Hello everyone!
Since arriving in Russia I’ve written two blog posts and they talked a lot about the difficult things in Russia and the many, many differences between here and home. Now, I have no intention of understating or hiding those things – living in a new country turns even the simplest tasks into challenges and I don’t think anybody would describe it as easy, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t had a lot of good experiences since leaving Canada. So I’m going to share a few pictures of some of the enjoyable things I’ve done!
First is a picture of the Canadian group from the conference in Germany! We had Canadians from Vancouver all the way to Nova Scotia and it was awesome talking about the different parts of Canada and getting to share that with folks from other countries. As you can see in this lovely photo from Alison (one of the Canadians!), it was definitely an interesting group! Note that in both photos my expression is exactly the same – this is because I have been cursed since a young age to have every photo of me look like a mug shot.
Every week we have a social with some of the foreigners in Novosibirsk, where we talk English, eat food, and just generally have a good time. This Saturday we used the time to go bowling. As the below picture illustrates, everything I’ve seen so far in Novosibirsk looks kind of like it belongs in an industrial park, regardless of how beautiful it is on the inside.
The next photo illustrates our “mad bowling skillz”. Represented in this game are Canada, Germany, England and Australia, and national pride was at a high. Naturally I took the game for Canada. 
After bowling we walked to Mega, which is a huge shopping center in Novosibirsk and the place to be if you’re looking for a “western” shopping experience. Complete with a KFC, Subway, and Ikea, it definitely reminded me of home. Never fear however, not one to avoid a challenge I decided to avoid familiar eating establishments (alright… it was also partially because explaining what I wanted on a sub would have been an insurmountable task), and instead ate at блинофф – a crepe place where I ordered the only thing on the menu with “meat” in its name and hoped for the best. It was actually pretty good, even though I’m not sure if I got what I ordered because I answered several questions with “I don’t know.” and “I don’t understand.”.
Finally one last picture of my street just because I went out in the snow a few days ago and thought a picture would be fun. I tried to play around with the saturation and brightness and such to make this look a little clearer – but it wasn’t going to happen. This is winter in Novosibirsk and it’s not getting any prettier.
Thanks for reading!
God Bless,
-Keilan
What a great post, Keilan!! Thanks for sharing more of your Russian life with us! So glad to see the good times you are having!
Love you lots! We continue to pray for you daily!
Big hugs!
Auntie Rose
Nice! Your Russian is improving.
How come there is snow everywhere except at Mega?
Yes, the improving Russian is definitely nice, but I still have a long way to go! As for Mega, I didn’t have a good picture of it so I just grabbed one from Google and it is most definitely summer. Right now it looks kind of like that but with snow piled everywhere and ice all over the roads.