New blog

Hello to my faithful readership (all 2 of you)!

I hope this finds you well in health and in spirit. Just wanted to let you know I've begun *occasionally* blogging over www.elsbe.wordpress.com. I've been hankering to try out wordpress for a while and it felt strange to write about my new life back in the States here on this blog. I hope you'll transfer your bookmarks and keep reading; as a teaser, Large Developments in the Life of Elf are pending announcement and you wouldn't want to miss out.

Life in America is so full of up-and-down. Or perhaps, better said, I am full of up-and-down and America brings it out in me. Either way, it's rarely dull and usually worth photographing (another reason for continued reading).

Thank you for following this chapter of my life! Your e-mails, letters, notes of all kind, phone calls, prayers and encouragements were deeply appreciated. 

Au revoir!

Turkey and sunshine!

I'm enjoying free high speed wifi for the first time in almost 10 months. It is a WILD thing. I did things like get the latest version of itunes and system updates ... checked out pictures on friends' blogs ... read the news yesterday for over an hour ... it's very happy and a great thrill.

For those of you who aren't aware, I've been in Turkey since Sunday night - large gathering of 'family' going on here. I've had a great time; had a couple days to relax, lots of time to catch up with friends both new and old, and even get a sunburn. I am a fan of the Mediterranean. But Turkish guys ... not so much. Those stories however, will need to be related in person.

I can't believe I'll be on another few planes heading home in about 4 days. By the way, were you aware that it takes 8 hours to fly from Khabarovsk to Moscow? That was a great time.

Saying goodbyes was very hard; my two roommates stood on the curb and cried and waved to me as I rode away on trolley bus 1 towards the airport. How sad!

I'm excited to be home soon - can't wait to see you all! 

Leavings

Wow, it's been a while (as usual). Probably the best way to begin this is to say that this morning, I got up at 9 am (luxurious Saturdays), beat my roommates to the shower, and then flipped on the news. There, I was informed that Hilary Clinton had left the presidential race. I looked up the word for 'race' just to make sure. I feel absolutely no connection to American politics. In November, I quit trying to follow the news - 30 minutes of reading on the BBC website every once in a while just doesn't cut it, I find. It's going to be weird coming home.

Speaking of which, I'm set to leave in 7 days. This is unfathomable to me and I haven't even thought about hauling my suitcase out from underneath my bed yet. I don't think it will sink in until I'm at least halfway to Moscow, at which point, I will probably cry. Melodramatic perhaps, but the truth.

I have had a really incredible last month here: so many things have come together in such a majestic fashion. For example, my 'e-tickets' turned out to be real paper tickets and got sent to my parents' house in the states. Then, my poor mother spent a ridiculous amount of money DHLing them to me, only to have the office here claim the tickets got sent back to the states, while the internet claimed they were in Mexico ... ah. But I have them now and it's all good. 

Saying goodbye to many dear friends who are heading back to Korea and China has made May and June a difficult emotional affair and now it seems to be my turn. Today I sat on the bus between a old man with a huge furry (and awfully smelly) dog in his lap and a very suave young man who, if I had lit a match, would have combusted, due to all of the cologne. Russia is a country sure to delight the olfactory senses. Will my nose be bored in America? This is the sort of thing I've found myself contemplating lately.

I passed all my exams - was pretty excited about that. As of now, I have 3 days of classes left. One of our professors just finished up a week's worth of impromptu lectures on Russian economics in the last century, which was a stretch for most of us language-wise, but very interesting.

The family I tutor for gave me a very special gift - a plastic shopping bag filled with whole smoked very dead fish from a Siberian stream. My roommates and I spent an afternoon ripping their heads off and eating them. It was ... memorable. They were surprisingly tasty, but I concluded I much prefer lunch sans decapitations beforehand.

I have so many things I want to tell you all about, but it would be several thousand pages, I'm afraid.

Ah boy. I'm really excited to be heading home. But it's going to be really hard leaving.

As you can see, I have hardly anything substantial to say at this point. Will let you know when I can work these feelings down into my fingers and from there, into coherent sentences.

Peace be with you!

For your enjoyment.

1. This was not my idea. 2. I'm so glad it happened and I'll have this picture for the rest of my life.

My Russian family! I teach both their kids English 4 nights a week. Although Lenya looks close to death, it's still a cute picture. We're waiting for the fireworks to begin.

And here we are at a Russian dacha. It's like a little tiny country home - they grow big huge gardens and spend every weekend there. It's lovely, in a very tumbled-down way.

Well, I must run off to church. Hope all of you are well!

Hi-bye.

So, quickly, I'm alive, enjoying life, and getting over the snuffles ... again. I feel like I'm always sick. Bleh.

The weather was getting warmer, then this week, the wind started back up. This resulted in everyone being crabby, especially our professors. Pray for grace for all of us!

I'm 19 now. I wrote a long bit in my journal the other night, intended for posting, but it's just not ... Well, you'll see it when I actually spend a bit more time with it.

Life is so good. A lot of mornings, as I'm walking to class (through a construction site) I find myself thinking, "gee whiz. I'm so happy to be alive." 

But now, duty calls, I have to go help Tanya make borscht (I've volunteered to grate the beets, which means my hands will be pink for the next 3 days). 

Thanks to all of you who wished me a happy birthday via the internet!

Six days worth of quotes.

We learned about тоже/также in class. They are basically the same thing in English, but not really, and ... indescribable. I have no idea how to explain what they mean. Russians, having spoken Russian since birth, have an innate sense about the words and when to use which. Foreigners are unfortunately not gifted with this understanding.

MONDAY:

Professor: "Today, I'm going to teach you about тоже/также, although I don't know why I'm even trying [what a great way to begin a lesson]. You know, most Russians can't explain how to use them. Most Russian people don't really understand them -- they just use them, and usually get it right. So I don't know how you, the international students, will ever understand this. Ok, let's look at ..."

Her prediction was correct and absolutely no one in our class understood anything in the whole 2 hours she expounded about тоже/также.

[the Russian words for 'cheese' and son' sound exactly the same except for one letter's difference]

Professor: "Peter, where is the cheese?"

Peter: "On the couch!"

Professor: "What?!"

Peter: "My cheese is on the couch!"

Professor: "Peter, where is your son?"

Peter: "My son is in the refrigerator!"

[everyone tries to suppress spasms of laughter]

Eating dinner with a Russian family on Monday night:

Me: "We learned about тоже/также today in class. No one understood it."

Russian dad: "Why are they trying to teach you that? Even Russian people don't understand it."

Russian mom: "Hmm ... how would you explain тоже/также?"

Russian kids and dad: "Uhhhhh ..."

Russian mom: "An example?

[Dad says example using также]

Russian kid: "You could also use тожe there, dad."

[this goes on for a while]

Russian dad: "This is ridiculous. Stop talking and eat your salads."

TUESDAY:

Professor, complimenting Peter: "You write fast, like a cosmonaut!"

Professor asks if anyone has any questions. No one does.

She says: "Only dead people don't have questions!"

Student asks if she may go to the bathroom.

Professor: "I don't want to know where you're going! I don't want to think about THAT!"

[Russians are very awkward about bodily functions]

Then, she lectured us on the importance of oxygen for 15 minutes. We cover a lot of ground and several miscellaneous/unplanned topics per day.

WEDNESDAY:

Professor: "It's Pushkin! You CAN'T read it badly!"

Professor, talking about plastic surgery: "If I had enough money, I could get new eyes, new teeth, a whole new head!"

Eating dinner with a Russian family on Wednesday night:

[as I am being handed a butter-and-caviar sandwich]

"Do not be afraid of carbohydrates! Russians are not afraid!"

THURSDAY:

Professor: "Aristotle was a teacher, like me."

Professor, about lazy people: "Tigers and wolves eat and sleep. Some people are like this as well. They eat food but do not feed their brains."

I was going through the gate at my dorm, and there was a new babushka guarding the door. I've never been asked for ID before -- the guards seem to know us by our faces ... or are too lazy to ask. But she actually asked ... madness ensued ...

Babushka: "What floor do you live on?"

Me: "The seventh." [this is the international students' floor]

Babushka: "You can't live on the 7th floor. You're not Asian."

Me: "I'm the only American."

Babushka, suspiciously, like I'm trying to trick her: "... You don't look Asian ..."

Me: "Argh! I'm not Asian. I'm an American and I live here on the seventh floor."

Babushka: "... Do you live here?"

Me: "YES!!"

Babushka: "Why don't you have a Russian student ID?"

Me: "Because I'm not Russian!! I'm an American!!"

Babushka: "... Not Russian ... Not Asian ... What are you?"

FRIDAY:

Professor, to two Chinese girls whispering during her lecture: "If you're going to talk in class, at least do it in Russian."

Professor, to me after I wrote a sentence with 37 word sentence [we have competitions to see who can write the longest grammatically correct sentence]: "You are the champion of the world and belong in the Guinness Book of World Records!"

SATURDAY:

I started out watching 3 kids and ended up with 8 by 2 pm. A group of Royal Rangers were scheduled to meet at the house and then going to the zoo. One of the commanders showed up early, so we sat and talked while waiting for everyone else to arrive. I was telling him about the woes of тоже/также ...

Me: "We learned about тоже/также in class this week. No one understands it."

Sasha: "Yes ... I guess it's kind of confusing. But it's really easy, when you think about it ..."

Me: "Oh yeah?"

Sasha: "Of course." [he starts to 'explain' ... two minutes later ...]

Sasha: "I guess it is sort of hard." [keeps trying to explain ... five minutes later ...]

Sasha: "This is really complicated. I can't explain this. I don't know how it works. Don't worry about it, Russian people don't understand it either."

While we were talking in the living room, the kids were upstairs playing and being superbly (and suspiciously) quiet. Suddenly all eight of them came tumbling down the stairs, screaming and trampling each other. 

Sasha [eyes growing wide]: "How many kids are you keeping upstairs?"

And a few minutes later:

Sasha: "You're watching all of them?"

Me: "Yes."

Sasha: "Isn't it difficult to make them behave, since you don't know much Russian?"

Me: "Spanking is a universal language."

Fire.

Here's the link to the actual site, but the jist of it is this: Russians burn everything. Kids play with matches out in the street, anything remotely flammable will fall prey to them. Grilling shashlik out in the woods, drop your coals into a pile of dry leaves, drive away (I am a witness). This sort of thing, multiplied over a large population, results in ... well, look at the picture. Hint: the red dots are forest fires visible from a satellite ...

But first, proof. Here's the smog, moving in. Then, satellite coverage. Then, Deanna and I walking home from school, with approaching smog. An hour after this, we couldn't see the buildings across the street.

Easter ... not for another month here. So, I've got nothin'.

Finally, greetings from the girl who never blogs when she says she will.

Well, perhaps if I stop promising to update regularly, reverse-psychology style, then I'll actually begin writing and sending e-mails and communicating.

A lot has changed in a month: my roommates went back to China, they didn't want to study Russian any more; Beth & Aaron just left for a new assignment since their visa was set to expire this month; Cecil's off getting a new visa; hmm, what else. The weather has turned absolutely beautiful. I never imagined how exciting 20 degrees and sunshine could be. It smells like spring, and I've rediscovered the will to live (kidding). But I qualify myself as a sunshine-in-the-meadow-feet-in-the-creek sort of girl and the winter here was starting to feel a bit oppressive and my soul was beginning to feel rather bleak. When you weigh the options: sit in dorm room and eat canned tuna and tea for dinner or go grocery shopping ... and you decide to go with tuna because you don't feel like putting on three pairs of long underwear, pulling on boots, finding your hat, and then freezing all the way to the store and back ... then, I think, it is time for spring.

So, International Women's Day was today (March 8th). Ever heard of it? My professor claims the French celebrate it too. It's basically the day that all the Russian men, who have been coming home drunk and beating their wives for the other 364 days of the year, do a 180 degree turn in their spirits, spend a tremendous amount of money on flowers, candy, make-up, and other gifts, and make it all up to their women in 24 hours. Disclaimer: there are some really great Russian husbands who appreciate their wives year-round (many rounds of applause to them!) but from what I've seen, they sadly constitutes a very small portion of the population. Anyway, I am a fan of this day because it means we get a break (Friday and Monday) and there is an abundance of chocolate.

Also today was the First Premiere of the Garage Sale in the Russian Far East. Some missionaries here are preparing to leave the country and in an effort to get rid of stuff, covered their apartment in price tags and invited everyone in for a free for all. Since Russians don't really get the idea of the garage sale, it was a very quiet free for all, but a lot of fun. I realized how much I miss cruising by Goodwill with a sock full of change and finding buried treasures. I had a big moment (aka small step into adulthood) and that was my first personal purchase of matching cutlery and tableware. Granted, they are fluorescent yellow, plastic, and hideous but hey, I blew 20 rubles and got matching forks and knives too. I am now the proud owner of 4 plates with forks and knives to match -- pretty good for under a dollar. I can't wait to eat ... tuna ... off of them.

Actually, I've decided to swear off of eating Ramen/lapsha for the month of March. It's very entertaining to see the look on people's face when I tell them I'm abstaining from instant noodles in observation of the Lenten fast. Actually, this decision has nothing to do with Lent and everything to do with the fact that I've finally tried all the flavors (the bacon is AWFUL) and want to give my palate some time to recover.

At the garage sale, they also had a whole bunch of books, 10 rubles a piece. You all know I'm a sucker for a cheap book, so this was very exciting, especially because they were in English! I will be happily reading some old favorites (I bought Cheaper by the Dozen -- it's a classic, come on).

I've been going to a church that has a bunch of students, Russian and Chinese, and having some excellent times trying to get to know people. I notice that I am growing less frustrated with the language barrier; as my vocabulary increases, I find I can describe things, even if I don't know the exact word. This is also my first time being in church without a translator. I have one friend who speaks excellent English, but I don't let her translate for me. I do occasionally lean over and ask her for clarification =]

Lately, my skills have been increasing in a game called "spot the Mormon". I don't know if a big team of them just came to the city or if I just haven't noticed them before, but in the last few weeks, they seem to be everywhere! Beth, Aaron, and I were walking down the street a few weeks ago, and these two guys (immaculately dressed and not looking Russian at all) stopped and asked if we spoke in English ... but they asked in Russian, and they asked in the very politest way possible. I was so floored by being politely approached by a guy on the street that I didn't know what to say.

Well, that's a quick update on me ... I've posted a lot of pictures on my facebook account, but I know that a bunch of you don't do facebook. I have plans to have a photo-uploading party in about three months (an attempt to reverse-psychologize myself). By the way, I've finally figured out the hype about skype, so look me up and we can chat for six pennies a minute, or something like that.

Grace and peace to you!

An excellent morning: huddled next to the radiator watching the sunrise.

It's looking like another bright shiny day. I, however, am not feeling so bright and shiny. Time spent asleep this week has been, shall we say, moderate. Contributing factors include, but are not limited to, noisy roommates, studying and homework, and Thinking Too Much.

Thinking Too Much tends to play itself out in two ways. One, I am wide-awake pondering my existence and the question, "whatever shall I do, come the end of June?" Two, I am wide-awaking considering the implications of ... Russian adjectives, the theology of ecology and this idea of 'living green', what makes mah-jong so absolutely fascinating, why my dear roommates inisist on playing said blasted game until 1 or 2 in the morning, and various other things, like grace and redemption. I have recently become completely sold on the idea of redemption. It's always been there, lurking in the shadows, but never an integral part of my thought proccess. (more on this later, perhaps).

Obviously, with all of these terrific and important things to be thunked about, and irregular verbs to be studied, restful sleep has been crowded out.

Life, classes, language learning are all going well. Our professors have banded together this semester and begun assigning rather substantial amounts of homework, complete with due dates. The weather is chilly, but not nearly enough snow. I am of the opinion that if one must be cold, there ought to be lots of snow. I went ice skating last weekend with some new Russian friends, spent over an hour talking with a bunch of fun teenagers and young adults after church on Sunday, and Chinese New Year is this week (a big deal here ... and we get 3 days off school - score).

Ramble ramble. I'm losing steam. Looks like redemptive thoughts will be making an appearance next time. Also, expect pictures (I say this for my own benefit, because now I'll feel it necessary to have integrity and actually upload them). The Amur river is quite frozen and we took a little excursion the other afternoon. We walked all the way across to an island ... but I'll leave you in suspense, the pictures do a much better job of explaining!

As we used to say in 6th grade: peace, love, and Shakespeare! My, those were the days. But I must say, I'm very happy I'm not 11 any more. More (serious) thoughts, updates, and pictures coming to a screen near you ... sooner rather than later.

Yay, I am no longer officially male.

Of course, the Russian bureaucratic saga continues. My visa was only good until the end of 2007, so I spent most of the month of December trying to convince the secretary at the International Student's office that yes, indeed the four photos I was trying to give her were printed on matte and not glossy paper. I finally ended up getting another round of photos from the little photo-printing store across the street from the university, making sure the clerk understood the difference between matte and glossy. I marched back into the office and, of coure, she said they wouldn't work. If I was a real Russian, I would have accepted this, but my American bargaining skills won out and I began to beg and plead with her. Her main objections was that the ink from the official stamp would smear because the paper was too slippery and shiny. Finally, I convinced her to try stamping an extra pictures to see if it would work. She stamped, gave it about 10 seconds to dry, and then licked her finger and tried to smear the ink. She was determined to prove this all-too-persistent American girl wrong. Well, God must have dried that ink extra fast, because it didn't smear one bit. Small victories, I tell ya.

December 30th, I armed myself with Pride & Prejudice and settled down for a bus ride across town to pick up my new visa. Amazingly, it was ready, and I distinctly remember thinking, on my way back home, "That was way too easy ... something must be wrong." Then, I got shut in the door of a marshrutka (a little bus) while waiting for change and forgot all about it, as I was occupied with wondering whether my arm would ever be the same. A few days later, I happened to have my passport out and glanced at the new visa. My first thought was, "does that seriously say I'm a man?" And yes, it definitely says man instead of woman. My second thought was, "what happens if I get stopped and some policeman sees this? This could get awkward very fast."

About a week ago, I went back into the office to notify them about this little tiny mistake. To her credit, the secretary was very embarrassed and promised to call the police office that very day. Fortunately she had my new registration papers (I was afraid I would be visa-less and hiding in my room at the dorms for a few days). On Friday, I was back to the office again to pick up the corrected document.

My secretary friend unlocks the safe, pulls out my documents, and hands over the visa. It definitely still says 'man'. I shoot her a quizzical look and she says, "Turn it over." On the back, written in blue ball point pen, it says "Correction. She is a woman, not a man. Signed - some unintelligible Russian signature."

What can I say, life is great. In other news, a 15 year old, piano-playing, Seventh Day Adventist Korean girl (who speaks zero Russian but a little English) has moved in down the hall from me. She and I have really hit it off. Last night, we had a team meeting and I was super tired and very excited to head back the dorms and hit the sack (a rare occurance). I made it back to the dorms before 10 pm and was just hanging up my laundry when someone knocked on my door. It was her and she spent the next two and a half hours sitting on my bed telling me about everything under the sun. She is very surprised I can happily coexist with my two Chinese roommates. She thinks Chinese people "stink" and are "mean".

This morning, she was back, explaining she didn't know how to get to class (a three minute walk from our dorms through various gravel-asphalt patches, a construction site, and rickety staircase up the side of a hill). We walked together, found her classroom, and learned some necessary phrases on the way: "I don't understand. I don't speak Russian. Please help me." I think we shall be friends.

Tomorrow is Deanna's 7th birthday (she's in the process of being adopted by the Eshelmans, missionaries I work with). It's an American-Indian themed party and I've heard rumour of a bison hunt (bison played by Cecil, her dad). I will, of course, try to get pictures. As far as I know, there are no rules about interns posting ridiculous pictures of their missionaries dressed as ferocious beasts of the plains on the www. We'll see what I can get away with, haha.

Peace on earth, goodwill toward men!

A few quick fun things

1. First week back in class has been great. We didn't have our new textbooks and I figured we'd wouldn't get them for at least a week or two (after all, this is Russia, where everything moves as fast as molasses). But, one of our teachers mentioned that a bookstore in the city had them, so we took matters into our own hands. After appointing two guys from our class (the only ones with access to cars) to be in charge of the operation, everyone pulled out their wallets, handed over a few hundred rubles and wished them luck in locating the books. They actually found them (a real shocker). It only gets better: I was flipping through one and kept on wondering, "What's so weird about this textbook?" I couldn't figure it out, but finally I realized - it's a Russian textbook for English speakers! It has instructions, a few translations, enormously helpful grammar instruction ... wow, how amazing! After spending three months working out of an entirely Russian textbook, I didn't even realize I was reading in English. Haha.

2. During exams, I was in the beginning stages of a truly terrific sinus infection. One of my teachers is a very stereotypical Russian babushka, as bossy as they come. She heard me coughing and snuffling and wrote down the name of some Russian super-medicine, which she claimed would cure me after two or three lethal doses. I politely thanked her and was silently greatful to my mother's forethought in sending me some antibiotics. I still have a bit of a sniffle and in class today, she was extremely upset that I had not taken her suggestion. She made me promise I'd stop at the apteka (like a drugstore, but you don't need prescriptions, just ask for whatever you'd like) today. I just nodded and escaped as quickly as I could. I guess no more blowing my nose in class.

3. It's cold. Wow. Looking at the temperature is pretty useless (I can't keep track between celsius and farenheit any more either). The windows in my dorm room close almost all the way, but not quite. I wasn't too concerned; it had actually been so hot in my room that I'd open a window for a few minutes. However, with the heat being scaled back for the holidays (most students leave) and taking a while to come back on, as well as a pretty big drop in temperature, my room has been chilly. As long as I bundle up and move around every once in a while, I stay pretty warm, but sleeping has been an interesting experience. The dorm provides two blankets to each student, but anything more is on you. On Tuesday night, I ended up in bed wearing all of my long underwear, pajamas, and a sweater. At 2 am, I was wondering what else I had in my room that could possibly keep me warm. I ended up back in bed, in my wonderfully warm Russian down jacket. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

I wasn't sure what to do; I didn't want to spend a ton of money on another blanket, but certainly wasn't looking forward to spending the rest of the winter sleeping in my coat. That night around 11 pm, the nicest floor matron knocked on my door and said, "I came to check on you. I thought you might not know how to close Russian windows all the way." She inspected my windows, pronounced it very cold in my room, and said she'd call the repairman to come on Saturday and seal my windows up. She was in such a good mood, laughing and joking with me, that I decided to go out on a limb and ask her if I might have another blanket. As I guessed, I got a lecture about how that wouldn't be fair, she couldn't give out blankets just like that, etc. Then, she grinned and said, "I'll see what I can do." Two minutes later, she was back with the biggest, purplest, wooliest blanket I'd ever seen. Hurrah for God's provision =]

4. Sadly, my favorite roommate Sonya isn't coming back for this semester. She and I had gotten as close our terrible Russian allowed and I was looking forward to another couple months of cooking dinner together, watching American movies with me attempting to translate for her, and fighting with the washing machine for several hours on Sunday evenings (our assigned laundry time).

Thanks for all of the cards, e-mails, packages, and love in the last month! I have a grand dream of answering about a billion e-mails, mailing some postcards, and uploading some pictures this weekend. We'll see how itgoes; I have a page long essay about a Russian translator, his doctor wife, and happy family to memorize for class on Monday.

- Elsbeth

Happy New Year (and pictures)!

Life has slowed down in the last couple weeks, which has been very nice. It's been very nice to have a break from classes, but I'm excited to go back on Monday! Almost everyone on my floor in the dorms went home to Korea/Japan/China for the holidays, so it's very deserted and creepy. In more exciting news, I've got some pictures (and the patience to upload them) today!

This is my roommate Sonya. She's 20, from China, and we have a lot of fun together! She is very interested in all-things-American. She recently attempted to dye her hair brown - an interesting process in which she recruited my help. She loves to make me dinner and always refuses to let me help with the dishes (I do anyway). She's been asking a lot of questions about religion and churches in America and was very excited when I invited her to come to church with me.

Here are Pasha and Deanna, both Korean students. They are the hardest workers in my class and keep me on my toes! Deanna is a Christian and often invites me to tea in her room. Pasha speaks the most English of anyone of my floor and asks me every single morning, "How are you today?"

This is my section, or class (missing a few). Most of them look terribly unhappy, I know. On the far left, bottom row, red sweater, is Peter. He is a Korean pastor and we sit next to each other in class. He's old enough to be my dad, and is always teasing me about how young I am. One day after class, he pulled some money out of his pocket and I decided to turn the tables. I grinned and said, "Oh daddy, is that for me?" He laughed and laughed and from that day on has called me 'dochinka', meaning 'daughter'.

My roommate Liza. She's the cook, as you can tell from her apron. She loves it when I french-braid her hair and is currently learning the name of every imaginable animal from anywhere in English.

And here's our illegal cat, named Tao-Tao and secretely called Chairman Mao (he's very pompous) by yours truly. He is very cute but very loud and begins his yowling every morning around 6 am.

Liza and I.

Me, Liza, and Sonya. Anya, our other roommate doesn't like pictures.

On Monday (Russian Christmas), I spent most of the day peeling enough carrots and potatoes for 70 people. That evening, we went to the homeless shelter (what an amazing place - it's impossible to describe) and ate Christmas dinner with everyone. Every time I go there, I'm blown away by a million things: how much I've been blessed with, the terrible effects of sin in someone's life, how joyful these people who have virtually nothing can be ... If I could, I'd take everyone I know and make them spend a week at the shelter.

So, New Year's greetings from four girls and cat! Thank you for all the e-mails, cards, and calls! I am so excited for a new year, new semester, and a thousand more adventures. One of my (probably futile) resolutions is to do a better job of communicating with everyone at home.

It's gotten very cold in the last week. Temperatures won't be above 0 degrees F for the next week. I can't wait for summer!

Much love to all!
Elsbeth