Two Late Nights
Good Soup Friday was lots of fun even though I've had to stop eating Good Soup. (It does not agree with my tummy.) We had 14 people show up for dinner. The interesting thing was that I didn't know 5 of them. Good Soup Friday has become so popular that complete strangers are begging to come. Cool.
Afterwards we watched The Bourne Supremacy. Even though I really wanted to watch The Saint, I bowed to the wishes of my guests. They just don't know that we're going to watch The Saint next week. [insert evil grin here]
Today was majorly busy. I had bookstudy this morning followed by pseudoservice. (I did other people's calls...actually I never got out of the car because there was always some legitimate reason why someone else needed to go on a particular call. And before I knew it, we were done.) The Polyglot and I ate lunch with a really fabulous couple. He's known them for ages, but I am just getting to know them. I adore them...as does everyone.
I had about an hour's break before The Polyglot and I rushed off the to Russian meeting. It was supposed to be the first meeting after they had officially become a congregation. I didn't find out until later that they have not quite received the paperwork and so won't be official until next week. Foiled!
Thinking that my friends from the Southside would come up for the meeting, I called them earlier in the week to see if they wanted to come over afterwards. As it turns out only their daughter was coming, so I at least invited her. I extended the invitation to one brother who comes pretty regularly to Good Soup. He asked if I would include the speaker, one of the brothers who has worked so hard for years to build up the Russian group. I said sure and before I knew it, I had a full blown party on my hands.
Let me say that the Russian group has really changed over the last few months. I couldn't believe how many native speakers were at the meeting today. There were 60 people at the meeting, but they only have a little over 30 publishers. I heard the Special Talk (again). I'm always surprised at how much of the talks I understand. I still can't read and understand as well as I can listen and understand. That is odd to me because in order for me to really remember something I have to see it in writing.
So on to the party. After the meeting, the speaker kept asking me if he could invite more people. I had anticipated that, so I gave my full consent. My big fear was getting people from the Hall to my house. There were only three drivers who knew how to get there. We each had people following us. I finally had to leave and let the majority of the people follow the one brother who knows how to get to my place.
Let me say a big thank you (bolshoi spaceba) to The Polylot for manning the grill...at least until the Armenian showed up. I don't know that I could have grilled all that food and kept my mind on the little things that needed to happen. Eventually the Russians showed up (with more food) and the Armenian (who I didn't realize was Armenian) took over the grill. The Polyglot was relieved to just sit down and display his polyglotness to da peoples. There were 16 people in my house tonight, all speaking a mix of Russian and English (Ruglish? Russlish?).
The big surprise was the two "native" couples (one of the wives is American, but that's OK, God still loves her). I loved them! I don't know their ages, but they're somewhere between me and The Polyglot. They are super cool and lots of fun. Before I knew it, it was midnight but I still didn't want them to go home. The really coolest thing is that one of the brothers is originally from Moscow and we know at least one brother in common. He knew my old bookstudy overseer fairly well. This same brother works with computers and we just happen to have an opening in our department right now. I don't know if the job will pay enough, but that would be really cool.
Anyway, I sat around for a long time talking to them about Russia and Moscow and just all the things that only people who've lived in both cultures would understand. I'm going to try to go to maybe one meeting a month. I know that doesn't sound like much, but I just can't make the change right now.
I'm very happy that I was able to meet such cool people this weekend. The new people at Good Soup last night were nice and all these Russians were facinating. It's been a long time since I've met new people on a regular basis. I'm also very happy that I can do it in my own home. Even if I met new people on the Southside, no one ever wanted to come over to Stinky Garbage Trailer. It may as well have been the other side of the planet.
The last interesting tidbit is that The Polyglot may have acquired a new nickname ... The Poliglot (pronounce pole-e-glot). The Russians told him that he has a Polish accent when he speaks Russian. Who knew? And as always, they told me that I look Russian. I will continue to take it as a compliment even though I think it just means "you're really really white."
It's now after 1 am on Sunday morning. I think I'm going to sleep in...
Afterwards we watched The Bourne Supremacy. Even though I really wanted to watch The Saint, I bowed to the wishes of my guests. They just don't know that we're going to watch The Saint next week. [insert evil grin here]
Today was majorly busy. I had bookstudy this morning followed by pseudoservice. (I did other people's calls...actually I never got out of the car because there was always some legitimate reason why someone else needed to go on a particular call. And before I knew it, we were done.) The Polyglot and I ate lunch with a really fabulous couple. He's known them for ages, but I am just getting to know them. I adore them...as does everyone.
I had about an hour's break before The Polyglot and I rushed off the to Russian meeting. It was supposed to be the first meeting after they had officially become a congregation. I didn't find out until later that they have not quite received the paperwork and so won't be official until next week. Foiled!
Thinking that my friends from the Southside would come up for the meeting, I called them earlier in the week to see if they wanted to come over afterwards. As it turns out only their daughter was coming, so I at least invited her. I extended the invitation to one brother who comes pretty regularly to Good Soup. He asked if I would include the speaker, one of the brothers who has worked so hard for years to build up the Russian group. I said sure and before I knew it, I had a full blown party on my hands.
Let me say that the Russian group has really changed over the last few months. I couldn't believe how many native speakers were at the meeting today. There were 60 people at the meeting, but they only have a little over 30 publishers. I heard the Special Talk (again). I'm always surprised at how much of the talks I understand. I still can't read and understand as well as I can listen and understand. That is odd to me because in order for me to really remember something I have to see it in writing.
So on to the party. After the meeting, the speaker kept asking me if he could invite more people. I had anticipated that, so I gave my full consent. My big fear was getting people from the Hall to my house. There were only three drivers who knew how to get there. We each had people following us. I finally had to leave and let the majority of the people follow the one brother who knows how to get to my place.
Let me say a big thank you (bolshoi spaceba) to The Polylot for manning the grill...at least until the Armenian showed up. I don't know that I could have grilled all that food and kept my mind on the little things that needed to happen. Eventually the Russians showed up (with more food) and the Armenian (who I didn't realize was Armenian) took over the grill. The Polyglot was relieved to just sit down and display his polyglotness to da peoples. There were 16 people in my house tonight, all speaking a mix of Russian and English (Ruglish? Russlish?).
The big surprise was the two "native" couples (one of the wives is American, but that's OK, God still loves her). I loved them! I don't know their ages, but they're somewhere between me and The Polyglot. They are super cool and lots of fun. Before I knew it, it was midnight but I still didn't want them to go home. The really coolest thing is that one of the brothers is originally from Moscow and we know at least one brother in common. He knew my old bookstudy overseer fairly well. This same brother works with computers and we just happen to have an opening in our department right now. I don't know if the job will pay enough, but that would be really cool.
Anyway, I sat around for a long time talking to them about Russia and Moscow and just all the things that only people who've lived in both cultures would understand. I'm going to try to go to maybe one meeting a month. I know that doesn't sound like much, but I just can't make the change right now.
I'm very happy that I was able to meet such cool people this weekend. The new people at Good Soup last night were nice and all these Russians were facinating. It's been a long time since I've met new people on a regular basis. I'm also very happy that I can do it in my own home. Even if I met new people on the Southside, no one ever wanted to come over to Stinky Garbage Trailer. It may as well have been the other side of the planet.
The last interesting tidbit is that The Polyglot may have acquired a new nickname ... The Poliglot (pronounce pole-e-glot). The Russians told him that he has a Polish accent when he speaks Russian. Who knew? And as always, they told me that I look Russian. I will continue to take it as a compliment even though I think it just means "you're really really white."
It's now after 1 am on Sunday morning. I think I'm going to sleep in...
3 Comments:
I loved the Russians, especially the late couples. We had a very nice time, and all of us got rather loud. It was very nice, and I managed to get a good grammer lesson out of наша друга Ира. We like them very much. I was just hoping you were able to keep your cool... if you know what I mean...
If I know what you mean... Yeah. Right back atcha babe. If you know what I mean.
those couples, especially, were fun! I was just amazed that you & the one muscovite knew some of the same people! It really is a small world in the organization.
It was a lovely evening!
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