Breathing

Since I've had a few people write to ask if I'm okay and one not so subtle hint that I should update my blog, I decided that I would write a quick entry before bed tonight. I think what's actually happened is that I've settled into a routine, so there's isn't always something each day that seems blog-worthy. Perhaps that's not the case. I actually was planning to write about my Sunday afternoon...

Sunday was a beautiful day. I had a really great day at church for several reasons. First, I ran into some sister missionaries on the subway and they were able to show me the secret tram that runs from the subway station to the church. It was probably only secret to me, as it is part of the St. Petersburg public transit system, but now instead of taking a thirty minute walk from the subway station I can take a five minute tram ride. The result was that I made it to church on time on Sunday when I otherwise would have been late again. I left myself an hour to get there and still would have been late without that tram. That building is not centrally located. Second, because I was there on time I got to take the sacrament. It had been a few weeks what with my lateness and district conference the first Sunday I was here. Third, I talked to a few more people, mainly to McCartney, a white Namibian who is here attending medical school. He's been living here for five years and has one more to go before he moves back to Namibia. Interesting guy. Fourth, it's always good to attend church and feel like a part of a community. I was also able to understand all of sacrament meeting really well and most of Sunday School. By the time I got to Priesthood meeting I was tired of working so hard to focus on the language.

After church I went home, made dinner, and then went over to the park to read my book. I just finished reading March (that's what I was reading on Sunday), and it was an interesting read. The park was so pleasant. I spent about half the time reading and half the time looking up at the sky and around at my surroundings. I feel like I post pictures of the same things a lot, but that's just because a lot of the pictures I take are in my neighborhood, so my apologies if my pictures are less than interesting.

This was the view from the first bench where I was reading.

And this was the view above my head.

Sometimes I love looking at the sky through the trees. Such cool patterns.

After reading there for a while I got up and took a little walk over to the Marsovo Pole (Field of Mars), which is just across the road from the Mikhailovskiy Sad (where I was initially), and read on a bench there for a while. While I was sitting there a crow landed on the bench right next to me. I always noticed that crows in Lithuania were different from the ones in the US, and it doesn't surprise me that they have the same ones here, but it is interesting to see differences in things that I would normally take for granted (like, crows are black).

Here they're black and gray. Do we have black and gray crows in the US? I always think of them as black birds.

Here was the view from this bench.


Otherwise my days have not been very eventful. I've been going to work and generally coming home afterwards to eat, read my book, and go to sleep. Boring I know, but I'm feeling more settled in and less pressure to get out and do something every single day. I'm going to make myself lists of things I know I want to accomplish and make sure that I get it all in, but otherwise, I think it's nice to get about the business of regular life.