The week that makes it a month.

Fourth week and I'm still alive and working!

Today I just finished editing the last lecture (lecture 14) of John Steinbeck's course on the Problem of Evil. 14 lectures in 15 days of work, not bad. Now to edit each lecture I had to sit through the entire thing so I basically just finished taking an intensive of the course. I wonder if RIT will let me count it as a liberal arts credit!?  .... I just checked with reality and they said no.

Now that I finished this course, I have another course to edit. I'm not sure of the topic or teacher yet but I was told that it was for students with a bachelors degree from a secular school so it is a little more foundational than the last one. While I enjoyed the last course there was SO much that went straight over my head! Hopefully I'll be able to understand just a tad more this time. 

In other work news, yesterday a "band" of gypsies game to the school and performed song and dance that we recorded. In each DVD the school sends out they included a little musical/cultural intermission. They do this to 1) give the viewer a mental break and 2) since many of their students are not living in Russia anymore (S. America, Israel, Australia, USA) it is a nice reminder of home that many miss. Overall, let's just say that gypsies are pretty good at music and dancing! I recorded some behind the scenes footage of a few of the songs, but my camera battery died and of course I forgot the charger back in America. I'll see what I can rig together so you can see it. At very least I'll post it when I get home. 

In non work related news, 

I went out with that American team again on Wednesday. Instead of going to an orphanage, we went to a day care centre and once again played with the kids and the team did their program for the kids. After that we stopped by the christian bookstore in Kursk. Not wanting to buy anything and disliking small spaces with lots of people I went outside and sat on a wall while waiting for them to finish up inside. As I was sitting on the wall minding my own business a russian man come walking down the path. He stops looks at me and says hello (in russian of course). A tad confused I say hello back (also in russian) and then just look at him trying to figure out what he wanted. He just stood their giving me a dirty look. I had no clue what he wanted so I just kept looking back at him trying to figure it out. He made no attempt whatsoever to say anything else, so we just kept looking. Still confused and feeling slightly awkward I jumped off the wall (it was about 8ft off the path and beside stairs leading up to the bookstore and apartments above the bookstore). After I jumped off, he said thank you, walked up the stairs and into one of the apartment buildings.  I guess it's rude to sit on walls in Russia, oh well.

Thursday passed uneventfully.

All I did on Friday was work, but since July 4th was the next day my coworkers got me an Independence Cake. I had myself a good laugh on the inside as I've never really been one to celebrate the 4th. I'm quite sure I've worked straight through the last 5 of them as Hershey Park offered time and a half pay on the 4th. This said, the cake was good and don't worry I shared with everyone there. 

Saturday I went back into Kursk with Andy and Aleena, two of the people I met this past week, and we just messed around Kursk. They tried to give me a tour, but I had already seen most of what they showed me as I'm a pretty good wandered. The Saturday I had gone in by myself, I explored a good portion of down town, alleys and all. We did end up finding a carnival and getting some cotton candy. I felt as if that was rather american so I counted that as my July 4th celebration. We also went to the main orthodox cathedral in town. Let me just say, the inside of that cathedral is BEAUTIFUL! I guess we walked in during the orthodox version of mass and since we were wearing shorts and t shirts we just stayed in the corners as there was a nice big sign on the door forbidding shorts, tshirts, pants for girls (skirts and dresses only) and girls had to have head coverings. We broke all of those rules, but no worries.

Sunday was church time. Once again I had no clue what they were saying, but enjoyed it none the less. I then met Andy in Kursk in the afternoon and we went to the main protestant/evangelical (I'm not really sure what it is) church in Kursk. After that we met up with some girls who Andy's mother had tasked him with entertaining. One spoke decent english and the other knew just about english as I know russian so it was an entertaining time for all. 

In general news,

I have found both my favourite and least favourite place in and around Kursk.

It is a place called K3T3 (I'm using the three key as I don't know how to make a backwards E).

K and T are pronounced just as they are in english, but 3 is pronounced like a "z". So yes, you say K3T3 like you would say KZTZ. Good luck saying that. K3T3 is also my favourite place as the bus from полет to K3T3 goes straight from the corner near where I live to the centre of town.

Also I found out that I, in Russia, cream cheese and butter packaging looks just about the same. I wanted butter, but ended up with cream cheese. I figured it out when I opened the package and did not see any butter. On a more positive note, I found that you can still make grilled cheese sandwiches if you spread cream cheese on the bread instead of butter!

My plan for this week was to upload a video of the gypsies instead of a picture so I don't actually have one ... I've done a lot of things that would have given good pictures but I didn't bring my camera. I feel that when I bring my camera places I spend more time trying to take pictures so that "I can remember it better in the future" instead of actually enjoying it and making extraordinary mental memories. So call me selfish, but I haven't been taking many pictures. I'll make sure I get at least one for the next update though!