Still Smiling

I went to a "Slovo" (the organization I'm here with) event last night. Somebody asked me how long I'd been here now and I said a month and half (has it only been a month and a half?). He said, "Oh, and you're still smiling? That's a good sign!"

So, let's see it's been a little while since I wrote last. I didn't end up going to the Russian Museum of Political History. The weather was so nice that Svetlana and I decided to go walking around Peter and Paul Fortress (look it up, it's pretty cool) instead. She was a foreign languages major in college and one of her classes was how to be a tour guide. She told me about how she and her partner had to be able to conduct a bus tour of St. Petersburg and she used to know all sorts of interesting facts about the fortress. But, she had never actually gone into it and she forgot all the facts. There's a statue of Peter the Great there that's supposed to be life size and all the tourists go and sit on his lap and take a photo. Since it was Svetlana's first time seeing it (it was my second) she had to get a photo so...

I am attending a Calvary Chapel here and it's a really great church. The worhsip is all in Russian and the sermon is given by a Russian with an American translating after ever few sentences. It's full of great people and wonderful teaching. There's one guy there named Kostya who is just incredible. I've never met a man so full of love. He will never let you leave without saying hey and giving you a book to borrow.

I think I've written about how we have "sport day" every Saturday and play football, frisbee, soccer, etc... with all the kids from school that show up ( and they all do). The soccer team here, Zenit, has 2 Korean players on it, both of whom go to the Korean church most of my students do. In fact, one of my kids has their numbers. So, he called them and invited them to our sport days. Kim Dong-Jin (UEFA Cup winner, UEFA SuperCup winner, 48 appearances for Korea, including a few at the World Cup) seems to be a pretty nice guy and has promised to come to one and hang out with us.

Teaching is going well. We have chapel every Tuesday and they are fantastic! I mean, I've been in Christian schools my whole life and I've been in some pretty dull, terrible, and terribly awkward chapels, but these have been great! I dunno, maybe I shouldn't be so shocked, but I'm seriously impressed every week.

I bought my winter coat and boots the other day. Hopefully, I won't have to use them until November, though; but, if I have to, I'm ready. 

Well, I think this post is getting pretty long. I'll just have to publish posts more often so I don't have these mammoth posts.