6 November: Father Frost arrives

Father Frost (Russian folklore figure similar to western Santa Claus) has arrived! The weather has suddenly become freezing cold and windy! In just a few days the temperature dropped 14 degrees from +7 to –7 yesterday, and today another 4 drop, which might just be why we drove with Alexa and her mother to a large mall nearby to try and get some wintershopping done. Unfortunately her mother was tired so we did not have much time, I did however end up with a nice white winter hat partially in wool for just 300 Rubbels  - yay! Alexa lives in the blok just behind us, but nevertheless just the walk over there felt like an hour.

I finally got my USB internet fixed now after 3 weeks. After Denis went I “borrowed” his for the few days it lasted after his leave, but other than that I’ve been off the wire for 3 weeks. While simultaneously sick in the apartment without money on my phone and kidney inflammation (being from north Europe is apartment no help even in southern Russia, eventhough is nearly 1500km further south). Getting sick in Russia, especially as a foreigner, is expensive, luckily us EVS pricks are well insured by EU, and I get treated in a nearby fancy private hospital with English speaking doctors and all.

As my posts may also revel my head is sometimes a mess full of waaaay too many thoughts going at once.  Being in Russia hasn’t exactly helped to make my head more structured so a few days ago I raided (or rather, bought) the local mall for some post-its. They showed up to be a double win as not only can I now keep my head and business in order, it also helps personalise my room a bit, which is much needed as it looks like a furniture/decoration graveyard (and I’m now allowed to change the look at all). Until now it’s felt like anything but my room, little by little it’s now starting to look like my own living space.

26 October: Showing good faith: Part I

A funny thing happened this evening. Funny things have been happening a lot lately – I guess it comes with moving 3000km away from home. But I must say, this one was a little different from the rest. Us girls – volunteers in our organization – was meeting up today at theatre in Kiubyshev square to watch a ballet by a famous group of dancers from Saint Petersburg. Me and my flatmate, Sabrina, arrived 20 minutes too early at the square (this is what I would call being on anti-“Russian time”). It was freezing cold and windy outside so we decided to wait in inside the theatre in a small room right before the main hallway. Three other girls where standing there speaking in Russian. As Sabrina is German and I Danish we mainly speak in English (although I try to refresh my German with her). Suddenly one of the girls turned to us and asked very excited “Excuse me, are you speaking English??” in a very American accent. Surprised to bump into a person speaking perfect English we told her “yes” we were indeed, and we ended up in a conversation with her and one of the other girls. Shows up, they were in fact Americans (only way too many young Europeans speak with American accents these days).. missionaries from the Mormon Church to be exact.

I was surprised by their sincere friendliness and we started to talk about religion. Being honest I told them that I am Danish and in Denmark (although we are officially protestant Christians) very few actually practice religion, and I myself don’t. I took the chance to ask them about their relationship to their religion, and “how it works” for them, although I am not interested in practicing religion, I am certainly interested in the theory behind religion. As a result of me taking an interest in their religion they invited us to pray with them – right then and there. As I have never said a single prayer in my life, I openly admitted to them that I would need instruction on just how to “pray”. I was a little concerned about how they would react to this, but they did not seem to dwell on this, but simply told me to close my eyes and say “amen” at the end with them, and offered that they could just say prayers this time and I could hear and participate silently so I could familiarize myself with what people usually say. I took them up on this offer and in this small room we prayed together. One of them – the one from Colorado I think – who also spoke the most, after asked me if I felt Gods presence. I said I honestly wasn’t sure what I was supposed to look for in the feelings so it was hard to say if I did. She asked me if I felt calm – and I had to admit I did (I had ever since I came out of the cold actually) – she said that this is the holy spirits presence.

Now I will not pretend, I DO have already an opinion about religion, god and Christianity, and it is, that I don’t believe in it. I believe in science and what can be proven to be true. But fact is (no pun intended) that the scientific way of proving (or disproving) things is this: 1) Ask a question. 2) Do background research. 3) Construct hypothesis. 4) Test with and experiment. 5) Analyze results – draw conclusion (hypothesis: true or false?). Truth of the matter is that so far I can only have said to have finished the first 3 steps as far as the religion of Mormons goes. As a good little atheistic agnostic I must accept an invitation to do the last two steps or acknowledge myself as a hypocrite.

What is always the keystone of science, and what makes science so great, is the objectivity! The scientific approach to (prayer and) religion is the same as for everything else: To try it THEN form your final opinion about it.. in other words: Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it! I now have a chance to do this, and I will seize the day (Carpe diem I think they say). So as a firm believer in facts and science it therefore is my finest duty, to show up this Sunday at the local church of Mormons, and participate in a church service on the invitation of these two Americans. After this service we three will sit down and have a nice conversation to answer all questions I may have about their religion. Sabrina is also invited, but I doubt that she will go. Unlike me (and my fellow Danes) she actually seems to have some real protestant faith going.