I am sitting in an internet cafe about 3 hours east of Moscow in a town called Vladimir. For the last couple of days one of my classmates and I have done a little site-seeing here and in a smaller nearby town called Suzdel. Here you see alot of the same thing that you see in Russia, especially lots of cathedrals and monostaries. The old architecture with the snowy lanscape reminds me of something out of a novel. For me the people in these areas make all of the difference. You will never meet friendlier folks. It is a great break from the gritty and personally cold nature of Moscow. I must say that if I do get to work out here for a couple of years, I will definitely try to work in places like this.
In other news, the semester ended for me on Wednesday. If all of my credits transfer, it may very well be the end of my college career. Unlike many younger Americans, I do not have much of an interest in doing graduate work. I just do not know what I would study and I refuse to go get a masters just to go get a masters. It is too time consuming and I have to really like something a lot to invest that kind of time into education. I guess I am not too ambitious.
So now I have about a month to travel before I return to the States. I will move back into the dorms this evening and start putting my itenerary together for the next several weeks. Part of me is really ready to come home, but there is a great hope that things will work out for me to work over here for a little bit. I do not know why this part of the world has a strong appeal to me. In Kazakstan, the slower pace of life and the hospitatlity of the people made a great impression on me as a 20 year old. The freshness of the missionary work also had a great impact on me, but now I know that I could never go anywhere in that line of work again since I know I do not have the gifting for it. All I know is I am about to reach another great time of change in my life. At the end of the day I hope that it will somehow make a difference in the lives of others. I am tired and it is time to hike down through the ice and scow to the train station. Weary in the Wild Wild East...