Restarting life

It's happened many times before. We have no schedule at the moment.

I came back from Evenkiya all motivated by our experiences there to follow up on our Evenki language learning, reconnect with Evenki people in the city and with new contacts made via Baikit. We definitely have enough to keep us busy.

But it's really nice sometimes to have something required of one today. A schedule or a timetable in life keeps a person busy. And you know what they say, "if you want something done, give it to a busy person."

Melody took Abigail off to the children's centre on Monday. The teacher was there but let us know classes won't start until September 1st. (Not surprising at all. I was a little more surprised to hear her say classes would start in the middle of August, when we saw her last at the start of June.)

It's amazing how quickly I lose my way without a schedule.

I indicated my interest at the private language school here in Akademgorodok, that I want to teach again. I actually taught my first class this evening. I hope to teach 3 days a week for 3-4 hours each time. I still intend to learn Russian twice a week (this is a further cut back from last semester), this time at the private school where I teach, no longer at the university. I will miss walking up the hill through the forest as a regular necessity.

Hopefully the schedule will build up at the language school soon, giving me the structure I need to fit in other activities such as Evenki language study, meeting with students and meeting with other indigenous peoples living in Krasnoyarsk.

Since coming back from Evenkiya we have felt exhausted but have tried to keep ourselves busy. Today we went and picked some crab apples. They grow on the edge of the forest in Lower Akademgorodok. Apparently it used to be an orchard. Many of the trees were cut down for a new complex of apartments. The trees that are left have grown quite tall, and so many of the apples are quite high up. Still, we managed to pick a couple of large bags to preserve for the Winter. (They make good apple pie and apple crisp filling.)

Our "Akadem Orchard".

Out side our building a new fence has been put up. It will prevent people from parking in this spot. I like the colour it adds to our neighbourhood.

A view of Akademgorodok from the 9th floor apartment of our neighbours. The collection of buildings is our "Akadem market", where there is fresh meat, fruit, vegetables, bread; plus a small grocery store, small clothes store, small DVD shop, small beer shop, fish shop, garden supplies shop and home supplies shop. Not bad for a little market.