Recap

Here are my journal entries for the last four days:

29.08.07 (written 30.08.07): Arrived in Russia a few minutes late (about 5). On plane from Warsaw the woman sitting next to me was a Russian who has lived in England for 25 years; talked to her for a lot of the trip and when we arrived in Russia. My bags were some of the first to come off, though I didn’t realize it for several minutes, so I packed them up and went to wait for the driver. Waited probably 20-30 minutes and was getting worried but then he turned up (standing right behind me). The driver’s name was Vladimir, who also seems to be a repair guy for Language Link (when we got to the apartment he fixed Doug’s bed). There was a lot of traffic on the way to the apartment but Vladimir and I talked a good deal. It started to rain but not too bad and there was a rainbow (радуга). Vladimir was quite pleased as it was a complete rainbow and not just partial (there turned out to be two right next to each other, the second one slowly appearing). He was so busy looking at it that we almost rear ended another car; had I not said “whoa” there would have been an авария. When we arrived at the apartment I met my apartment mate Doug who turned out to be from Rockford and had gone to IMSA. I spent most of the night talking to Doug and later unpacking. Hopefully I won’t be moving as I unpacked most everything and don’t know how I would be able to fit it all back.

30.08.07: Woke up about 7:30 local time and fixed some tea and ate some cookies. I looked up the local churches (there are two within close proximity of my apartment) and stopped by one on the way to the metro. I met a Language Link representative at the metro by the main offices about 11:30 and had a tour of the 3 separate offices they occupy. Afterwards I had a bite to eat on the street and headed home.

31.08.07: After lying in bed for at least an 45 minutes last night I finally drifted off to sleep (I have to get used to all the traffic right outside the window). I spent all day at home waiting for a representative from the internet company to call...who it turns out got my roommate’s cell phone number somehow... So now I will have a certain amount of access in my apartment (we don’t have a router so can only use one computer at a time; they also said there was a charge for having 2 computers connected which doesn’t make sense). I was able to get in touch with someone I met on an internet forum for “Young Rus”, an Orthodox young persons group, so I met with him this evening and met 4 other members. We met at one of the ubiquitous St. Nicholas’ which is located across the river from the Kremlin. We had some tea and cookies and I was asked many questions which I tried my hardest to answer coherently. The spiritual director of the group, Igumen Ioasaph, was there so he let us up to the bell tower of the church, which also houses a bell-ringer’s school, for some views of downtown. Igumen Ioasaph wanted to take the oppourtunity to have an international tournament of badminton so we played a few rounds (will provide pictures once I get them). With two of the members I walked around a bit downtown; we were going to walk on Red Square but it was closed off for the celebration tomorrow of “Day of Moscow” (the anniversary of Moscow’s founding, 860 years).


1.09.07: Spent the morning lolly-gagging around the apt. waiting to go by a mobile phone. To be able to get a SIM card for a mobile phone one needs have a registered passport which I don’t at this time so my roommate went with me. The nice thing about mobiles here is that one can buy any phone anywhere and then buy a SIM card anywhere else and buy cards which have money amounts anywhere else. In other words, the phone is separate from the provider. If one doesn’t like a certain phone company then one can simple buy a different SIM card. Calls and texts are a certain amount of rubles (for me it seems that texts are 11 rubles and calls are between 1.65 and 2.99 rubles a minute). This afternoon I met a few people to go to St Nicholas Ugreshki monastery which is in a town right outside of Moscow. It has the largest church in Moscow district next to Christ the Saviour. We walked some around the grounds and then attended the last part of Vespers and Matins.

Tiny Salt: a gift from the Poles:


The airport where I arrived:


My welcome kit:


My apartment:




Sobor of St. Nikolaj Ugreshki monastery:


One of the monastery cats: