Friday, September 7, 2012

Some Pics...

At a R.O. Cathedral
It was built without any nails!

Overlooking the city

Shopping

Peaceful River

Actually, it's a roaring river!

Fresh Picked fruit!

Waiting

Well, what a past couple of weeks!

Living in Asia can be very interesting at times.  The good news is, we are back in A-town and we are starting classes on Monday.  We were told on Monday that we will be able to move into the nice dorms with kitchenettes, which is great because we girls love cooking and that we should come back the next day.  Later that night, our soon-to-be teacher called and said not to come til Wednesday.  On Wednesday we went to the university and were told that they are remodeling our floor and we will not be able to move in until maybe Monday.  If it looks like we will not be able to move in the next week, they will move us momentarily to a different dorm.

Okay, so we had to leave the country for two weeks to change our visas, that way we can study at the university here! Our last full day we spent with our local friends. We went to a huge fabric market with one friend.  We talked a lot about worth and finding your worth in the Father and not in men, we also talked quite a bit about future plans. We really hope she can visit us in the States one day.  She took us to a place she used to work at for our early dinner. The restaurant in English is called "Poor Family" and it was pretty cheap, but still delicious. We did not say good-bye to her because we went to see her our last morning.  Such a sad parting.  We all hugged and started to tear up.  Anyway, after our early dinner, we went and met up with two of our other friends.  We met the whole family of one of our friends and walked around the huge central park, named after a heroic WWII general. The other friend that was with us is very spunky and loves to do crazy things.  Though she is in her late twenties, she has way more fun than any ten year old!  She convinced Callie to go on this crazy carnival ride with her where you get strapped in and rotate in a circle in a circle!  Hair was flopping, they were screaming and Callie looked like she was going to die!  The rest of us laughed hysterically. Callie really was a champ though, she got her breath afterwards and smiled and said how that was crazy, but good. Later she said that she thought her early dinner was gonna fly right out!  After that, our friends really wanted to sing karaoke, but the park didn't have open karaoke booths, so we took a marshooka to get to this karaoke restaurant. (a marshooka is a small tiny bus, in which a lot of people try to cram). However, we went too far, so then we took another marshooka to go back four blocks, and wandered around until we found the restaurant! We had the whole place to ourselves. It was a very fancy restaurant with screens everywhere so that you could sing no matter where you were seated.  We ordered some tea and a light second dinner to enjoy that way we could sing to our hearts content.  The songs for the night included "My Heart Will Go On", "Y Tu, Te Vas", "Waka, Waka" and countless Russian songs.  We had a wonderful time getting to know those ladies better and hearing their stories.  Keep them in your requests.  They both have had hard lives and they know of the Truth, but they haven't made a decision for Him.

Coming back to our glorious country, our flight was delayed two hours!  We got back and in bed at a little after three in the morning.  We met up with some of our friends there, but before we knew it, we were headed on a twelve hour train ride back to our city!  When we got back, Sarita and I stayed at one apartment while Callie stayed somewhere else. Due to some circumstances, we couldn't all be together.  This past week has been filled with playing with small children.  Three of which were boys, so there was a lot of wrestling involved.  Which means they run at me and I fall over! Hahaha.  We also have been going over to the university a little bit to check on our dorm situation.  Hopefully, we will be able to move somewhere soon.

Oh, so funny story.  Sarita and I had been given the key to the apartment, that way when we got home and everyone was asleep we could slip in. However, when we got back, I unlocked the door and it wouldn't open!  We were then faced with  a dilemma.  The lady we were staying with had not been sleeping well.  We didn't want to wake her up.  We decided to text her and if she was awake,  she would come let us in, if not we would sleep somewhere else (it was almost midnight). But she didn't come. Sarita and I decided to spend the night in the office apartment where we volunteer. That night marked the tenth place in which I have spent the night since coming here, apart from trains! Anyway, the morning after they were trying to take one of the kids to school when they realized that we had not come back.  They also saw that they had locked us out.  And also that in our attempt to unlock the door, we had inadvertently locked them in!  (There are two locks on the door, one that can only be locked/unlocked from inside and one that can only be locked/unlocked by a key!) So they finally found a key that worked that way they could let themselves out of the apartment.  All this happened on the first day of school, no less!

We have been able to reconnect with two of our good friends from here.  We hung out with one friend and our fellow brothers and sisters Sunday and we hope to meet with them again tonight.  Later tonight, we are going to go to a soccer game!  Which will be pretty awesome. Tomorrow we will meet up with my other friend and go back-to-school shopping.  Please keep us in your thoughts as we spend time with our friends.  One is a sister, and one is not.  Please also keep in mind that we need to move into the dorms and make some more local friends.  Also, the kids we camped with have been asking for us and we would like to return to visit them soon.

Love you all!
Grace and Peace!