... And three weeks later I find myself in Vladivostok

Today is the 12th of April. I hope you all know what that means. It means that today is MONDAY. And I'm in an internet cafe. Accompanied by the usual sounds of World of Warcraft and Counterstrike, intermixed of course with various and sundry swear words, in various and sundry languages. Good days. Incidentally, it also means that I will be officially halfway through my mission on Thursday. But I refuse to acknowledge that fact. I'm here for a long time yet (Extension extension extension extension!). Speaking of Thursday, don't forget to pay your taxes. I hear the government doesn't approve when you don't pay.

So I can't actually remember if I told you about English Club, but even if I did I'm going to go ahead and pretend like I didn't, because it makes for an amusing two hours of every week, and I'm too lazy to look through past emails to see for sure. It didn't (and still doesn't. And probably never will again) exist on Sakhalin, because the local government officials don't approve of the way it was run... ish. BUT. I'm no longer on Sakhalin, I'm in Vlad. And that means that two hours of my week (Tuesday and Thursday evenings at 6! Come practice your skills with native speakers! Free!) are spent conversing (but not teaching, of course. That's illegal) in English... with occasionally interesting results. The theme is different every time, but somehow we always end up with something gospel-centered at the end. Go figure. You'd think that we as missionaries plan our topics... or something. It's actually a pretty effective finding tool, and it is a good way to do some service for others.

I also had my first run-in with the police this week, and that was fun. We crossed the road on a red light and were given an official WARNING, all written down and everything. I would like to say in my own defense though that to all appearances it looked to us like the two policemen in the middle of the road were directing traffic, and we weren't the first to cross. Just the most noticeable, I guess. So they took Sister Kovalevskaya's name and address, asked her what she was doing here, and then gave her a receipt. Then they decided that one warning was enough for the two of us and didn't bother asking about me. So. We have been officially WARNED, but I have learned my lesson and fully repented, and I intend to return to full church activity this week. Ha.

That's all you get this week. Have fun in the sunshine, and try not to pay too much.

Love you,
Sister Read. Russian Criminal.