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Dayton,
soo good to hear from you man. Thanks so much for letting me know about your prayers for me....ROCK ON, BABY! That's what I'm talking about!

Man, to let you know, I am doing GREAT! I really love it here. Kiev as a city is really interesting and huge. There are tons of places to go and things to see here. Great history and lots of remnants of the soviet era. I really love the people here as well. I get along well with my team and they have helped me out tons during this transition time. I really don't mind the weather at all. Its like teens and 20's here during the days and snows a little just about every day. Is it that cold or colder in Minneapolis?

I can't really describe it, but being here is just natural. There are so many things that aren't natural about it...like the language barrier, but for some reason I just feel like I'm home...or close to it. I just took my second language lesson yesterday and am realizing that this is going to be tough. I really want to learn though and I can't wait to begin speaking russian with my collegues. I'm only using small phrases mixed in with my english at the moment.

Everything is an adventure for me here...even going shopping. Is this can tuna or prawns? Is it spiced or not? Is it is water or oil? who the heck knows, I'll just buy it. Riding the metro is crazy too. At the peak hours, we are crammed in like sardines, no room to move at all. You are smelling and touching everyone around you...I don't know how I'll deal with it when it gets hot out.

I usually get around by walking...I only live like 10-15 mins walk from work and the supermarket. The metro ($.10 per trip) is about 15mins away as well. They have a tram ($.10 per trip) that runs certain places, so I take that too. But they also have these little vans or microbuses called "Marshcutka"s. They have many different numbers and each one goes different places. They are relatively cheap too...anywhere from $.15-$.40 per trip. I haven't learned how to tell the driver to stop at particular places yet, so it really is an adventure never knowing whether I will be relatively close to my stop or not.

Most of the older people don't speak english, but it seems like many of the young people do...at least to an extent. all my coworkers speak english so that has helped a lot. ummm what else...I'm trying to answer all of you questions...

so far, I have spent one weekend at home by myself, and the other one I spent with some american missionaries here. I went to an international church last sunday and the service was in english. Its been really good to start to hook into the expatriate crowd here. There were actually a bunch of african expats at this church. and by african I mean from africa...not african americans... It was crazy cause I didn't think I would see any black people here at all...this city has it all...

work is slow at the moment so that is good for my language study. I am helping to re-dub some of our materials into russian, but as I can't understand the language, I can't help too much. Things will pick up in the spring though, once we have some events to film and stuff.

Well, this email is long as it is....I should probably just put this on the blog...
I gotta go, but drop me a line and let me know how things are going for you...thank you so much for all of your prayers. Know that I am walking down the path of grace and it is paved with your prayers....

much love from your slightly less hansome brother in Christ,
Jared

PS-All the rumors were true...the women here are hot...and tall. I've never seen so many girls that are my type in one place before...it is redonkulous. However, my Iranian friend Kamran says that I should not date or marry one of these women because they are skinny and pretty now, but later on they become large babuskas that beat their husbands...some food for thought...