...from Minnesota (really!). Okay, so it was only across the "Red River of the North" from Moorhead, Minnesota, to Fargo, North Dakota, and it only took 15 minutes, but now I have bragging rights among those who live below the "Red River of the South" in Texas.
I am presently staying on the campus of Concordia College (a small-- I mean small, my high school campus in Texas is as big as this one-- ELCA Lutheran liberal arts school) in a dorm room. It's beautiful here, save the small bird-sized mosquitos-- cool, crisp air in the morning (it was about 58 degrees this morning when I went out for a paper around 7). There's a small cadre of Russian Village staff here; we're going through "in-service" for the remainder of this week and will be heading off to Camp Trowbridge in Vergas, MN, on Saturday morning. While I'm here, I have adopted the name Nikolai and go by the diminutive (a Russian thing), Kolya. In fact, I'm wearing a hand-made wood-and-string nametag that identifies me as such right now. The vast majority of business is conducted in Russian, so it's great practice for me. Almost everyone here has either been here before or knows someone who has been here before, so I'm really the new guy on the block (not to mention the oldest-- most everyone else is of college age)!
The trip here was long, but simple enough. A 2-hour flight from Dallas to Minneapolis, then a 3-hour wait for a 4-hour bus ride to Moorhead. So, so far, so good...
I have access to the campus library computer for this week, so I'll try to touch this blog once a day; unfortunately, I can't attach pictures yet. I think I may be able to do that from the Village site.
Poka!
