Artificial Intelligence

Last week was fairly interesting. On Monday I was scheduled to teach at the State University of Artificial Intelligence, that is computer sciences. Victor, a professor from the University asked Laurie and I to teach his students about Canada. Laurie surprisingly, allowed me to do the majority of the talking. I thought it was a good experience. I taught two classes. The first had about twenty students while the second was closer to fifty. I shared some interesting facts about Canada but I mostly taught about my personal experiences and about my family.

They seemed very interested and many approached me afterwards to share their gratitude. The dean of the school appreciated our visit as well. After the classes she invited us to her office for tea and treats. We had a good visit and then they ask me when I will be available to teach again. I asked what they would like me to teach next time and they said I could teach whatever I like. Huh, I wasn't expecting that. I told them I would have to get back to them later because I am quite busy at the moment.

Right now I am trying to read a textbook, learn Russian, prepare an English class, and get involved with ministry opportunities. So far the ministry opportunities have not been too extensive. The latest one was sharing a message in Chapel last Friday. That was done through a translator, which is actually tricky since you have to pause after every sentence you say. This is good if you need to keep your place in your notes but it hinders your flow.
Tomorrow we are planning to join Dema on a trip to an orphanage he is involved with. I am not totally sure what he does with the kids but I do know he does special outings with them. I'll find out tomorrow.

I had the opportunity to go to the museum...twice last week. Once spontaneously and the other planned. The spontaneous outing was with the youth group we teach English to. They planned to go afterwards but I was unaware of this. The second time was planned with an American I met through our tutor. The museum though was worthy of two visits. It was almost completely in Russian but the themes and events were easy to figure out by the displays. Laurie and I found the World War II section to be the most interesting. I have a couple pictures on my cell phone but I haven't figured out yet how to get them on my computer.

Laurie shopped successfully on her own this week and we had company over for dinner on Saturday and today. On Saturday we had some of the UBI students over and served them stew and apple crisp. I think it was a different stew than they have had before and it was definitely the first time they had apple crisp. I really enjoyed it and some of them did as well. Tonight we had two of the guest teachers from the USA over for dinner. It was nice to have easy English conversations for a change.

This past Sunday was encouraging for Laurie and I. We went to a Church service where the preacher spoke slowly and we were able to understand about 20% of what he was saying, which was encouraging because we could figure out the gist of his message. Our Russian lessons seem to be paying off.

I don't really have any good pictures to show you this week. Except one...can you guess where I found this!!!