Bryan Persell: February 2007

A Russian village, a great sunset and Sonia preparing mushroom soup.

We came across this guy Ice fishing. He agreed to let me give it a try.

Scenes from the trip

We spent Saturday in a village at Nadia's Aunt Sonia's and Uncle Vetya. Sonia, a PE teacher, led us on out skiing trip.

11 Lessons, 314 New Words and Mens Day

Yibits from Yaroslavl II

February 23rd is Men's day in Russia and is a national holiday. A day for everyone to show appreciation for the men in their life. Pretty cool. March 8th is Women's day. So at I guess the men get to see what they get and from whom before they do their shopping.

I went cross country skiing the last two days and it was great. It is very different from downhill but still very fun. And it was great to be outdoors. Once we went through the forest on the other side of the Volga and the other time in a Village about an 1.5 hours from here. In the village where Nadia's Aunt Sonia and Uncle Vetya live, we spent part of the time on the frozen river and part of the time skiing across farmland. The scenery, fresh air and beauty are really breath taking. I only fell twice :).

After one month of Russian lessons I have attended 11 sessions, learned 314 words, and started to understand (STARTED) some of the structure of the language. It will be a long process but I have plenty of time.

The CCS office expansion project is mostly finished. All new offices with twice the size of the old headquarters. So now there is one large room devoted exclusively to storing supplies for the projects and assembling them for the placements. Another large room is a place to hang out, have language classes, watch movies, have lectures, etc. And the hard working, devoted staff now have their own place to "chill out, and change clothes" before and after the placements. The staff her is really incredible. This is not the kind of job that you do if you are not really devoted.

The apartment is cool. I have had a couple of fun experiences already. I did not have much cold water and the hot water is so hot...that I was having trouble taking a shower without burning myself. So one day I found the place were all the water valves were located. I figured maybe the cold water valve was almost closed. So i started turning valves and then trying the cold water in the shower. If it did not work I would go back and out it back in its original position, or close, and try another one. After I tried this several times the cold water in the shower did not work at all. So I went and tried to remember which valve I had turned. Did I turn the wrong one? then I tried the cold water in the bathroom sink and the kitchen sink. No cold water anywhere. Oh No. I was then wondering if maybe I had turned off the cold water for the whole building!!! Should I call the landlady? I decided to go for a walk and think about it. While out walking I saw some men working on a water pipe about a block from the building. Could they have turned off the water at the exact time that I was trying to fix mine cold water. No way. Well to make a long story short I finally called Nadia, who stopped by and said that is exactly what had happened. In fact she said their was a big sign on the entrance to the building stating that they were going to turn off the cold water from 8-4. :) I need more Russian lesson I guess.
The the next week I was without heat for a day and a half. I decided to "ride it out" instead of going to the hotel or to someones house to spend the night. Very interesting. It was actually OK until they started fixing it the next day and had to turn off the hot water. I guess the heat from the hot water pipes was keeping it from getting really cold but as soon as they were turned off the temperature really started to drop. I decided enough was enough and went to Nadia's for the day. Heat never felt so good.

Next time..pictures for my cross country skiing trips. Take care everyone