"Classic Russian Experience"

I have not begun to work with the Butterfly Camp (the handicapped camp) yet, so this week was spent leisurely touring the city and learning how to get around it.  On Thursday, I went to visit the Wycliffe office that Deb works at, where we had a prayer meeting with Bible translators from all over the world.  There were so many cool accents!  After that, I went to the Hermitage (Thursdays are free).  I saw some Michelangelo (The Crouching Boy), Leonardo da Vinci (Madonna and Child), Rembrandt (The Prodigal Son), and some mummies.

     Yesterday (Friday, Sept. 6th), was a day I'll remember for a long time.  I woke up at 9am, played guitar and wrote in my journal until 11. Then I took a nap to combat jet-lag.  Nice morning.  Then Deb took me to a Georgian restaurant, where we had a 2 hour meal of eggplant, tomatoes, grilled cheesy naan bread, spinach and nuts, and shish-kabobs. It was delicious!  On the way home, I was taking the metro home when I got taken aside by the police and told to step into a little glass room.  They checked me for weapons and let me go.  I guess I look like a southern criminal.  Must be my nose...  

     When I got home I left with John to go to a local gym to play basketball with Kurt and his team. That was fun, but exhausting as I have done no physical activity since my high-school's alumni soccer game.  

     At 9:45pm, Kurt and I went to meet with Lewis and Petyr (a Russian midget from the Butterfly Camp) to go to a banya.  We were supposed to meet at the metro at 9:30, but Lewis didn't show up until 10:30.  We then walked in a random direction for a half hour. We had to walk slowly due to Petyr's short legs.  He really likes to try and speak English! But he's super hard to understand.  After walking and walking, Lewis finally decided to tell us that he didn't get the reservation he wanted, and that we didn't get the banya (which was private) until 12:30!  Soooo we walked down to the Bay of Finland to see the giant port and huge cruise ships, and then headed back to the banya.  We saw dozens and dozens of big G20 buses in a row, and tons of Mercedes.  At one point, there were no cars on a street but black Mercedes!  That was the most evidence I've seen of the G20.

     Since we didn't know exactly where the banya was, we walked miles and miles to find it. Remember I was already super duper sore from basketball….  We finally did find it, though, and I was very much looking forward to it by that point.

     We stayed there for 2 hours, sitting in a steaming sauna, jumping into a freezing pool, taking a cold and hot shower simultaneously, relaxing in a hot tub, standing in a place where water shoots at you from all directions, dumping buckets of ice water on our heads, whipping our backs, legs, and chests with birch branches, playing pool, and singing karaoke.  

     So the 2 hours actually went fast, and then we walked back to the metro in the cold night at 2:45 in the morning.  We stopped at a 24 hour shaverma shop and ate one each (they are kind of like gyros), and then all went back and slept in our apartment.  I was soooo tired.  

    Today we bought a soccer ball, cuz there is a little field about 4 minutes away that is always open.  So yeah that's about it.  It's like France except the air is sea-fresh!  It's beautiful to breathe here.  

God Bless!