To Minsk (Минск) and Beyond!

Week in Review

Monday was a good, typical day… nothing exciting.  The weather was beautiful so we spent a lot of time at the park.  The excitement of the day was when Jacque went shopping and the debit card didn’t work at the register.  She ran to what she thought was a ATM, but the card didn’t work there either (turns out it wasn’t an ATM), so I got a frantic call and left the kids alone in the apartment for 10 minutes while I ran to the store with cash for her.  We still don’t know why the card didn’t work on that occasion.  The rest of the day was relaxing.  I got lots of work done and we enjoyed a lot of time together. 

Tuesday morning I got up early with the kids and we did the normal morning routine and then left for work at 9:30.  When I arrived, I was frustrated because the MBA Office door was locked and no one was there.  I ended up waiting there for 30 minutes before someone let me in (luckily I had my iPad and was able to pick up some WiFi so I could do emails while I waited).  I got lots done in the morning and then I met with a BSU MBA faculty colleague to discuss research, consulting and general HR practice in Belarus.  It was very interesting to hear her perspective on things.  After that, I grabbed lunch and then went back to the office to work some more, before coming home.  When I got back, I picked up around the house, did dishes, and did laundry, and then I took the kids to the park.  We had a great time.  After dinner, the kids went through their normal bedtime routine and then Jacque left for her English class (where they discussed comparative rights/restrictions in the U.S. and Belarus; Jacque said it was very interesting).  It was a good day. 

On Wednesday, we all spent the morning at the apartment together.  The kids did their school, I worked, we did some cleaning around the apartment, and we had an otherwise casual morning.  I made some Romen Noodles for lunch (the girls’ favorite) and then during rest time Jacque and I had a great “Mormon studies” discussion while the girls rested, and before we knew it, it was time for me to leave for my class and workshop with BSU undergrad students.  When I got there, it turns out that there was some scheduling mistake with the class and the room had been double-booked (in Belarus, they schedule classes on a weekly basis, rather than for the entire semester) and another professor was there with his class.  I think what actually happened was that the director who set up my class forgot to actually schedule it and advertise it to the students, so not only did I not have a room, but not a single person was there.  I went to an open room to wait, just in case someone came, but I just ended up working for an hour until it was time for the workshop session to start.  In contrast, the workshop went very well and was well attended.  I was done by about 6:45 and got home just a little after 7, just in time to help tuck the kids in bed.  The kids did not want to go to bed and were basically up and making noise/causing trouble until after 9 pm, but eventually they actually went to sleep.  Jacque and I watched a couple shows and then went to bed.  It was a good day.

Thursday we had the normal routine in the morning and then I was off to do office hours at BSU in the afternoon.  It was also the girl’s last day of home school, and they are now officially on summer break (Jacque is very relieved!).  I worked on a few projects during my office hours and then came home for dinner with the family.  After dinner, the kids had their normal evening routine and after we got them to bed I took a turn helping out at the BSU Language Institute for a class.  When I first got there it took me a while to find the room (the room numbers are not all in order) and when I found it, the door was locked and no one was there.  At first I thought maybe I had remembered the wrong room number and I wasn’t sure how I would find the correct one.  But then a minute later the instructor showed up and told me the room had changed and she took me to the new room.  Basically I had a discussion with her class for an hour and a half.  I told them about myself, my family, work, and things back in the U.S., they asked me lots of questions about the U.S., and I asked them lots of questions about Belarus.  It was a lot of fun. 

After a normal Friday morning, we decided to take a trip to the Belarus National History Museum downtown.  It was a little mini trek to get there, but we finally did and then it took us a while just to figure out how to look at stuff.  All the exhibits are locked up in different rooms on different floors and you need a ticket.  But no one speaks English and everything is written in Russian, and we couldn’t find where to buy a ticket.  Finally we found a place in a back corner in the basement where we could get tickets for everyone (after all of that trouble, it was less than $1 total for the entire family!).  Once we had tickets, everything was great.  We were literally the only people there, and the novelty of having a large American family visiting seemed too excited all of the old ladies who worked there.  They took us from room to room and we got to see lots of fun exhibits.  They also kept nagging us about taking pictures in front of just about every exhibit.  We humored them on some, but after a while I think we started disappointing them.  The museum was a lot of fun, and then we hit McDonald’s on the way home.  After rest time, I took the kids to the park and we fed the birds.  Then it was dinner and time for a movie night with the John’s (the senior couple).  We watched “Akeelah and the Bee” and the kids loved it.  The Johns enjoyed it too and we had a nice time visiting with them.  

 

Saturday was the day of the big Minsk Branch “picnic”.  We had to take the metro to the train station, where we took the electric train for 40 minutes or so.  By that point we were out in the middle of nowhere and there was then a 40-minute walk to the picnic site (luckily they took mercy on us and one of the members transported the family in his car so we didn’t have to all do that walk).  We were out in the middle of the woods and it was gorgeous! For the first part of the day, it was mostly us, the missionaries, and a bunch of the branch youth and other non-member youth and young adults.  We ate, they played lots of different sports, and it was just fun, in the perfect weather.  By early afternoon, other older branch members started showing up with their families and the girls had primary friends to play with (up to that point, Sara and Lia were primarily playing together and Amber was hanging out with the teenager/young adult group).  The food was yummy, the company was great, the weather was perfect, and it was just a very nice, tiring day.  It also happened to be David’s first birthday, so we counted that as his birthday party (we will do cake/ice-cream/presents later on Sunday).  We started the trek back around 4:30 and finally got home around 6:30, in time for a quick dinner and baths, before bedtime (and we were all exhausted).  Unfortunately, David was over tired from not really napping all day, so he had trouble getting to bed (finally falling asleep for good around 10:30).  It was a great day.   

Today was a normal morning and then a good day at church.  We are all now back at the apartment and resting, before dinner and David’s family party.  

You can see more pics here and here.