Prague Holiday

I'm finally getting around to writing a small post about our trip to Prague! We were able to get away from Kharkov and spend a week with the McDougle family in Prague a couple weeks ago. Thankfully for us, we arrived just before the volcano erupted in Ieland, and the flights from Prague to Kiev resumed the day before we were scheduled to return! Of course, David was hoping we might get "stuck" for a few more days, but we were fine in the end. :)

Prague was a really neat city, the streets were just beautiful. The colors of the buildings were pretty each street and sidewalk was made of cobblestones. I think the majority of the rooftops in Prague are red, something you can even pick out as you're flying into the city. Three famous sites we were able to see were Charles Bridge, the Astronomical Clock Tower (in Old Square), and Prague Castle, all very nice. On the right are two pictures from the castle, one of a street called Golden Lane which was formally living quarters and workshops for the workers at the castle, and the other is a little view looking in the castle grounds (including the massive cathedral). I think the clock tower was our favorite (picture to the left). Every hour the clock puts on a show for the tourists and the little windows open up and the twelve apostles move across, two at a time. We were also able to go up into the tower and look out over the town, which was especially fun.

While we were there, our friends from Legacy (Collin, Marissa, and Caden McCormick) who are currently living in Germany, drove in for the weekend to meet up with us and see Prague. It was such a neat surprise and we had a really great time together! It was also our first time to meet their 9 month old son, Caden. (See picture to the left of Caden and David.) Anyway, they came in Friday night and stayed until Sunday afternoon. On Sunday morning, we were able to worship together with the church in Prague, which was really encouraging. Of course their meeting was in Czech, but the preacher there would summarize what he was saying in English for us. It was neat to worship together with another part of the body! We had a great time with the McCormicks... thanks so much for coming!!

Speaking of the language... although Czech is also a Slavic language, we were really only able to catch a word or two every so often that was the same or similar as Russian, so we were really blessed that so many in Prague spoke in English. In fact, we did almost all of our communication in English. For the couple of times when they didn't understand English, we were able to communicate in Russian. It was nice that we were able to fall back on that!

One of the best things about Prague was being able to have what we can't have in Ukraine. For example: Subway, KFC, Starbucks, Mexican food... yumm! (The picture to the left was taken at our favorite Mexican place.) We only have one American chain, McDonalds, in Kharkov, so it was so nice eating our other favorites we don't normally get to enjoy. David and I also were able to go see two movies, in English. In Kharkov, the only option of seeing movies in theaters up until recently has been to view them in Ukrainian (which we don't understand at all). Now, however, we are be able to start seeing shows in Russian, according to the changes made by the new President. Anyway... the food was fabulous and made the trip GREAT!

We also made a day trip to the Prague Zoo which was actually really nice! David went early to start looking around, and the rest of us joined him a little over an hour later. We all looked around, seeing some of the big animals, then the McDougles left and David and I stayed around for a couple more hours to see just a bit more. The grounds were really well laid out, but we especially liked the area they kept the giraffes. They were all indoors at that time, but the glass windows were you could view them were probably about two stories high. You were able to view the giraffes on the same level, so it really showed how massive they are!!

For those interested, we would definitely recommend Prague as a good holiday spot! (But, come see us in Ukraine too, of course!)

A little bit of this... and that.

Stamp... and it's official.
Several months ago we girls decided it would be a good thing to get a flugraphia, a simple chest x-ray that tells if you have TB or not. Of course, none of us thought we had TB, we just knew the importance of the document saying we didn't have TB. Denyce and I were hoping to get pregnant in the next year and Lucy went ahead and did one as well since she was with us and showing us the way to the clinic. Without this document, you aren't allowed to go swimming in certain gyms here and if you're pregnant or in need of hospitalization, they have the right to put you in the room with other patients who are infected with TB. Lucy's old neighbor was a nurse and explained to Lucy where to go to get it all taken care of. It was such an interesting, yet such a typical Ukrainian experience, I thought I'd share it with you. First we went to the hospital to pay for the exam. We had to wait in line for the elevator and it was basically whoever jumps in first, but only 4 people were allowed at a time. (Yes, there was a nurse there who was yelling insistently "Only 4 people!" when more than 4 would try to get in.) From there we went to a desk where we told the receptionist what we wanted, and we paid for it. It cost us each $2.25! From there we left and went to another building down the street and found the waiting room. Flugraphias are common here, so there were a at least 10 people ahead of us. Most lines here in Ukraine work the same: you show up, ask who's last, and then say, "I'm after you." Then you have to listen for the next person who comes in to be able to say you're last and merely keep up with the person who you said you'd be after. This system works so that you can leave and come back and still have the same place in line. So, we declared our place and waited. They took 5 of us at a time into the back room where we showed them our ID and the lady behind the desk wrote down our names, address, and telephone in a regular notebook. (Of course, no computers anywhere.) From there we had our x-ray. That was a funny experience with our limited Russian. We had to remove our jewelry (which we understood since she pointed to them) and Denyce had to move her hair out of the way. I was first and Lucy had told me beforehand that we'd have to hold our breath during the x-ray, so when she spouted off something in Russian and walked away, I just assumed it was "hold your breath." So, I did... and then a couple seconds later started thinking "For how long?" and "Did she mean now?" Thankfully it didn't take long to hear a click and then hear her tell me we were done. :) Then they gave us a slip of paper with our name and the x-ray number and told us to come back the next day. The next day, we showed up, gave her our paper, she stamped it and that was it. The funny thing was the paper... I'm posting a picture here.
It's torn out of a simple notebook with my name written in Russian and a stamp. After we left, we all looked at the stamp and it contained the word "вeз" which means "without" so we all figured we all tested negative. We all laugh over the fact that stamps make everything official here, and this is prime example of how this simple paper is official, all because of that stamp and our names scribbled on top.

A few things from a Russian History Book
I'm about half-way done with this book a friend of mine from the states sent me. The book, Land of the Firebird, the Beauty of Old Russia by Suxanne Massie is great, I'm thoroughly enjoying it. Here are a few things I've enjoyed learning about this culture that I thought I'd share with you. These are just too accurate not to share and some are really quite interesting:

• The Prince of Kiev, Vladimir, back in 987, was responsible for bringing the Eastern Orthodox religion into Russia's lives. He apparently was seeking something that would suite his people and their tastes. In the process, he rejected numerous religions including the Moslem religion because Russians wouldn't be allowed to drink and the Jewish religion because they were cursed to wander the world. Finally he decided to adopt what he found in Greece because it's beauty was captivating. If you've been inside an older Orthodox cathedral, you will agree they certainly are beautiful.
  
• The church fathers who helped create the calendar for Russia, based their dates on when they assumed creation happened. They "argued persuasively that the world had to have been created in September, or else how could there have been apples to tempt Eve?". David and I got a good kick out of that one. From their work, our calendar over here has different dates for many Christian holidays including Easter and Christmas.
  
• The early Tsars had their own terem, or house of women. These women went to great lengths to beautify themselves for the tsar and were not usually seen by the outside world. I found it really interesting that they thought blackening their teeth with mercury made them more beautiful as well as blackening the whites of their eyes. The whites of their eyes! If they got sick, the doctor was allowed to come into a darkened room and diagnosis what was wrong by feeling their pulse on their wrist which was covered with a cloth.
  
• Mikhail Lomonosov wrote this of the Russian language that really does a great job explaining the complexity of Russian: it is "the splendor of Spanish, the vivacity of French, the strength of German, the tenderness of Italian and the power of expression of Latin and Greek." Yep, that about sums it all up!
  

Exciting News!

This last Tuesday afternoon I was blessed to experience one of the greatest feelings. I was able to stand in a doctors office and watch, on a monitor, our child moving around inside Olivia. That's right, Olivia is pregnant once again! We have known that she has been pregnant for almost the last 3 months (she's in her 12th week right now), but we wanted to wait until the end of the first trimester as well as check everything out before we announced the pregnancy.

Because of our miscarriage last year, this pregnancy brought with it a lot more fears and worries as to what was happening with the baby. Morning sickness (really all day sickness) has been a big thing in this pregnancy, something that she didn't experience with our first pregnancy. Still, we didn't know how the baby actually was which was difficult. This last week as we went in for the ultrasound, we were filled with relief and joy. It was so great to see and hear the baby's heart beating as well as watch the baby jump around inside Olivia.

We are very excited! And we are more confident now that this time everything will go well. The doctor was able to check the health and development of the baby, looking for any indications that the baby has any birth defects or serious problems. And we are so thankful that as far as the doctor could see, the baby is in perfect health. Right now the baby is about 5cm long (2 inches) from head to bum. In the pictures you are able to see it's hands and feet (10 fingers, and 10 toes), all is well and we are pleased.

Thank you all for your prayers. As of now we are planning on getting all of our prenatal care here in Kharkov, then going to Kiev to deliver. There is a European clinic there we visited in January that we feel will be able to provide anything we need to deliver the baby without any problems. Keep praying for us, and especially for Olivia. She is the one that is dealing with all the sickness and aches, all I have to do is wash a few extra dishes and cook a few more meals.

Here is a very short video of the baby. I think it has the hiccups, cause it jumped around like this for ages. I know that it is all blurry, but if you notice the extra blurry bit in the middle of the baby's chest, you are looking at the heart beating. The was the most significant part for me, cause when I saw the heart beating, I knew that my baby was alive!

Getting from here to there... via Russian

I'm sure many of you are wondering why we still keep talking about learning Russian. We've been here for almost 16 months... and we still aren't fluent? That's right... far from it. Our language has been improving and we are pleased with our progress, but the more we learn the more we realize we have a long way to go still. So, here's what we're doing right now in our language studies:

Going how?
We are currently knee-deep in Глаголы движения (verbs of motion) in our language studies. Basically, verbs of motion are how you get around: whether by walking, running, driving, biking, swimming, flying, etc. It's a big switch for us English speakers because we can no longer simply say "I went to the store," we have to be specific and tell how we went, for example, "I ran to the store" or "I drove to the store."
And, it doesn't just stop there. We're also learning 12 prefixes to go with these specific verbs. Here are the prefixes:
в- - in
вы- - out
до- - as far as, reach
за- - drop in, stop by
об- - around
от- - away
пере- - across
под- - approach
при- - arrival
про- - through, pass
с- - down from
у- - from
So far, we've learned 11 out of these 12 prefixes. So if we want to say we went into the store, we know which prefix to use. If we want to say we walked to the post office, but stopped by the store, we know how to say that too. Our talking basically goes like this: "I.... (really long pause as we try to figure out how to say it all)... ran around the park." (Or through the park, or near the park, or away from the park, etc.) Most of the time, we come up with something, even if it's not perfect, but sometimes, it's just too much thinking and we abandon what were going to say and end our "I..." with "... nevermind!" :)
And it doesn't stop there either. For each verb, we still have to learn the six different ways to conjugate each verb in the present tense, plus the three different ways in past tense, plus the six different ways in the perfect tenses. (I think I wrote that all right?!) Thankfully, our friends are patient people.

Teamwork
On a good day, we understand between 30-60% of conversation. It's a hard place to be... and a dangerous one. We understand quite a bit, but not being able to understand half of what they're saying means we miss a lot as well. We especially feel this when we're in a Bible study or discussion with someone. We think we understand what they're saying, but really, we're just doing our best to guess what their saying. Thankfully, we do our best to work as a team. That means after our conversations, we get together and put together what we understood to make sense of it. So far, it seems to be working... or at least we think it does! Either we are using our teamwork to make sense of it or we're all very creative. :)

Still Getting There...
But, here's the real lesson we're learning and most thankful for: it's not up to us. If it were, we'd all be in trouble and in the wrong line of work. We're learning to do what we can and then leave the rest up to God. I'd love to be able to say we've got that down at least, but... we don't. It's not always easy to leave it up to God. It's frustrating and we're still learning patience. So, like our verbs of motion, we're learning how to get to that point as well... via Russian.