And unfortunately, I had no camera...

My dad and I had a Fantastic time yesterday! We went to this pretty interesting... "festival" I guess you could call it. July 21 is the day that this water in a Russian village is blessed and holy, so people come from miles around to collect it.

It was in my dad's assistant/translator's hometown. Just some back ground on her family: Her father was able to acquire some land during perestroika (the Gorbochov reconstruction era where they basically gave away land as initiative for people to become private farmers), so they have a lot of land and a pretty nice house for Russia. Of course like 16 people live there!

I think the story of the water is something like Maria the mother of Jesus was also the protector and she appeared at different times to protect stuff and if there was a spring there it became holy, so July 21 was the day that she maybe appeared at this spring and so on this date everyone comes to collect its water. Genia's family is actually Protestant, so they didn't think too much of these people coming to their little village... and yes it very much is a village in the strictest sense. There's like 1 road with houses and every body knows everyone and is a farmer. Everyone in Genia's family asked if we had been there and the made a comment on how ridicules the whole thing is :-P

We walked through the hills (Genia said this part of the region is called "Little Switzerland" because of all the hills) to the spring. The spring was at the bottom of a valley, so as we were walking down the hills through the wild grass and wild flowers, I could see others coming from other parts of the hills. It was seriously like a scene from a movie, where there are pilgrims as far as the eye could see. At the bottom of the hill was a little little little shrine on top of a big pile of rocks. There were stairs going up both sides of the rocks leading up to the shrine, so the water was kind of surrounded by a half circle. The shrine had a tile portrait of Our Lady of Kazan and under that was a big pipe with water flowing out and under the spout a Huge crowd of people were in their bathing suites holding buckets and jugs of water. Genia said we'd also see pieces of cloth on the trees because the old pagan religion taught that if you cut a piece of clothing and hung it on a tree you could make a wish. Syncratism. We stood on both sides of that stairs and watched it. I was so sad I didn't have my camera! This was a sight like you'd see in National Geographic! Genia said that as it got later it would be more and more young people, sitting in the hill with "bonfires and guitars and things like that." If only my RSP comrades had been there. I was seriously missing them at that point.

After hanging out there for a while, we went back to Genia's for Russian pirogie (pastry pies) :-D Her babyshka made them. I'm going to miss that about Russia! When we were living in the Russian dorm, sometimes the Russian kids would give us food their babyshkas had made. Oh yum. It was Genia's cousin's 9th birthday, so we brought her a present too.

So the rest of this week will be going to Moscow today (Sunday), and the US on Wednesday!

PS. I had no camera :-( So all these pictures are from other random places on the internet.

Life, Death, and when Amy doesn't know what to do

I had a Russian lesson this morning, and about an hour into it, Marina was reading my homework and suddenly asked for a glass of water. Now I offer her a drink every time she comes and she has never wanted anything. Her face got really pale all of a sudden. I got her the water and she sipped it and tried to go on, but it was like she couldn't focus.

She said she needed to go outside for a minute to get some air. She opened the door and leaned on the door frame. I was just really scared, because her English isn't that good and if there was something wrong I didn't think she could think to remember any and my Russian's not too amazing, so I followed her out and asked if she needed any medicine.

She didn't say anything and kept fanning herself, and just stood there, like plastered to the wall and then all of a sudden she started falling! I caught her, but she's not a light woman, so we both ended up the floor and my foot was stuck underneath her (and now I have a bruise, but that's really not the point right now. I only tell you this because it's the only thing that really is indicating to me that this really happened).

I HAD NO IDEA WHAT TO DO!!!

Her face was completely white and she wasn't conscious, but her eyes were open. I was just like "oh God, oh God" and after a few seconds she felt like she could sit up and I dashed back inside to get my phone to call my dad. I went back to her and held her sitting up, and was just like, I don't know, trying to fan her and wipe her face with her handkerchief. She said something about calling Artoom, her son, and that there was no need to bother my dad. I got her phone for her and helped her back to the table. She called Artoom, talked to him, and then hung up, but she just had this distressed unfocused look on her face. I asked if Artoom was coming and she said, yes, but their car is in the shop and he'd be coming by bus.

She tried to continue the lesson, but really couldn't focus so I told her she could lie down on the sofa. I helped her over there and she opened the book we were using and just told me to read and answer questions. So I did, but by this point I seriously was on the verge of crying. I had no idea what to do. I read a little bit and then she suggested we go for a walk to the front gate to let the guards know Artoom was coming. I helped her up and we went and I held on to her the whole time. I think that was good, because she seemed a little better when we got back and Artoom came soon. But this is the weird thing that made me the most... I don't know... anxious? NO One seemed to care that she had fainted!!! Artoom came and brought her some medicine and then she sat on the sofa and had him finish my lesson. I could hardly think! Then they left because Marina had to proctor an exam at her university. As they were leaving Nina came and Marina just kind of laughed and told her what happened and I tried to tell Artoom to really be careful with her. And he just laughed and was like "Oh yes I always take care of my mama!"

I was just like WTF? And I didn't know how to communicate it to anyone. And it's not like she seemed that much better when she was leaving, she still had that kind of panicky look on her face. After they left I was just really frustrated and took Xiao Mei for a walk and then fell asleep. I have no idea what it was. I thought she was having a stroke or a heart attack. She said that it was the first time anything like that's ever happened to her. I've calmed down now, but after they left I just started crying. I don't know what happened or what I was supposed to do, and now it's like it never happened, except that my foot's all purple.

Так. Россия очень странно

A New Purse and a Holiday in Spain

Today I had a 2 hour lesson with Marina. She told me sentences in English and I translated them into written Russian. It was kind of interesting, because I kind of needed to translate her English into English and then into Russian :-P

She just got back from Spain, where she told me that all the fashionable girls had matching headbands and purses. So when she got back the knitted (crotched?) a set for me. Aw.

Frustration and Transformers

Yesterday was very russian-frustrating. On the way to church, I kept missing buses and getting lost and ended up being late. And it was freaking jharka so I was kind of gross by the time I finally got there. After church, Maggie and I wanted to go see Transformers because Oktybr on Novy Arbat is showing it pa-anglessky. We got a little lost and ended up by the Moscow Zoo and were like 10 mins late which, in the States, is No Big Deal. I was finally able to communicate to the ticket lady that yes I did want tickets for the show that already started, so the gave us them and also a map in English for getting to the Zal 11, which was all around the other side of the bulding. We found a bunch of doors but they were All zamok-ed, so we went back and finally got to talk to the administator who had someone go unlock the door for us. So the English theater has about 30 seats and you def feel like a leaper or something because the whole kinothear complex is really big and nice, but they put us Anglessy ludy in the poor back closet. After the movie, which wasn't too hard to figure out dispute being 20 mins late, we went to dinner which was good, but then we had a long way to go home with lots of metro transfers and I had to take a bus I'm not used to taking and got hit on by a hair styler named Misha and his Modolvian friend. Tak.

In other news...I have to take a Russian placement test when I get back, and I just found out that on a section of it, I need to translate English to Russian. I'm so bad at that. Russian to English is fine, cuz I just make it make sense, but I don't understand word order in Russian... cuz there isn't really any, but it matters a little bit, I just can't figure out when...

I woke up at 6:30am to the sound of Christiney calling. We talked for a long time and then I called my mom and ate breakfast and my dad called so I talked to him too and took a shower AND THEN I made the mistake of getting back in bed to read Brothers Karamazov... I later regained consciousness at about 11am. I've spent the rest of the day reading or talking online. I think I'm needing a facebook fast for like a month... Maggie's coming over tonight :-) And I go to Novo Wednesday and the next Wednesday back to MeiGuo!

70's Jesus Songs

One of the things I've been doing this summer is playing guitar. I actually think I've gotten worse though since I was about 17 :-P Anyway my mom has all these worship songbooks from the 70's, before a lot of Christian songs were written. Therefore, they include some favorites such as, "We Will Overcome," "Bridge Over Troubled Water," and "Puff the Magic Dragon."

My favorite are in the section entitled "Songs to Scare Adults."
Here's a sameple from a classic that was given the title "Maybe for Teenage Christians," by the Dept. of Education Church of Scotland

If you're looking for an answer, If you're
looking for a way, If you're looking for a
formula to tell you what to say, If you're
looking for an exit or lesson how to pray,

then there's nothing for you here, You'd
better go, You'd better go.

If you're looking for a heaven, Like a
fairy painting scene, With battlements in
Omowhite and pearily gates all clean, If you
shrink from all the dirt and sex and sin you've ever seen,

then there's nothing for you here, You'd
better go, You'd better go.

If you think church if cozy And a
nice place to belong, If you don't want to go
marching or to sing a rebel song, If you're
scared to let your hair down or ashamed to wear it long,

then there's nothing for you here, You'd
better go, You'd better go.

:-)


And here's one called "Jesus, White Boy"

Jesus, White Boy, holding out your hand,
Can you ever really understand?
If I can't shake your hand, it isn't right;
I'm too black and you're too lily white.

Black is what men used to label dirt;
The expect us all to be unhurt.
If you love us all, as we have heard,
You've got to find another word.

Sin is black and night evil too;
Jesus, White Boy, what are we to do?
If I take your white hand with my black,
Will you help me up, or hold me back?

Dream... Are you a dreamer?

Cincinnati->Minneapolis->Amsterdam and now I'm

back in the 'scow! I didn't sleep at all on the flights over so I had been awake for like 30 hours by the time I finally went to bed last night at 7:30pm. I think I remembered what was said in all conversations post-sleep... But, man, I felt so crappy when I got home yesterday. I think I ate something funky on one of the planes, or maybe it was the 6 cups of coffee. Gross.

Thoughts while in Amsterdam:
I feel like writing a lot more when I'm flying places. Maybe I get inspired by the people-watching, ransom assortments of airport archetecture, or overhearing people with funky accents give their opinions on how my country should operate. Maybe it's the fact that I'm half-aleep, eyes glazing over and mind racing trying to process the the 3 emotionally driven movies I just watched. I kind of wish I could have a smoke right now. After all, I'm in Amsterdam. I fell in love on my last flight. Twice. I fell in love twice on my last trans-Atlantic flight, too. I choose movies like that on purpose, I think, because it helps me pass the time, and remember that I'm a girl and that there are a million types of guys to fall in love with out there- that I am young and the world is big and exciting. I'm staring at my cafe au lait steam in the early Amsterdam sunrise. The mournful sounds of jazz come floating into my ears and the sun is in my eyes. My flight leaves in two hours and I am falling asleep. I want to learn to do so many things, and to go so many places, but this summer has taught me one thing- I don't want to do it alone. Oh look at the time- 7:16am. Maybe in an hour I'll think about thinking about going to find my gate. They're so complicated in this airport with gates and security.

I want to paint. I have a vision of a swimming blue sky with golden stars that needs to find its way to a canvas asap. I want to be very creative in decorating my house this fall. I want to really get to know my friends. I want to keep writing to the RSP kids and to really pray this year. I want to do my homework and really learn. Sometime soon I want to learn how to shoot a gun, to skateboard, to find a way to dance, to make things beautiful, to keep reading for fun, to learn to cook better, to keep track of my expenses, to really be a friend to everyone, to love even though it hurts, to be optimistic, to make a mistake and learn from it, to be a better Christ-follower, and to let Him take control of all of me.

7:20am. What to do, what to do? How gross my teeth feel now.

Back to today.
I had the most wonderful suprise right as I was going to attempt to take my second Historic test online at 7pm last night. I had an email that said it would be posted another day! So I promptly put myself to bed and proceeded to sleep for like 10 hours :-)

I'm going to the Soup Kitchen today and then going to attempt to straighten the house that I've managed to put into a state of disaray after only being here a few hours. And take my Historic test.

Well I'm flying to Russia today

My time in the US has been ok... and Russia will be fine, and then I'll come back to the states that that will be good, and going back to Taylor will be wonderful. We went to Kings Island yesterday and rode rollar coasters (hm maybe thats why my neck is sore this morning...). I'm too tired to think of whatever to say. I'll have about 5 days before my dad comes to the'scow, so I'll probably write more then. Until then, I'll be studying like crazy for Historic as I cross the Atlantic...