Novosibirsk Part 10 : Our Church

Thankfully the church we attended was only a few minutes walk....actually the church was located in the same building as the training center that Jon taught at so it was very convenient.

  

We took this picture right before leaving for our first Sunday

at our church.

A typical Sunday morning in most churches of Russia.  

Babushkas make up for most of the congregation. 

Our church choir.

Our pastor making announcements at the closing of the 

church service with Jojo in his arms.   Jojo kept smiling 

at him, so our pastor just grabbed him and took him up

front with him!

Jojo and I with Frank and Carol Pass celebrating

something after church.  We are so thankful for their

friendship during the time we lived in Novosibirsk.

Novosibirsk Part 9: Our Neighborhood

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We lived on the outskirts of Akadem Gorodok and outside the city 

center in what was called the "Micro Region "Shaw" ".  It was a 

pretty decent neighborhood with a lot of convenient spots.  This

is the grocery store that was located across the street from us.  This is 

also where I learned the art of "when in Rome do as the Romans

do"........one day I was doing my grocery shopping and I noticed that

people were lining up at the bread counter so I joined in and dis-

covered that around 1:00 every day they brought out fresh, piping hot 

bread!  It was absolutely delicious.  

 

This is one of the strollers we had for Jojo.  It was a stand up stroller

which also converted to a carrier.  We would get so many stares.

People would literally point at us whenever we'd go out on a walk. 

It was also a great conversation starter because every once in a

while people would stop us and ask us how the stroller worked!

 

We also lived right on the edge of a forest.  This is a Russian Orthodox

church that was located right on the very edge.  

 

We lived on Demakova Street and this is a statue

of Mr. Demakova!  No one could really tell us who

he was but I think he was some sort of political 

figure or war hero!!!

  

The local outdoor market was located within a 5 minute walk.  This

was our "cookie" lady.  She had the best chocolate covered

macaroons! We've never been able to find them in Samara.

 

This was our produce lady.  She was super sweet!

 

And this is the bus that we took to get to New York Pizza.  One of

the main transport stops was right across the street from our building!

Novosibirsk Part 8 : Montessori

Shortly after I met Natasha she told me that she took her son Vanya to a Montessori mommy and me class and asked if I wanted to go.  The best part about it was that it was located at the entrance right next door to ours.  Once a week, Jojo and I went to this Montessori class.  He absolutely loved it and it was great for me to meet other moms and spend more time with Natasha.

 

 

Jojo loved getting a hold of his teacher's pens and writing all over her 

papers and she didn't mind one bit.

 

It was always so funny trying to get the little ones to crawl through

this "tunnel".  They always stopped midway and didn't want to get out.

 

This was his teacher Neela.  She really enjoyed

her job and was great with all the little kids.

Novosibirsk Part 7: My Friend Natasha

Natasha was our neighbor Nadia's daughter.  When we invited Nadia to our Christmas party we also asked her to bring along her daughter and her family.  Natasha was also a life saver, I really don't know what I would have done without her.

Here's Natasha, her husband Igor and their little guy Vanya!

I didn't think they would come to our party but I am so thankful

that they did.  After this night Natasha and I were inseparable.

Here we are in Natasha's kitchen.  This was a celebration

for Vanya's birthday.......the naked one in the background!

Natasha and I went on walks almost every single day.  It

was great because otherwise I think I would have stayed

inside our apartment all winter.  

Jojo and Vanya were great buds.  They loved hanging out

together.  I'd love to see them together now!

I wonder how many miles we walked that year!  We were 

always out exploring.

On Easter we went to Natasha's place and hand made

polmenis (Russian dumplings).  They were absolutely

delicious!  

Novosibirsk Part 5: Learning A New Language

One of the hardest things about living in Russia is the language barrier.  When we arrived we really couldn't get by at all.  Jon lived in Moscow for a summer as a college student but he only knew "touristy" Russian......that  barely got us by.  We took language lessons together twice a week for a total of 4 hours a week and that was it plus the fact that our teacher went away with her mathematician husband to a speaking engagement in Scotland in the month of November, only two months after our arrival.  But we did our best to learn as much as possible.  Svetlana, our language teacher, was a feisty older woman who came to our home which was extremely convenient.  She also spoke perfect English and we learned a lot about the Russian culture from her.

Here we are in our home with her.  She had us over for tea

one day.

Here's Jon, Jojo, and Judy (Jon's mom) in 

front of Svetlana's house in the forest.

We had to rely a lot on the help of other Russians who spoke English to get by the first few weeks in order to buy all the stuff for our home.  One time I got really sick with a high fever and severe pain on my side.  I actually ended up being hospitalized and this was only  weeks after our arrival.  All I could really say in Russian was "My name is Natalia" and "I don't understand Russian."  Boris, Jon's translator had to accompany me in the ambulance to the hospital and translate for me with all the doctors.  They thought I had appendicitis and were going to operate on me but thankfully all my blood counts were normal and other tests didn't show any signs of an appendicitis.  Boris couldn't stay with me the whole time so I ended up in a room with 6 other women not being able to communicate anything.  I was terrified of course but in all honesty those women were so nice and caring for me.  They nurtured me and treated me like their daughter.  After 24 hours I was feeling much better but the doctors wanted to keep me in the hospital for several days to "observe", thankfully our language teacher showed up and demanded that I be released.  I wish I understood everything she said to the doctors but she was really letting them have it and was able to get me set free after I signed a letter.

I also remember every time that I had to go to the grocery store I would get so sick to my stomach. It was awful, I had to really psych myself up just to get out the door.  There are so many other "funny" situations with the language barrier that first year.  I don't know how we did it but we did.  I suppose I used a lot of sign language and our trusty little translation book.  I really learned to depend on the Lord and trust Him in all things.  

  

Novosibirsk Part 3 : Akadem Gorodok......

or Academic City in English is the region that we lived in.  In the late 50's, Stalin established Akadem Gorodok as the scientific hub of Russia.  About 65,000 scientists were sent there and established 35 scientific institutes.  Several of our neighbors were scientists who worked at the various institutes.  Our language teacher's husband was actually a brilliant mathematician who authored a ton of math textbooks.  They both lived in a beautiful and huge home in the forest near the institutes that was owned by the government.  She told us that the elite scientists lived in these homes "free of charge".

One of the institutes but I can't make out the name.  Most 

of them were on the main street and since we only took

public transport we never stopped to take pictures of all

the various institutes, now I wish we had!

This is an awful picture but our neighbor Nadia would bring

one of us along to concerts at the Hall of Culture.  This time

Jon went to see a quartet, I got to see my first ballet there.  

Russians love their art and they are extremely talented.

This was our favorite place to eat at.  We would try to go 

at least once a week if we could.  The center of Akadem

Gorodok was not too far but having to take transport and

a baby was never very easy!

This was during the holidays and the main shopping center

was decked out with ice sculptures.  You can only see

Jojo's eyes.  It must have been pretty cold that day.

I just had to put this in there.  This was a woman's clothing

store in the main shopping center!  What were they thinking?

Mickey Ears

 

This is probably one of my many favorite pictures of Jojo as a baby.

When Jon's dad was in the hospital with his second round of cancer,

he had this picture by his hospital bed.  Every time a nurse came in

he would tell them that he had the cutest little grandbaby in the whole

world.............the nurses always agreed.

 

Jojo was playing with his Mickey ears the other day and I just

couldn't resist taking a picture!