Friday, November 11, 2011

11-11-11 (this date is cool enough to merit a blog post)

Little Blessings (cont.)

Tanya, my new roomie, gives me great fellowship and cooks and cleans too ;) She’s a great sister from church!

Safe travels down to Tuva and back (even on snow packed roads)

Class was canceled today – yay, for getting caught up on a bunch of little things at home (including a blog post)

French’s Mustard and gerbera daisies

The school director of the English school I hope to work at next year is on top of things and is flexible with me and following through with her responsibilities

I’m still wearing my fall coat and not the winter one :)

I have everything I need … and then some

The Orner’s are awesome friends and family to me (and they provide me with a washing machine)

Plenty of opportunities to trust God more (especially His timing)

I have a nice apartment that is warm and homey

Parents and sister to miss (it would be a bad sign if I didn’t miss them)

God is fulfilling desires that I didn’t even know I had – yeah, He’s that good!

Monday, September 19, 2011

Little Blessings

I just want to share some of the simple blessings in my life lately - for God's glory, who gives all good things!

-Getting to sew curtains with my new sewing machine
-Having a working oven
-Getting to play ultimate frisbee (this was a blast! - despite my bug bites and soar muscles)
-Fellowship of teammates and being challenged and encouraged by what God is teaching them
-Getting to learn more about Russian history
-Sunshine and getting to ware sandles
-Getting to talk to my family on the phone
-Teaching Dutch Blitz to a bunch of Koreans
-Sweet fellowship with God
-Friends that pray with me and for me
-Leaving the bank having accomplished what I went in to do

I could go on, but I think you get the point: GOD IS GOOD AND FAITHFUL

Wednesday, August 31, 2011

The Best Day of My Summer

Ate French toast with friends (only after beating the cinnamon sticks with a end of a rolling pin to get "ground" cinnamon...but hey, at least the had cinnamon in Ak Dovurak!)

Packed up the van and head to Tuva's western mountain pass
Drove in the Sayan Mountains for an hour and a half
Stopped at the pass and climbed a hill that looks out over a beautiful valley (there wasn't even much wind! They say you usually can't even stand up straight when you get out of your car there because of the wind)Drove back into the Taiga (forest) to have a picnic before collecting pine-cones

Found tons of wild blueberries!

Enjoyed bologna sandwiches and homemade chocolate chip cookiesPicked two 1-gal jars of blueberriesCollected a gunny-sack full of pine-conesFinished just before getting rained onDrove back to the Alash River and set up a camp fire (it only rained while we were in the car :) )
Roasted and ate pine-nuts AND S'MORES (using marshmallows I got in a package from the US)Headed back home where we ended the night with some Dutch Blitz (AND I won :) )

All in all it was one of those days when its easy to praise the Lord for His creation, goodness and love!

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Life on Gorky Street

My new address is Gorky Street 32 apt. 17
The street is named after the Russian writer, Maxim Gorky who supported the Russian revolution and wrote of it often in his works like in his novel, "Mother". Nearly every Russian city has a Gorky Street (along with Karl Marx St., Lenin St., Red Army St., etc.)Now that I shared that tiny bit of history I now switch to topics of less worth, and much more characteristic for "Vanessa's Ventures": roaches, a cracked toilet, and tinfoil window shades.

I have been blessed with a studio apartment near the university (a 10 minute walk) and not far from American friends (a 25 min walk and even shorter bus ride). It’s the first time for me to rent an apartment here in Russia by myself. I have lived here by myself for 2 weeks and with a roommate for 3 weeks (a friend that needs a place to stay while her house is getting indoor plumbing).

Like most things in life, there are pluses and minuses to renting "my own" place:

+'s

Space to unpack and make “my own”

Being able to clean the place like I want to

Inviting guests and practicing hospitality

Within walking distance of nearly everywhere I need to go

Quiet neighbors

Normal, reasonable landlords

Fresh milk and curds are sold right outside my door (how many of you can say that?!)

Comfortable couch/bed

Open layout that makes having guests easier

Working fridge and decent cabinet space

-'s

Cockroaches (who have since been defeated – thanks to poison and prayer)

On a street corner where there’s more noise and dust than what I’m used to

An ancient soviet toilet with unattached plastic toilet seat and multiple cracks that cause me to frequently mop my floor

Concrete building on the fifth floor with west facing windows = 80+ degrees F

Gas oven that seems impossible to use

No washing machine

But even with these minuses – God has helped me to adapt and blessed me with things like friends who let me do laundry at their house and use their oven to bake cookies (thanks Lucas and Jamie!) I haven’t seen a roach for 3 weeks after lacing the place with a yellow “miracle gel”. I found some thermal-blankets at a camping store and put them up behind the curtains to alleviate the heat (though, my landlords and other guests have looked at them wondering if it's normal for American's to put tinfoil on their windows). A fan has also helped with the heat, my roommate says spraying yourself with water helps too…but because I’m already wet from sweat I don’t see a need to spray myself…Russians don’t seem to sweat as much, perhaps its because they don’t drink very much water). And as of today, my landlords bought a new toilet (with an attachable toilet seat!!) It’s still sitting in the box, but is supposed to be installed on Monday.

I am blessed to have such a nice place to live, and pray I will be able to bless others with this space. I have already had several guests and even had a "taco night" with some Dutch Blitz for classmates from China and South Korea.

At first I was reluctant to invite my friend to come live with me – wanting “my space” – but she has been a blessing to me. Sure we have plenty of differences and the “ideal” open layout makes the bathroom the only place of privacy, but this sister prays with me and gives me constant Russian practice. She also helps cook and provides company around the dinner table.

I’m sure I will have more stories to share from Gorky Street, so until next time!

Thursday, May 5, 2011

Some Random Pictures

Birthday cake
Krasnoyarsk State Pedagogical University where I study
Kids' program at church on Easter Sunday
Uncle Lenin
Lena my roommate

Some Random Thoughts

Why does the ruble have to keep going up and the keep dollar going down? Oh, yeah. It’s this thing they call “gas”…

Been here 2 months, you’d think I’d have a routine or some consistency…maybe someday I’ll come to grips with the Russian reality that consistency is impossible.

Like the flexibility of the language program I’m in… too bad it’s not the most consistent and challenging.

I love randomness of Russian life – having a drunk, beat-up assembly man show up to assemble my desk and proving he is a break dancer by doing a back-flip in my living room OR while running an errand, seeing a naked guy standing in the snow, or reading “words” on written with Latin letters that really aren’t words

My roommate is an awesome match for me, it’s a bummer that she and her mom just sold the apartment we live in and are moving to a smaller, studio apartment with no indoor plumbing.

Wish I had a better internet connection and that there wasn’t a 14 hour time difference between here and WY…it makes me feel pretty far removed…almost like I live in Siberia or something…

I love hanging out with friends…too bad you can’t get a visa just to hang out with people

Good thing God knows what I should do with my time and what I should do to extend my visa and keep living here…now, for Him to let me know…

Some days I just want to throw my hands up and plead insanity

I have to admit, even with all my worries, I wouldn’t change this life God has given me.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Settling in

Today I found a place to live!! After asking around, hoping to rent a room from a Russian lady or family or rent an apartment with a Russian girl my age, a girl from church invited me to live with her and her mother. I visited them today and was very blessed by their fellowship and felt at home in their apartment. On Wednesday I will be moving in!

Also, the process of getting medical tests done to prove I don't have a bunch of diseases (so that I can apply for my temporary residents visa) has went very smoothly. For the past week and a half I have been in four clinics, once to be tested and then again to pick up the results. I have all the results except one, that I will pick up on Wednesday. My American documents are being translated and then I will have those notarized on Friday and hopefully be on a bus to Tuva on Saturday. I don't know how long it will take me to submit all of my necessary documents for the visa once I'm down there, but I sure would appreciate prayers for this process to go very smoothly and quickly without problems that can't easily or quickly be fixed.

All in all, things are going very well! I am still tired a lot of the time but that's to be expected. Perhaps once my visa application is submitted and I am moved into the apartment I will be able to relax a bit more and catch up on rest. Thank you, thank you for your prayers!

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Arrived!

I type from my friends' apartment here in Krasnoyarsk, Russia! I praise God for the safe travels and the many people that have been praying for me to quickly get over the jet lag! Also, I was able to ship all of my things from St Petersburg to here (they should arrive on Friday).

While it is good to arrive, Russia has a way of always reminding me that I have "not arrived" in Russian language and culture. I had a couple "adventures" along the way that helped keep me humble, but over all, things are going VERY well!

I am thankful for Lucas and Jamie who are letting me stay with them until I find a place of my own (you can pray that I find a good place to live while here in Krasnoyarsk, I'd like to live with a Russian). We (Lucas, Jamie, Sam, Sophie and I) were able to attend the Russian festival, "Maslenitsa", in celebration for the coming of spring and "last hooraw" before the Orthodox fast. Here's a glimpse of our afternoon (along with a picture of my personal favorite - the horses used to give kid rides...I wish I would have taken more pictures of them, this was only one of at least a dozen "beautiful" horses....)

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Leaving on a Jet Plane...

My 9 months in the States have flown by fast. They have been pretty packed with traveling, homework and visiting friends and family. I am excited to return to Russia, yet HATE saying goodbye.

I fly out Tuesday, March 2nd at 11am from Denver. I go to JFK (in NY) then to Moscow then to St Pete (arriving 4pm March 3rd local time, 6am WY time). I’ll spend a couple days there packing up my things (stored at a friend’s house) and then ship them out on a train to Krasnoyarsk, where I plan to arrive (by plane) on Sunday morning 5am local time (3pm Saturday WY time). Krasnoyarsk is 14 hours ahead of mountain time so that will be quite the adjustment (as well as recovering from the 20 hours of flight time).

God has answered several of my prayer requests from a few weeks ago! I received my visa with plenty of time to spare, received my FBI background check (to apply for another visa while in Russia), I am 2 papers shy of finishing up my second to last college class and I am enjoying remaining time with family (I got to spend time with my Grandma Lucille and my sister and brother-in-law)! Also, my friend Lea, who has a brain tumor is already seeing good results from her recent radiation treatments (the tumor has begun to shrink!!!)

It is sad to think about all of the people I didn’t get to see while in the States or the people that I was hoping to spend more time with, but the reality is that I was able to see a lot of people and spend time with many friends and family that I might not have been able to see if I has worked a job where I only get weekends and holidays off. I’ve been greatly blessed by the encouragement of brothers and sisters who pray for me and care about what God is doing in and through me!

I’m excited about getting back to Russia and I am praying for a “soft landing” – finding a great apartment/roommate(s) shortly after arrival, the return of my Russian language, good health, and quick recovering from jet lag. I am thankful for friends in Krasnoyarsk that are allowing me to stay with them until I can find another place to live. I am excited about what the future holds and anxious about many of the things that I have to do once I get there (finding housing, language schooling, gathering documents to apply for resident’s visa, etc.)

I have less than a week left and a lot of packing and odds and ins to get done in that time (including two more papers to write!)

Appreciate you reading and caring about my life!