Blog Entry for September 27, 2010

Today was the first day of DTS. It was pretty spectacular. Kyle and Anya spoke for a bit and Lance, our DTS leader guy, gave the rest of the lectures. We had an intercessory prayer time with the Biblical Studies group from upstairs and did some chores and ate food and such. I cleaned a nasty stove and got some unidentified substance all over me, but it was all good. :D

In the evening, we walked over to “the office.” It’s a few minutes from base. We had supper there and sat and talked. Afterward, Jessica, Marta, the two new girls in our apartment (Marsha and Oksana), and I walked back to the apartment. We got a little lost. :D Actually, a lot lost. We just kind of meandered around and asked people where the super market was until we eventually found the RIGHT super market and the right apartment.

Some little boys tried to talk to me about a dog. I know this because I know the word for dog. It’s, like, one of the only words I know. Hah! I now know yes, no, dog, God, Lord, carrot, and what. It’s rather hard for me to remember new words, especially since they’re written with a different alphabet. I can’t really see what the words look like. I can’t wait until I know my Cyrillic alphabet! All I know so far is that the Ps are Rs and the Cs make the S sound and K makes the K sound. T is T. I and E are the same or very similar. I still haven’t quite figured that out yet. I think H might be N. The X with a line through it makes the “zh” sound. So, I guess, I know a little bit, but not enough to read words. The only word I have successfully read is market, which is written “MAPKET.” So, yeah, the boys asked me about the dog. I think they asked if it was mine. I said, “dog?” and “no,” back in Russian. Oy.

We all say “oy” a bunch, too.

So, the base is a boat, and it is super duper. Sometimes it sways on the waves. It’s a weird feeling, but it’s pretty fun. I’m enjoying getting to know all the people here. I don’t know what they say, usually, but I can watch them, and it’s pretty great. A lot of the Ukrainians know a little bit of English. We all get along quite well. Some of the DTSers are really good at English. Svinge is from Azerbaijan and she speaks phenomenal English. Erin is from Atlanta, Georgia and has been a missionary kid in Russia for seven years, so she speaks both English and Russian. I stick around her a bit. :D

Oksana speaks a little bit of English, but Marsha doesn’t. But, all in all, we get along quite well. It makes me pretty happy. I’m making friends. I tried playing Fooseball with some of the peoples. Oksana and I won twice, but that was mostly because she was pretty great and I had occasional luck.

Last night, I showed Oksana and Marsha my Mario and Metroid games. They were cheering me on and yelling at me in Russian. It was pretty epic. Also, Marta can sing songs like, Undignified, Big House, and Pharoah Pharoah. She learned them at camp. That was all fun. Lance knows Trogdor. And Erin is just all-around awesome.