Since we're foreigners, we are sometimes asked to do strange things. Everything from jump into the freezing Siberian winter waters to visiting English classes around the city.
One of our Discussion Club friends is a student at the architecture academy here in Tyumen and she also works for a local restaurant management company. She invited us to a restaurant food tasting.
Well, we knew that it would be videotaped, and we assumed it would be a group of people eating a meal and discussing the food while eating and then it would be video taped.
Turns out that it was a local tv personality with a food show, visiting a restaurant to talk to just the two of us. And it was only appetizers (we had assumed it would be our dinner before I went to teach for the evening).
But the appetizer... Beef steak a la Tatar! Ooooo.
Turns out, this is raw ground beef mixed with spices.
We did it. I was so proud of Amy. Not only we're we able to keep up with some banter, but we were able to choke down the raw beef and smile. We literally thought it was a joke on us at first....
If you don't really think about what you're eating, it really didn't taste so bad. A lot of spices, garlic... Not bad. I'm a pickier eater than most (I can't do tomatoes or mushrooms very well to this day. I try every year, but I just hate them).
Our life is truly and adventure...
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Life balance - John piper
The other day I wrote about John Piper and his different downloadable messages online (www.desiringgod.org)
I was listening to one about how to keep balance between working in ministry (which often occurs in the evening and on weekends, when many other people are not working) and family-life/rest.
He has an incredible method. The typical person has a day that can be divided from breakfast to lunch, from lunch to dinner, and from dinner to bedtime. This divides your day into thirds or three blocks.
The typical worker has evenings off (a third of each day) and two days off (3 blocks in a row, twice a week). Ministry almost always happens on Sundays, this day is out for an entire day off for most. So what they do is they have 10-11 blocks of time per staff member (11 is normal with 5 weekday evenings and 6 blocks on the weekend). So they have their staff plan their weeks accordingly. Take 10-11 blocks of time, scheduled, with at least one day of three blocks in a row!
I think my life schedule planning has just taken another awesome turn for the better.
I was listening to one about how to keep balance between working in ministry (which often occurs in the evening and on weekends, when many other people are not working) and family-life/rest.
He has an incredible method. The typical person has a day that can be divided from breakfast to lunch, from lunch to dinner, and from dinner to bedtime. This divides your day into thirds or three blocks.
The typical worker has evenings off (a third of each day) and two days off (3 blocks in a row, twice a week). Ministry almost always happens on Sundays, this day is out for an entire day off for most. So what they do is they have 10-11 blocks of time per staff member (11 is normal with 5 weekday evenings and 6 blocks on the weekend). So they have their staff plan their weeks accordingly. Take 10-11 blocks of time, scheduled, with at least one day of three blocks in a row!
I think my life schedule planning has just taken another awesome turn for the better.
John Piper - a great encourager
Have you ever read or listened to John Piper? This guy is truly amazing. As Amy and I continue to develop our Russian language skills, we understand how amazing it really is to speak and understand another language. The issue is, however, that there are multiple levels of understanding.
For example: in a conversation, we understand probably 90% of everything. People choose their words for us, they speak at a pace that we understand and because of all of the non-verbal queues, we're able to keep up pretty well. When we're in an audience for a sermon that lasts for an hour or two.... It's a completely different story. The lexicon is very advanced and specific. The pace of speech is faster, especially if the person is reading something. And the stamina to keep your brain engaged at that level (although building) is not that high.
Enter John Piper. His sermons, talks and messages since 1980 are online. They come in one hour, 30 minute and 5 minute blips... It's incredible. Sometimes I'm disappointed in myself that I understand English so much better than Russian, but let's face reality - this takes a lot of time. One of the most interesting things for me is retention of information. I retain English facts better than Russian facts. If I hear and completely understand something in Russian.... I forget it faster, what a bummer.
More later on Piper.
For example: in a conversation, we understand probably 90% of everything. People choose their words for us, they speak at a pace that we understand and because of all of the non-verbal queues, we're able to keep up pretty well. When we're in an audience for a sermon that lasts for an hour or two.... It's a completely different story. The lexicon is very advanced and specific. The pace of speech is faster, especially if the person is reading something. And the stamina to keep your brain engaged at that level (although building) is not that high.
Enter John Piper. His sermons, talks and messages since 1980 are online. They come in one hour, 30 minute and 5 minute blips... It's incredible. Sometimes I'm disappointed in myself that I understand English so much better than Russian, but let's face reality - this takes a lot of time. One of the most interesting things for me is retention of information. I retain English facts better than Russian facts. If I hear and completely understand something in Russian.... I forget it faster, what a bummer.
More later on Piper.
Monday, September 19, 2011
teaching this fall: leadership!
I had a meeting today at the University to see if they accepted my proposal to teach a course on leadership. I am more than thrilled that they are not only interested that I would teach the course, but they are thrilled. Some of the staff have expressed interest in it. We haven't even started to advertise the class, and already there are students signed up (they just want a native speaker as a teacher of course!)
I'm really excited about this, because I've been involved with leadership development for years through various courses at the University of Michigan and the LeaderShape program. It's so cool that I get to design this course and that I'll be able to engage in dialogue about leadership from a completely different perspective (Russian). It will be really interesting, for example, to have students write reports or give presentations about who they respect as a leader. I have no idea if I'll even know the names of the people that they'll mention.
I'm also excited, because leadership topics lead to really great conversations about things that are really important in life: family, beliefs, values, how we spend out time and why, etc.
It's gonna rock! They want more hours than I wanted to teach (75 for this course), so it's going to stretch all the way into February, but I'm still really happy to be able to offer an opportunity like this. It's funny, because it's a cool opportunity for them, but I really feel like the opportunity is for ME!
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