of crashing and burning; and God's grace

Sometimes, God's truth brings pain as it highlights a problem that we have. At this moment, pain is good; it shows you where there is a problem. Do not try to reduce the pain until you find the problem. Take heed that's God truth will also show the way to freedom. You will remember the pain you feel here, and it will help you through the rest of your life. - Rick Joyner

God is good. That is all I could say. I thank the Lord that He does not bring us to our callings when we are not prepared and without first catching the little foxes - the little tolerations that spoil our vines. He just showed me why I was having this particular problem for the past 10 months. and it was so true. its funny and sad how we sometimes set ourselves up in our own dark little prisons, when we could enjoy such things in the light of God's plan.

I am repenting of my sin and I feel the freedom coming up in degrees. I am sober and I thank you Lord for your grace.

taking pictures of old pictures

sanchia, jillanne, leah, cj and me.

i cant sleep the other night so i looked thru old yellowing pictures. hee hee.

Dmitry Shostakovich - The Golden Age (Bolshoi)

ayyiieeee! MARK! finally, ive watched a performance na of the Bolshoi Ballet at the Bolshoi Theatre! we watched Zolotoi Bek (The Golden Age). Heres the story:

http://www.bolshoi.ru/en/season/ballet/repertoire/detail.php?&id26=151&act26=info&dynid26=293&dynact26=art#dyn

They are soooo good! you would sooo love it!

ps. sorry if most of the photos were blurry. my cam was on night mode and my hand was shaky. hehe.

the man in the arena

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Teddy Roosevelt

a failed attempt to get out of town

well...my friend and i were supposed to go to vladimir (2 hours away from moscow) today. since we both dont speak any russian, we just decided to line up at the railway station booths and try to get tickets to vladimir and be at the mercy of the ticketseller with regard to departure times. it will be part of the adventure. hehe. i know. not kinda smart.

well, since we were just saying 'da" to everything that the ticketseller was saying, we ended up getting 6pm tickets to vladimir (when we were just planning on a daytrip). we decided not to go since we were not gonna see anything at night! after wasting 600 roubles on tickets we wont use, we just decided to go stroll around the Universitet area. This is where the Moscow State University and the Sparrow Hills are located. It wasnt such a waste of time for me since we got to eat at a nearby KFC (yay! after 10 months of not eating kfc, i was in heaven! i never knew that its called rostiks here) and strolling around the university grounds was good because it was sooo green and relaxing. just what i needed.

sooo, lesson learned: we will go to vladimir next friday, hopefully, with a russian person to buy the tickets for us! :-p

spring-ing thoughts

it really is spring. i went out today (to celebrate the USSR day.hehe.) wearing a short-sleeved shirt and without a coat on. after wearing coats for a long time (since last sept), going out without a coat on felt like being naked. haha. the malls are even starting to use the air-conditioning na. and people are walking around dressed like summer. it was so warm (20 degrees) today that its actually making me miss the cold! hehe.

 

          some greenery near my flat

at 1 in the morning today, after a totally manic friday, sasha and i were strolling down the streets of tverskaya. moscow and the red square are so pretty at night. its almost friendly.

tomorrow, im taking a daytrip adventure with a friend. we are going to vladimir, another unesco heritage site. i hope we get there in one piece. coz shes american and we both dont know any russian. haha.

for the first time since i came here, i feel at peace. i am at peace. and expecting good things ahead. spring outside, spring in my life :-)

its so nice to live in a country with four seasons. it adds some drama to life.