It's getting very late in my Moscow journey... only 3 months to go.... I'll have been here 2 years, minus three months. I had no idea that living in a huge sprawling city could be so tiring. I feel very wiped out, and have decided to move back next year. My job is great, my church community, my beloved boyfriend, and my friends are all support and blessings, but the climate, commute and general rhythm of life in Moscow is too much for me! (Also the whole city reeks of cigarette smoke.) So, before I go, I'll try to write a little more often and tell what life is like.
To recap, at the end of 2012, I was in my home country with all my dear family. I feel so blessed for that, however long ago it now seems. Pasha did very well, everyone liked him and it was mutual. We came back in January to a very long, snowy winter. It is now the end of March - Easter - He is risen! - and still huge, 4-foot snow drifts everywhere. They say the worst is over, from now on it'll just get warmer and warmer.... let's hope so! FINALLY!!!
So January, February, and March have pretty much been a blur-- except for our yearly spring break!! This year, we went to EGYPT! We were thinking of going there last year, but then the soccer riot occurred where several people died, and we nixed the idea. I was a little nervous this year, to tell you the truth, but I stayed on the resort and was with a group the whole time. I checked the US government's warning list, and Egypt was not on it.
We went to Sharm-el-Sheik, a tourist town at the southern tip of the Sinai peninsula. Technically it's in Asia, although other parts of Egypt are in the middle East. It was nice! We went on 4 excursions. Pasha has requested to be my co-author as we describe them:
1. Waterpark - here's some of the best/funniest pics!
You get the idea. We love the most extreme rides, as you see here - a VERY steep fall. We went first in a double-tube and it was really unexpected and scary! The instructor showed us how to lay our heads back during the fall, but the first time we didn't listen - we wanted to see where we were falling! All good things come with a price. We nearly broke our necks. They whipped back so fast and hard, they were aching for days afterwards! But that didn't stop us from going on it several more times lolol. (But on single tubes.) Overall, the park was really fun and cool.
2. Yacht and diving
For most people, Egypt conjures up images of the pyramids, sphinxes, and ancient temples. But many tourists go there nowadays for a different reason - to have a look at the amazing underwater life in the Red Sea. It's a funny name for it - I'd sooner have called it the Turquoise Sea! We sailed off on a small yacht with a group of tourists who had signed up for the excursion. It wasn't the best weather - it was a very windy day. The boat was rocking back and forth strongly. Almost everyone left the cabin to get some fresh air .... otherwise we would have puked. Looking at the horizon was what calmed our stomachs down. After an initial trial, we felt better. We finally arrived at the spot where we would be scuba diving. Pasha went; I prefered not to. He did great! The first unexpected thing was the suit. It was damp and cold. He had to make a great effort just to get it on. However, after he had put the flippers on, one little boy from the group (Andrei, about 10 years old) began teasing him for his helplessness. He stepped on the flippers so Pasha couldn't walk anywhere, tried not to let him go diving and generally teased him. It was obvious he liked him very much. Pasha had to attach weights around his waist in order to sink down to the desired level. Andrei put the weights on his flippers. Anyway, Pasha didn't even notice that it was his turn already - he was ready! The equipment you use is very heavy. Novices don't get in the water themselves; one instructor basically throws you into the water back-first, and another catches you. It all happened very fast. Standing on the yacht, he thought about how the water was probably freezing, and being underwater would be very uncomfortable. But with all these things, the suit, the weights, the equipment, he didn't have time to think about that at all. These thoughts dissolved in the water. Well, the next thing he knows, they've dragged him under water. In a minute or two, his ears began to pop as they do when a plane is landing, only much more so. They had been warned about this during the training session. In the first moments, because of the new sensations, he felt the sudden urge to panic. The change in pressure was very painful to his ears. He immediately signalled to be hoisted back up (I saw - I was watching with a snorkeling mask). But the instructor paid no attention and Pasha soon remembered that holding your nose and breathing out hard was what they had been taught to do in that situation. The effect was amazing. Instantly he felt relief. Throught the dive, he had to do that a couple times. But it wasn't frightening anymore. With every inch deeper you dive, you can feel the pressure increase.
Under the water, the view was different - the water was a little cloudy from the weather that day, and everything he saw was magnified by the mask. These new sensations and completely new experiences gave him the impression that it wasn't real - as if he was on the moon, dreaming or something. He sounded like Darth Vader. The instructor was constantly signaling him to get into a horizontal position, but it wasn't easy. He was literally dragging him along, as per the way they do it, trying to show him the most beautiful sights. Because of the magnification, it seemed to Pasha that he would cut himself on the reef as the instructor pulled him to it. He reacted, and ended up accidentally breaking off a peice of coral! He's ashamed of it.
He didn't see a lot of fish, actually. Apparently they avoid people. Or maybe it was the weather, or just not a lot of luck. Snorkeling off the shore at our hotel revealed a HUGE quantity of amazing sea life of all imaginable colors. So, when we got back later and did plain old snorkeling, it was really nice by comparison! Still, he doesn't regret it. It was a new and interesting experience, and if you keep at it, I'm sure it would pay off. Anyway, he had dived a bit, and finally it was time to go back up to the surface. In the end, it was a cool thing to do. He learned that anyone who wants to feel like Jaques Cousteau - can! Also a nice lunch was served.
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| Our jolly instructor |
3. Climbing Mt. Sinai overnight on a camel to watch the sunrise - then touring a monastery
4. Riding on four-wheelers in the desert
But the comments and pictures of these two adventures will have to wait for another blog post!!! Best to all - thanks for reading!
