My SOVIET life...

Just a note: Leslie took all of these pics, so Sim, you can thank her for the insight into my everyday life. I just always forget to take pics. I'd even forgotten that some of this stuff is not so normal in the states. So here goes...


This is the little orthodox church near my house. They have little ones like this all over the place here. Old people go here on Sat. nights and Sundays.

The canal that seperates me from the island of Rusonovka. That's right, I live next door to an island.

This is the canal and pedestrian bridge just a 2 min walk from my building. I used to swim in this thing during the summer. Lot's of old guys fish in there. Me and my old roomate threw rotten watermelons of that bridge one time. They completely disentegrated upon contact with the surface of the river. It was really cool.


There are lots of new buildings being built all over this city. This is just down the street from me. They have the crews working 24hrs a day...I know cause I see the welding flashing at night.


This is my Building. 9 stories of concrete goodness.....SOVIET concrete goodness!!!


There is no parking here in Kiev, so parking and driving on sidewalks is a common occurance.

This is our trash lady who is always picking up around our dumpster. I don't know who pays her...maybe it's the state....the SOVIET STATE!!!!


I have never actually seen these flowers anywhere near my building, but Leslie found them somewhere.


My building's front entrance. It looks ohh so...ummmm.....SOVIET!!!

Our stairwell...and yes it smells as bad as it looks.

The inside of my front door. We have a outer wooden door and an inner leather covered door. I don't know what the second one is foor, but I'm glad that we have it. It's prettier than the other.
Here's my old roomate's room. I may be moving into this one soon.
Please note the gas stove from the 1940s. It's a rare piece because it's such an antique. It may be old, but you better believe it can still burn your biscuits...oh yes it can.

That's enough for now. Come visit me sometime.

Fall hike

Jordan came up this weekend with Hal and we met up with Pop to hang out for the weekend. We stayed at my house Friday night and left Sat morning to hike Stone Mountain. Man it was gorgeous...







Midway through Hal dropped the snack pack down the face of the rock. Luckily a sapling sprouting from the rock face snagged it on the way down. Jordan, in a harrowing attempt of machismo retrieved it without breaking a sweat.


Then we had a our drinks on Coke rock and poured one out for the lost mercenary Jared.





Pop and Nina had to cut it short to make it to Winston,


but not before seeing this:


and a little of thissss......


aight? laterer

If you are interested...

I feel like I'm on the edge of the boat getting ready to step off and climb into a big yellow bus thats teetering on edge of the cliff, full of people who think its their time to die, sitting motionless in their seats. Weird. Anyway, that makes no sense to you but it does to me. You can ask me about it if you like, but the truth is I want there to be transition in my life. I need change.

"Inspirational quote from a Shakespeare play here."-Shakespeare.

I always seem to update this piece when I'm in my contemplative mood, which obviously doesnt happen often given the frequency of my updates. Anyway, I just want to let you know whats happened in the last month thats worth mentioning on here. Well, where to begin?
So I went to Atlanta with Jordan and Joel in the middle of Sept. one rainy Tuesday night after work. Why you ask? To meet and greet BT and catch the debut of his CD/DVD release of This Binary Universe. Actually, you probably havent even heard of the guy but his music blows my gord and I've listened to it nearly nonstop since I got it on August 29th. So we got to hear the music and watch the seven short films inspired by it on the big screen with him as our host. After the movie he spoke for over an hour about the project, all the time Jordan, Joel and I bursting with inspiration. Thats the beauty of it I think, I listen to it and its inspiring along with being beautiful and complex. Anyway, the afterparty (which consisted of about 25 people) was where it was really at. We got to meet him personally and ask him some questions, chiefly: "where do you draw your inspiration?" which he immediately recognized as a query of his spirituality with his response: "If you're asking me whether or not I go to church, the answer is yes." Now I know not to equate going to church with knowing God, but there is something about his music that doesn't leave you wondering whether or not you've just been taken advantage of and leads me to believe he does know God. Hows that for a run-on sentence; and a misuse of a semicolon. Anyway, I could go into more detail but I just think you need to get the album.
Next on the list is getting to spend time with Joel Simmons himself. Joel and I lived together up on Apple Hill for those all so necessary desert seasons of our lives and also is responsible for introducing me to BT, whom he really admires and respects. Joel is part Dr. Emmit Brown, part BT and part Jesus, oh and part funny comedian. Anyway, we've been friends since the days of the Coffee Tavern and in the past month we've gotten to hang out a bit, despite our busy schedules....Including last weekend where I got to sit in on a worship night with Steven Roach, Joel and Johnny Helser. Aside from a part in Stevens song where I played a B-fart, I had an aweseome time. Then we went home and he gave me a bunch of ringtones and woke up to Car Talk on NPR (one of the highlights of the Saturdays of my youth).



The week before that I got to be a part of my friend Brian and Danas wedding and played the guitar as they walked the beaches of Folly to wedded bliss! Thanks Katie Grimes for accompanying me on such a long car ride. You made it awesome/funny. The Krew (Jordan, Me, Katie, Jessica and Chris(team Griffin)) challenged the Stairstep crew to a little battle in which we clearly served 'em. But it was awesome to spend some time with people that I love so much and rarely get to see, including Wes Reardon, Kyle Sox, Shaggy and Christy Sadreameli...et al. Congratulations Brian and Dana!



Crap, this is getting long and I have to go to bed....remind me to tell you about last week with Chad and Bobby my family (phew, we're gonna need a couch for that one) and Mike and Nicoles wedding. My life is good, no matter how hard it may seem at times. Laura, I'm so glad to know you. I hope you know that. I have great syblings, parents and friends who love me. I love you guys, seriously...the same....but in different ways.
Simeon out

Odessa bound...

I'm here in the office trying to get all of the media stuff ready before me and my co-worker, Marina, meander our way down to Odessa via an overnight train. I'm sure it sounds exciting to everyone, but let me assure you that it smells much worse than you are imagining. I'm not looking forward to the train ride.
We are in 3rd class...I've never ridden anything else...and its all open cabins and smelly bathrooms that flush directly on the tracks. Not exactly as civilized as one would hope, my good man.

I'll have to write more about the trains here as time goes on. I'll try to take some pics on this ride down so that you can see what I'm talking about.

So I'm tired, and not exactly looking forward to this 12 hr. train ride. But whatever, i'm feeling young and adventurous all of a sudden as I type. It beats being in the office. Plus I'll get to take a few days off since I'm working over the weekend.

When we get back Mon. morning, our director, Jason, from England should be here. He'll stay with me in my flat. He's cool we should have some fun. I enjoy talking with him and see a lot I can learn in terms of leadership. He'll be here till friday, and then on the following Mon. my good college friend Leslie comes in for a few days from sunny San Diego.

We outta have some fun going around the city, doing all the touristy things I haven't done yet. It's always good to be with old friends who just get you. I'm looking forward to it...eeeeeemensly.

Anecdote from today:
So i went out into the market area with a couple of stores and lots of kiosks. I stopped in at this little food shop and asked for a hot dog. I saw a couple of guys with some hot dogs from there and they look decent, so i decided to try. So I ordered them, and the lady looks at me like I am an idiot for saying "hot dog" the way that I just did. I guess my american accent was really showing through, since I was pronouncing an american word.

Anyway, she then procedes to ask my if I want one dog or two (they were kinda small)...but she asked if I wanted it "with 1 or with 2". Believe it or not, this is a phrase that I have never before heard in Russian. When you use the preposition "with" you then have to put the nouns in a different case...the instrumental case. But the thing with russian is that you always have to change the vowels so that they are in the right case. And usually, the vowels can sound completely different from one case to the next.

For example: 2 is normally "dva"....but when you put it in the instrumental case it becomes (sss dvoo-ma) or something like that. I'm still not sure what she said. I just nodded and said "dva" like a complete idiot.

Stuff like this happens a lot. But I'm learning not to care about looking and sounding stupid. I still care...but facing that sad fact everyday is helping me come to terms with it.

So I'm outta time, gotta get going to catch my train. Much love from here.

If you would, right now pray for our travels down there and back. Pray for the kids that are going to be at this retreat. Pray that the technical stuff would go over without a hitch. Pray that these students would see Jesus and fall in love with him.

Jerry-boy out.