The Times, They Are A-Changin'

      As was pointed out to me yesterday by my dad, I haven't updated this in a while. So here it is. Thanks to not paying attention, and a whole lot of other things on my mind, the updates were lost in the pile of "to-dos."

      In the last post, I told that my dad is back in the US. Monday was a long day. I got back from taking him to the airport and had to lay down for some more sleep. I finally rolled out of bed around 11:30. Monday was also a lazy day for me. I did go to English in the evening with a headache. The evening went mostly OK. My discussion group was a little lethargic on answering questions. That happens from time-to-time. It's not always the article. We had the same one last night and the discussion was good. It was just one of those nights.
     Tuesday was a cram-session for my language lesson and then Movie Night afterwards. We watched I Am Legend. Not a lot of dialogue to talk about in the film but they did get to talk about why wars and disease happen. For all of December we will be having Movie Night every Tuesday of the month. Tomorrow I get to lead it with opening comments and then discussion afterwards. I really don't know how that will go since I've never done anything like that. Although I guess it's like English club. We just have a film instead of an article. We'll be watching The Eagle.
     Wednesday was an easy day with some shopping during the morning. In the afternoon, I took a taxi over to the left bank to finalize some paperwork. For everyone who doesn't know, the left bank is the eastern side of the Dnipr River. I live on the right bank. Think of it this way, when looking south (the direction the river flows), the eastern side is on your left. Therefore, left bank. Anyways, I got there well after dark in an area that at first didn't look like there were any offices anywhere. I finally found my contact (no, I'm not a spy and she wasn't either) and she showed me to the office and to the person who had my paperwork. The paperwork is for my registration here. I started off on a tourist visa and got a 45-day extension during the trip to Poland. The next step was to register myself with the government. Think of it like a long-term visa. That means I can stay for up to a year.

(1.4 miles or 2.3 kilometers to the Livoberezhna Station)

     After the paperwork was done, I took a walk. I wanted some exercise and didn't feel like waiting for a taxi. I didn't realize when I started off that it would be 1.4 miles (2.3 kilometers). I just knew a general direction. This is a map a friend sent me while I was walking. I took the route highlighted in blue. Just north of where it crosses the E95 highway, there is a pet cemetery by the road. I was surprised to see it there. Some of the headstones are fancier than the ones people get. A few were engraved with pictures of the pets. I might have to go back and get some pictures. It was a good walk. I really need to do that more often. I liked seeing a part of the city I've never been to before. The route took me along an industrial area. It didn't quite take the 29 minutes estimated. Mainly because I was cold and had to keep moving to warm up. Also I wasn't completely confident in the safety of the area and wanted to get to the metro quickly.
     Thursday for the most part, was easy. Bible study in the evening went well. I think I finally figured out the correct process to do things. Long before we started, I made the sandwiches and had the food ready. I also went through the lesson ahead of time and simplified everything. That is the key to using the study guide for the best result. The study guide is written for people who know English very well. So I need to translate it to simple English before the translator can understand it enough to translate it clearly.
     The other contributing factor to the success was that I switched my days for the language lessons. It's now Tuesday and Friday.
     Friday was a normal day. I had a study session in the morning/afternoon and then my language lesson at 4PM. But after that, I went to the Edie's house for dinner. Just pizza but they also had a missionary family there. The wife grew up in Lebanon County in Pennsylvania. That was a lot of fun meeting them and talking about home. After they left, we watched some old home-movies.
     One of the tapes that I had been hoping to find was about my trip to Ukraine in 2003. Most people are surprised when I tell them I was here over twelve years ago. For some reason, Jon Eide entrusted sixteen-year-old me with an expensive video camera to document the trip. The camera actually got passed around to some of the other kids on the trip (including my brother). But I found proof that 2014 was not my first visit to Maidan and downtown Kiev. I knew I had seen parts of the city before but I didn't know I was actually on ground-zero of the recent revolution (albeit, over a decade early). I'm hoping to get the tape digitized soon and see what else I can recognize.
     Saturday was a lazy day. Except for the evening. Around 4PM I went upstairs to visit the McLanes. I told about them in the post from the day the team left in August. The wife Maya was having a birthday party and had a bunch of people over. I stayed after it to watch Home Alone with the kids. I'm starting to find that the longer I'm single, the more I appreciate any chance to have family-time interactions. Even if it isn't my family.
     Sunday, I finally had a mostly normal day. Church in the morning (Jon Eide preached) and then English club in the afternoon. I had time to relax before it. It was good that I did. My group in English was the biggest I've ever had. We had about forty people total and I think over half were in my group. We brought five tables into the Orange Room to accommodate everyone. I also tried out a new teaching method; floating. The students were all around the tables and I just walked around the outside opposite the person or people who were speaking. I think, for as on-the-fly as it was, the whole thing went well. Even the music at the end was good. We didn't have use of the piano but two guitars and a cajon can make a decent rendition of Let It Be. After that, I made it back to my apartment for a great Skype chat with a bunch of people from my home church. It was good talking to people from home again.
     That brings me up to now. I'm trying to finish this up quickly because there are still things I need to do before tonight. Alright, the title of this post. I'm guessing you're wondering why I chose that particular Bob Dylan song to quote. The reason is two-fold.
     First, it's now officially the Christmas season here. I went shopping for a few groceries today and they were playing the bane of my existence (not a band) over the sound system in the store; modern "Christmas" music. I have a strong aversion to modern, Christmas-themed music. It's been honed finely over the past six years. One of my coworkers liked to turn on the 24-hour Christmas music station at least once a week between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Mainly my aversion is to anything that's not about the real reason for the season. Jingle-bell Rock and Jingle Bells,while traditional now, don't have much to do with shepherds and angels and the baby Jesus. They were playing both of those songs today in the store. In English too!
     I'm also now fully convinced the only differences between Ukraine and the USA are history and language. The Westernization is now complete.
     Second, as some of you heard in the Skype chat yesterday (thank you to all who showed up BTW), I want to stay here longer. I think I'll devote a single post to that decision just to keep this one from running on and on. But the simple version is that the work I'm doing has been a big help and I want to continue that through August of 2016.
     And I have two closing prayer requests. David Pervis was attacked by a dog this morning. He's OK now. He needed stitches in one hand and has a few other small wounds. But he also needs to stay home tonight to rest and begin the healing process. So please pray for him and his health. Also, I'll be leading English tonight. It's only the second time I've done that. Please pray that it goes smoothly.
     That's all for now. Back to studying and then to English club.