A slice of Russian life

Last night we had, beyond doubt, the scariest moment ever while in Russia. We were up a little later after our evening at the Jackson's (Kathy, did you give them my blog address?) Anyway we had caught up on emails and were going to lie in bed and watch some Happy Days, Season 1 DVDs. I had the washer going but everything else was quiet in the place. While we're lying there I said to Brian, "what's that smell?" and I don't know if he really thought I smelled something or not but didn't really answer (I do have a sensitive nose!) but then all of a sudden the overhead lights in our bedroom came blazing on! We went "what???" and all of a sudden smoke was pouring out of the light switch in the room!! Oh man, it stunk so bad and there was so much of it! Brian pulled off the switch cover and there weren't really flames but it was definitely sparking and glowing! I thought for sure the whole place was going to go up in flames and I had no idea how to call for a fire department – or what you do! We looked and couldn't find a fire extinguisher or the breaker box. I was frantically calling Alex's cell phone and home phone and no answers and no voice mail! Brian kept his cool – as he does so much better than I – and eventually (probably 3-minutes but seemed forever) found the breaker box and turned off the circuit to the bedroom. He said that we were fine now, no chance of fire. Well the adrenalin was still flowing and the stink was hanging in the air – we opened the bedroom window but it didn't do much to dissipate the smell or smoke. Shortly after then Alex called back and Brian answered – I'm sure his heart stopped when Brian said "we had a small fire…" – Brian said he just kept saying "I'm so glad you're okay!" - Yeah, no doubt! LOL So I'm sure he'll be over here today to check out the situation and hopefully restore our lighting. I didn't sleep well, partly due to fear but also the stink just made it hard to sleep. I should have moved into a different room but that was too much effort at the time – so instead early morning I fell asleep and slept until almost 9am.

Hey, Pastor P, I was going to email this but forgot when I was online before but could you forward us some of the bulletins and service programs and sermons too? I'm missing church and could use them to make our own services here for us two. I'd appreciate it!

Note to everyone: We are using my hotmail address to have our emails forwarded to as it loads way much sooner than charter does – so if you want to email us you can either use our charter addresses or just use dln0623@hotmail.com – and when we reply it will be the hotmail address you'll see.

So finally about noon today we started moving – we got ourselves ready and went for a walk. It's still bitter cold here! We walked by guys playing soccer in the snow and hockey on it also. We did a long walk and wound up at the Fiesta for some tea and Coke. Then a stop at the grocery store and back to the apartment. Once we were in the door we had a phone call from Irena as the Holmes weren't reaching us due to us being out. So then Judy called back and invited us to dinner tonight in Angarsk to celebrate Harry's adoption. We accepted pending transportation. So I called Alex but no answer, little later tried Irena – no answer. I somehow don't know how to dial here I think! So about 4:30 Mike called to see if we were coming and I said I couldn't reach anyone about a ride but we'd love to come so he said he'd call Irena and she'll call us back. We got ourselves ready as I figured we'd have a "10-minute taxi" call. Well instead we had a pounding on the door and young boy saying "taxi!" – I said "Angarsk"? He said "Da" – so we said we'd be right out and got in his car. He was a very good driver and it really was an uneventful trip – other than the scenery along the way! We were just looking out the window when we see a car parked on the side of the road and a guy taking a "leak" right there! Oh man, we laughed so hard! That was one for the books! Mind you it's like -26c yet and daylight! And this is like our interstate!

So we arrive at Angarsk Hills – a resort area outside Angarsk that has cabins and activities and a nice restaurant. Irena placed the order and then we went outside to "zip line" – (tubing). Brian and I went down together and we went way too fast – I screamed half the way! Then Brian went down with Skip also. The trip down was fun but the walk back up was tiring! So we then went in to have dinner and drinks. It was a wonderful meal and lots of vodka toasts and great conversation. Harry just sat nice and smiled all night! We were honored to be a part of this celebration meal. We are thankful we were able to meet this family in person – they'll be a part of our lives forever!

I will describe dinner as I know you all love my meal commentaries – We started with some different salads. I'm not sure what they all were but every one was delicious. We also had a platter of fresh veggies. Then I had a chicken dish with boiled potatoes – again, I'm not sure what it was but it was delicious. Brian had pork and boiled potatoes (had tried to get beef but "no beef" was again the answer). We also had ice cream for dessert. And, as mentioned, some vodka toasts! The Vodka was Ukrainian and was very smooth! I had some French wine also so it was a fun night! Then Irene called us a taxi to get us back to Irkutsk. It was less $ going back than coming – but the rate for the amount of distance is very reasonable! So we again have a young driver – he too was a good driver (maybe a little faster than the other guy) but once we got in IRK I got a little nervous. Twice he stopped and asked for directions! We were in parts of the town we hadn't seen yet – not unsafe, just not known to us! So finally after the second stop we were on Karl Marx St and then we knew where we were. He turned to us at the stop light at Marx & Lenin and said something – of course we didn't know what but I said "5^th Army" and he said "bla,bla, bla Army! And I said said "da!" and we were all happy. He turned on our street and got us home. We gave him a little tip also and it was still 400r less than the trip the other direction.

So we're again just hanging out – no lights in our bedroom or entry way yet as we didn't see or hear from Alex all day – but at least we have lights and power in the other rooms! Maybe tomorrow we'll find out more about our lights situation…