My Brains Are Boiling!

Yup, that's right. It's a phrase in Russian, and it's VERY true for me right now. I just met with a friend of ours who is helping us study Russian and I'm a little overwhelmed (which is really the goal-immerse yourself, and it will come!). She is such a good teacher-today we went over an essay I wrote, reviewed the parts of the book that I read, she quizzed me on the new words I learned, and she helped me continue to work on pronunciation (something I need a lot of practice with).

I'm really pretty excited about language learning-I think the key is to continue to bombard oneself with it. It's really easy to do if you just look for opportunities-if you're walking down the street alone, for example, you can read the signs, or listen to Russian on your iPod, or listen to Russian radio on your phone (something cool that they have here in Russia). You can watch movies or TV shows in Russian . . . and best of all, you can just talk to people! On Tuesday I had a CRAZY Russian immersion day-I studied with our helper, Irina, for over an hour, then walked around the city with my friend Tanya (one of the interpreters from camp) for THREE hours. It was great, and I was really thankful to understand more with her than I have before, I feel like. But I was BEAT when I got home.

Whew! Thanks for listening to my ramblings . . . it was nice to have an English break. :)

Эйми (my name (Amy) in Russian)

DONUTS!

Sometimes, a taste of home really is great. Well, Amy had an incredible idea... we made donuts. We used pre-made bread dough, made a vanilla glaze and then dipped them in cinnamon sugar.

Wow! They were delicious. We photographed the occaision.

just the dough

frying in the pan... mmmmm

the finished product

Our first snow!

So we just planned on heading to ch^rch like any Sunday and got this great surprise!

amy amY AMY!!!!!

She's in the air right now folks. She's on her way back to Russia. It's been tough to be apart these 13 days. She's been cranking away in America with family, friends and a VERY special project. We're excited that the ultrasound project has come together so well and we have visitors coming in November to work with the Pregnancy Resource Center here. It should be really awesome... I can't WAIT to pick her up tonight at 3am!!!!!

The ichthus conversation

So it's the last day that Denis will be staying the night, I'm whipped from my second week of teaching already. He's got all kinds of energy, because he's on vacation and slept for 1/2 the day...

So at dinner (which started at like... 9pm) he brings up the ichthus ring that I wear. What does it mean/ stand for. I shared about the origin of the symbol and why Amy and I both have one.

This lead into a very long 5 or 6 hour talk (until 3am) about f@ith, bel!ef and what it means to me, to him, to people, etc. It was a pretty high level philosophical conversation and I started to struggle with the language by 1am. My head was bursting and I was just pr@ying for the right words.

He is definitely in a place where he is seeking. Seems like in my year absence back in America, he's been reading everything he can get his hands on. He's read about eastern and western philosphy. He's explored factions of Chr!stianity and he had a LOT of questions. Especially about the nature of man and how we've messed so much up. And the nature of G0d and how He could allow His Son to die. I think the conversation is FAR far from over.

I'm excited to continue it. Let's hope for more opportunities to talk. He lives SO far away and he leaves on Friday.

Waking up in Russian / Denis

Well, on Sunday one of my old pals from Discussion Club 06-07 came to visit from up north. 36 hours by train!

Denis came about 4pm and is going to be able to stay at our place until Amy gets back on Thursday morning (the hours are nearly countable!)

Anyway. Denis gave me a book that he'd been re-reading on the train. It's called White Poodle and he suggested I read a story called Elephant. Well, the cool thing is, I can read it. Sure there are quite a few words I don't know... I have to guess... but I'm doing okay. I read 3 pages before I collapsed into sleep.

So the crazy thing is, I woke up in Russian. Yeah, that's good progress. Thanks G0d for the opportunity for some immersion.

D-Club #2

Talk about an explosion. There were 26 people tonight. Well, maybe 21 technically. 5 people really came just to see Amy and she won't be here for 4 more days (small break down and I'm back).

The only advertising right now is a small 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper on the window of the Cultural Center. I guess that's good, because I don't know how many more we can easily accommodate with only 1 native speaker!

I'm excited to be seeing folks and there were MANY familiar faces this week. Many of them are clambering for English lessons. We used to teach an hour of free lessons before club. I think we should start again as it's really good for a pre-ev@ngelical program like this. It's just a matter of finding the time...

The British Varient

Yeah, I'm learning my own native language... my supervisor for teaching is a Brit. He's got a GREAT sarcastic sense of humor. He keeps correcting my English pronunciation. Which is a bit tough, since that's sorta my linguistic specialty. Oh well.

I just downloaded a LARGE list of British English / American English equivalents... let's hope it helps our communication ;)

Chastised and Admonished

I've been told NO MORE English. Only Russian. Here goes...

So I had a lovely dinner with friends tonight. It's always a pleasure to hang out with Sasha and Zhanna. We had a great dinner and it was nice to just sit and chat, be bombarded with Russian, and just be in the presence of friends. And then it happened...

Zhanna and I were talking about teaching schedules and how it's hard to study the language that you need to... for her - English, for me - Russian. Well, she had a solution. No more ENGLISH. I have to read in Russian and listen to Russian as much as possible...

So here goes....

I've got some Russian audio books. I can listen to Russian radio on my cell phone, and I've got a few Russian books and some e-books from Sasha... please pr@y for me.

Gavin - our Nephew

Yes! We're excited to report that GAVIN is here! We have a new nephew. He weighed in at 6 lbs and 12 ozs. Amy thinks that he's about 20 inches long. We're excited he's here. I'm REALLY excited that Amy got to be there to meet him.

I miss her a LOT, but the joy in her voice as she talks about him is worth it.

I know that Amy's going to be a huge help to Sara and Ryan in the next week, so I'll be patient.

Welcome Gavin Cook!

Woman's Summer / Indian Summer

Wow! Fall is really here. The first day I arrived back there was a light snowfall, but now we're in full blown Indian Summer. The trees here mostly turn yellow or golden, but there are these incredible deep red berries on some of the trees that are really spectacular. It's nice to have a crisp feeling in the air and a spring in your step.

Indian Summer is called Woman's Summer here (бабелето). My students were teaching me today, that it's called that because of the woman's gift of birthing. One student used the word Renaissance. I was impressed!

I'm still suffering from jetlag a bit, but when the weather is SO beautiful, you just don't want to give in... plus I've got to get ready to teach.

I didn't realize that my teaching schedule would be so difficult. It's really spaced out, but with just enough time between most of my classes that I don't really have the time free. So I'm going to have to have to increase my scheduling skills to maximize my efficiency.

I also need to take into account that I'm jetlagged and it's my first week teaching 6 new groups.