Friday Update

     Alrighty folks, time for an update. I really like writing these but sometimes it's hard to find the time or inspiration to write. The first thing most experts tell aspiring writers is "write something every day." I'm not going for a career in writing but I do like it. Either way, it's good advice.

     Anyways, this update is mostly about what's going to be happening in the coming days. But first off, a recap. This week has been mostly normal. Sunday's English was canceled in favor of a commemoration of Reformation day. If you don't know, that's a day among reformed church denominations for remembering the beginning of the Reformation.
     The Liberty team chose to have an anti-Halloween party. They announced that they would have a showing of the film Luther with discussion afterwards. Unfortunately, it was dubbed in Russian so I couldn't join the discussion. But what I did understand from the film was interesting. It was good to see the progression of Martin Luther's life as he formed his opinions of the Catholic church's abuses. The post-film discussion was good too. We had seven people from the liberty team and about the same number of others who stayed afterwards.
     Tuesday of last week, we got a "new" teacher for English club. I put that in quotes because, as I quickly found out, he had a rapport and history with a lot of the students already. His name is Jesse Armstrong. I'm certain he's been here before. He speaks some Russian and seems to know some of the students. We also had another teacher a few weeks ago but he had to take care of some business before he'll be back teaching regularly.
     Tuesday this week was busy. Lots of people. We were down to only three teachers for the over 50 people who showed up. For the articles we teach from and build discussion on, David likes to normally use an article that is at least a few years old. Something not recent but with a good topic to learn and think about. But for this week, he chose this article. When he emailed out the article for us to read before the meeting, I thought it sounded a little familiar. I remembered that I had seen it in my morning news reading. That was one discussion where we easily could have gone for a half-hour more.
     Ukraine is very traditional in gender roles and views on homosexuality. Ukrainians in general haven't been quick to embrace the changing opinions of modern culture. That means the demonstrations for gay rights or transgender rights are the exception and not the rule. In a way, it's been a breath of fresh air living here. But it's also an indication of how much pressure certain groups put on culture to change the way things have been done for thousands of years. Thus far, the gay lifestyle is still a fringe sub-culture here.
     That reminds me of Sunday. I mentioned last week that I was going to be talking to the youth group on Sunday afternoon. My topic was the progression of gay-"marriage" in America. I bumbled through about twenty minutes of history and exposition before we finally got to the questions and discussion. That was much more satisfying. I've found that I'm not much of a lecturer. I much prefer being a discussion leader or facilitator. In this case, the information I told them about sparked a lot of good questions. They were very interested in how and why the American government can imprison or fine dissenters to the gay-"marriage" movement. Some, who are still in college wanted to know how best to resist the changing winds of culture.
     I also discovered this week that, in a pinch, I can play a cajon to provide rhythm for the songs at the end. David recruited one of the students to play piano and he requested someone to keep rhythm. Nathan normally plays but he couldn't be there on Tuesday. So I got to do it. I definitely need more practice. But it wasn't a total train wreck.
     Tuesday English club will start to look a little different for me. We (David, Jon, Jesse, and I) have been discussing over the past two weeks about how to improve English club instead of offering the same thing over and over every week. One of the ideas is to have a discussion group. We also came up with the idea to offer a Bible-based lesson every week. Both will be for the intermediate/advanced students. The discussion group would be focused more on conversation and debate skills than learning vocabulary or grammar rules. However it looks like we'll be starting off with the Bible group. I have the honor of attempting to lead the first class. I have a feeling it'll be something like the Thursday evening Bible study except with more unbelievers. We really don't know how many are interested so I'll let you know next week how it turns out.
     Also, Sunday English is canceled this week. The church is having an event at the office and we can't be competing for space.
     I had a question this week about the weather here. As I'm writing this, the weather outside is high-humidity under a slate-grey sky and so far it hasn't gotten above 40F. The visibility isn't bad below about 1000 feet elevation. But it's very hazy. Last night, coming back from my language lesson, we had морось (fog/mist/drizzle). That was one of my new words for the day. The temperature is good. But the dampness makes it feel like a late-winter day. It's as if the sky wants to do something but can't decide if it wants to rain or snow.
     For the last week, we've only had one or two nice days outside. The pictures below were taken on one of them. The coming week looks like mid-40's (Fahrenheit) until Tuesday with clouds or rain. Big difference from what my Pennsylvania readers are getting right now. Other than how dry the air is, I've been enjoying the weather here. When it's not raining, the average humidity seems to be about 10%. I'm probably wrong on that guess. But every morning I have to tank back up on water or risk a dehydration headache later in the day.
     This picture is a view I haven't shown before. This is the northern view from my building. The east and west sides of the building have apartment-access balconies or sun-rooms. The northern side (but I'm not sure about the southern) has general-access balconies for all the floors. I guess it's supposed to be a smoking area but it's also a good view of the city. On the right side of the photo, the building behind and to the right of the maroon colored roof is where the church office is. Less than a 10 minute walk from here.

     This next one is the play ground as seen from the 12th floor. It sits right outside the main entrance. When the weather was warmer, kids played there at almost all hours while there was daylight.

     Lastly, I've discovered an great new tea. It's plain peppermint but it's awesome. I brought back a tin of Starbucks chai from Poland and that was also good. But I'm going to find it difficult to make a choice between the two. The chai feels like autumn (cinnamon and cloves) but the peppermint feels like Christmas.
     Ok, then, have a great weekend.