one more time

Thanks to all of you who have been looking at my blog...hope you enjoyed it! For those of you who are first-time viewers, make sure you look on the right and read whichever of the archived ones you want to. If you want to know more about any place or person or whatever, email me at megan.matty@gmail.com i don't really have the motivation or time to blog when i'm home...so until the next adventure there will probably be no posts.

home again

Coming home...always an adventure and a shock and a pleasure. From Rostock I took a train to Leipzig and met up with Konrad after he was done with class and it was, as usual, so good to talk to him! We had a nice chat while walking around the city and then met Mohammed at Lukas and talked with him for a while. It just so happened that one of his friends (also named Mohammed...don't be stereotyping! nicknamed Mimo) was there as well and we all 4 went to a place to play pool for a while and Carolin met us there. While I do have a pool table in my house, I wasn't as good as Mimo. We played for a while and then when the place closed we walked some more and sat in an Irish pub for a bit and then Mimo invited us over to his place. He was, as is usual with most from the Arabic culture, generously hospitable and welcoming. We stayed there all night just talking and listening to music and having an excellent time. Konrad left at about 500 and then Carolin and Mohammed walked me to the train station.
May 17th was a holiday in Germany. Yea...usually things in Germany work almost flawlessly but on holidays apparently the rules relax a bit. The train to Frankfurt was supposed to leave at 7:05 on the computer where i bought my ticket. However, it wasn't posted on the normal train schedules. So we started to worry a bit and asked the info guy and he assured us that it would come to track 10 at 7:05. Well...it did come, if a bit late. So, train was fine and arrived at the Frankfurt airport about 11:15. My flight left at 1:10 and i thought i had plenty of time....i was wrong. I walked into the main hall and I have never seen so many people in an airport. I started to get into one Lufthansa line that was probably 100m long after the snakey part...yea. then i realized that Lufthansa flights to the US were in another place...good, maybe it was shorter...well, it was, by a little bit. By the time I got up to the counter and fixed my bag so that I could check it instead of carrying it on like i wanted (the lady wouldn't let me), and got my boarding pass, it was 12:20. Encouragingly, the lady giving me my boarding pass told me "you had better run" great. So...i ran. The security is monstrous. I had to get my boarding pass checked to get into the B hall, then go through carry on baggage security. Then, you have to show your boarding pass again, then go through passport control....another line. Then, there's another security checkpoint just like the first one, except in this one you get manually checked with a hand wand by an actual person. Finally, you go past a counter and they look at your passport and boarding pass again and if you are a US citizen you get a form to fill out. Wow. So I made it though, and the flight was just beginning to board when I got there. Our gate was the kind that you give your boarding pass to get into an area loosely barriered off. So, i sat next to the barrier and started to read. All of a sudden, this young guy vaulted clumsily over the barrier and fell on the floor next to me. I was tired and i didn't care. He looked at me, and tried to show me his boarding pass...i just told him "i don't want to see that" I realized that he was comnpletely drunk. Poor guy, they wouldn't let him get on the plane...but i was glad they didn't. He said he had a wedding that day, but who knows what he was thinking getting that drunk!
So, it was a long flight but it wasn't that bad and got into denver alright and then my flight to nashville was on time and everything worked out.
It is GOOD to be home. Give me a call if you are reading this and want to chat or hang out! =)
I'll post some more reflections on the trip soon i hope.

ferries and deutschland

Well, i never thought it would work out this way but i am going to be taking the ferry to Rostock, Germany tomorrow afternoon...it is an overnight ferry and i am looking forward to it because i love the water! From Rostock i have a few options but my flight has been changed to fly out of frankfurt on the 17th...yep, coming home! Anna has been SO helpful.
Church this morning was great...it is good to just be with Christians. We ate lunch after church and had a great time talking about all sorts of things
sorry again this is short and kind of boring but...well, can't help it. hope to see some of you soon!

been too long

Well, sorry everyone for not posting in such a long time. there is WAAAYYY too much to put in this post so i will just give an overview:
my last few days in tomsk were wonderful. being with friends and just having fun, eating my fajitas like we ate blair's last year (thanks blair) the last night was excellent as well. On monday, Denis and i went to look for my ticket to turkey...there wasn't a single ticket for less than $700. so...i decided that i would go back to tallinn via moscow. i took a plane to moscow and then a train to tallinn. my mistake was that the train didn't actually get to the border of russia/estonia until the 11th, about 4am...which is 4 hrs too late for the russian officials to stamp my visa because it expired on the 10th. yep, don't overstay your russian visa...they don't like it...long story short, they did let me out of russia on the next train...after a rather hilarious runabout trying to get something called an "exit visa" crazy russian rules...but i am now in Tallinn!! I'm staying with a family here--nikolai, the dad, is one of the ministers for the church here. so...future plans...anyone have any ideas? i'm still trying to figure out what to do, but as soon as i know, i will post it on here...possibilities include flying to turkey, flying to frankfurt, other things...who knows. i will give more detailed and funny stories in the near future hopefully!!

english clubs and friends

It is always fun to go to English Clubs for me. As long as you can get them talking about stuff they like, they overcome their shyness and then you don't have to do much work =) Yesterday Jim and I went to the one Rosa has been doing with him for a few years now. They used to only invite teachers but sometime last year they began to invite students as well. It is a kind of balancing act because when you invite students, the teachers don't want to come and when you invite teachers, most students don't want to come...wonder why? =) Well, so there were 7 guys from the electrical engineering faculty and one guy, Andrew, who is in computer science and had by far the best English and most outgoing personality there. He tended to take over the conversation so I had to actually direct questions away from him. The funniest part was when one of the guys, Dima, who conferred with all his buddies to make sure the English was correct before asking questions, asked me "Do you believe in love at first sight?" (gee, i wonder where this line of questioning is going??) i debated for a bit in my head about what to answer but then i decided to just go for the truth. Yes, i do believe in love at first sight. Next question from Dima: "What are you doing tonight??" (how original!) everyone laughed and i told him i was going to a bible study at oxana's but he was welcome to come. Best part: Jim had given my phone number to one of the female teachers, and Rosa copied it and then handed it to Dima...wonder when he'll call??
Played basketball with a bunch of guys at Tomsk state on Thursday...it was so much fun!! I haven't played in a while and it was great to get back on the court. I also helped Alex put up wallpaper that morning and that was messy fun as well. I love hearing russian spoken even if i don't understand most of it, it is beautiful to me.
this afternoon i'm going to another english club with andrew, from yesterday, and tonight going with denis to some concert of one of his friends...who knows what kind of music it will be but i'm sure it will be fun.
tomorrow is the one sunday a month that the church meets all together at akadem gorodok...how blessed am i!!?? How wonderful that i came at just the right time to see everyone. I really can't wait!

Tomsky

I love this city! I am having an excellent time here and it is mostly because of the people I know and love. The church here in Tomsk is...i pause here because there really isn't a word to describe how wonderful they are. Perfect they are not, but the love they exude and their passion for following Christ continuously amaze and encourage me. Seeing everyone again has been excellent. For those of you reading this who might have been to Tomsk and want to know how anyone is doing, please email me. I have told how Shaina, Titus, KT, Blair, and Chris are doing what feels like millions of times since I got here and lots of love has been sent y'alls way! Monday night I went with Sergey, Alosha and Ira to a homeless shelter that they have been visiting for a couple months. We had a little devo with some of the people there. More and more I am realizing the absolute importance of leading people to a relationship with Christ regardless of their economic status, rather than trying to give people a "better life." "For what does it profit a man if he gains the whole world yet loses his soul?" I couldn't agree more.
Tuesday was Labor Day here in Russia. I met Denis and some friends at the main square and we walked in the parade there. There will be pictures on facebook. I now am the proud owner of a "United Russia" (dominant political party) flag and can say that I have participated in a real Russian parade...meaning that a crowd of people followed a bus playing patriotic songs that everyone laughed at for about a mile. =) Sergey came to my place at noon for lunch. For those of you who don't know him, I'm sorry :) Sergey is 18 years old and has such an understanding of God's love and presence. I enjoy talking with him immensely. We talked over bread and peanut butter (thanks AIM girls!) and apples and then walked to the Bible Study Center that the church now runs. We spent some time with the two girls that live there. The flat is centrally located and a good place to hold bible studies for individuals as well as groups. The "soup study" was held there last night and there were lots of people there that had been away or couldn't come for a while, not just me, and so it was a joyful time of reconnecting. After, Anya, Sergey and I went to Alex' house. He is remodeling and I am going to help him put wallpaper up tomorrow. We talked with him and Vasya for a while. Just being with these people is so wonderful for me!
I forsee much fun in the future!

Siberia...if you would have asked me last year at this time whether I would be returning to Siberia next year, the answer would have been a "probably not, but i wish i could." God does amazing things though! and here I am. The train ride was....well, LONG! I took an overnight train from Tallin to Moscow, and then had a 3 hour layover in Moscow. I was reading one of my Economist magazines and a guy sitting accross from me asked to read it when i was finished. I let him read it and then he asked if he could buy it from me =) i told him he could just have it, sorry Todd! hopefully he understands at least half of the articles!
So then I got onto the Trans-Siberian Express. Really, I will never do that train trip again unless I have someone with me who speaks English and is fairly intelligent becuase then at least we will have the option of conversation to pass the time. I was bored out of my mind the 3rd day on the train! The guy in the bunk accross from me was named Kiril. he spoke almost no english and with my practically nonexistant russian we had some funny conversation. there is a page in my notebook that is filled with our doodles trying to explain to each other what we mean! i think i'm going to frame it. i shared my last bar of german chocolate with him the first night and from that point on he was my best friend. he brought me hot water and let me have half his tea and bough chocolate the next day just for me. I read a lot, slept as much as possible, and took in a LOT of gorgeous scenery. Going through the Ural Mtns there was as much as 6" of snow on the ground still. I love Russia.
Denis met me in Novosibirsk and it was hilariously good to see him! He had bought 3 balloons, red, green and yellow, and blew them up and wrote on them "I'm effin glad to see ya Megan!" Further, he had a RED shirt on that said the same thing in yellow letters. Now, for those of you how object to "effin" it is not actually a cuss word and for Denis, it is merely more emphasis to show me how happy he was to see me. I laughed until my sides hurt. I have the T-shirt and balloons and they will be among my most prized possessions =)
We made our way to the bus station in Novo only to find out that there were no more bus tickets to Tomsk that night. No worries though because in Russia there is always another way. There are these yellow taxi-buses that hawk their destination in the bus station and everyone bargains with they guy and they all get told different prices but in the end when everyone is in the van we all pay the same price...still a good deal for the guy. So Denis and I left Novo at 730 pm. The van was packed full but everyone was in pretty good spirits. We had an "uneventful" ride (meaning we did not crash despite driving 120-130kph on a road probably rated for 70kph and being passed and passing cars around corners and with oncoming traffic bearing down, i.e. normal russian driving conditions) until about 30 km outside of Tomsk. We were stopped by the police for "speeding" (how do they know they are speeding when there are practically no speed limit signs on the roads? got me) and when the driver showed the policeman his papers there was some minute discrepancy that the policeman took objection to. So...we waited for about 20 min while the driver discussed this discrepancy with the policeman....meaning that they bargained over how much the bribe was going to be...turned out to be not so bad 300 rubles..about $12.
Victor and Dianna met us in Tomsk with bread and salt...apparently a tradition of some sort in Russia =) we walked over to where Jim and Lavonne live and Jim met me at the door. I stayed at there place last night and it was really great to have a bed that wasn't moving. The church in Tomsk meets in house churches now and so I went to 3 different ones yesterday...just couldn't get enough! =) Jim's was at 11 and it was mostly older ladies that I didn't know but they loved me anyway and that was fun. Then I took my stuff over to the apt where I will be staying and the young people who have church there were already worshipping and i basicaly disrupted their whole worship because 3 of them were really good friends of mine when I was here last year...Alosha, Sergei, and Paulina. It was incredibly good to hug them and i hope to get to spend LOTS more time with them soon. After we were done Alosha and I went to the church at Phil Payne's place and Oxy and Max were there...lots of good discussion (can you tell i'm running out of steam, sorry =) Denis and some friends came over last night and brough cake to celebrate...they will celebrate for anything =) We played Mafia and other card games and had a great time. They are on holiday today and tomorrow for Russian Labor Day.
Being here is still kind of surreal for me, but it is SO good to see everyone and I am looking forward to the next week and a half.