1st Preview from Moscow

Brian and I took the night train on the 19th to arrive in Moscow to pick up my mom at the airport. She arrived with no hitches and made it through customs with all my cooking spices that I had ordered. (And peanut butter). Thanks goodness!!

Then, we headed off to our hostel to drop off our bags and dragged my mom out to wander the streets of Moscow. My mom was a superstar, she survived the whole day on NO sleep. Plus, being completely jet lagged, she walked along and enjoyed the sights. First up: Saint Basil's Cathedral in Red Square. This is what I think of when I think of Russia. 

Saint Basil's Cathedral, erected in 1555-1561

We walked through this square all three days we were in Moscow; each time was just as enjoyable as the time before. It is a huge square, and each side of the square is a feast for the eyes. 

Another building in Red Square, this is the history museum on a sunny day. Fantastic red color!

Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the tallest Orthodox Christian church in the world. This is actually a newer church, built in the 1990's.

A view down the river towards the red Kremlin walls.

Here is Brian, sitting in our hostel with a garmoshka (Russian accordion). As some of you know, he brought TWO home last year after staying in Moscow for two months. This particular day, he had gone back to the little shop where he had bought one of his first garmoshka's. There, the owner just gave this one away for free. Brian was so excited to get it! But, why free you ask? Well, it doesn't work. It does give Brian a project for the next year though. 

The Bolshoi Theatre, built in 1824. 

The Moscow Metro system is very extensive. Including 186 stations and over 190 miles of track, there are, on average, 6.6 million passengers on one day. WOW, that is a lot of people. It was our main form of transportation while in Moscow and really was a wonderful way to get around. Many of the stations that are underground are beautiful! The hallways are almost like you are in a museum or grand theater. 

The prettiest metro stop in my opinion. 

Many more pictures yet to come!!!

Where Was Jason?

           

While going for a walk last night, Wendy and I saw this one truck pulling another truck with a cable. All of a sudden we saw a flame start under the rear truck, the driver jumped out and started beating it with a blanket. Neither of us are sure exactly what happened after that but the gas line caught fire and the whole truck went up really fast in flames. He had a bucket sitting by his truck so I grabbed it and went to the river to get water, but it was way too late. We both said if only our friend Jason Vanderzanden of the Vancouver fire department was here he could put this out.

 Here is the truck just getting started. We both felt at this point smoke damage would be bad but still a small possibility of putting it out.

  

Game over. Only the St. Petersburg fire dept. could save this situation 

 This is for our buddy Jason so he can see what a Russian fire rig looks like. The model is kamaz.

It took 12 minutes from the time of call to their time of arrival. We felt like that was a really good response time. It is most likely slow compared to Vancouver fire dept. 

We are having a great time in St.Petersburg, heading home tomorrow.

Toast A La Most

It really is the little things in life that bring the most happiness. Sure someone could give us a million dollars and we would not refuse, but just maybe with that million dollars, we would buy 250,000 toasters!!! This is what we bought for 736 Rubles (25 USD) on Saturday. Honestly I am not sure how we survived the first month without it. Toasters are not very popular here in Russia, as a result the pickings are somewhat slim. I wish I could show all the Russians here how much better toast is than bread. But for now, we will just have to enjoy it ourselves.  

 A Maxwell 2 slot toaster. I wish we could say it has all the bells and whistles, but really we are kind of broke, so we went with cheap over awesome.

I had to take a picture of my beautiful wife making our first pieces of toast in our new magnificent toaster. It sort of gave off a funny smell at first and then I thought "This is the first time I have ever been the first person to use a toaster." Really can you remember buying a toaster? I think my mom still has hers from 1990!!! 

Leaves, Fall and Heat

It is normal for me to put a few pictures up of the lovely fall colors. I just can't help myself. Even all the way here in Russia, there are beautiful fall colors to enjoy. Here are a few for your enjoyment. 

The contrast of the blue skies and the leaves makes the orange and yellow really pop out even more!!

 So, now that we have reached a certain temperature at night outside, the powers that be, decided to turn on the heat in our apartment building. At first (the first day), it was lovely. I put my cold toes on this water heater and just felt the heat soak in. Now, a few days later...our bedroom has reached 77 degrees. I'm not so excited about the heat anymore. :) And no, there is no way to turn in off anywhere or control the temperature anywhere in the flat. Oh well, thankfully our windows do open, so we can open them when we are home.

I can't help myself. I have to put a little picture up as a tribute to carving pumpkins. This is an encouragement to all who have never carved their own pumpkin. :) For as long as I can remember I have carved many, many pumpkins. Thanks to my mom's garden skills we usually have a few to carve. This picture is from last year's harvest. I will buy a pumpkin at some point here and carve it. :) And then I will cook it!  Happy October 9th everyone!

Farmlands

Last Sunday we went with a good friend from our church out of the city to go for a walk in the village of Сартоково/Sartakovo. It was not too cold but there was a nice steady wind which made it "nippy" It is very fun to get out of the city, Wendy and I enjoy this type of lifestyle more than the hustle bustle of inner city life. 

 This is for my Grandpa, we don't know what type of tractor this is so you have to guess if it is old, big, small.  We also don't know what he is harvesting. We saw some cattle grazing so maybe this is for silage.

 Here is a picture of what they were harvesting. I broke some off and tried to eat it, but it had no flavor and got stuck in my teeth. Maybe cows like it more than I did.

 The farming lands of Russia are so beautiful. They give a person a small idea of how big Russia really is. If you go up on a hill, you can see about 60 kilometers.

 Our friend Almira knew the man who was building this house. He let her take apples last time so we went and asked and they permitted us to take all we could carry. As you can tell he doesn't seem to want them. Wendy's sister Becky had problems getting all her apples off one tree, this guy had 5 trees.

We used the best things we had to collect our apples. We tied the our shirt sleeves and used them as bags. We most likely collected around 5 pounds of apples. Wendy made a delicious apple crisp with them.

Humbling Moments

I (Wendy) have now been to three Russian classes. I was informed of some free Russian classes at the Linguistic University here in Nizhniy and took the opportunity to sign up! Who doesn't like free stuff? Well, the classes aren't quite what I had in mind. Most, if not all, our classes will be taught by different student-teachers who want to be teachers of English as a foreign language. So, we are their test-students. Three classes later, I am very lost in what is being taught. Still stuck back on the alphabet, it takes me minutes longer to read a word than any of the other students in the class. I am resigning myself to being okay with not continuing the classes. They are taught way to quick for an absolute beginner. 

I feel this pressure being here though, "I must learn Russian!" "I have a whole year, I could learn so much!"  

But, reality is, I may just learn bits and phrases here and there and I am okay with that. 

Our third class, we were to read all words and connect the appropriate phrases. RIGHT. 

Sadly, the teacher didn't even give me definitions for the words. I had to ask her. 

Lets just say, Russian is very hard to learn. There are many rules that make no sense what-so-ever. To me of course, a simple, English, Speaker. 

So, how is that humbling you ask? It is humbling because I am not good at learning Russian, I can't communicate with many of my co-workers and many of the students. Most of the time at work, I don't really know what is going on and if there are changes to the routine or schedule, someone usually has to direct me on where to go next. For those of  you that know me well, that is very difficult for me. I like to know what I'm doing and when and why. I can be very stubborn, prideful and full of myself. I will admit it. Through this job and being in Russia, I am learning, very slowly, how to humble myself. Although I seem to fall on my face daily. God is really working on me here. :) 

There are many verses in the Bible about humility, here is one of my favorites.

Ephesians 4:2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 

And another verse:

Matthew 23:12 For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.

Almost all the sunny days when I walk home, I have passed an older lady at her house selling flowers. I love flowers! They really brighten up a house. So, I finally got the nerve to stop and buy some. I had to tell her, I don't understand Russian, and then ask her how much? See, I know a little Russian! Using fingers, we agreed on a price. I have no idea if I paid too much, but I don't mind. $3 for 3 flowers. Most of the elderly people here need the extra money to live on. They don't get very much from the government and try to increase their income by selling vegetables, fruit or flowers. 

My new hobby. Bread baking. My goal: to be a pro at breads, rolls, pretzels (Rachel I need some tips!), and any other bread item by the time I get back to the states.