Election Day!
Well, my priority today is to photograph my ballot and email it in. Yes, photograph, as I do not have a scanner. In MT, you are allowed to do it all be email now. I filled out my ballot with a group of participants who attended a presentation I gave on the election. We voted and debated the issues before voting together. The debate was not the most successful, but I learned something from it! There was kind of a herd mentality; they all took the same side. It was most obvious (and frustrating to me) when we discussed the illegal immigrants. Virtually all of them thought that they should absolutely not be able to become citizens. Another interesting view expressed was that the US should be stricter with controlling its citizens (i.e. being more documented and having more red tape in matters of where you live, what you do, etc.). That was a bit of a shock for me, but I suppose it shouldn’t have been. It takes quite a bit of work to get a visa for Russia (HIV test, even) and also requires registering your location and having a guarantor. I have also always felt that Russians valued security over freedom. Going back to the topic of voting, it took several emails to get myself registered, but all is well, and I know the photograph method has high enough quality to work.
Last night, I returned home from a trip to Nakhodka, a city about 4 hours away. I went on Sunday afternoon, got a tour, and then finished preparing for the workshops.
Nakhodka
On Monday, it was truly a small conference that was arranged. There was a coffee break, book seller, welcome packets, and all! 85 people attended, although many left before the last workshop, which was the internet. I’m told that older teachers are very intimidated, and that’s why they left. Too bad!
Participants
So, I absolutely adore the city. It has 160,000 people, a city to a Montana girl! The people were wonderful! The organizer of the conference, Tanya, was absolutely amazing! I really hope to go back!
Most of the people were too nervous to stay; if only they knew that some of the stupid things I
Tanya and the teachers in Nakhodka gave me a lovely gift - a basket with a couple of books on Nakhodka, a huge jar of honey (which is not only delicious, but used as a folk remedy for many illnesses here), and big pine cones that have pine nuts in them! Tanya gave me instructions on how to get the shells off of the pine nuts, because they are very hard. Either using a nutcracker or soaking them in hot water to soften them a bit. Since I don’t have a nutcracker, i tried the hot water method. They were still rather firm, so I first squished one with a spoon. The result was a squished nail (and you know I like my nails!) and a squished pine nut, which I ate as much of as I could. Next was the multi-function tool. The first attempt with it yielded half a pine nut. But, after a few more attempts, refinement is coming. How delightful!
It
Okay, so that’s all I have for now. This is my first attempt at putting pics in this blog, and on my screen, the captions don’t look like what I put in the captions section. So, I might have to try something else.
Miss you all!
Happy voting!
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