Busted!

In the short time we had at the mission home, we felt like we'd been hit with a firehouse of information. One of the things they told us that fortunately we remembered is that if we get stopped by a policeman we should ask to see his identification, call the zone leaders (ZLs) to translate for us, and not let him keep any of our documents--it's best if we can just show them to him and get them back.

Last week as we were almost to our front door we passed a group of three men talking. One of them stepped over to us and showed us his police ID. He jabbered away, even though we kept telling him we didn't understand what he was saying, but he said something that sounded like documents so we gave him our ministerial certificates. He studied those carefully while Dave pulled out the phone and dialed the ZLs. The policemen said something and I could tell he was asking if we were calling someone who spoke English to help. I nodded, but he still kept talking away to us in Russian. After I explained the situation to the ZL, he asked to talk to the policeman. They talked for a few minutes and then the policeman hung up, handed us back the phone and kept jabbering away to us. We didn't know what to do--if the ZL didn't fix it, we were in BIG trouble. We kept hoping that meant the ZLs were on their way to meet the policeman in person, but they didn't come and didn't come and didn't come. We were getting more nervous by the minute. Finally Dave figured out he wanted our passports. The policeman took them and started writing down all the information from them, including our visa number and city registration. Then he pulled out his phone and started talking. At one point I heard him say "Holbrooks" (well, the Russian version of it anyway). He talked for a long time. It seemed like an hour but was probably less than 10 minutes. We tried to be rather nonchalant and just visited, checked out our surroundings and stood there. I figured that if we didn't seem upset or worried, he would pick up on the fact we didn't feel like we were doing anything wrong but if we got angry he might decide to haul us to the police station, which we definitely didn't want. After he hung up from his phone call, he finished making some notes, handed back our passports and said до свидания (do svidanya or goodbye).

We went inside and looked out the window. The policeman talked to a guy who had been hassling some of the young Elders last week, and then got in his car and left. A few minutes later the ZL called and asked if we were ok. Then he explained that after talking with the policeman, he called Brat Piotr from the mission office in Novosibirsk who then called the policeman and explained who we are and what we're doing here--he's a native Russian so he can speak to them in Russian without any problem and knows all the Russian laws inside and out. Apparently a neighbor thought we had more than just the two of us living here since he saw the young missionaries coming and going a lot as they came to meetings and helped us get settled and learn our way around. Since we're foreigners we might not know or understand how things work in Russia and he wanted to make sure everyone was registered and that we were obeying the rules. We shouldn't have any more problems. WE HOPE!

Happy Easter!

It's been kind of fun realizing that we're celebrating Easter many hours before it comes to Utah. I guess eventually we'll get used to the time difference.

Yesterday and today people here are turning out to clean up the city. If we understood correctly (and since our Russian isn't the greatest, it's always possible something got lost in the translation), April 24 is Russia's birthday, so people do what they can to make the cities beautiful. Yesterday we met at the church, where we were thoroughly scolded for not wearing jackets and then, armed with rakes and shovels, went to a park a few blocks away to um, rake and shovel. Almost the first thing people did was take off their jackets because they got too warm! We worked for about 1 1/2 hours. It was very rewarding to rake away layers of dirty leaves and trash to find new green growth underneath. We also picked up a lot of trash. There were about 25 people in our little group and we filled lots of bags, piled up lots of broken branches, and moved the dirt that collected in the gutters back to where it had been washed away from. Surprisingly we didn't wake up too stiff to move this morning!

You can see us at work:


Here's the group photo after we were done. Dave's the one at the back in the cool hat. Some people really hammed it up, especially the Elders.


In the stores they have what looks like overgrown cupcakes, but are more like a round loaf of something similar to raisin bread topped with a thin layer of icing and sprinkles. They started appearing in the stores last week and we were told they're only available at Easter. We didn't see any Easter baskets or Easter candy in the stores. No Peeps.

It was nice to celebrate Easter Sunday without all the hoopla of the Easter bunny and trappings we saw at home. We enjoyed singing familiar Easter hymns, although we sang them with different words. Rather, we tried to sing them and ended up humming along. One of these days we hope to be able sing all of the words in Russian. Unlike at home, here they sing ALL the verses (including the extra verses at the bottom of the page) of all the songs at the beginning and ending of each meeting, including Sunday School.

This week's something new in Russia: Occasionally outside of stores they sell small bunches of flowers. We thought it was interesting that we saw some people selling small bunches of pussy willows the same way. At English Club last week someone told us that they represent the palm fronds for the Savior's entry into Jerusalem and were just for Palm Sunday. I think it's cute. I always loved pussy willows when I was a little girl.

We've Moved In

Our Apartment Building
They warned us at the mission home that especially in Russia, looks can be deceiving and not to worry when we first saw our apartment building. We enter through the door on the right. We have a coded magnet that opens the door and push a button in the inside to open the door when we leave. When someone visits us, they buzz our apartment and we can unlock the door through a special phone by our front door. By the way, that icy snow is now all melted (less than a week later), even though it's in the shade all day. A few days ago someone was "shoveling" the snow, basically turning it all over but not moving it anywhere. I guess that breaks it up and makes it melt faster.

The Dark Entrance
It looks a lot lighter than it really is because of the flash and because the door was propped open, but the picture with the door closed and without the flash turned out nearly black. Those green mailboxes on the wall are more a formality than anything. They don't have locks and there is no mail service. I think they use them for notices from the landlord and ads.

The Elevator and Stairs
Except when carrying heavy loads, we always take the stairs to the fourth floor and . . .

Our Front Door

The Front Entry
Actually, it's the only entry. There's no fire escape, but the windows do open wide enough that we could get out if we had to. The entry is almost as big as any other room in the apartment! There are 7 doors leading off from it.

Two closets--the coat closet and the water closet
The coat closet is roughly twice the size of the water closet. But that's ok because all that's in the water closet is the toilet. No sink. That's on the other side of the entry in . . .

The Bathroom
Complete with tub & sink (notice the single faucet that swivels between the two), washer (no dryer) and also a shower.

The Kitchen

Yes, there is a fridge that you can't see from this angle. Between the table and window we have a table with our computer. Dave arranged with the missionaries to have some flowers on the table for me when we arrived. :)

The Living Room
Behind the door are two deep arm chairs (that I can't sit all the way back or my feet stick straight out in front of me--they're that deep), a coffee table and a drop down desk/bookcase.

Our Bedroom

Some interesting things about our apartment:

*The water in the bathroom is plumbed backward - the handle labeled hot is cold and the cold is hot. We were afraid that meant only cold water until we discovered the switch. The shower is also plumbed backwards from what we're used to but is labeled correctly. The kitchen sink is plumbed the opposite, with the hot water on the left, cold on the right and not labeled.

*There is a lot of storage in the living room, but very little in the bedroom and none in bathroom, not even a vanity, except for the wire shelf thingy in the bathtub. The only other "shelf" in the bathroom holds the soap in the shower. There are some towel racks, but those aren't much good for holding a toothbrush or comb.

*The size of the apartment is about the same as our family room, kitchen and washroom at home, and is considered good-sized. That's fine. It makes it easier to keep clean.

*Our place, like the two other homes we've been in since we got here, is decorated with swirly, sparkly wallpaper and curtains and bedspread to match, all in the same 1940's froo-froo style. The curtains look fancy and give us the illusion of privacy, but we discovered that when the lights are on inside, it doesn't matter if the drapes are pulled.

*It's surprising how quiet it is - the only noise we hear from other apartments is occasionally running water. No talking, no squeaky floors, no evidence that others are around (at times it seems spooky--we seldom see our neighbors coming and going other than looking down and seeing people moving around outside). We think we know why it's so quiet: the buildings are made of cement, inside and out, even the inside walls in our apartment, hence no need for fire escapes. When Dave put up a privacy blind today, he drilled into cement around the window. After washing dishes and cleaning, I felt like I've been standing on a cement block.

*We blew a fuse the first morning while we were unpacking that left half of the apartment fairly dark. The Elders had arranged for the apartment so we didn't know how to contact the landlady, which is fine since we don't speak Russian, and we had to wait until they came over for the district meeting at noon. They simply broke into the (locked) fuse box and voila, instant power. You gotta' love the gutsy Elders!

*We’re settling in and it’s starting to feel like a home away from home.

We are finding some delightful differences here, the you-know-you're-in-Russia-when . . . type of things. I'll try to remember to share one in each post. This week's is "You know you're in Siberia when everyone is bundled up in coats when it's nearly 65∘ and you're very comfortable in short sleeves! The kids are in snowsuits, playing on/around piles of icy snow (on top of, not in or with the snow). Everyone is walking around and soaking up the sunshine, but with the protection of their coats. Spring has hit and people are loving it, even when they're wading through puddles and slogging through mud. We've had warmer weather here than Salt Lake has had, which isn't surprising, given the typical Utah spring. Almost all the ice and snow that was here when we arrived has melted.

P.S. Brad, Yes I did this post all by myself except I needed Niki's help in figuring out how to stop it from automatically changing to Hindi after I typed a word. We have NO idea how or why it started doing that. Thanks for setting this up for us.

Comfort Zone? What's that?

As I write this we're sitting on a train headed to Барнаул (pronounced something like Barn-ah-ool, the city where will be living for the next year and a half) and I realized we ARE in a comfort zone of sorts, all wrapped up a cocoon of total confusion, in a world swirling with all things Russian and we understand only about one in a hundred words--and then only if they speak v-e-r-y slowly. President Trejo said there are several reasons they don't do more language training for seniors, which sounded good until he dropped us off at the train station (with our 6 suitcases, two carry ons, a heavy bag of books for the zone leader and a bag of food from Sister Trejo) and said, "Good luck. The Elders should meet you in four hours." We just hope we know where to get off--none of the stations have the name of the city posted. And we hope there's only ONE stop in Барнаул.

The old conductor (with his 6 gold teeth) is very nice. We established that:
1. he knows the word "California" (or at least it sounded similar to California and we assumed he was asking us if we knew where it was)
2. we're not from there
3. he doesn't understand what Utah means
4. he knows Obama is our president
5. he's really only 50, but he looks much older
6. he's from Uzbekistan
7. (thankfully) our tickets are in order, and
8. Барнаул is more like 5 hours from Novosibirsk (we hope the Elders in Барнаул don't give up and leave before we get there).

Supposedly one in four Russians speaks English very well. We're looking forward to meeting them in Барнаул, 'cause they sure aren't on this train!

People here don't smile much, and they think you're out of touch with reality if you do. So they think we're crazy!

It's official. It's really happening. Here's us when we checked in at the MTC:



When we arrived they told us we would be staying at the Marriott because they didn't have enough rooms in the couples dorm for all of the couples presently there. They are building some more dorms, but they're not finished yet. I didn't even know they had dorm rooms at the Marriott Center. However, the map they gave us showed the Marriott Hotel in downtown Provo. We thought how nice it was that we'd be pampered a little before we leave. Unfortunately we didn't get to spend much time in the room because we had a FULL schedule at the MTC and then "homework" and Russian study. After the the sessions with the other Senior Couples were done we'd eat a quick dinner and then hurry to a devotional or to meet with our Russian tutor for a couple of hours. We love Sister Cropper. She recently served a mission in Novosibirsk and answered all sorts of questions for us, both about Russian as well as Russia in general. We asked her to go with us to help until our Russian gets better. She said she'd love to, but he has a test next week that she can't miss. We'll have to get by with our smiles until our language skills kick in.

We got to come home Friday night and spend the weekend with family and packing and watching General Conference. Now the real adventure begins!

By the way, the ticker at the top of the blog is for when we actually get to Novosibirsk (or as close as we could guess we'd get there). I guess technically our mission started when we got to the MTC.

Stay tuned!