Feeling rather redneck.....

Who says you can't git r dun with a Maluch?
Me acting like our tiny Polish car is actually a truck.

combined horsepower: Car + Mower + (bike? does that count?) = less than 30 horsepower

Another picture from last Saturday. Blogger was being a pain and didn't upload all my pictures, so I had to create 2 posts......

Spelunking

Last Monday was a holiday in Poland. Yippee! Since we had an extra long weekend, we checked into doing something extra along the lines of sightseeing. We wanted to visit a famous cave in Poland, but found out that it was booked full through the month of May (imagine the idea of a cave being full). So, Leroy found another cave we could visit instead. This one turned out to be much less touristy. It had no interior lighting, isn’t visited by tour groups, and is pretty much known only by cave enthusiasts and spelunkers. In other words, a lot cooler than the first cave we wanted to visit.

On Saturday, we drove about 200 km southwest of Minsk, where we met up with our tour guide. Some of our Polish friends had originally planned to go with us, but they canceled at the last minute, so our group consisted of Leroy, Conrad, Maria, Ria, and I.

This cave was actually a copper mine. A long time ago (I don’t remember how long ago, maybe 400 or 500 years?), some miners began enlarging the existing network of caves and smelting down the copper ore. It was a mine, and not a true cave, I guess, but it’s carved out of copper ore rock, so it’s very cave-ish. Now, the mine is no longer in use and the lower levels and shafts are filled with water. We explored the network of tunnels toward the top of the mine. It was very, very coolJ Certainly a change of pace from teaching.

Still clean! Just before we went into the cave.

Our very energetic guide. The fact that we didn’t speak Polish very well didn’t deter him at allJ He definitely helped to make the day extra enjoyable. Here he’s explaining how the caves were formed.

Totally Awesome Mud! One place, we had to slide on our butts down a 15 ft mud embankment.

London Pictures

Here are just a few pictures from our London trip. I should have some more on my Photobucket soon. Cheers!


The Tower Bridge across the Thames River

A local sphynx :)

Mary Poppins!

next to the Thames.

just a few current thoughts

I just got back from a short trip to London. We arrived back in Mińsk about midnight last night. I hope to post more on that trip later, along with some pictures.

the weekend is filling up with activities and then on Monday, school begins again. I think I will enjoy getting back into teaching, especially after two weeks of break. This is the last stretch of teaching till the end of the year, so it will be hammer down to the end:)

crazy picture

A totally random picture from Christmas cookie baking. I couldn't have planned this if I would have tried. I just love everybody's candid expression:)


Here's the genuine thing:)

Totally pumped!

I am enjoying life extremely much right now. one of the major contributions to this state of being is that my friend Robin Soukup is in Mińsk! Last night, I walked out of the school and bumped into Robin as he walked up the steps. I was totally not expecting him; what an incredible, awesome surprise! He's going to be here for like 2 weeks, for Christmas and everything. What a super Christmas gift! Friends give so much meaning to life, especially if you've got an ocean separating you. So, it's super-amazing to have Robin here right now. I love my friends, and especially as Christmas approaches, I am definitely excited about spending time with them. They are a gift from God!