Winter has pretty much set in for the long haul I think. It is about 32 F outside with snow. It is still not quite as cold as I thought it would be during this time, but it is definitely not what I am used to during this time of the year.
The trip to the far Western Oblast of Bryansk was a good experience. Things are harder out there. Unemployment is very high. The city I went to is still experiencing the fallout of the collapse of the Soviet Union. It is as if it is still 1991 out there.
Despite these hardships, you will never meet more hospitable people. Folks here open up their homes to you and everything in them without any questions. I also must say that people there are a lot warmer. This is contrary to what I have generally experienced here in Moscow. Right now I am strongly considering doing ESL work here in Russia for a little bit after college. If that option opens up, I will most certainly try to work in a smaller city outside of Moscow so I do not blow my top.
In other news, I am very busy and almost out of gas. We are getting ready for the state exam. I don't know if I will pass the level I am trying to pass, but I am going to give it a shot anyways. I am still not happy with my language skills, but if I do pass the level one exam it would technically mean that I could enter a university here if I wanted to. Although there are still lots of struggles, it is said that this would not be bad progress for the amount of time I have been studying the language.
With this I sign off. Cramming for exams in the Wild Wild East, see ya

Another week has passed. It gets to a point when you stay in one place for a while that one day seems to role into another. This is how it has gotten here. Not that I am complaining, it just makes it harder to report on new things that I have done and seen. I will say that it is starting to get a little cold.
Probably the most newsworthy item of the last week was the cancelation of this weeks church service where I go to services. For seven monthes this particular fellowship met in the Salvation Army headquarters located on the east side of town. For some reason the powers that be decided that they cannot meet there anymore. I was not told why, just told to pray that God would provide a place to meet. I know this sometimes happens in the States, but as far I know, only to small struggling fellowships. This church is probably as big or bigger than my church in Texas (about 70 members or so). And so we wait for news of a new location to fit a group of this size.
Besides this bit of news, I am going to Western Russia (about as far west as you can go) next week for sure. So as promised, you all will soon see a blog about life in small town Russia.
Trying to stay warm in the Wild Wild East....

I have settled back into life in good old Moscow again. It was tough, cause St. Petersburg was a pretty awesome place. It is like a completely different country. The people were different, the architecture was different, and life seemed to go a bit slower there. I really liked it a lot. I must say it is now on my top 10 coolest cities list.
My favorite places were the Hermitage and the Blockade Cemetery. I have never seen a museum like the Hermitage. Not only was the art collection wonderful, but the building itself was stunning. It had to have had one of the largest Rembrandt collections in the world. There was literally two rooms full of his work.
The Blockade cemetery was one of those "off the beaten track" types of places, but one that I think everyone who goes to Petersburg ought to see with their own eyes. This is the location where the citizens and soldiers who died during the 4 year German siege were piled into mass graves as they died. There are supposed to be at least a million people burried there. The suffering that that city endured during the war is inexplicable.
Though the museum there is rather modest, the small exhibit they have there tells the story well. It does help if you can read a little Russian (yes, this is one of the few sites in the city that does not have stuff written in English and Russian), but the pictures there tell a lot without knowing the words.
The other highlight of my trip was meeting with a good Russian friend of mine who did a master's exchange program in the States last year at my university. I hung out with him and his younger brother. Both of them are believers and fellowshiping with them was a great blessing.
For the next couple of weeks I will probably be in and out of Moscow. I will be going to the far western part of the country any week to do a favor for some dear friends of mine in the States. This should be an adventure. I will certainly report on the result of the trip.
Staying alive in the Wild Wild East, see ya.