9th of May: probably the biggest holiday in Russia. Flags everywhere, people smiling, kids holding balloons, eating shashlik outside, watching parades and so on. My friend Masha and I went to a small town 250km north of Vladivostok - Mashas hometown. The same thing: everyone is happy that today 65 years ago Russia defeated Germany.
Our task for the holidays was to plant a field of potatoes. Honestly, I have never planted potatoes before – time to learn this skill that is part of every Russian. I was surprised how easy it is: one person digs a row of wholes, the other throws potatoes into the whole, then you dig the second row, throwing the soil into the first row of wholes. That's it. We were done within a few hours – hopefully Mashas parents will have a good harvest this fall.
Anyway, it was good to get away for a few days, relax, not even open my computer (well, I actually took it with me and used it a few times...)
Now we are back in Vladivostok. Last night there weren't any tickets for the bus to Vladivostok, so we went to the bus station at 9pm, not knowing if we will make it home that night or not. Some guy gave us a ride in his pick up truck - the prize was the same as the ticket for the bus. We arrived at 1.30am.
We just finished to plan our week writing down the 'to–do list' for the week. One of the items was: write blog. So this one I can tick off now:-)
There is lots to do and so far we haven't had a week when we finished the whole 'to-do-list'. We need lots of wisdom from God in what has priorities and what can wait. Now I will prepare for the bible study we have started at our house - every Tuesday night a group of believers gather in our living room and we study the book of Mark. I am still loving it here! God is good to us!