bears, beets, battlestar galactica

After a lovely week at camp, Susan and I were invited to spend the weekend with our new friend Vera. She and I were co-counselors with group 6 (boys and girls ages 9-11). Her english is excellent. Friday was my birthday, and her parents prepared a special Russian meal with beautiful vegetables from her mother's garden. We even had cake! After dinner we played UNO for hours. It was great practice for learning our Russian numbers and colors. Vera's parents understand a lot of English, but speak very little. There was a moment when I looked up at the evening sky (which was oddly still very light even late in the evening) and thought about how beautiful this scene was. What a beautiful gift: a portrait of peace between two countries that have been enemies for most of the last century. I remember a lot from the evening, mostly laughter, but I do not remember feeling the presence of any kind of language barrier.

Today we spent some time with our friend Rusilia. We had lunch at her house: Borsht. It was delicious. We also saw a lot of Yoshkar-Ola. It is a nice city. There are trolley buses and lots of wonderful food. Our professor told us that we would probably lose weight here, but we doubt it. We've been eating a lot.

I've enjoyed this weekend of rest, but I must confess that I am ready to get back to camp. One of my other co-counselors, Katya, is also studying speech therapy. It should be interesting to see how our relationship works out since she speaks even less english than I speak Russian. Our other co-counsleor's name is Andre Georgovich. He speaks a substantial amount of english, so that is helpful.

Camp has already become a second home for me, and despite the mosquitos, I am ready to get back. Hopefully I will be able to write more soon!

стоп

стоп means stop. It's actually pronounced that way as well. That is how the signs at intersections are marked in moscow. My Russian alphabet skills have come in handy so far. The weather here is gorgeous, and since my flight got in about eight hours before everybody else's, my professor, Gwynn, and I are being given a private tour of the motherland's capital by a local guy that works for CCUSA.

Almost all of the metro stations have some kind of monument marking them. My roommate in the hotel is another program participant from Australia. Should be interesting. Can't drink the water here. No windows in the airport, but the city is much brighter than I had imagined.

Once again, this 800 year old city boasts a fascinating blend of ancient and contemporary architecture. So far we ate a restaurant called my-my [moo moo]. I had some weird Russian wild mushroom salad and these little cheesecake things with strawberry dipping sauce. I really need to pull my camera out and start taking pictures.

After lunch, we walked up the street to see the old KGB building and a beautiful little russian orthodox church. There are hundreds of some kind of tree here that are giving off small wisps of cotton-like seed pods, so although it is a clear sunny day, it looks like its snowing. Next I believe we are headed to red square. I'm excited to see Lenin and the Kremlin.

I'm not sure when I'll be able to post another entry, but I will try to do so sooner than later. Certainly I will have had some time to be able to offer a better sample of writing.

breakfast in new york

Breakfast in New York
And I know that we’re dreaming
Drunken conversations and the things we were scheming
To get out of this town and take a trip underground
-Oppenheimer

Spent the last two days in the big apple. The city is surprisingly beautiful in the summer - trees line many of the streets, and the park is full of thick green grass. It's hot. 102 yesterday. In Yoshkar-Ola it was snowing, so we're looking forward to perhaps some cooler weather in a few days.

I've never spent any time here in the summer, nor have I been to the upper west side. It's like an entirely different city altogether. Columbia is like a little garden. The campus is quiet. I have a great view out of my window in my room on the east side of the eighth floor. Dad flew up here with me yesterday and we visited the Museum of Natural History and ate sandwiches in the park. I've really enjoyed getting to know my travel-class-mates: Renee, Susan, Amy, Denny, Jacob, Taylor, and Darcy. Last night we went to a Mets game. Renee, Darcy, Amy, and I made a trip down to Herald Square this afternoon. Tonight we're going to eat at a cuban restaurant a couple blocks from here on Broadway.

Tomorrow is going to be the longest mega-day of my life. I'll wake up at 5:00 AM, catch the M-60 bus at the corner of Broadway and 116th to La Guardia - fly to Atlanta at 9:00 AM, arrive around 11:30 AM, meet dad at Hartsfield, depart for Moscow at 4:30 PM, arrive at 10:30 AM the next day. My plan is to sleep as much as possible.

I miss you all and will update as soon as possible.

Lena Gomolka

I come from a long line of bag ladies. My great-great grandmother, Lena Gomolka, arrived on Ellis Island shortly after World War I at the age of nineteen. All of her belongings were packed neatly into half-a-dozen-or-so mismatched bags. She had spent the previous several years of her life working in eastern Poland's potato fields, where her first baby was born. Apparently, after giving birth in the middle of a field, she wrapped him up like a papoose and kept working. She passed away shortly after my father was born in 1964, so I don't know very much else about her youth, but when she got older, she had beautiful long white hair. She outlived her husband, Peter, by 25 years, living on her own despite the invitations of her children into their homes.

And not one motion her gesture could I forget,
the prettiest bag lady I ever met...
Pushing her cart in the rain, then gathering plastic and glass
She watched the day pass
Not hour by hour, but pain by pain.
-mewithoutYou, Paper-Hanger

Most of the ladies in my family have carried painful burdens in their bags: alcoholism, abusive husbands, divorce, depression, sickness, poverty, prejudice and racism, heartaches, teen pregnancy, and the curse of the extra-wide polish birthing hips. But they have also carried joy and laughter, a love for singing although we are terrible at it, resourcefulness, olive complexion, large green eyes, and a knack for baking and gardening.

Although I carry some of the things I've inherited from Lena, like her pride and independent spirit, the Lord has helped me to drop the pain of the many of life's troubles along my journey. He's filled my bags with peace, confidence, climbing shoes, joy, education, memories with great friends, books, a huge and loving abnormally-configurated family, grace, passions for problem-solving, mountains, children, and so many more things.

Please share what you know about your heritage.