Weeeeeeeeek 2

Things have gone well since the last post. Currently, I have 5/14 lectures edited, but in case you're thinking to yourself "WOW, this kid is pro! He's going to run out of things to edit in no time!" you would be wrong. When/if I finish this first course, there is a whole nother one to do! I also get to help film a gypsy band on july 5th I believe and then the professor teaching the course I am currently editing is coming here july 15th to teach another course, which I also get to help film.

busy busy busy

When I'm not working, things are still kind of slow, but picking up. 

Friday, I was convince to stay after work and play Call of Duty with the other computer guys I work with. I have never played Call of Duty or any first person shooter game for that matter, but I was sick of not doing anything that I had to! I'm not very good at CoD. I laster about 2hours and then I had to take a break. These guys are addicted to this game though! As soon as the work day end they're on there playing network games and killing each other. It's ridiculous, but I think I'm probably going to be playing CoD a good bit while I'm here ... I have yet to decided whether that is a good or bad thing.

On saturday, I was supposed to go and see downtown Kursk. That fell through and I ended up going to a festival at a monastery instead with the Dean of Students (I think that's his official title) and his wife. While calling him the Dean of Students makes him sound intimidating, he's not. His name is Sasha. He's probably only in his mid 20s, but his job is to make all the tests for the online students to take as well as creating manuals and such to go along with the DVDs that get sent out.

Well anyway, on the way to the festival we got stuck in a grand total of 3traffic jams all caused by people going really slow over train tracks! When we finally got there it was not at all like what I had thought a monastery festival would be like. There were vendors EVERYWHERE! Selling everything from a university education to John Deere farm equipment! We spent about 2hours there just walking around and looking at things. 

**Side note**

One of the first things I was told when I got here was that if I was offered a russian drink called KBAC (kvass) I should decline it as I would probably spend the next 24hours on the toilet.

**End side note**

As we are getting ready to head out Sasha tells me that he and his wife are getting some KBAC and wondered if I would like some. I immediately remembered what I was told upon arrival, weighed the options and decided that I should do because who knows when I'd get the chance again. I got myself a small cup and let me tell you, it does not taste very good at all!

Oh and I didn't spend the rest of the day on the toilet.

Overall the festival was pretty sweet. I was going to take pictures for you all to see, but when I pulled my camera out to take my first picture I noticed that I left my SD card in my computer. Oops, no pictures for you.

Then on Sunday, I went to the church that meets in the school so I just had to walk across the hall to get there. I understood a grand total of 5 words the entire time (worship and sermon) but I did get to meet an elderly couple from upstate Maine and another couple from Canada (they didn't know what was being said either). We got to talking after church and I'm now invited to go snowmobiling/ATVing in upstate maine if I ever have the urge ...

Monday, it was back to work. After work it had been arranged for an interpreter to take me into Kursk. So I met up with her right after work and into town we went. It was awkward at times because I didn't really have much to say and neither did she ... but the conversations picked up towards the end and I did get to see a LARGE portion of Kursk throughout the few hours we were there. I only found this out after I was back at the school, but their hospital/medical university was originally a prison. Back in the early 1900s, when the building was being built, the men in charge of the city went to St Petersburg, the capital at the time, to ask for money to build a hospital. Their request was denied, but they were given money to build a prison. So they took the money and built a 'prison,' which they closed after only 3years and turned into a hospital. 

tricky russians

But the trip was fun. My interpreter had just graduated from university here so she was excellent at english as well as the closest person I have met to my age so far. So that was nice.

Tuesday has just been more work and messing around the area. I found the big supermarket around here and stocked up on more food. I get a kick out of going to the supermarkets and walking the streets just trying to read stuff. I pretty much have the alphabet down pat and the words are coming along. I don't know if this helps much, but since english is no ones first language but mine I try to speak in simpler sentences so it's easier for others to understand. This also helps me as my simple russian vocab is growing. I can speak very simple sentences and when I'm speaking to others I can throw in the russian words I know. I'd say I'm at about 20% of the way to being proficient, not fluent but proficient. 

Oh and a picture for you all ... An veeeery small Orthodox Church, or Candy Land churchs as I believe Katie Kunkle called them. I'll get pictures of the bigger ones for you later.

That's about all for now.