apparently he'd had this one for some time but never used it. I only wish you could have been there to see my reaction!

Our second party was for our international posse. Most of our German friends had already gone home for the holidays, but it was still a pretty good group of us.

We made it a pizza party and everyone brought their favorite toppings. It was so much fun (as parties with this group always are), and the pizza was delicious! While we ate we introduced the non-Americans in the group to "The Princess Bride." Someone gave us the game Jenga, so after the movie we decided to play. And as if Jenga isn't stressful enough, we made it even more interesting by saying that whoever knocked it over had to do the dishes. Talk about incentive! By the end of the game we were trash talking each other ("You hear that, Arina? It's the dishes calling your name") and trying to psych each other out as the tower got higher and more unstable.

The moral of the story: we have awesome friends and students. It was such a fun weekend. And then a few days later I got to fly home and spend Christmas with my family for the first time in 5 years! What a way to end 2010!

PS. All photo credits go to my roommate, the photographer! Actually, you can probably assume that for most of the cool pictures I post here!

The Teapot Song

This week I have my last classes with my two linguistics groups, since we only have them for one semester. This morning one class, which I named Amethyst, decided to give me a parting gift.

As some of you may know, every year I teach my students the song "I'm a Little Teapot." When they are late to class, their penalty is to sing the song for us, complete with the dance. It's become quite the class joke, and often late students are greeted with "Hello, teapot!" when they come in the door!

This morning I was running late myself because I had to print out their final exams, so I was preparing to sing to them. As I came up the stairs I looked up and saw several of my students on the landing above me. When they saw me coming, they all hurried to get to the classroom first- or so I assumed. But when I got there the room was empty. A moment later they all filed in with big smiles, apologizing for being "late"...

I love my students!

Thanksgiving

Hello again! I'm still here! I apologize for the lack of posts over the last month and a half- we've been without internet in our apartment for the last three weeks, which makes things decidedly harder. For the three weeks prior to that I have no excuse (insert sheepish look here). But here I am, back on track, with a lot to share!

This past week was our Thanksgiving retreat, and it was a wonderfully fun and relaxing time. Our country team (Jeff, Erica, and me, plus Andy and Timon from Vologda) spent the better part of the week in Riga, Latvia. It is a beautiful city and we rented an apartment smack dab in the middle of the historic (read:tourist) district. We're talking cobblestone streets, beautiful architechture, and cathedrals around every corner. We spent a fair amount of time just walking around and exploring the city. Erica and Timon are photographers, so we have no end of amazing pictures from the week. There was a whole photo shoot in front of some cool, weathered doors we found in Jelgava (very CD cover-esque). The perfectionist in me wanted to wait to post this until I got the pictures from them, but that's how I got in this mess in the first place!

This retreat was almost like a small getaway to America. First of all, it was English only the whole time! When I'm in the states I tend to underestimate the value of simply understanding what's being said around me. Even in the stores and restaurants most people spoke English. And one night Jeff took us all out to dinner at T.G.I.Fridays! They also have a great store there, Stockman's, that sells a lot of American brands. I bought a can of Dr. Pepper there for only 70 cents. The only Dr. Pepper I've found in St. Pete was $4 for a can! That's definitely not happening. But the best part is that they have a movie theater there that shows movies in English. Jeff, Erica, and I saw the new Harry Potter movie- or rather, Harijs Poters. I wanted a picture in front of that movie poster so badly, but when we tried to do it a security guard came up and stopped us.

In addition to all our explorations, we spent a fair amount of time just chilling in our little apartment. We watched "It's a Wonderful Life" and "The Santa Clause" and a lot of "Big Bang Theory," which Andy had on his computer. We played a few games of Settlers and Dutch Blitz, made up nicknames, took (and subsequently laughed at) surreptitious pictures and videos of each other, and just generally enjoyed one another's company. All in all, it was a great time, and just the break I needed.

In parting, here are some of the pictures I took while we were there. Most of the cool ones of the city are on other people's cameras. I'll add more on my "Pictures" page once I've gotten them from everyone.

Timon playing the air-saxophone on a street

corner. He actually kept it up for almost 10

minutes, and even got 3 Lat (about $1.50)!

Strikingly similar Russian and American

political posters... in a Latvian store window.

I guess some things are universal! :)

Schnitzel with Noodles

As random as it seems, Erica and I have found ourselves friends with a whole community of German girls working in St. Pete. We met Elizabeth on our first Sunday here, and she has since introduced us to Antonia, Lisa, and Kati.

Our German posse (minus Kati): Elizabeth, Lisa, and Antonia

Last Friday night, the six of us decided to check out the opening of the bridges. Every evening the drawbridges over the Neva river open up for a few hours to let ships come in and out. So we met the girls at a coffee shop and hung out until about 1 am. Then we walked down to the river to check it out. From where we were standing, we could see three different bridges. It was beautiful, even before the bridges were raised... St. Petersburg all lit up at night is definitely a sight worth seeing.

Afterwards we walked Antonia home (she lived about 3 blocks away) and the rest of the girls spent the night at our flat. The next morning we got up early (not an easy feat!) and took a bus to Peterhoff. Peterhoff is the location of one of Peter the Great's palaces, and it's known for it's beautiful gardens and fountains. It turned out that we chose the perfect day for it. The sun was out for most of the day, and it was one of the last warm days of the autumn (we got our first snow on Friday). The leaves had mostly changed color by then and they turned off the fountains the day after we were there, so it really was perfect timing! We got a ton of great pictures. And it doesn't hurt that my roommate is a photographer!

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Playing in the leaves at Peterhoff

The following Monday, Elizabeth came over to make schnitzel for us and a few other people. Our friend Anya showed up first and showed us how to make blini (super thin Russian pancakes), so it turned into a truly international dinner party! And I, of course, spent the entire evening humming "My Favorite Things." Now I know why schnitzel with noodles makes Maria von Trapp so happy! It was delicious!

Our international dinner party: Dima, Anya,

Elizabeth, Sharon, me, and Erica

The moral of the story: St. Petersburg is starting to feel like home. We have friends here. We have to schedule down time on our weekends. We're even running into people we know when we're out and about.

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It's kind of nice. :)

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PS. Check out my "Pictures" and "Thoughts" tabs at the top for more updates.

Home Strange Home

Well, we've been here four weeks tomorrow, so I guess it's about time to introduce you to my new home!

St. Petersburg is a gorgeous city- even our walk to the metro is beautiful. One of my favorite things to do here is take walks around our neighborhood. We live in one of the oldest districts of the city, so there are tons of beautiful old buildings and little parks tucked into the most random places. And I've heard tell of a bazaar within walking distance, which makes me happier than I can say. Now I just have to find it!

"The Castle Around the Corner"- we pass this

every day on our way to the metro

This is so St. Petersburg to me. These are the directions to our school from the metro: Walk towards the beautiful and historic cathedral.... and turn right at the McDonalds

And last but certainly not least... even though these signs are written in Russian, I bet you can still guess what they say!

Yeah, we're really roughing it here. It's almost a disappointment, actually. I didn't come to Russia to eat at Subway! But don't worry- we'll overcome this obstacle!

Lesson Plans, Escalators, and Inside Jokes

"How can I be so tired of lesson planning after only a week and a half?" Erica and I have wondered this aloud several times over the last few days. There have been quite a few adjustments over our first week of teaching, but lesson planning is definitely one of the more exhausting ones. Originally, we thought we'd be teaching 3 lessons per week (one more than our fellow teachers in the CIS). But it turns out that there is such a wide range of levels between our classes that it's more like 5-6 lessons per week. And they follow one after another like waves on the shore. No sooner do we finish one lesson than we are wondering what on earth we are going to teach tomorrow. I have a new respect for all my public school teacher friends who have been planning 5 lessons a week for years- you're all amazing!

Other than that, things are going pretty well here. Erica and I have bonded over home cooked meals, movies, and cultural observations. We've decided that there are so many instances of PDA here that they should be broken down into further categories. So we have SDA (on the street), MDA (on the metro), and our favorite, EDA (on the escalator). I mean, it is a 2 minute ride down to the trains. You have to pass the time somehow, right?

A quick side note: Those of you who have seen the Disney movie "Anastasia" might appreciate the fact that I've had the song "A Rumor in St. Petersburg" stuck in my head for about a week!

Well, I think that's about all for now... stay tuned for more adventures and mishaps! There are sure to be plenty of both!

From Russia with Love

Well, I've been here a week now... I guess it's time to update my blog, huh? Between settling into our new apartment (video tour to follow) and meeting our classes on our second full day in St Pete (!) we haven't had a lot of time to explore the city. But we've had our share of little adventures nonetheless. Like the woman who pulled us onto the metro with her so she could give us directions, only to tell us that we should have gotten on the train going in the opposite direction. :) Good thing we were only on the way to the supermarket, not to class!

On Sunday we met a friend of a friend, Anya, who took us and another German girl (Elizabeth) to her Sunday services and then to lunch afterwards. We decided to walk to the restaurant instead of taking the metro, which gave us our first up close glimpse of some of the landmarks we'd only seen in pictures. It also gave us our first awesome, if tourist-y, photo opportunity!

I had my first typical overseas teaching experience on Tuesday when I went to print out my lesson plan and materials only to find that I hadn't saved them in the correct format and couldn't open them on the office computer! So Erica and I quickly brainstormed ways to do my reading lesson without having the actual text for the students to read. Yikes! I ended up telling them the story and having them work in groups to write down the gist of it (and I took the opportunity to teach them the word 'gist' :) ). It worked out well enough, but I will definitely be more careful of how I format my documents from now on!

All in all, not a bad way to start our year here in St. Pete!

PS. Check out my "Thoughts" page at the top for updated requests

Gratitude

Let me start by saying that I'm typing this latest blog entry on my new computer! As you may know, while at training I dropped my laptop and pretty effectively killed it. But a former ESI teacher who was in St. Pete two years ago has generously given me his old laptop (not even very old, really)! And his wasn't even the only offer I recieved. The generosity of the people in my life amazes me!

I've been thinking a lot lately about how extraordinarily blessed I am. While some might think that I'm 'sacrificing' a year of my life to do this, I'm mostly in awe that I get to do this! God truly does give us the desires of our hearts! That doing his will would send me to the ends of the earth to explore new cultures and make new friends while doing the thing that I love (teaching) simply astounds me when I stop to think of it. I am truly blessed.

In light of this, what business have I to worry about the details of his provision? As can be seen in the story above, as well as in numerous instances of generosity by my friends and family, he has it all in control. I am reminded that the earth is the Lord's and everything in it.

Of the many blessings poured out on me, one of the greatest is all the wonderful people he has put in my life. Every season of my life has brought with it some amazing friends. It is for all of you that I am particularly grateful right now- for your support, your encouragement, and your love. I truly can't thank you enough.

I really am overwhelmed with blessings!

Back to Reality

Well, training is over (at least for me and the other alums) and I'm back in Las Vegas for another month. I really miss my teammates already. But I definitely need this time to shop, pack, earn some more money, and study Russian (hopefully).

I'm also using this time while I'm still in the States to continue support raising. I'm currently hosting a fundraiser on facebook, which I'm calling the "$25 Challenge." The idea is that if 250 people will donate $25 to my ESI account by the end of the month, I'll dye my hair whatever color the donors vote for! There's currently a tie between red and blue, but there's still a long way to go, so we'll see. Whatever the end result, I will definitely post pictures here.

Speaking of posting pictures, I figured out how to create different pages on this blog (see the tabs at the top) so I can have a photo album, and also a page for prayer requests. I haven't done much with them yet, but check back later!

Since this has been mostly an informational post, I'll end with a little tidbit from training. One day as we were driving back from somewhere, some of the guys saw a handwritten sign advertising "Free Taco Soda." Once on campus we spent a good 20 minutes discussing what exactly taco soda might be, gathering more and more people all the while. Taco flavored soda? Soda you drink when eating tacos? Finally a group of us decided to walk down to the store to investigate. Here's what we found:



Notice the tiny little "or" slipped in there? Yeah, we didn't either! But we congratulated the guy behind the counter on a very effective ploy to bring in customers, and took a picture for our trouble. I love these people!

Training Again

Hello all! Well, it's been a few years since my last post (though hopefully not as long since we've last spoken), and you may be wondering at the sudden revival. But it's official: I'm going back overseas, this time to St. Petersburg Russia!

I'm currently in Pasadena, California, attending ESI training once again... or as some of you may remember it- boot camp. Training is a time to prepare new teachers to teach and cope with life in a different culture, as well as for learning about our new teammates (and ourselves). It's a very stressful but also a very rewarding time.

It was quite a shock when I found out that they were sending me to St. Petersburg instead of another Central Asian country as I'd expected, but now I am so excited. I absolutely love my new roommate, Erica, and the rest of our country team (Jeffrey in St. Pete, and Andy and Timon in Vologda). We're already forming bonds and inside jokes, and our morning getting-to-know-each-other discussions are usually filled with laughter.

The Russia team (minus Jeffrey)- Timon, Molly, Erica, Andy

We just found out our flight information, and I will be flying out on September 7th. I should have my cell phone with me until that last day if you want to call me, and I'll try to check my email regularly once I'm in Russia. If anything else noteworthy happens before then, I'll be sure to keep you posted. And then off to Russia! Stay tuned!

The Bazaar

One of my favorite things about spring here is walking everywhere, and one of my favorite things about walking is walking to the bazaar. It’s the only way to shop, in my opinion. I have certain vendors that I go to for each thing and they treat me well. When I ask for a kilo of apples, or half a kilo of strawberries, she goes through and picks each one. So if an apple has a bruise, or if a strawberry looks over-ripe, she passes it over. It’s awesome.

It’s also nice to be able to get exactly the right amount of whatever I need. If I need 2 eggs for a certain recipe, I just order 2 eggs. I go to my favorite grain vendor and get 300 grams of white beans for chili, or get 200 grams of gouda from the cheese lady, as I affectionately call her. Then across the street to the meat bazaar, which is fortunately inside (I don’t think I could ever bring myself to buy meat from an outside vendor!), to buy a chicken. I tell them about how big I need it and they go and find one just the right size. If you know how much I hate to waste things, particularly food, you’ll understand why I love this so much!

All in all, it’s just a great experience. I get to practice my somewhat limited Russian, they get to practice their even more limited English, and it’s just a good time all around. I tried to post some pictures but it's not working out. Cross your fingers and check back later.

By the way, here’s a fun little bit of our ESI Spring retreat two weekends ago. I hope you find these even half as amusing as we did.

Things You Would Never Hear at a Resort in America:

• Oh look, we have a trash can. That's exciting!
• They have a pool? What color is it?
• Do you think the guard will let us out?
• Did anyone notice if we have lights in our living room?
• Does the bathroom have toilet paper?
• Just so you guys know, the water is still on (said at 12:30 am).
• The water here is not brown, not black, but actually purple.

And some fun things from a game of Catchphrase:

• “It’s on the ground in the morning.” “Trash!” (actual answer: dew)
• “This is a common cheese” “Gouda” (actual answer: chedder, something that doesn’t exist in K-stan)

Easter in Central Asia

(Sorry this Easter entry is so late... internet troubles)

Apparently Easter in this part of the world starts the night before. Since Cat and I are fortunate enough to live just across the street from the Russian Orthodox church, most of the ESI teachers came over before the buses stopped running to hang out with us until the midnight service.

It started, as all evenings should, with us watching an Audrey Hepburn movie (Sabrina) badly dubbed in Russian. Then, around 11:30 the girls all doffed our head coverings and we walked down to the church. We could hear the music from our apartment. It was beautiful, alternating between the choir and the priests chanting. There were so many people there that not even half could fit inside the church. So they had set up cameras and microphones and projected everything on the outside wall. At midnight the bells rang and most of the crowd lit small candles they had brought with them. Then the priests came out carrying several things (I believe they were the icons of Jesus and the cross) and the crowd followed them as they circled the church once, chanting all the way. As limited as my Russian is, I only caught a few key words, but I trust I got the general idea. We left soon after, but apparently their Easter service began after that and continued until six in the morning. I must say, I’m glad I’m a Protestant and our service wasn’t until 10 am!

The next morning we had our Easter service, which was interesting, involving a pretty elaborate skit in Russian that I only partially understood. But I definitely enjoyed watching Kostya play the devil. After church there was a tea and everyone was milling around talking and wishing each other happy Easter in Russian. I actually really like the way they do it. They say , which means Christ is risen!, and the response is , which means He is risen in you. I really like that, though I could never quite remember the response on the spot. The solution to this, of course is to always be the one who says it first! It almost felt like a race sometimes.

The next day all our Russian students were wishing us a happy Easter and bringing us Easter bread and cards. The thing is, neither Cat or I really liked the bread, and so now we have three just sitting on our counter until we finally decide to just throw them away. Oh well. All in all, it was a fun and different way to celebrate the holiday. Good times.

Kazakh New Year

I love a country where you can celebrate the New Year three or four times a year. Thursday was the Kazakh New Year, and it was awesome. We met three of our students and they took us downtown where all the cool stuff was happening. They had blocked off the main road downtown so that people could walk there, and there were so many cool things going on. Apparently they have a competition every year to see who can build the best yurta. Yurtas are the traditional dwellings of the Kazakhs, who were nomads. So there were dozens of full-sized yurtas all the way down the street, each one erected by a different company or organization. Outside of one they were actually having a traditional Kazakh wedding ceremony, complete with dancers and musicians playing the dumbra (the national instrument). In front of the Abzal (one of the major stores downtown) they had a stage set up and there was a full Kazakh orchestra, playing all the traditional instruments. It was amazing. Cat got videos of it all.

It was just a big street carnival. Old men were wandering around in their traditional dress, and people were selling shashlik, samsa, and plof (local dishes) on the streets. Cat and I kept trying to get to see the inside of one of the yurtas, but they weren’t letting the white people in. But finally one of them figured out that we were Americans, which apparently made all the difference. They invited us in, but Mary and Taya, both Russians, had to wait outside. It was so cool! They had beautiful Persian looking rugs all over the floor and hanging from the walls, and Kazakh artifacts everywhere. There were three tables (the low kind that you kneel around) and they invited us to sit down and eat! We couldn’t stay too long, since the girls were waiting for us outside, but we had a few bites of the dish they put in front of us, and we both tried the kumis (mare’s milk) which, by the way, is absolutely disgusting. It tastes like sour milk mixed with vinegar.

That night we went to Marzhan’s apartment for dinner. She’s the only Kazakh English teacher at ASSOL, and she invited us and two other teachers with their husbands. It was the most fun evening I’ve had in a while. She made us Bes Par Mak, the national dish, which included horsemeat. It actually tasted good, but there was more of a mental block than I had expected going in. I took about three bites and then focused on the beef, noodles, and potatoes. Then we just sat around talking for hours. The conversation alternated between English, with Mila and Yana translating for their husbands, Russian, with them translating (somewhat) for us, and Cat and I trying to have a conversation with Vitaly, which is always hysterical. He speaks maybe as much English as I speak Russian (not much), but he is so expressive that we can usually figure it out. It was such a fun night.

Happy New Year!!!
С новым годом!!!

My Birthday in Central Asia

I’m beginning to wish all my birthdays could be in Central Asia. Today was the best day! It started out with an unusual amount of communication from back home. I got a fabulously long email from Kate, a phone call from Jamie B., and a card from my mother, all before noon!

This afternoon when I arrived at Alter for my first class Andrew was waiting outside to keep me from walking in too soon and spoiling the surprise. When I finally did go into the classroom, five of my girl students sang Happy Birthday to me. Behind them they had pushed four desks together to make a table with chairs all around. There were mugs enough for everyone and we had coffee (the first time I ever liked coffee- look at me, I’m growing) and they had set out two little cakes. We sat around and talked for the first half-hour of class. They asked me to tell about my best birthday (besides this one, of course) and then they went around the class and each one offered a blessing for me.

Since class was shorter than usual because of the party I didn’t do the song cloze I had intended to do. For those who don’t know, a song cloze is where I give them the lyrics with blanks where the vocabulary words are and they have to listen to the song and fill them in. Instead I just told them so they could write them in, explaining words as we went. Then we discussed what the song meant and watched that scene. It was really cozy and relaxed, sitting around the table and drinking coffee. It obviously can’t happen often, but it was great for a change of pace.

When Sascha and Larissa picked me up from Alter, Sascha gave me a bunch of red carnations, and when we got back to ASSOL, Larissa called me into the front office. There, she and the Tatianas had two more bouquets for me, and a present. They sang Happy Birthday for me, though Larissa subsided into “da da da’s” after the first line. Then I went upstairs and Cat’s 4 o’clock class had a gift for me!

All in all, I came out of today with three bouquets of flowers (roses, chrysanthemums, and carnations), two boxes of chocolate, two cakes, a wall clock, a watch, a new wallet with 100 tenge inside, a plastic cat-shaped piggy bank, and a felt potted flower that dances and sings “You Are My Sunshine.” My favorite was the watch. My watch broke and so lately I’ve had to borrow a student’s cell phone every class to keep an eye on the time. So my 6 o’clock advanced class tonight gave me a watch! Between that and the beautiful clock Larissa gave me, I’m all set.

After classes tonight the whole ESI team went out for dinner, which was great fun. About halfway through (fortunately after our food had arrived) the electricity went out! The waitress brought each table a candle, and we actually liked it better that way! We bonded with the Kazakhs at the next table over shadow puppets on the wall. They got a kick out of my dog impression. After about 10-15 minutes it came back on, though.

The thing is, it’s not over yet. Mary’s birthday is tomorrow, so on Friday we’re having a joint birthday party. That’s when we’ll exchange gifts, and the girls are making a cake. And then on Saturday Cat and I are having a bunch of our girl students over to watch a movie. I’m really looking forward to it.

I think I can safely say that this is one of the best birthdays I’ve ever had. I’m so happy.

Molly's Book Club

For the past few weeks, the sermons at church have been on relationships, primarily marriage, but also touching on parent-child and other relationships. This week and next week’s sermons are on the text Ephesians 5:33, which tells husbands to love their wives and wives to respect their husbands. The entire service yesterday, Michelle and I were convinced that what he was saying was taken from two books that we’ve read, “For Women Only” and “For Men Only.” Since the sermon reminded me of them, I thought I’d take the opportunity to tell everyone back home about them.

I discovered these books at training in July. Michelle brought them and was passing them around to everyone. The first book, “For Women Only” is by Shaunti Feldhahn. She began interviewing men as research for a novel she was writing, but the things she discovered were so amazing to her that she expanded her research methods and eventually wrote this book with her findings. She created a survey with the help of a US Census Department survey writer. They surveyed thousands of men of every age, race, religion, marital status, and economic status. She also conducted personal interviews with 400 men. The book explores 7 or 8 basic truths that she found most men had in common, but of which most women are completely clueless.

It was eye opening, to say the least. Several different guys at training read the book and they all commented on how accurate it was. Some even said that it explained things that they themselves were unable to put into words. Even though I am not married, I was able to apply most of it to my relationships with other men in my life, like my father and my male friends. After reading it, I began to see a lot of things in a different light, including some mistakes that I had unwittingly made.

A few years after “For Women Only” was published, the author’s husband, Jeff, decided to write the companion book, “For Men Only.” He used the same research techniques as his wife, this time focusing on women. It is incredible. There was one paragraph that said, in so many words, exactly what I had often wished I could tell guys. It is so insightful.

I really think that everyone should read these books. Those of you who have been married for many years may already know much of what is in them, but it would still be worth checking out. And even single people could benefit from reading them. Because it’s really just about men and women, period.

Okay, that’s my shameless plug. Read them. They’re awesome.