JC 1010E

Today's entry has to do with the roads and sidewalks of Russia. I think that the roads are probably one of the scariest places in Russia. The reason for this is because of how terribly Russians obey the laws of the road. When we flew in, we were picked up at the airport and drove through Moscow, fearing for our lives. I remember the same feeling when I came to Russia my very first time as well. I myself could never drive on the roads here because of how terribly people keep the laws.

Getting to and from the city is only the first part of the battle. Next up, you have to get around the city. Over the past couple of years a lot more cars have shown up on the streets of Russia with the big credit boom that was going on. However, there is one big problem for everyone with cars in Russia – parking. There is hardly anywhere to park for all of the cars that already are on the road so I don't expect everyone to own a car, like in the United States, anytime soon without a major rethinking of how cities are lain out.

I have had so many Russian experiences in 3 days. It has been great. Russian life is so different. My first post about Russian life and culture is about the primary mode of travel from city to city in Russia, the train.

Well, it's almost here. Just a few more hours and we're taking off for the Motherland. I can't believe it's been 3 years since I've been home from my mission! It is certainly crazy. Even crazier is that Anya and I will be celebrating our 2 year anniversary while there. It is going to be great to get away for a bit and relax some. It has been 2 years since we have taken a vacation so this is a well deserved break.

Just wanted to put a quick update about the newest program that I have been using and loving. It's called Digsby and it has freed up a ton of my memory on my computer. The basic idea of the program is to combine all of your IMs into one single program. For example, I use to have Skype, MSN, and Gtalk always open on my computer. Now, I only have Skype and Digsby (it's a long story why Skype isn't supported, but let's just say that Skype's API is very very bad). It also supports Yahoo, AIM, ICQ, and yes, Facebook.

I know it has been several weeks since I have written, but things have finally settled down. We got into the new home without too many problems and we had a lot of help. We are loving the new place, and I think that the thing I love the most is all of the space! It is so open and there is so much room. I guess the worst part is how much of it gets underused. One of the main reasons I haven't written for so long is because I haven't taken pictures. I finally got to it, and so here they are:

We are buying a new home! Our first one! Most of you already know this, but I haven't written this until now because I was waiting for the loan to go through. We do all the official closing stuff on Wednesday the 25th so hopefully all will go well that way. The home is in North Salt Lake. Here are some pictures (I know they are small, but that is what I have for now. More will come later).

One of my friends, Brad, found the hero website, where you can make your own hero. Here's me (yes the balding nice guy). Make your own hero here and post a link after uploading it.

I recently found a couple of disks from my mission. On there, I found a ton of pictures. Most of them were taken by other people because I didn't have a digital camera on my mission. All the same, I went ahead and uploaded them all online at Photobucket (one of the only places where I could create embedded albums). Check them out here: http://s705.photobucket.com/albums/ww51/j_ten_man/Mission/. Just as a note, the albums listing is on the left hand side of the page in a "block".

It sure is a good time to be a Utah fan. I got a few more pictures from a coworker and thought they were pretty funny. Hope you enjoy them.