Wonder what OS they are using? :-D
Th..Th..Th..That's all folks!
Thank you so kindly for dropping in.
Wonder what OS they are using? :-D
Th..Th..Th..That's all folks!
Thank you so kindly for dropping in.
This was on the departure board in Chicago.
This was in London. Not often I see Tokyo, Hong Kong, Islamabad, or Copenhagen on a departure screen.
I was trying different modes and stuff on my camera to see which one made the best 'out the window' pic. Which one do you like? (leave a comment below please)
This guy sat down in John's seat to let the flight attendant pass. I was snapping pics out the window and his buddies told me to take his pic. Ok. :-D
Another gas mask ... not quite its intended purpose. But close enough.
:-D I'll never tell!
Did he do something with his hair? His beard? Clothes? ...
Rodney looks so good in those pictures ...
I know what you're thinking ...
Very cool.
These are students from my class. We had quite a few come to the retreat with us.
There were some very inventive routines.
They are also given 4 moves they must incorporate into their dance.
Only thing is ... they will either have a hiphop song or a country song. They don't know which.
The students formed dance teams and had about 5 minutes to create a dance routine.
A Jeopardy-ish game.
Anya and Natasha. Anya was a student of mine 2 years ago (middle left). She is a beliver now too! I got to talk to her and hear her testimony and about her family ... awesome!
We had to come up with a team name and cheer. We were the rabid sabacas (rabid dogs).
The cheer started with a howl followed by a "leg hike" and then the "burying".
[> play] this is part of the cheer.
At dinner
Sana is an awesome organizer
Tonkistka and Natasha. Tonkistka (Tanya) has been my helper before and Natasha is a student from my first year (2003) and has been my helper many times after that. Both are believers and involved with Kompas.
Jenn and Leena. Leena is a student from last year.
At the retreat center
On the bus head out into the country.
I really like 'staircase pictures'.
Blackmail pics of Jenn :-D
John and Mark are helping cut flags for the weekend retreat's game of 'Capture the Flag'.
We hung out at Debbie's flat. We played some games, ordered Rostics. Rostics is KFC owned and it is pretty much what you'd expect of a KFC.
This is at the park entrance. Maybe one of my Russian friends can translate for me? (post a comment below please)
"Autumn crocus"?
This is a park near UPI; Ekat's technical university. I have never been in this park before. I have passed it in years gone by, so Mark and I had some free time and we decided to explore.
There were a couple of resturants with wi-fi access. Chris and Holly brought their laptops and we got hooked up a couple of times.
Our team time at the Hotel Iset.
Ivan was a student of mine last year. He's a superb break dancer.
I took these for Holly, she is into urban art.
Pushkin is probably regarded as Russia's top poet.
The Romanov women.
The Romanov men. Note that Nicolas is carrying the sickly Alexi.
The memorial to the Tzar's family who was murdered on this site during the revolution.
An island in the small lake. I bet people walk out there when it is frozen over.
This park is awesome in the fall when the leaves turn.
[> play] which is probably why weddings often visit it.
I had brought some Slim Jims for them. Nothing like a taste from home.
We went to the stinters flat for their prayer team time. Very cool time.
Too dark, I tried to shoot the people waiting in the middle of the street for the trains.
I like this one!
What do you think?
I'm taking a few night photos to test my new digital camera out.
The students had to come up with as many words as they could from "Education". With a couple from Darin and me, there were 48 total ... that's a lot of words!
Thinking, shhhhh ....
Pat your head.
Touch your nose.
Simon says raise your hands. At the middle right (partly hidden) is a student of John and Myra's. I forget her name, but she's one of the twins.
It was snowing lightly today. There are some better snow pics later in the gallery.
This is the title pic from my index page.
[> play] this is right in front of the hotel, next to the "circle of death".
And we celebrated Deborah's upcoming b-day
Deborah and Ashley had us over for dinner
Ashley and Debbie (note: Debbie; not Deborah)
Olga had her Bible, a Gideon's Bible, Lauren's Bible, so I threw my Clie Bible versions into the mix.
Sundays is a very western resturant. You can visit different stations and get sushi, steak, pizza, etc...
Winners get free ice cream ... yum!
More victory celebration
Photo op with Deborah
This is one of my students. Her hands were cold so I loaned her my gloves. They swallowed her up!
Get a free ride to the gathering place
[> play] stuff 6 people into a bathroom stall.
This was supposed to be a picture but I left the camera in movie mode ...
Have a man in uniform command you to stand in a silly pose
Get a free french fry from a resturant
Swap bags with a stranger
Find movie times
Get a picture with a babushka
We had to make a nesting doll, and get a stranger to guess what we were doing.
Dang. The flash didn't go off. We were huddled up before going on the scavenger hunt.
There were at least 13 trains backed up. They were doing construction and the traffic circle gets backed up anyways. So that only made things worse.
Every once in a while the Invisible man makes an appearance :-D
I always thought liberty and justice went hand in hand (ahem). This was in a book store window.
Another interesting perspective of the momument. You can see lettering behind the soldier. The momument has most of Russia's recent wars listed (WWII, Chechnya, etc...)
[> play] more running in pe; a relay race I think it was.
This is where most of our emails and blog posts came from. They charge our room by the hour.
Denise and Olga
Meredith and Lauren (Meredith is on our NBC team and Lauren is a stinter from Kentucky).
This is near the "center". Across the street from the Lenin statue.
Mmmmmmmmmm ... meat jello ...
Hmmmm, wonder how it tastes?
Ok, so I already mentioned meat jello. Well here it is! (lower right)
My usual breakfast shot.
This reminded me a lot of www.creaturesinmyhead.com . I would swear I've seen that exact guy on there.
The Balkin is a nice steakhouse type resturant in Ekat.
Yup! Feelin good!!!
BTW, Chris lost the 'luggage lotto'; his was 1 of the 2 still missing. He would not get his bags until the Tuesday before we left. That's about a week and a half with no luggage! :-(
[> play] the rest of us were elated!
Whoops, let me check that ...
My own clothes! My own deodorant! My own razor! My own aftershave!
Ok, so it is Wednesday now (we left on Friday) and we finally got about 12 of the 14 bags. Hopefully the 2 lost bags will be freight that we were hauling for Darin. Not that he isn't important, but clean underwear would be nice!
No chapstick or shaving cream allowed on the planes. I was getting in pretty bad shape.
Denise is a student leader in Kompas. He was also a helper in my class.
Since 2004 ... impressive :-D
We found American Hot Pizza on the way back from school to the hotel. Guess where we ate lunch??
Like what we read, listen to, do for fun, do for sports, etc.
[> play] a short clip of one student reading to us.
All the students are eager to show off for us. And to ask us all sorts of questions.
My fabulous art work ... hope no geography teachers are reading this!!!
Chris and Holly talking to a class.
The School of Tomorrow is a private school using the first floor of a public school building (school 94). Bear (Darin's son) attends the School of Tomorrow.
There are some baked apples here too.
Lunchtime at school 13. We have stuffed blini (Russian crapes/pancakes), stuffed zucchini, salad, and mashed potatoes. It was all very good.
But, if somebody asks why we visit Russia; then we are free to answer honestly!
We can't talk to these kids too openly about God. Russia has a law that you cannot proselytize someone 17 or under.
Plus we get to talk to the students and the teachers about Kompas and about why we came to Russia.
Visiting the schools is fun for us. And it helps keep Darin's relationship with them favorable. A little P.R. work never hurt.
We get to visit school grades 1 thru 11 (11th grade students are seniors).
The Black Tulip is a war memorial. It has been in my gallery many times. I think this angle shows how massive the soldier is (zoom in for full effect).
Interesting gas mask plaque
A plaque on the museum walls. There were ones with guns, tools, tanks, etc. And this next one ...
Military museum
This resturant is on the 1st floor of our hotel. The downstairs part is a less formal and cheaper cafeteria style resturant that we visited often (see "Meat Jello" later :-).
This keyboard was along the riverside. I don't remember it from yester-years. Either it is new; or I always walked on the other side of the river.?
Whatever they were for, they're fun.
Mark, Holly, and I went to the supermarket while everyone else was hitting the sack. I try not to nap or jetlag will kill me later.
The machines in this little "park" are from an old mint (at least that's what I think the students were telling us).
So, in London the British Mediterranean folks told us to goto the AA counter and forget our connection. So we begged another AA CS agent to get us to Ekat. This guy worked for over 1/2 hour to get us booked on Lufthansa ... to Frankfurt. Finally we we on our way. I say we because somewhere along the line our bags decided to take a detour! See my beautiful chart here.
We had a 3 hour layover in Chicago and our flight from DFW was 1.5 hours delayed. Still cool, right? We sat on the tarmac for over 4 hours! ... bad weather in Chicago. We raced to the last flight to London and begged the CS agent to get us on. He worked for over 1/2 hour to get us all booked on the flight ... which was also over and hour delayed. So much for our Ekat connection in London. This picture was from the Chicago to London part of our trip.
Mark, John, and Meredith
You can tell how humid it is by the fog on my lens!
My family held a yard sale and donated the money to our trip! It was raining off and on all day, but people turned out anyway and they made quite a lot of money to help us out ... Thanks!!
The title pic is in the median of the street outside our hotel. Autum is beautiful in Russia!
