A package, four loads of laundry and a Pushkin story later…

What an amazing day today has been. I'm really having a great week. I got up this morning and started the process of four loads of laundry. Certainly was a necessity. Ehud was in his final week last week, and I knew that I needed to wait to do laundry so that he could pack. It's SO nice to have pants free of the mud that's everywhere in Tyumen right now.

Then I went to the cultural center for our monthly staff meeting where we discussed our new internet connection and some policies regarding the copy machine. I got to take us through another lesson on leadership. Today we talked about looking at life from another perspective and making sure to take into account another person's point of view. It was really a great conversation and we shared about how our perspectives can be altered by such simple things as remembering our past, looking at things a second time, or focusing on a different aspect of the situation. I got to use some really cool optical illusions to illustrate too, which was fun.

Then I received a package from AMERICA from Amy! (special thanks to Sara and Ryan for putting it together and sending it to me). My birthday continues to be celebrated. It's been 10 days now! Really I think that Amy and I lead the coolest life… it's like a fairy tale.

After teaching two English lessons tonight (our topic was music as an art form), I returned home and finished my first Russian poem by Pushkin. Yes, that's right. Pushkin in Russian. Tatiana is going to be so pleased. I'm ready to crash now… my brain is a little bit fried, but I feel great about finally accomplishing this feat!