The Weekend

Another exciting morning... Today I woke up early to type my homework on my host families newly de-virused computer. And instead of getting my assignment done I spent not less than 40 minutes trying to figure out how to get the keyboard to write with american letters. It's a miracle that I figured it out at all!
Now lets rewind. This weekend I went to Samara (the big city around here). My host family spent teh morning helping me find a decently priced cell phone that will work here. Electronics in Russia, I discovered, are about 2-3 times as expensive as at home in the states. I compared prises on several things. I was looking rather long and hard at the laptops wishing that I had brought mine so that I could bypass the whole set of my computer problems. I bought a simpler version of my voice recorder, the old cassette tape kind so that I can send the tapes by mail to Pasha to translate and transcribe then send back over email... This is dangerous because of certain responsibilities which I will be placing on the Russian postal system.
I also got an older version of the Nokia cell phone that I was using at home for about 50$. It seems to work pretty well. In Russia you don't sign a contract w/ verison or anything. You just buy a sim card with a certain number of minutes on it and if you go over they charge you higher fees on your credit card.
We spend the afternoon driving around and visiting the sites. We went to several parks and memorial statues as well as the administration buildings etc. Overall Samara has a substantial amount of new buildings, both businesses and apartments. It looks fairly good compared to Ufa. My host family told me that Ufa is a poor city and that things are cheaper there because the business don't have to pay government taxes or are subsidized... Speaking of which, I got my train tickets so that I can go back to visit some of my old friends this weekend. I am pretty excited to get back there to see familiar faces and sites from my mission.
Saturday night Katya and I stayed at natasha's and the parents went home. Russian's have their beds hidden in the funniest places. I was standing there wondering who was going to get the couch, or if the couch somehow pulled out into a big bed that we could all fit on or??? if I was going to sleep in one of the armchairs.... when Katya took the seat cushion off the armchair and pulled on this tab that was sticking out. She just kept pulling and out came a 6 foot long trundle type bed! Rather narrow, but very impressive. I then did the same to my armchair and Natasha took the couch. I really need to get some of those chairs! Anyone ever seen them in the states?
The other interesting thing about Natasha's one room apartment was that it was in a 160 year old building with the traditional high Russian ceilings and a community bathroom and kitchen that all of the other room owners shared. The bathroom was rather typical - dirty, no tp, a few tiles where your feet are suppose to go... But hanging on the wall were several wooden toilet seats... I am guessing that this is an important public health finding... So families with old people or children too small to squat over the toilet have their own toilet seats that they put on as needed and then take off when they are done and hang on the wall. What will they think of next!
Sunday morning we went out to go site seeing again. I knew that there was a church somewhere in Samara, but had no idea where... And could not look it up on the internet. I was hoping to run into some missionaries on Saturday and ask them, but I never saw any... We went to the city's museum for a few a few hours in the morning and then wandered around more park all of the rest of the day.... Had an ice cream break- which btw, that whole story "we used to be able to get ice cream for 10 cents" is still the reality in russia. Not the plain stuff either, chocolate coated with nuts!
On the bus ride back to Natasha’s house I spotted two guys wearing black suits and walking with an older couple. We passed them and it happened to be our stop, thank goodness because I wouldn’t have had time to explain otherwise! I got off the bus and told my host sisters that I saw some people I knew and was going to run in X direction and that they should catch up with me…. By then they were way down the road. I really think that running in boots on my mission is what gave me knee problems in the first place and here I go doing it again! I was totally wheezing by the time I caught up with them. But happily they were who I thought they were, and I found out the time & address of the church between my town and Samara as well as the elders’ number in case I need to get more information. I can’t explain how unreal it felt to be standing in Russia talking to missionaries and not being one myself. I still feel a little guilty in my day to day work here too… like I should be doing something else more important… I know it’s ridiculous, but I am just starting to relax.