Last Days in Saratov...

I am writing this on Monday morning, July 5. We leave Saratov tomorrow, to start our journey home. We will take an overnight train to Moscow, celebrate Katie's tenth birthday and spend a few days seeing the sights. On Friday, June 9 we will board a 4 hour train to St. Petersburg. We will spend the weekend there, taking an overnight train back to Moscow. We will have one day in Moscow where we plan to meet up with our friends, Kate and Ann from Nizhni Novgorod. On July 13 we board our plane for our 11 hour flight back to the states!

Our feelings are mixed. In many ways we are VERY excited to come home. We miss our home, our friends, and our family. We miss steaks on the grill, speaking English without having to carefully choose our words, fitted sheets and many other things that we take for granted in our country. On the other hand, it is very hard to leave. We have met some wonderful people here in Russia. We thought our last few days here might be a bit boring (just waiting around to leave). Instead, our telephone has been ringing off the hook, all of our friends have been calling wanting to see us one more time before we leave.

We finally made it over to Engles (the town on the opposite side of the Volga). A student took us to a swimming beach there and we had a lot of fun. We are planning a last visit to our favorite pastry shop tonight, a quick stop at Bookberry to pick up a book for the train, and a last visit to the covered market to pick up some snacks for the train.

We have been abundantly blessed by our time here. We have made new friends, learned about living in another culture, and been touched by the hospitality shown to us. I'm thankful that we have no regrets - I don't think we turned down any invitations that were made to us, we tried new things (kvass!!!), we resisted the urge to hole up in our flat (especially in the winter). The kids are glad we came, we have grown stronger as a family and we have lots of new friends who we hope will come to visit us in the States.

I am not sure if I will be able to post anything in Moscow/Peterburg due to internet access, but I will certainly add thing when we get home. I'll conclude this post with some photos of our time here, enjoy...Statue of Lenin located in Lenin Square by our flat, February 2010

Amy and Ken as Russians - Regional Museum, March, 2010

The Family at Saratov State Technical University, March 2010

Sobinov Conservatory on Prospect Kirova, April 2010

Katie and Dylan at Victory Park with Saratov/Volga in background, April 2010

A Cruise on the Volga in Nizhni Novgorod with our friends, Kate and Ann - May 2010

Trinity Cathedral

Assuage our Sorrows Church

or

Church of Taking our Sorrows Away

Dacha with Dima and his family - June 2010

Ken at the Sanatorium - June 2010

Birthday, Babushka's and Dachas...

We've had some fun in the last few weeks here in Saratov. On June 5th some students planned an excursion to the Volga and the Regional Museum. We had been to the Museum several times but this time was extra special: they had a butterfly exhibit. One room was closed off and filled with butterflies! We had a picture taken by the staff of the kids with butterflies on them. Dylan's butterfly flew away before I could snap a photo but here is a great one of Katie and her butterfly friends!





The next weekend we went on a picnic with the folks from the church that we have been attending. We rode a marshrutka to the forest, hiked a bit and as in all Russian picnics, found some firewood for shashlyk (kebobs). The girls wandered the surrounding area for flowers to make crowns and the guys played some soccer. Dylan played and was a tough cookie - he took a few hits (those Russian guys play to win)!
Pictured in this photo are Albert (a student at Sobinov Conservatory - wearing the flower crown and Peter the pastor of the church). We had a chance to sing and a few folks shared their testimonies. It was a beautiful day to be outside with our friends.

June is also important because we celebrated Ken's 38th birthday on the 15th. We had cake from our favorite bakery, the kids sang Ken a song, made pictures and gave him his gift (at least he got a photo of the gift that it waiting for him back in OH courtesy of Amazon (backpacking stuff!). We've had 2 birthdays in Russia so far (Amy and Ken), Dylan had his birthday this year at America's Best Value Inn (when our van broke down in SC) and Kate will celebrate her birthday in Moscow in a few weeks!

We have hit a bit of a lull here in Saratov - we've seen the sights, had lots of fun, read all of our books and have some days when it is hot outside and we feel a bit of boredom creeping into our days. To help alleviate this for the kids we took them to the store and let them each pick something out. Dylan chose a dart board and Katie took up counted cross stitch. She is becoming quite the crafty girl - enjoying knitting and now cross stitch!

We have had the wonderful opportunity to visit some dachas as well. Dachas are summer homes (many are not weatherproofed for winter weather) where the Russians spend most of their summer weekends. Dachas are not for relaxation as much as they are a place to grow food that will sustain families through the winter. We were invited by Dima's family (Dima is Dylan's friend) to their dacha which was about an hours drive out of the city. In this photo are Dima, his parents, grandma and great aunt/uncle. They were a warm family and welcomed us despite not speaking English! Despite this barrier we had a lovely day. We spent a good portion of the day eating. The family prepared a fish soup with a fish from the Volga. I was a bit uncertain, especially when I saw the fish head floating in the pot, however, it was delicious!




This is a picture of Babushka Valia with myself and Katelynn at the Dacha!





We also had the chance to visit our friend Nellie's dacha. She became friends with American Missionaries a few years ago who asked her what her dream was. She shared that her dream was to own a dacha. They gave her $250 (raised in America to be given to bless someone). She was able to buy her dacha with that money! The house on the land is a bit rustic but very serviceable and we had a lovely day there.

Nellie's Dacha

Katie and Dylan had fun picking strawberries, cooling off in the wading pool and of course eating some yummy food. I fell in love with salad made with dill from the dacha (I think I will be adding dill to my garden in OH)!

Nellie and Amy

We are nearing the end of our time in Russia and our thoughts are definitely turning towards home. We have been watching the World Cup and cheering on the USA, visiting all of our favorite places for a final time and making preparations for home. On Sunday we are heading to a Sanatorium for a conference with the University. Ken will be doing some presentations and the kids and I will be hanging out. We will be back in Saratov for a few days and then on July 6 will head to Moscow/St. Petersburg for some sightseeing before heading home on JULY 13!!!!

Outing in the Woods and Other Adventures...

As I write we have only 5 weeks left in Russia. The next few will be fairly laid back - Ken does not have a lot of commitments at the University and we do not have a lot of plans. We were wondering what we would do with our free time and have been so blessed by all of the wonderful people we have met here who call and arrange excursions for us!

Valentina (Valia) works in the International office and she took us to a hiking area on the outskirts of Saratov. We climbed up (and I mean straight up) a hill and collected branches for a fire. Valia's boyfriend came and we roasted potatoes in the hot coals. I am always amazed that we can make a fire wherever we would like! Below is a picture of the hill that we climbed - There were no switchbacks we just went straight up, which was intense, but fine. Going down was a little riskier (Katie and I both slid a little too much for comfort)! We also walked a little further and discovered some nice hiking trails - we are looking forward to going back and having a picnic in the woods!

The next day, Dima, a student from the University, arranged for us to go to another forest. We met his friends; Sasha and Lena. We hiked into the mountains and stopped for a rest and had tea! We also tried Kvass. Since the beginning of Spring we have noticed Kvass stands all over the city. Kvass is a beverage and we have heard differing reports. Some folks like it, others don't...some insist that there is no alcohol, others think there is a little... some say it is perfectly safe to buy off of the street, others think maybe that's not so wise. We had been wanting to try it but were also a bit hesitant. Dima solved our problem by bringing some Kvass on the hike. This was made by his family and he is of the opinion that there is a little bit of alcohol. Kvass has three ingredients- bread, sugar and water. Ken tried it and sort of liked it, Dylan tried it and did not like it, I tried it and finished my small glass but did not ask for more, Katie opted for juice!

After our tea break we headed into the forest to hike to a horse farm. Dima made arrangements for us to ride some horses owned by his friends. The kids were excited to ride the horses and we all had a lot of fun. The forest was beautiful - we saw wildflowers, a birch grove and of course some wild Russian dogs. We happened upon a dog that was resting in a large mud puddle. I wish that I could rescue all of the wild dogs that we see roaming the streetShortly after this outing in the woods we went on a picnic with our friend Nellie and her students. Nellie teaches English and Katie has been going to her classes to help. Katie has loved this chance to hang out with other kids and Nellie has enjoyed having a native English speaker so it has worked out well for everyone. We rode a bus out to the forest. The bus left the road and we were bouncing along dirt paths and finally stopped in the middle of nowhere! First thing we did - start a fire of course! The kids played games, we ate family sausage (hot dogs), and had a fun day. Dylan made a new friend, Dima. We think he found his kindred spirit. Dima and Dylan played soccer and were observed sword fighting with sticks. It was fun for Dylan to finally find a friend and have a good time with other kids! Dima called tonight - it was so funny to answer the phone and have someone ask for Dylan!

We are looking forward to another hike in the woods tomorrow, on Friday we are going to the Dacha (summer house) with Nellie (we hear her strawberries are ready) and on Saturday we are going on a picnic with friends from church. Time is speeding by!

During the last week in June we will be at a conference with the University. Ken will be participating and the kids and I are going along to see something have some fun. The conference will be at a Sanatorium (sort of like a spa/resort but I think not as fancy) near the Volga. Hopefully it will be a nice change of pace for all of us.

I've included these photos of Dylan - we went to check on him one night before we went to bed and found him sleeping in this hilarious pose...

Ken has been having an ongoing battle with the drapes in our flat. In our first week here, Katie and Dylan managed to get tangled in the drapes in Dylan's room and pulled them crashing to the floor. Without proper tools, Ken finally managed to rehang them only to have them crash down about a month later. He fixed them and in the middle of the night they fell again, and again the next night. He finally secured Dylan's drapes only to have ours fall down a week ago. Ken fixed them and they fell again. They are currently lying on a pile on the floor - the main annoyance is that it gets light here very early (4 am) and our windows are wide open letting in the light. I took this photo while Ken was working on our bedroom drapes, he was not amused that I was documenting this episode of our stay - he's spent far too much time during this sabbatical fixing drapes...

We are still working out our travel plans for July but expect to leave Saratov on July 6 to go to Moscow and perhaps St. Petersburg. We fly home on July 13.

BOREDOM

Katelynn's getting over a cold, Dylan's getting a cold. We are housebound and boredom is setting in...UGH!

Nizhny Novgorod

Our family took off on Saturday, May 15th for a few days in Nizhny Novgorod. Nizhny is about 400 miles from Saratov and we traveled there by train. We explored other options (flying or a cruise up the Volga) but quickly learned that a 21/22 hour (one way) train ride was our only option! We left our flat a little before 7 am on Saturday morning and walked to a nearby bus stop. The bus took us and our luggage to the train station. The conductor on the bus didn't charge us for the children, but did charge us for the 2 suitcases. No biggie - bus fare is very inexpensive here (7 Roubles). We got to the station and into our compartment with little trouble. As mentioned before, Russian trains are an experience never to be forgotton! We were in a second class carriage which consists of double bunk beds. The beds have a tiny bit of padding and there are bed rolls and pillows. The pillows are down (based on the feathers floating around) but heavy and about as comfortable as rocks. The bed rolls are old and worn and provide little cushion. Passengers are provided with CLEAN sheets and pillowcases. Our train to Nizhny was not the cleanest train (apart from the sheets) - the bathroom defies description. To all my germophobic friends out there - you may want to avoid this train... Let's say that we made good use of our Purell! We were much better prepared for the train this time as compared to our arrival in Russia. We even managed to have some fun (Ken hopped off at one of the stops and bought some ice cream which was a nice treat for all of us)!

We arrived in Nizhny at 5:30 the next morning. There were two students from the University where Ken was lecturing there to meet us, Kate and Ann (twins), and they proved to be one of the best things about Nizhny! Later in the week we also got to meet Sasha and he was a wonderful new friend as well. Kate, Ann and Sasha all spoke English and took it upon themselves to show us their city. I think we all fell in love with Nizhny. It is situated on the Volga and Oka Rivers and is picturesque! We spent a lot of time just walking around the city, admiring the churches, the monuments, the architecture and of course the Kremlin.

Nizhny's Kremlin was the first Kremlin that we saw and it was impressive! We had lunch in a restaurant inside the Kremlin. Ordering was interesting - it was a very large menu and there was no English menu. With the help of Ann and Kate we tried to order several things off of the menu, only to be told that they weren't available. We finally got some food and although ordering was challenging, the food was delicious, and we all had a chance to try Borsch. We all liked it to varying degrees, Katie was the least enthusiastic, I could have done without the sour cream. Dylan and Ken were happy! Interestingly, Ann and Kate both shared that they disliked borsch, perhaps from having to eat it too much when they were children.
We saw many beautiful churches...

Went for a cruise on the Volga...

And, Sasha used his connections to get the kids free rides at a local amusement park and entrance into their zoo. The amusement park was wild - the bumper cars were fast and made a major impact! At the zoo, the kids got to hold a baby fox and we got to see the bears (Misha and Masha) getting fed!

In addition to touring the city, Ken completed several lectures at the University about Social Work in America and he was also able to visit a local drug and alcohol rehab facility for his research. We were also able to meet with 3 Americans who are currently making their home in Nizhny.

All in all we had a very busy but fun week! We enjoyed our mini vacation, had the opportunity to make some wonderful new friends and got to see a very beautiful Russian city. Ann and Kate enjoy traveling and we are doing our best to convince them to visit us in America!

All too soon it was time to head for the train to come home. Ann, Kate and Sasha got us safely on board, negotiated with another passenger so that the four of us could be in the same cabin (we were unable to get tickets all together and had to trade) and gave us some delicious sandwiches and sweets from Nizhny to see us home. I confess to crying as our train pulled out of the station - we couldn't have spent the week with nicer people. I hope to meet them again someday!

Our journey home was interesting. We left at 7 pm on Thursday night. The good news is that this train was significantly cleaner. We still made good use of our Purell, but in general there was a much better bathroom situation. On Friday some policemen boarded the train and asked to see our passports. Ken showed them copies, they perused them and were on their way...Not sure what that was all about. Ken almost got kicked out of our cabin - the person we switched with had left the train and they were going to put the new passenger in our cabin. Again, that person was kind enough to switch so that we could all be together as a family. We finally pulled into Saratov at 5:40 pm and caught a bus home.

So, the vacation is over but we are realizing how quickly our time here is ending. We fly back to the States on July 13 (here's hoping that ash from Iceland doesn't disrupt anything). Please keep us in your prayers as we get through this last month and a half. We are excited to come home, sad as we start our lasts (I just changed our last water filter:), and have all kinds of things to do in the time that we have left (souvenier shopping, Ken has some surveys to get completed and he hopes to see some more rehabs). Thanks to all of you who keep in touch via FB, email and skype. Looking forward to seeing you soon and trying some of those pretzel M&M's I have been hearing about!

Victory and Defeat

May 9 was the celebration of Victory Day here in Russia. Victory Day is the day that the Russians celebrate winning The Great Patriotic War (WWII). There is a very strong feeling that Russians were responsible for winning the war and in fact their casualties in the war were staggering. I believe that around 28 million soldiers died with about 40 million soldiers and people killed during the war. Russians take great pride in the part that they played in WWII. This extends to the younger generation and is something that seems to bind them together. We spent Victory Day with a group of Russians that we have gotten to know through church (these are our firefighting friends)!

We gathered at our flat for a pot luck meal. It was a bit crazy with all of us gathered in one place but we had a lot of fun. We headed out in the evening for Lenin Square to watch the fireworks. It was a busy but very fun day. We have so enjoyed getting to know this wonderful group of people.

The Monday after Victory Day was a holiday and we walked down to the embankment in the evening. There are lights along the Volga and on the bridge and we have been wanting to see them lit up at night. While we were waiting for the lights to turn on we grabbed some ice cream and let the kids try the water balls. Along the embankment they have all kinds of activities: bikes to rent, inflateables and the WATER BALLS. They inflate the balls (with you inside of them) with an air blower, zipper you in, and seal the zipper with a strip of plastic that gets velcroed down. Then they push you and your ball into a pool of water. Both kids were a little nervous about this activity but decided to give it a try and had a lot of fun. They said that they felt like gerbils in a ball. I think that we had as much fun watching them as they had playing in the balls! After they were unzipped, the lights began to turn on and we walked along the embankment for a while before heading home.

So that's our story about Victory Day and now our story about Defeat... Ken and Dylan woke up at 5:30 to watch the last half of the Cav's game. Dylan is very bummed at their loss to Boston. If you know Dylan you understand his intensity and he is a passionate Cav's fan. He is not having the best morning...

We are gearing up for our trip to Nizhny. We are supposed to leave tomorrow but as with all things Russia, it is not going as planned. Masha, from the University, went to purchase our train tickets and learned that there are no 2nd class tickets available. We have heard that this train is "not as nice" as the train from Moscow, and were advised to travel 1st or 2nd class. Well, this train has no 1st class and the 2nd class was all booked. There is no other way to get to Nizhny - no flights, no cruise up the Volga... Masha is looking into 3rd class tickets. 3rd class is an open car (as opposed to a private 4 person room in 2nd). We are open to giving 3rd class a try but wonder how well we will sleep in a large group setting. We are also unsure if there are even 4 3rd class tickets available. So, it's the day before we are to leave and we aren't sure if there are tickets, not sure what time we leave, how we will get to the train station... We are trying to summon up our adventurer's spirit!

Fire

We had a very interesting weekend. In Russia, May 1st is a celebration for workers. Similar to our Labor Day. We went out on Saturday for a walk to the Volga and while we were out we saw street performers, many outside stands had opened and there was a general feeling of celebration. We ventured out onto the Volga Bridge (there is a walking path on the bridge). Halfway across the bridge (about 1 mile) you can descend some steps to a small beach. We walked around the beach and the kids had fun swinging and exploring. I was a wreck as we walked on the bridge. It looked as if it had been constructed A LOOOONG time ago. There were holes in the concrete and at times I could see through the bridge to the Volga below! The kids thought it was hysterical that I was so nervous about the condition of the bridge. After our trip on the bridge we were all tired and we stopped at a restaurant for dinner. There were some pictures on the menu so we pointed to order. We thought we ordered chicken for the kids, turns out that they got duck! The kids were great that day, we walked over 6 miles and they didn't complain at all!

On Monday we went on a picnic. Our friends, Todd and Katya were going to the forest with some of their friends from church and they invited us to join them. We drove about 20 miles out of Saratov to get to the forest. We were excited to leave the city for the first time since we have been here. As we left the city there were many wide open places. Most people live in the cities and the rest of the land is not owned by anyone. You can camp, picnic etc. in any of these places. There are no regulations about where you go and what you do. So, we pull into the forest and get a fire going for some kebobs. As we are sitting and relaxing we notice quite a bit of smoke behind us. Apparantly we were in the midst of a forest fire! Our friends called the fire department and then proceeded to grab blankets and head to the fire to work on putting it out. Ken, myself and another couple stayed back to watch the kids and pack up should the fire get too close. The other couple noted that the fire department might take a while to come (this being a holiday weekend and all). There were a few tricky moments when the fire was quite near us. Twice we packed up and were getting ready to go. Ken and I were both nervous about the whole situation. The fire was very close and we were both thinking about how quickly fire can move, spread and change direction. After an hour the fire department came and worked on extinguishing the flames. They were very thankful to our friends for their efforts in putting out the fire. Ken was joking that the fire was the "Russian way to BBQ" which just cracked up one of the guys, who quickly got us kebobs to pose with. The fire was still burning at this point, but there is only smoke in the distance in this shot! Except for the fire, we had a lovely day out in the forest. The fresh air was great for all of us and we came home tired but happy!