Russian Studies

Mum and Dad left last night on the train for Kyiv, then on to America.
Now I'm recuperating from all the celebrations and the aftermath, plus getting everything together for mum and dad to leave. And of course, moving forward with my own life. I'm off to Kyiv this weekend, on Sunday, to start a Russian course for three weeks.
In between now and then I need to get my newsletter out. Make sure things are set to go for the office as they'll be closing next week and I need to make sure everything is in order. Pack. Pay the bills for the next couple of months. Figure out where I am going on vacation so that I can organize for my visa invitation. And a few other details, like pick up the dry cleaning that mum forgot. :)
I am really looking forward to this session in Kyiv. I think it will be a good break for me. Not a vacation, but a vacation from my life as it will be a completely different routine. And hopefully I'll be able to catch up on some rest during that time as well.

Thank you so much for your prayers and participation in this past weekend. I think it is a memory that my parents will cherish for many years. I feel so blessed to have been able to make that possible for them.

Back in Town!

Just a quick note to say that I did make it back from my long weekend. It was great to be with the family for Angel's birthday and to see Matt and spend some time with him. Overall it was good just to have a little "down time". I've been realizing that I haven't been making room for that lately, hence my stress. So I am trying to do that now, but also trying not to feel too guilty about it. Sigh. *rolls eyes
I'm heading into a busy summer. My new roommate, Julie, moves in this weekend, and we need to paint her room first. Then, later this month, my brother will come visit me and then mum comes back from Russia and I'm organizing my parents' 40th anniversary celebration for July 19. After which, I am supposed to be doing a three week intensive Russian course and then heading out for a couple of weeks for vacation--the only problem with that being that I just discovered that my visa runs out during the time I am supposed to be on vacation, so I am hoping to be able to get an extension on that or I may need to vacation someplace else!
Oh, and in the mean time we are trying to finalize two courses for printing here at the office before August 1.
I feel like it is a "hang on for the ride" summer!

Update on Jessica and Deb

I got an email this morning from John saying that Deb came through her surgery just fine. Jessica is still unconcious, but stable. They are beginning to reduce her sedatives. She is scheduled for another surgery next week to replace some of her skull, but there is concern over infection.

Thank you for keeping this family in your prayers.

Please also pray for my parents as they head out tonight on the train to visit my sister and her family. They will spend a couple of days with them and then go on to Russia. My younger brother, Matthew, is also traveling this weekend. On Sunday he's flying here to spend a few weeks with family and friends in Ukraine. It's been over two and a half years since he's been here.

Long Weekend and a Note

We had a four day weekend this last weekend: May Day and Victory Day (or Freedom Day? or some other war-ish holiday--can't remember, just know we had to give the office a day off for it), May 1 and 2.
I used the weekend to "escort" Cheryl to Kyiv, where I dumped her at a friend's place (I know, I'm a good friend) and then went on to my sister, Priscilla's, place in Rzhishv. It was a great weekend. Lovely to get away for a few days and just relax and spend time with the kids and Pris (and Dan too). I played legos and tried not to burn my hair off roasting marshmallows and in general just had a good time.

On a side note: I changed the settings on my blog for comments, so hopefully it should be easier to make a comment now. ;) Just choose "anonymous" from the settings if you don't have one of the other id's to sign in under.

Updates

Aside from the first week this month has really flown by! It's been amazing. In a great way. It started off so hard with having to let people go from the office. Plus the additional stress of the dizziness I was continually fighting and just feeling like I couldn't catch up to my life. But while it didn't slow down I do really feel like things have improved. We've passed through the struggles of letting people go--not that it doesn't still make me sad, but I do really trust them into God's hands; I've been able to slow down and get some rest with the long Easter weekend and just take time to refocus myself on Jesus; and the dizziness has been rectified! :)

The dizzies, it turns out, must have been related to an herbal supplement that a doctor had prescribed me in March. It took me a month of dizziness to figure it out, but with some help and good advice, I did. It's great to be able to walk in a straight line again!
In the middle of April they turned off the heat, as they do every year on April 15, only this time I was more prepared for it. It also really helped that the weather has been really beautiful this year. We have managed to stay comfortably warm in the apartment with our two space heaters. :)
Our office is recuperating from the shock of losing four members. Unfortunately, we can only afford to pay them half of their salary this month, so they took a few extra unpaid days off after Easter and then the rest we will simply owe them and pay it back whenever we can, hopefully by August.

This weekend is May Day and Victory Day (I think) on May 1 and 2, so we have a long weekend with both Friday and Monday off. I decided to set off to my sister's to visit them for the weekend. It'll be nice to step out of the whirlwind here (and into the whirlwind there) for a few days. Just a change of pace and scenery. I'm looking forward to spending a little time with the kids. I actually leave on Wednesday evening, and will go by train with Cheryl to Kyiv (she is doing much better by the way, although still in a lot of pain and still has a long recovery road before her) and help her with bags and stuff. So it'll be an extra-long weekend for me. I'm using the extra day in Kyiv to visit the dentist and hopfully see my dad (it's been six months and I'm looking forward to seeing him again :) ) at least briefly as otherwise we'll be like two ships passing in the night.

Only Slightly Insane

I think. Although I feel completely overwhelmed. These courses are really getting to me. We're trying to finish up five books to be ready for print by the time I leave on Tuesday at noon. Normally we only prepare two books for print at a time. So, this is a little crazy...or a lot crazy.
It's just that the office goes on holiday on August 1 for a month so we would really like to finish these books up before then. In addition to that, we have to send them to someone else to take to the printing house in Russia and we actually have someone here who is going to visit that man, but the are leaving on Tuesday afternoon. So we would really like to get these books finished by then. Naturally, we have actually been working on some of these books for a long time and we had wanted to finish them earlier, but because of some uncontrollable delays we're still trying to finalize them now.
The other two books are a different situation because the one is very small and required very little editing on our part, but still requires formatting and a cover to be designed and all those other lovely little details. And the second one we are not allowed to change the content on at all, but we still had to reformat it and create a cover and things like that too and there are a lot of issues with the reformating on that one.
Please just pray for us. Some of the staff is coming in tomorrow (Saturday) to work on these so that hopefully we can make our deadlines. We're all reaching the end of our ropes with these courses, some of them we've been working on since January (and for me longer), normally we only work on a course for three to four months. Pray that we'll be able to make the deadlines, but that we won't sacrifice quality for speed. I would rather miss the deadline and put out a good quality work, than make the deadline and put out something half-baked.
And pray for me as I need to get ready to go to the States for three weeks to get my visa renewed and visit family. I leave Tuesday at noon, and will go to visit Pris and her family for a day to unwind before I fly out on Thursday morning at the crack of dawn. I need to pack and make sure that everything is lined up for my visa and the other things I need to take care of before going there. We also have the Ukrainian missionaries to Russia visiting right now for an accountability session and there are some issues going on there so I am feeling that too as are my parents. And our office needs to go over to visit with them on Monday, plus on Monday or Tuesday morning I am supposed to meet with an artist who is trying out for us and I also need to still make a final decision about whether or not to hire the Ukrainian translator who is trying out for us. And of course, I am heavily involved in all the little decisions that need to be made about these courses we are producing.
So, I'm pretty stressed. Tomorrow I need to pack and wrap things up at home and still work on the quilt :), but I may also need to come into the office to help them out here. I'm not sure what Sunday will look like for me, probably a lot like Saturday with extra sleep. Then Monday is finalizing everything and making the judgement call on whether I think our quality is up to par or if we need to give it another shot, plus visiting with the missionaries for a few hours and possibly seeing the artist and deciding about the translator. Tuesday morning I need to make sure everything is packed because I have to take my suitcase to the office with me for a couple of hours before I head to the bus station to head out. Then hopefully I'll be able to breath a sigh of relief and just breath for a bit.

Travelling

So, I was back in Kyiv/Rizhishiv this weekend. It seems like I am there every other week right now. Sometimes because of holidays or the dentist or work related stuff. The marshrutka (van/mini bus) ride is becoming quite familiar.
Over these trips I've noticed a lot of wreaths like the one in this picture. Sometimes there are boquets or small headstones instead, but each of these represents a car accident in which someone died. I am guessing that most of them are from the last few years.
I did several experiments because I was curious. For ten minutes I would count how many of these I saw along the road side or on the median, then average that out by the speed we had been traveling to determine how frequently we passed these symbols of tragedy. In one area the average was one per mile! Thankfully, the overall average is about one every three or four miles, but still that seems incredibly high. :(
The reason this is so on my mind, other than the fact that we pass so many of these reminders, is that three weeks ago a marshrutka with 10 passengers was hit head on by a semi and all of the passengers and the driver died. The truck driver lived; it's believed he was drunk. That accident happened in the one small area where the road is not a four lane, divided highway.
There were several similar accidents last year, but thankfully not with so many fatalities. So we really do appreciate and need your prayers while we are on the road here.

This is the half-way stop on the run to Kyiv. Many of the marshrutkas and buses stop here. It's a nice little place, particularly the clean bathrooms! I don't even mind that I have to pay to use them, I'm just happy they are clean! :D But they also have a little cafe and some picnic tables.

Course Guide

Hi all, another prayer request. I need to go through and see all the ones that have been answered, so that I can let you know. :)

Mum and dad leave tomorrow to begin their journey to Kazan, Russia. I am going with them to Kyiv where we will all stop and visit my sister for her birthday. They'll go on by train to Moscow and then farther on. I'll return home to "hold down the fort".
Part of that includes finishing writing the course guide that I am working on. I had hoped to finish it by the end of the month, but I am only about half way. The last few weeks have been busy getting mum and dad ready to go and having our Canadian mission director and his wife visit us. It's been good, but not good for my course work. Please pray that I am able to finish it in record time with great quality!

Thanks.

Test Results

So, I notice that I forgot to post that I was going into Kyiv to get some tests done last week. My prayer request was that either we would find out what was wrong easily or I would come across a doctor who was actually interested in helping.
I went in on Friday just planning on a basic blood test and a glucose intolerance test. My sister, Priscilla, very kindly met me there--taking time out of her super-busy schedule to "hold my hand". Eventually we met up with a doctor and I was able to get the tests. They hasseled us a little about the glucose intolerance test, but after we met with this doctor she arranged for everything. She was definitely an answer to prayer. They didn't find anything really unusual after the basic tests (I am slightly anemic), so she ordered several other tests for me and set up an appointment for Saturday for a gastroscopy. That was to help discover why I am anemic. I hadn't planned on staying in Kyiv Friday night, but went home with my sister and came back in the next morning with them (they had a wedding to attend, sorry I couldn't make it Lyena!). Let me tell you, gastroscopies are NOT fun. :D But it could have been worse. They didn't find much unsual in that either. So now I am waiting till the end of the week to get the rest of my test results.
So, that is a praise and a prayer answer and request all wrapped up in one. :) Praise that we met up with this doctor and she really is trying to be helpful and search out the options. She has prescribed some medicines for me to take (including iron) and I would appreciate prayer that they will give me that extra boost that I need. Also that she'll know what to do after the test results come in on Friday. Thankfully, she said I can just call her for the results and don't have to go back into Kyiv for them unless she wants more tests.
Another praise is that I had the finances to do this. It cost less than $400, including the meds, but that would have been rough for me, except that I have been saving up some money every month for just such a time as this. I've never been able to save "against the future" before, and for me it was just God's provision that I have been able to and that the savings that I had from that more than covered the expenses. It was nice not to have to worry about that.

And just for fun here are a couple of pictures of the train station where I catch my marshrutkas back to Rivne when I go into Kyiv:

This is the Orthodox church that was built just outside the train station a few years ago. The marshrutka's park in the parking lot of the church, from what I can tell, but maybe it is actually the train station's parking lot.
This is the North Terminal of the central train station in Kyiv. It was redone a few years ago with this modern look. You can see all the city buses (marshrutkas) and the ones to the airport all lined up. The South Terminal is a little more traditional, I'll have to remember to get a picture of it next time I head to Kyiv.


And this is my marshrutka that I ride back and forth to Rivne and Kyiv. The company is called "Crazy Turtles" (and yes, sometimes I really think they are crazy, but turtles they are not!--we can now cover the 200 mile distance in four hours, a few years ago it took five or six), hence the turtle on the window. I prefer to use this company as they seem to be the most reliable schedule wise.
And just for fun. This is my nice, Ellie reading me a bedtime story (her bedtime, not mine). It was about trains, but I don't remember her version actually having any trains in it, as a matter of fact, it sounded remarkably like the story we had just read before it! :D

Little Journeys

The other day I had an interesting marshrutka ride.
First off, let me explain what a marchrutka is. Marshrutkas are the most common form of public transportation here in Ukraine at this moment in time. They are vans (not mini) or small buses, usually with room to seat 10-20 and standing for the same. And usually we manage to fill them to capacity. It's amazing how often there just "isn't" room for one more person to get on, but like the waters parting for Moses people are always able to make room for the person who is getting off!
Anyway, they are a jouncy bouncy form of transportation and sometimes I wonder if the whole aim of the drivers isn't to see how many people they can make fall over by the sudden stopping and starting. That said, they are generally quick and I am grateful for them because I remember when there was no such transportation and it meant a lot more walking and a lot longer waits!
In the past people also used to be much more polite on public transportation and would generally stand up for small children, pregnant women and elderly people. Now geeeeeennnnerally, people will stand up for pregnant women and people with very small children/infants, but the elderly are really getting shafted! :( People also used to get up for you if you were particularly heavy laden or they would offer to hold your bags on their lap (I was more than once the surprised recipient of bags on my lap!), but this has gone the way of most of the courtesies.
Back to the point...I had gone grocery shopping and was well loaded down (probably 12-15kg, which isn't a lot over a short distance, but try hanging on in a marshrutka...). I had to wait for my marshrutka for several minutes because there is only one from that area that goes to my area of town. By the time it came, my arms were tired and I was hoping for a seat, even though I knew that it was a slim chance. Didn't get one, but the lady I stood in front of offered to hold my most heavy bag on her lap! I was SO grateful.
So we go jerkily along and about halfway to my stop we stop and this man gets up to go out, but doesn't move, just stand there and stands there. I realized that he was having trouble getting his wallet out of his pocket and that he was drunk. I don't think he ever did get his wallet out, but the driver let him off without paying after waiting for several minutes for him to try to get it out.
The lady who held my bag ended up getting off at my stop and was very kind as to forge the path before me to the door (it can be quite a challenge, more than once I've felt like I was going to lose a limb squeezing through people), and even waited and made sure that I got off all right!
I was so grateful to God for that woman. She made my day, and several days since then. She was so kind I wondered if she was a Christian. In any case I know that God used her to bless me and remind me that He is still looking out for me. Praise Him!

What I did last weekend...

I can't remember. I think I'm still recuperating. Let's see...
Friday I stayed up till all hours trying to get ready to go to my sister's and finish sewing my niece's birthday gift (I'll post a pic later--it was a dress).
Saturday I left at the crack of dawn (defined as 6:30am) to go to Kyiv on the "bus". It is a four hour drive, usually they play really nasty movies, but this time I got to sit in the front seat which was great! In Kyiv I switched to a different "bus" at a different bus station and traveled for another hour and half to Rzhshiv (pronounced Rizhishiv--if you can!) where my sister and her family live. I managed to make it there before 2pm and spent the rest of the day hanging out with their family and some friends.
We celebrated Marie's (my niece) birthday on Sunday. It was her tenth which is a special celebration in our fam. They had a huge party and it was a blast to be there and see people that I haven't seen for five years or more! The church there meets in the evening and it was good to again been in a house church and fellowship with the believers there.
Priscilla and I returned to Kyiv on Monday, both of us with appointments for our teeth. Hers went rather quicker than mine since I ended up having a root canal. It went very well. They told me I might be in pain today or over the next week or so, but so far it is all good, which is a blessing! It was good to find a dentist that I feel I can trust to do good quality work on me. I'll have to return in a couple of weeks to get a permanent filling and to find out what they can do for my TMJ. Pris left me at the dentist's and when I was done there I returned to Rivne and was home in bed before midnight!

It is so odd, here I don't really mind the time spent in travel. It takes me about eight hours to get to my sister's from here, but I don't really think that much about it or find it that big of a deal. So different from in the States where I hated having to drive for more than a half hour anywhere, even fifteen minutes was a stretch sometimes!

Airports

I am sitting on the floor in JFK (New York) airport. The only outlets are not close to any seating, so the floor is my best option. Actually I was hooked up in a good spot, but my internet connection was lousy there, so I moved. Thankfully this gate is rather empty so I don't have a lot of competition.
I have five hours here so I am going to hang out and play some World of Warcraft. :D My brother introduced me to it and now I am sooooo hooked! I think one of the reasons I like it a lot though is that I can meet up with my bros online and we can all play together. I don't know how that'll work in Ukraine, but hopefully we'll be able to work something out there too.
Back to traveling. I flew out of Minneapolis this morning (thank you Steve and Sue for dropping me off!) at 7am. I was able to check my bags without a problem even though they were both just over their top limits. It probably helped that the lady was hopping busy! :)
I leave JFK for Kyiv this afternoon at 4:30ish (NY time) and will get in to Kyiv tomorrow morning at 9am Kyiv time. From there my sister and brother-in-law are picking me up and we'll all drive out to my parents in Rivne (4-5 hour drive).
Please continue to pray for the rest of my journey, for safety and no hassles. Also for the reminder of the bags that I shipped to arrive without any problems and for me to find a good apt.

Home sweet home! Well, more or less. I made it to Sam and Melissa's today. Finally! It's wonderful to be here. Odd, I'm such a home body and yet when I am on the road I enjoy that too. I guess, I get worn out from traveling and eventually need some time alone, but I do love spending time with people!
I've met old friends and new ones. I just want to say, "Thank you!" to everyone who put me up on this trip. I had such limited time, I would have loved to stay in BC and Calgary much longer. Perhaps next time...
I'm going to download some pictures from my camera later and I'll try to post them a bit later. Or now:

This one is from the prairies, has the moon in it, but you can hardly see it. It is just above the trees.








And this one is from the mountains (in case you couldn't figure that out :D ). Alberta side, not BC, that's the next one.








I wish I had more and better pictures, but these are what I have for the moment. It was incredibly beautiful!!!
Can't wait to see the coast.

Journey's Start

Wow, I feel like I haven't posted on here forever! This week just kinda got away from me and today I am already beginning my travels, so posting will be even less frequent in the next couple of weeks (I think I need to tie a string around my finger to remember when I'm this busy! ;) ).
On the upside, I've gotten a lot done and most of my plans are set for my travels. Still trying to take care of a few last minute details, but...
Anyway, I'm busting out of this place in about an hour to head over to Wisconsin (I know, WI is not in the general direction of Oregon. Let's just say I'm taking the scenic route.).
Well, Tchau for now, hopefully I'll catch up with ya'll on Friday!
Oh, PS Could you please pray that I'll sleep well at night? It's been rough going lately! And of course for safety on the road.

Updates, updates

So, I made the exciting discovery that I can fly from Oregon to Ohio for $200 cheaper than driving! I would be so thrilled if that works out. Not only that I might get a little more for my car in Oregon. So that would be very exciting for me. It would cut out three full days of driving all by myself and staying in hotels all by myself. And save money! :D How much better does it get?

Oh ya, and the shipping company that I am going to use will only be charging $.69/lb rather than $.99/lb, which saves me another $100. So the last few days have been pretty good.

If you think of me, do pray that I'll be able to sell my few items here (and primarily the car) as well as be able to finish packing up and take care of details before I start driving on June 29th.

Three more weeks...

Three more weeks till I hit the road! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Okay, to clarify: three weeks until I begin traveling in the States and Canada. I don't actually fly out to Ukraine until August 12. BUT I still have to have everything packed up before I leave in three weeks.
I wish you could see my poor house right now. I already have five suitcases packed and sitting ready in my bedroom. Then the rest of my things that I need to pack up before I leave are spread out over half of our second living room. My roommates are very patient. :)
My poor room is in shambles because of the packing. I have tried to leave as much intact as possible, but I have a feeling that most everything interesting will be coming down and out today and tomorrow.

The GOOD NEWS is that I finally found a shipping company (MEEST) which ships for only $1 USD/lb., plus a $10 delivery fee in Ukraine. I am quite excited about that! that is literally 1/2 to 1/3 of what all the other companies were quoting me! The funny thing is that I will probably have about 9 suitcases when I am finished packing, and that is the total sum of all my worldly possessions. To me it still feels like a lot, but I know that comparatively speaking it really isn't that much.

Home again, home again...

The trip from Ukraine to Minnesota went really well, once I got on the train I had a panic attack because I realized I hadn’t packed my air ticket. :P Thankfully I knew that I had printed it out and then I remembered that I had picked up this paper with some receipts form my India trip and stuffed them in my suitcase and so I checked it out right away and it was my ticket! Phew. So then I went to sleep right away and slept until we got into Kyiv basically. Once I dropped my stuff off at the kamera (baggage storage) I popped in McD’s for bathroom, drinks and a cheeseburger (which I really wasn’t hungry for, but it was the principle of the thing, and I was really glad for it later). I had checked the time for when the Polit buses leave to the airport and there as one at 7:55 and one at 8:15, so I planned on going on one of those.

It actually only took me about 20 minutes from the train station to the Consolariat, but of course that wasn’t from the train platform. Got the invitation for my visa no problems and went back off to the train station. There was a polit but that was leaving in 15 minutes, so I reserved my spot and to the driver’s dismay (he didn’t think I would make it back in time) ran off to get my stuff. I made it back without any problems and so was off to the airport at 7:20! I was able to check in right away and then I just hung out on my computer for a few hours. J My plane was half an hour late, but we arrived in NY just fine and boy is JFK a mess! I think they’ve changed the layout of it and now you have to go through security another time and it basically just means more lines and more confusion. On the other hand the people are very helpful!

Anyway, I had to change terminals, but I was able to check my baggage right away and then I was able to walk over to the other terminal, which was nice because it was warm and of course it felt good to walk. My second flight was late taking off because of a traffic jam on the airstrip. :P But we ended up arriving on time anyway. I only slept for a couple of hours on my second flight and not at all on my first one, so I wasn’t feeling to good by the time I made it back, but that was ok. My friend Shannon and her husband, Greg, met me at the airport and took me home, where I was met by two of my roommates (I now have three, I just can’t keep up with all these things). It was great to see them again and be back with my stuff. It is absolutely amazing how much a person can live without and barely miss!

Home again, home again...

Well, made it back safe and sound to MN. I'll post a lovely update of my trip when I can, but for now, just wanted to let all my loyal readers know that I made it back safe and sound. For the amount of travel and time change, I am doing quite well. I think I'll make it until ten or so tonight. I was going to play Sims 2 with Becky all day, but we ended up grocery shopping and hanging out instead. Not exactly a rough day. I must say though that I do enjoy having proper chapstick again!