Leningrad

We are in St. Petersburg! We had a wonderful last day in Moscow. It was sunny and beautiful. We left first thing in the morning from our apartment and stood in line for an hour to see Lenin. James said to tell you that we did see him, but he was asleep so we had to be really quiet and couldn't take any pictures. What I didn't know is that behind Lenin's tomb, there are the graves of all the other founders of the Communist party in Russia. It was a somber and thoughtful tour for us, made richer by my Russian history classes at UAA. Red square itself was closed, we could only walk around the periphery. Anyway, I'll have to be less detailed or I'll never get to St. Petersburg. Next we ate delicious meat wraps called "Shaurma," walked down Arbat street, visited an overwhelmingly massive CD and DVD market, called all our Muscovite friends to say goodbye, took our suitcases to the train station, walked across the river to Red square (where James captured some gorgeous photos), heard the clock tower strike midnight, and made it to the train station just in time take the 1 am train to St. Petersburg.

I felt so blessed. God allowed us to have a special time in the city I called home; He gave James a good picture of my life and work here; and He blessed us with new shared memories to keep forever.

Our train trip to St. Petersburg was nearly uneventful. We slept on the top bunks of a four person coupe. The couple beneath us allowed us to stow our (now much heavier) bags underneath their beds. They seemed terrified of speaking with us there and soon went to sleep. I love sleeping on a train. 1. The train movement is soothing and 2. the ride is not boring and 3. you don't have to pay for a hotel and transportation, they are both in one. However, for some reason, maybe the heat, maybe sleeping in my clothes, I kept waking up and the sore muscles I had accumulated from the day before didn't heal completely.

We were greeted at the train station by a friendly representative of our Bed and Breakfast. We were tired, smelly, and rumpled and happy to be heading to a place we could relax in. On the way to the car, James started trying to find his passport. He searched he bag and his pockets, but couldn't see it. Our foggy brains started clearing immediately. This was a problem. Our driver took me and the baggage to the car, where I repeatedly searched our hand luggage, while James went back to the traincar to search and solicit help from the conductress. They came back a half hour later with nothing. We drove to the hotel, somberly realizing that we would have to have a new passport, new visa, and new registration issued in a weekend. It couldn't possibly happen. We arrived at the hotel, James pulled out his carry-on, opened the flap, and realized that he had put his passport in the same hidden compartment he always had (while I had searched his bag three times). We thanked God, laughed sheepishly, and put both our passports into the perfect hiding space.


Our bed and breakfast is an ancient building with ceilings even higher than Stalin era ones, pastel painted walls, and quaint antique artifacts sprinkled liberally throughout our room and the reception area. Our room is yellow and green. After showering and changing, we walked our aching bodies over to the Hermitage, practically next door. We spend a beautiful afternoon inside one of the largest and most extensive museums in the world. We were by turns overwhelmed and amazed at the incredible numbers of rooms filled with incredible numbers of gorgeous pieces of art. Many were extremely famous. We saw works by Da Vinci, Renoir, Michelangelo, Rodin, Picasso, Rembrant, and on and on. After four and a half hours, we reluctantly left the beautiful palace and went back to our Bed and Breakfast for an obligatory nap. We woke three hours later and headed out to see the beautiful city of White nights.

After dinner at an extremely authentic Greek restaurant, we enjoyed a stroll down various canals, turning corners to find lovely palaces, elegant memorials, or historic churchs. We walked until 11:30 and the light never faded, nor did the clusters of tourists walking in noisy little groups down the sidewalk. We stopped to listen to a man playing Moonlight Sonata and Bach on his accordion. St. Petersburg is classic.

-Andrea

Mama had a baby and his legs fell off

It is 11 o'clock Wednesday evening, July 5th, and all is well in Moscow, Russia.

Yesterday was the fourth of July here in Moscow. To celebrate the ocassion we did the one thing any clear thinking American patriot would do. We, took a stroll through the Kremlin, of course. It was not planned in anyway. We had merely planned to meet with Andrea's old friend Sylvia, but as a surprise she meet us and took us straight to the Kremlin gate, and started giving us tons of tour guide information almost instantly, as we passed over the old draw bridge and under the great red walls of the center of Russian power. We were dazzled by all the history that surrounded us inside, walking under the window where Lenin had his private office, passing down walkways once occupied by Stalin, the Romanovs, Ivan the Terrible, Rasputin. Just being an American allowed into the Kremlin is a huge privilage, and a great repesentation of the peace and trust between our countries. We even were allowed into "guided tour only" Armory Palace, where all the oldest and grandest historical items are stored and displayed. There were amazing robes and crowns and carriages and magifacent vases and dishes. Also there was a lot of orthodox history in the Kremlin walls, cathedrals and the temple were the czars were coranated, and then later burried. It was a lot of fun. Andrea really enjoyed visiting with her old friend again and was happy to find that she was very well and energetic. It was a very good day.

The rest of the day was spent getting lost looking for a restraunt that no longer existed, and walking about eight more miles before the sun set. This was a big deal for us because our legs already hurt so much from walking that we nearly didn't make it through the Kremlin without collapsing. When we got home at around midnight we felt like toast. We slept till about 9:30 when we woke up feeling like more toast, this time covered in marmalade, and dipped in cocoa.

Regardless of how we felt today went great. First on our adgenda was to go make sure that Lenin was still dead. I just don't think I could sleep at night if I wasn't sure. I guess it's important for a lot of people because Russia has conveniently placed his body on display in the main town center and large lines of people wait daily for a chance to go see him everyday. But for some reason Red Square (named after it's distinctive color and shape) was closed off this morning, and they were not letting anyone go visit his masoleum anymore. Maybe Lenin had decided to take the day off and go to McDonalds with his family or something. We plan to go tomorrow morning if everthing goes well. I don't think I will be able to take a picture, but I'll be sure to tell you how he is doing.

After being denied entry into Red Square we went up to the university of Moscow were we could look over the city and attempt some pictures. Sadly there were a lot of trees and olympic ski jumps blocking most of the good views, but we had a good time experiencing a different part of the city.

We meet with Yuri this afternoon. Yuri is a good friend of Andrea's and is a very devoted evangelist here in the city. He is now living in a suburb of Moscow and took us to see his wonderful family, and see the house that he is building for them. He has a wonderful attitude and his wife Katya was pregnant with their third child, full of smiles and joy, and made us a very tasty meal, in that order. Their two children Mila and David were adorable. Mila is about five and became a good friend after she got over her intial shyness, which had her climbing behind her dad's back when we first arrived. I think the Piglet pezz dispenser helped break the ice. It's always fun listening to little Russian kids, who are that age, talk in Russian. However, it's frustrating to not understand them and know that we have been studying Russian for a lot longer than they have.

Mainly the only highlight of the trip home from Yuri and Katya's was went I nearly got arrested, or shot, or fined, or deported, or launched into space, I didn't completely understand. I was taking a rather lame picture of the above ground metro line when a man in a blue uniform came up and starting telling me something about how I was his least favorite person on the planet and he wanted to beat me up. At least that's what his tone of voice said, I have no idea what he was really saying because I was too startled to pay attention. We showed him my passport and explained to him that we were tourists (making sure to say the word correctly, as it can sometime sound a lot like terrorists) . He didn't trust me a whole lot, and I don't blame him. Who takes pictures of dumb trains? I just have a bad habit of taking lots of really bad random pictures I guess. I then had to take out my camera and show him all the pictures I had taken that day, and rather embarrassingly explain them. "Here I am with a little girl in goggles." "This is me with some flowers in my pocket." "Here's a picture I took of some wire I thought looked cool on the ground." I think he got the point and wasn't too impressed with my vacation photos, because he quickly waved us away a short while into my slideshow. I'm glad he didn't let me keep going though because the picture of the metro rail was the last picture I needed to completely fill my 1 gig camera card.

Tomorrow night we leave for St. Petersburg. It will be an exciting couple of days to finalize our trip. We are staying at a bed and breakfast in the center of town and plan to visit with the church in Lomonosov on Sunday. This being the congregation that I would have been living and working with for two years had God not had other plans and sent me to Ukraine. It should be interesting.

-James

Shag za Shagum - Step by Step

Happy 4th of July! It is at least here, although it isn't any sort of holiday. We did see an advertisement in the metro with a picture of Uncle Sam and a notice for meeting on July 4th discussing a "Day of Independence from American Money." It sounded slightly sinister.

We have had a very full and blessed time in Moscow, although I can't help feeling that the time is slipping through our fingers. Every day I'm here I remember some place else I want to see, someone else I want to track down and visit. But we do so much in one day that we ache from exhaustion every night, and we promise ourselves not to push ourselves the next time, but we do anyway.

Monday, we tramped down to the center with Dougal and Lucy, Rob and Denyce, and Mike Soto to register our visas. The four men commandeered the map, and the women trailed behind discussing babies, husbands, and memories. I like being with Lucy and Denyce. They are both relaxed and fun and share so many interests with me that conversation are never boring. It was one of my favorite kinds of days in Moscow. The sun was bright but not smothering, the lovely old buildings painted pastel pinks, greens, and yellows with their faded white trim reflected the optimism of a lovely summer morning. The trees shaded our walk, and each new corner revealed new vistas and some surprises. We found the visa agency and climbed to the third story. The four ladies in the tiny room seemed overwhelmed by the 8 1/2 of us and shooed us away to the street bellow to wait for them to stamp and verify our time spent in Moscow as tourists. Then we walked down to Tverskaya, a wide boulevard of city activity where we said good-bye to the other six 1/2 and walked back to Arbat.

Old Arbat is a cobblestone walking street filled with sellers of souvenirs, artists painting portraits, and musicians performing for kopecks. We ambled down the street as we collected things to take home to loved ones, admired pictures, and enjoyed classical guitar music. Arbat was always one of my favorite places to go.

We met Nelly at 6: 30 in a Massive mall next to the Kurskaya train and metro stations. We ate blini with berries and sweet cream and sipped tea in the food court while we caught up on life since we've been apart. It was so nice to be able to reignite our friendship and bring James into the memories we had of old times and old conversations. I'm so thankful that God allowed our meeting to remind me more poignantly of people that I was able to touch here. She is not a Christian yet, but I believe this visit might have encouraged her to continue seeking for what is missing in her life.

We decided to go home after that, feeling like we were heading in early, but a glance at our watches showed that we would be getting home at 10. It's funny how the late evening sun is throwing even us Alaskans off! James bought me a lovely rose on the way home, and we created an impromptu vase out of a Fanta bottle. It's interesting how I feel like I belong here and then I don't at the same time. At least I always feel like I belong with James, and I know we'll be fine anywhere God takes us.

-Andrea

The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse

I want to write something quick while I have a chance, but I'm afraid there is no way I will be able to even hint at all the adventures we have been on since last we posted.

I will begin by saying that we have arrived safely in Moscow, no thanks to Ukrainian customs that tried to keep us prisoners in their border, a Yak-42 passenger plane which I felt positive was going to fall apart in the sky (Especially since it started smoking on take-off...), and a lack of contact information for our friends in Moscow which left us wandering the metro dragging green and purple "Look I'm a stupid American" suitcases for the better part of our first day. However, our safe arrival is due entirely to Great friends in Mariupol that saw us off with wonderful hugs and good wishes, Alan Burow, my long time companion and friend, who rode with us all the way to Donetsk and then waited for us to get through security even though we were so focused we forgot to wave goodbye (sorry Alan, we love you!), and a team of American friends that waited an hour and a half at the metro waiting to receive us like a fragile delicate baton, lifting our bags and taking us to the apartment we sleep in tonight. In all of this we can not go with out mentioning how obviousit is that God is at work in our trip. Our safety and strength is directly from Him and there is no doubt of that fact. We thank you all for your continued prayers.

Today was Sunday. We made contact with the congregation Andrea used to work among. There were many smiling faces and hugs, and seriously our afternoon with them (12:00-4:00) really deserves it's own post. There were a lot of mixed emotions involved, but it was a wonderful time overall.

After this we were pulled into going to the apartment of one of Andrea's old acquaintances named Vika. We sat and talked with her for maybe two hours about her "illness" and how the government keeps trying to force her to stay in a "hospital" and how she doesn't want to take her medication because she's trying to write a novel and her "illness" helps her to write, and how she has a really cool friend who hears voices telling her to kill people. It was pleasant. I didn't take any pictures for fear that the flash might startle her.

Our feet are tired. If we had been walking in place this whole time we would be nearly buried by now. Our legs ache. Our backs are sore. Our poor brains are fried in every language. At this time Andrea and I communicate mostly by grunts and whistles. Our pockets are emptying quickly, and time is running out. But we are absolutely having the time of our lives, and loving every single second. It's beautiful.

-James