Completed Reading the Bible

I recently completed reading the Bible (cover to cover) for the first time, which I think is pretty cool. It took me a year and a half, I was taking my time. I'd read most of the Bible at various times in the past, but never all the way through in a continous fashion. I began my journey on my last visit to Russia, actually, and took a somewhat roundabout route. I started with Ezekiel and went through Malachi, then doubled back to Genesis and went through Lamentations. Then I tackled the New Testament. What an awesome book. Sex, murder, mystery, epic battles, poetry, prophesy, divine visitations, creation, salvation, ... No wonder it's been a best seller for 2,000 years.

A Visit to the Technical College

I got to visit the local technical college, today. My landlord, Nikolai, is a professor of economics there. The college has an English program and Nikolai arranged for me to come in and speak to 2 different classes. It was a lot of fun. The teacher seemed pretty happy to have me there. I don't think she's had an opportunity to bring in a native English speaker, before. The students were all in the management program, training to work in the hotel and tourism industry in Anapa. Anapa is a resort city that receives many visitors from Europe and the management program has a foreign language requirement (English or German). It was a question/answer session for both classes, I didn't present a lesson or anything. Apparantly, I'm the first American person that the students had ever met. The students had prepared questions in advance: where was I born, what did I study in school, what do I like about Russia, what's the average salary of a manager in America, am I married, why live in Russia, why live in Su-Pseh, etc. It was a fun time. I got to ask the students some questions, also, and they wanted to hear me speak in Russian, also. It was also a good opportunity to tell the students about why I moved to Russia and to share a little about the church in Anapa. Perhaps I might be able to get a job at the technical college. I don't know, I'd have to ask Nikolai about it. Nikolai seemed pretty happy that I was able to come and speak at his school and I was happy to oblige. Nikolai, and his wife Galina, have been incredibly helpful to me and are wonderful people. I hope to coninue developing my relationship with them.

Where I Live

I live in a small village called Su-Pseh, about 2 km south of the city of Anapa. Su-Pseh has a population of ~10,000 people, 20,000 dogs, and 3000 roosters. There are some geese, goats, and cows, too. I've noticed that all the dogs (yes, all 20,000) bark at once between 8 am and 8:10 am. The dogs all live outside in the yard and I think they bark at kids walking to school in the morning. They're pretty noisy, I call them my "doggy alarm clock." Most of the streets in Su-Pseh are unpaved and there are no sidewalks, so you need to pay attention while walking around on the streets. I've dropped in to several of the small stores (called magazines) and have found the people to be pretty helpful and friendly. Houses in Russia are usually built of concrete or brick, which is different than the US (we use wood a lot). Another big difference is that they run the gas lines above ground and you see the yellow pipes running all over the place. A lot of people still burn wood or cow dung for heat, so there is usually smoke in the air. I've seen people burning garbage or yard waste in their yards, too. I've seen a number of covered wells with buckets around town, I'm guessing Su-Pseh didn't get running water until fairly recently. The two pictures show my back yard and my street (my house is on the left with the green fence).

Who uses the metric system, anyways?

Russia uses the metric system, apparently, and France I think. Fortunately, I studied physics at university and have used the metric system before (I don't think I've used it since). I can never remember the metric/English conversions, though. This has caused no small amount of confusion to my Russian friends when I tell them about America. "Yeah, a hot summer day in New England can get up to 200 degrees C, sometimes" or "The speed limit on the highway is usually 500 km/h, but most people drive faster." Good stuff.

Milk comes in bags?

Another aspect of Russian life that has proven to be a little tricky for the unprepared... milk often comes in plastic bags. This is fine, if you have a pitcher handy. If you don't, well, it can be awkward... Unless you're planning to use all .75 litres at once. Milk also comes in small box cartons, but not every store carries the box cartons. I'm learning that you need to learn which stores carry what products. The small magazines don't have a large selection and each one carries a different range of products. I have since bought a pitcher for the milk, but it took me a week and a half to find a store that sold pitchers. The second picture shows my temporary solution to my milk-in-a-bag problem

The Quest for Bumaga

This was my first purchase on my own here in Russia. When the American team left, I took a cab to the house and wanted nothing more than to crash by myself for a day or two. There was not a scrap of TP to be found in the whole house, however, so that got me out and about the neighbor hood real quick. Fortunately, there are small neighborhood stores ("magazines") that stock the basics all over the place. A word to the wise: it helps a great deal if you write down your shopping list in Russian ahead of time, instead of trying to use your pocket dictionary with the shop girl in real time. In this case, it would probably have greatly reduced the amount of giggling as I tried to find the word for toilet paper (which, remarkably, is not found in my pocket dictionary). Then again, the shop girl probably would have laughed at me, regardless. This type of bumaga is the sort you typically associate with Russia in your mind: the texture and consistancy of brown paper towel but not nearly the tensile strength. I have since found some stores that have better quality bumaga, but at the time it was all I could find and unprepared Americans can't be choosers.

Internet Access in Russia

I just got internet access here in Russia. It's been 2 1/2 weeks since the rest of the American team left and I've been (slowly) learning how to live here. Several days ago I got a crash course in Russian internet access technologies, while walking from store to store in Anapa with a Russian fellow named Igor. The land line phone infrastructure here isn't as developed as in the US, so most electronic communication is over the air. I was originally hoping to use a system called WiMax, which is a two-way receiver/transeiver that communicates line-of-sight with a tower on the hill. A little pricey, but WiMax supports up to 512 kb/s upload/download. Unfortunately, I live too close to the hill and a smaller hill blocks my view of the tower. Last Friday night I spent 2 hours walking from store to store with Igor shopping for modems. "Modem" seems to be a general term for any electronic device that accesses the internet in some way. A cell phone can be a modem, a USB device that accesses the GPRS network (at 5 kb/s) can be a modem, etc. I'm currently using my cell phone as a modem. Access speed isn't too bad, as long as other people in the neighborhood aren't making phone calls. The voice/data channel is shared between up to 20 people, locally, so the connection speed can be anywhere between 5kb/s and 100 kb/s (I think). I talked briefly with Pastor victor about setting up directed wifi antennas on our houses and sharing his WiMax connection, but decided to go with the Sputnik (satellite) option instead. So, I'm getting a satellite receiver installed today or tomorrow which will increase the download speed quite a bit (but not the upload speed). In a few more days I'm getting another "modem" (not sure exactly how this one works, but it requires a SIM card of it's own) which ought to increase my upload speed, if it works in my town. We'll see how that goes. In the meantime, I've got my cell phone modem at 5-100 kb/s. Later.