post from eastern europe...

I have arrived! After a very long 24-hour period of travel, at 4 airports and on 3 flights, I made my way to Minsk. The city greeted me with green grass and blue skies filled with puffy white clouds. I was told this was the prettiest day all week. I was grateful for the warm welcome. My friends picked me up from the airport. Though exhausted, I was not yet sleepy. My adrenaline was still flowing and kept me alert for a long while. As I sat in this van, driving to the city center (tsentr gorada), talking with friends that I had not seen in a long time, watching the scenery fly by… there was still unbelief that I had arrived! The surreality of the moment has not left me, in a way. My first stop was to meet my roommate, Yulia, and have her take me to our temporary living. The apartment we are in is a 4 room flat that is furnished by an American and Australian couple in Minsk. We can stay here a little while, but it will not be our permanent arrangement. In fact, this place is much nicer than my future living. I will not have so many American appliances and furniture. For now, it is a nice way to transition to Belarussian living. The flat is on the sixth floor of an apartment building, and I am surrounded by many other buildings. I feel as though I am in a suburb of the city, since I cannot see the city’s downtown from here. Did I also mention that the building is purple?
My first night here, I went to the grocery store, their equivalent of a supermarket even though it is still small by American standards. I followed around as my roommate picked out some things to eat. I was not in a position to really know how to make decisions, so I was a lemming for the evening. Back at the flat, there were four of us and we fixed a meal that was pretty American if you asked me – a veggie stir fry. Dinner was followed by chai, of course, and some tasty cookies. Later I went with Yulia to her parents’ house, met her mom, and helped her get stuff to bring back to our place. It was late, after 11:30pm, when we finally got off the bus and came home.
The first morning here, I woke up and thought, where am I? I’m not in KY…. I’m not in AL… I’m not on a plane…. And then I remembered. Oh yea…. I’m in Belarus! …. There was joy at the thought. “The joy of the Lord is your strength.” –Neh. 8:10.
Wednesday I had to go to the university to get things organized. I met Andrei there. Yulia showed me how to navigate the bus system and the metro. Luckily, I remembered enough from last fall to know how to get to my university. Luckily I can also read signs in Russian, even if I don’t know what they mean. It took about 30 minutes to arrive at my university from this flat – 3 stops on a bus, 6 stops on the metro, switch lines, then 1 more stop on the metro. Lastly I only had to walk 2 blocks. The afternoon was really productive. At 1pm, we met up with Krista, another American girl studying at my same university. I will be in her language class, so that is a huge relief to have another American girl who can show me the ropes. Her and Andrei helped me immensely as I filled out paperwork and talked with the university officials. Andrei and I had to get on the metro and deposit my tuition in a bank. Without him, I don’t think I would have ever found this bank. Even Andrei had trouble figuring out where to go. Then we go back to the university. Then I had to get pictures taken. So we go across the street and have my picture taken. Then I get my student ID filled out and ready for approval. Then I have to request admission from the dean… I do so by writing a form letter in Russian. The woman helping me complimented me on my (Russian) handwriting…. (HAHAHA…. Are you laughing Karen???)
After this we are escorted to a different building where I have to hand in my passport and paperwork to get a multiple entry visa – hooray! In the meantime, I have a piece of paper that acts as my registration with the university while my new visa is in process and I am without a passport. It was a very productive day. Afterwards, I was famished with hunger. Andrei and I met up with Natasha at a Slavic restaurant called Lido that I had been to before. We enjoyed lunch and then they helped me buy shampoo and food at the rinock (market). It was getting late but I was not looking forward to going back to my flat – I was enjoying the company so much! - so Natasha invited me over for chai. I saw her place, and we talked for at least an hour… finally my eyes were getting tired and my body was struggling to stay awake… so I left. It was a good time to leave, at sundown, but not yet dark. I found my way on the metro and the bus back to my flat… phew! Long day!
Thursday rolled around. I was going to be by myself the whole day. I had to go to the university to pay more money for my visa and to pick up my student ID. First I had to exchange money. I went to the same place I went with Yulia the first day, but it was 9:40am… and they did not open until 10:30am. I was at a loss of what to do. I walked around the area, and found another bank… it also was not open until 10:30am. Then I walked outside for a bit. But it was raining and I was just getting wet. So I took refuge again inside the market place where the currency exchange was. I decided to wait. I knew if I got on the metro, went to my university, I would have a good chance of finding another place to exchange money nearby…. But I was too nervous…. Afraid that I would not be able to find a place. 10:30am finally rolled around… and I exchanged my money. Back to the metro…
I arrived at the university and had no problems. I even picked up my ID and started to learn my way around the building. I finished up everything by 12:30, and went home. I had the afternoon to myself, so I had some lunch, watched a movie, and did some reading. I attempted again to figure out the internet and unfortunately the computer here and my laptop are unable to connect to the internet. This is frustrating because there are many emails I need to look at and respond to. So instead I type this on my laptop and will try to send it from someone else’s computer. These are the early struggles of living here, but if internet connection is my only trouble here, than I have it good when you think about it… but I know my struggles are just about to begin. I was reminded that I need to enjoy this down time by myself, not having things to run around and do. I spent some time reading the beginning of Isaiah and journaling. I talked for an hour on the phone to my friends Andrei and Lyosha and made plans for Friday and Sunday. Then I watched Pride & Prejudice with Yulia because she loves that movie, as do I, and I had brought it with me. I got to explain some of the jokes to her… but I was immensely impressed that she could follow that fast talking British accent through the whole thing and only had to ask me about maybe 5 things.
Saturday I have no plans again, but perhaps Yulia and I will start looking for a flat together. This morning I made another big hurdle: I did the grocery shopping by myself. I opted to walk home rather than take the bus from the metro station. Then I grabbed a canvas grocery bag and my iPod and trekked the block and a half to the market. I slowly went up and down each aisle, looking at the selection. I picked up some basics: pasta, soup mixes (looks very similar to ramen), frozen veggies, some white French loaf type bread, caramel tea, cookies for the tea, yogurt made in Russia, fruit juices made in Latvia, Lays sour cream and onion potato chips, and a bottled water. I think I did pretty good considering I can’t read most of the labels yet… but I managed thanks to the occasional English and the pictures on the labels.
It is times like these that I can’t imagine what it would be like to be illiterate. It would be a huge disability. It is hard enough for me as it is. But I am learning new phrases, some because I make mistakes. I learned that Vlashna means: it is humid. But Vashna means: it is important. I also learned that Strashna means: scary. But leave out the h sound and say Strasna and it means: passionate. When I was at the university I learned that Posh-lee means: let’s go. As I read signs and consult my phrase book I pick up a few more things. I will be excited for the day that I start to dream and write in Russian. That will be a huge breakthrough for me. I am already talking in jilted English over here. I don’t know if it’s because I am trying to talk as the Belarussians talk in English so they will understand me, or if they are influencing my own way of talking… maybe it’s both. But I am dropping the articles as I talk and it’s kind of funny. (There are no articles in Russian.) I wish someone could just tape record me when I’m not paying attention…. I think even after 3 days my English would sound a lot different. Typing, however, I think is separate from speaking. For now, I feel like my writing is pretty normal. Maybe over time this blog will sound more and more like a foreigner talking… 
Now you have a nice picture of my first few days. Don’t worry: I won’t drone on about the mundanities (did I just make up a word?) of life here in every post. But now you have a picture of how things are. I was told before I came… if I accomplish 1 thing a day, I have had a good day! Things take longer to do over here, partly because of getting around by public transportation, partly because I’m a foreigner, and partly because it’s just cultural. So, I feel good to have gone to the grocery today, even if that is all. I feel REALLY good to have done almost all of my university preparations already. I will start classes on Monday. Here is one problem: the class I am joining started in July. I will be 1-2 months behind. YIKES. I may be lost, but I will work hard. This is just how things are. I was told I could come at any time, and so I thought classes would begin in September. Well… there is a new beginner class in September, but it will only last for 4-6 weeks… and then I would have no class to attend. So it is better to go ahead and join this beginner’s class now… and hope and pray to do well. The other hurdle: the teacher speaks very little English… this will be… very interesting. I know I have other classmates from Japan, Nigeria and Austria, because I met them in the offices over the past few days. We’ll see…
To be continued…

time keeps on slipping...

time feels like it just keeps on slipping away... I am on a bit of a countdown. in almost exactly 1 week, I will be beginning a new journey... heading overseas, studying Russian, meeting new people, living in a new culture... Before embarking on a trip, there is this element of surreality. Unable to grasp the pending actuality of being in a new place and seeing new things... I felt this while sitting on a plane headed to Costa Rica back in 2000. It was one of my first international travel experiences. Though I was on the plane, virtually en route, I couldn't grasp at that moment what standing on Costa Rican soil would be like. Likewise, I know about the country I am going to. I have been there before. I have walked along the downtown streets, rode on the metro, toured universities, taken pictures... but to live there for 1, 2 years?? I cannot grasp this pending reality. There is nervousness and there is excitement. There is joy and apprehension. But no matter what, there is always one constant factor: the Lord is with me wherever I go.