sean's musings

Allrighty, so I promised a post about our trip to Russia/England, so here goes:

First off pictures:
Russia Pictures
England Pictures

So Amanda and I had been planning pretty much since we got back last summer to go back to Moscow. We had a great time, made some wonderful friends, and wanted to return and visit them. So we booked our tickets some months ago, and off we went. I will precede with the fact that we left Portland at 6am, after having gone to a beavers game in Corvallis the night before at 7pm. So our journey went: Portland->Corvallis->Home->Portland Airport->San Francisco Airport->London Heathrow->Moscow, Russia.

After 24 hours(local time) of flying/layovers we finally made it to the Moscow Airport. We had no problems with customs or anything and exited the controlled area and met our friends Tasha and Dasha! They were waiting for us and it was wonderful to see them. Tasha had so graciously offered for us to stay with her during our time in Moscow, so we were off from the Airport. The ride was an adventure Being the somewhat experienced travellers, we brought less stuff than the previous trip, but we still ended up with a big piece of luggage. We got to ride on a little van/taxi to the metro, then the metro for about 45 min, and then Tasha got a guy to drive us the 5 or so minutes from the Metro stop to her flat. That was Saturday.

Sunday we went to church and got to meet up again with Sergei and Remma which was awesome We met both of them last year as well. A very sweet older couple who have this amazing light about them; very sweet and caring. We also met Luke, who is about our age and was doing a year teaching missionaries in Moscow, and Lena. We also had the privilege of being there on the Sunday when Tasha spoke the message, and she did a great job.

Most of the week was a blur as it unfortunately is when you are on vacation/visiting. Tasha ended up having to work during the days, and our other good friend Diana had school. Dasha was able to take the week off of school and spend pretty much the whole time with us, which was a blessing to get to do. On monday Amanda and I got to navigate our way around the city for half a day by ourselves Riding a bus to the metro, and navigating the metro to go to various places. By the end of the trip we felt really comfortable getting around, and not anxious We got to spend evenings most of the time with Diana, and of course with Tash at her house. It was an absolutely wonderful and blessed time to spend with our friends. Special thanks to Tasha for her awesome hospitality and good home cooked meals We saw a lot of sights and did a lot of things, but I mostly enjoyed just spending time with our friends.

There were a lot of highlights and places visited. Those can mostly be seen from the pictures.
Highlights:

* Getting stopped by the police in Red Square to check our documents.
* St Basils – Enough Said…one of the coolest buildings I’ve ever seen.
* Riding around the Metro
* Youth group meeting. I did a little devotion and was asked to play guitar. There is just something amazing about 2 groups of people both singing to the same God, the same songs, but in different languages. A special time for us. Knowing that no matter what language we are singing or praying in, we’re all in the same spirit, and God hears us all.
* Meeting a lost Englishman at McDonalds some 50 miles outside of Moscow. He’d missed his tour bus back to town. Tasha had to help him get on the right bus
* Getting caught in a rainstorm looking for Arbat Street
* Walking around Arbat at night.
* аптека пожалуйста – Tasha said to get let off at her stop on the bus we could just say “аптека пожалуйста” to the driver That was our saying we’d repeat. It means “pharmacy please”
* Listening to the choir sing inside one of the Orthodox churches during service.
* Wondering around the inner ring streets at night checking out all the lights.
* Taco Night!! – We took taco shells over and made tacos for everyone.
* Crown Jewels inside of the Kremlin – complete with carriages used by the Russian Tsarinas.
* Riding on the Elektrichka (electric train) to St Sergius.

London was great as well…Stonehenge, Bath and Playing some famous guitars at the Hard Rock Cafe, London were some of the highlights. Maybe I’ll type more about that portion later..

I finally got around to finishing up my online journal from our mission trip to Russia this summer. Amanda and I felt God’s tug on our heart when the trip was first announced last year and so we followed that and went on a work and witness trip to Moscow Russia to do some work for the church over there. We had such an amazing wonderful time, and I thank God so much for the opportunity to travel to another country and serve Him. I learned so many things while over there, made some amazing friends, and had a great time learning more about myself and God through the process. We left feeling like there was maybe more to be done for us over there. We still can’t place our finger on it exactly…maybe it’s just to visit again, maybe it’s to help out others, who knows.

We start part two of our Russian Language class this week, and we are going back to Moscow this summer, God willing. It’s been awesome to correspond with our friends over there (some almost every day…thank you internet!) and we can’t wait to go back and visit.

Anyways, I just wanted to finally post the links to my journal, which was handwritten while we were there, and now typed up for y’all to read.

Check out the chronological index of posts here
Check out our photos from the trip here

As most of you know, Amanda and I went to Russia this summer (note to self: finish typing up journal and put it online) and there was a lot of cool food there. In our russian class last week, we asked our teacher about any food markets in the area, and lo and behold, there are at least 3. So yesterday we decided that we wanted to go after going out to dinner with Joe and Shan for her promotion celebration.

I called up the market to find out what time they closed, and the conversation went something like this:

MG(Market Guy): Hello
Me: Hi I was just wondering what time you close tonight?
MG: Who is this?
Me: What time do you close tonight?
MG: Is this comcast?
Me: No, just wanted to know what time you close
MG: Who are you?
Me: Market?
MG: Ah Yes, Roman Russian Market
Me: What time are you open?
MG: 9am to 11pm

I had a good laugh after that. Too bad I didn’t know how to ask the question in russian yet. Amanda, Joe, Shan and I headed over to the east side of Portland to this market. It’s pretty cool, along Foster Road there were quite a few little russian stores: second hand shop, restaurant, etc. Went in, the store was kinda small, but we got a few pieces of candy, some cheese(hope it tastes like the kind in Russia!), kvass (for Joe to try) and some little cookies.

The lady at the counter was nice and I said thank you in russian. She smiled and said “your welcome, have a nice night” in russian. We actually understood it, which was pretty sweet.

One of these days we’ll check out the superstore in vancouver

Oh yeah, HAPPY BIRTHDAY KATEY!!!