Francis Chan Hell

I saw this really powerful video shared by my friend on Facebook so I though I'd share it with you. I've been big fan of Francis since I heard him at the Passion conference. I hope you enjoy it.

A few interesting things I've read this week

Tall Skinny Kiwi talking about Christian resources, their lack thereof in China and yet the rates of Growth of the Chinese church compared to the west.

An interesting article about the rewriting of the word friend and what it means. I wonder what the implications are for the Quakers?

An electronic cork board resource I'm thinking of trying to use during lessons.

Don Miller talking about forgiveness....and talking about Love [Awwwwww!]

A brief escape from the bunker

I am currently fully immersed in the deluge of work that has suddenly fallen upon me [a metaphor that considering the couple of thunder storms this week is very apt!] and as I mentioned earlier this week I am not going to be blogging much until at least Sunday. However this is a little exception for you.

Last night I came home feeling very stressed, very tired and a bit miffed at another last minute change to my plans based around work. I had been aware that I had changed from when I was younger and never got stressed or worried about anything and now have found myself on occasions finding it hard to get to sleep if there is a lesson the next morning that I don't feel prepared for or if I have a large amount of work to do.

I realised that one of the main reasons for this was that although I hid behind an excuse of trusting God about all these matters, really I just didn't care about these things. I was lazy and slothful and didn't need to be good at something. Mediocracy was fine.

Unfortunately for me God over time challenged this attitude [not least during my time at the well] and now I've found that actually I've gone beyond a healthy position and flipped to the other side!

So last night I came home, I read a message from a friend reminding me not to trust in my own strength, and praying for peace and I realised that I needed to turn to God and just trust in his strength, in his ability and let him get me through it all.

I brought out my guitar, I strummed along and repeated a few simple statements of truth and resting in his presence.

Suddenly everything didn't seam so bad.

Blogging hiatus

This coming weekend I and all the teachers at the school are heading over to Kharkiv to the bi-annual Ukrainian TEFL development conference [hosted by various IH schools]. This will be my second conference but the first one where I present something! [EEEEEK] it's going to be a 45 minute seminar on motivating teenagers [and other magic tricks] and I have to have a draft version ready for Friday's professional development session. Needless to say I am a little worried about the whole thing, with typical issues of self doubt and the pressing immanent date of the conference.

I intend to record it and upload it on here afterwards for your viewing pleasure with a summary of the points made.

Due to preparing this and a few other tasks I won't be blogging this coming week but I shall be back next week. If you have any suggestions of things you would like to see on the blog next week when I'm back then please leave a comment bellow.

Video: your reward; my picnic video.

I basically received the 5 comments I wanted [some weren't online] so I decided to upload the video anyway!

Here is a summary of what different people said.
When I'm telling stories
When I'm with my family (having a meal or playing a game)/ leading a kids song in Romania/ acting in a skit
When I'm drawing [this was from a student and is not as such online]
When I'm caught up in something, design work, Fun with friends, watching a movie, prayer basically anything that stops me feeling self concious
When I'm most free I'm least aware of it, it's only afterwards that I look back and realise I must have lost myself. It's when I'm doing what I believe I was created to do.

And now for my answer, I realised that it's when I forget about myself about thinking about what "Chris" should do. It's when I do activities that I don't care what other people think about me, it's when I forget about being a "good person" or being a "cleaver person". It's when I play guitar, when I sing full throated for no one other than myself and God, It's when I go for a walk on my own or with others and realise that I'm not alone but I am at peace, It's when I help other people and realise that I forgot about what I care about, what I enjoy but just think about that other person.
Those moments are when I feel most like myself, when I don't think about what "myself" is.

I hope you like it, please leave suggestions for more challenges [maybe even challenge me to do something!] or other video's you'd like to see. I have half of another one I'll try and get finished for next week [though it is going to be very busy so we shall have to wait and see]

The Parable of Wedding Guests

3 men were invited to their friends wedding. They had know this friend for such a long time that they were all certain they were within the inner circle and possibly could even contend for the position of best man or at least ushers.

There was, however, one large problem. 

They all hated the bride! They couldn't stand her!

When they first met her 2 of the friends had gotten on very well with her (one had instantly disliked her) but other time elements of her personality had grated on them. She could come out with some horrible comments, her friends were really not nice, she was far too middle class and very uptight and she could be such a kill joy!

They knew the feeling was reciprocated to themselves as well, they could see that she thought they were too mess, they spent too much time with people they really should and above all She knew they avoided spending time with her.

And so as the day of the wedding came nearer the friends of the groom one by one came up to him and expressed their concern about his bride to be. They revealed of their complaints and the Groom listened carefully. He admitted that she could be all these things, and worse, but insisted that he loved her despite all these things and that they should too.

They day of the wedding came and the Groom and Bride had reach fever pitch levels of excitement, everything was set and at last they were to be united.

As the groom waited at the alter he looked around to see his friends. Sure enough one of his friends was there in the church on THE Brides side of the church. The groom went over and thanked the friend for coming. The friend replied that since the Groom loved the Bride, so would he.

The Groom looked round further for the other friends and saw them lurking outside. He went out to meet them.

He asked why they weren't inside, why were they not even dressed for the wedding. They revealed that although they loved the groom as a brother they hated the Bride, knew it was a mistake and pleaded with the Groom to listen to them. The Groom was taken aback. He once again opened the invitation to come in to the wedding, and that if they really loved him they would love his Bride too. But the two friends agreed they could never love the bride, that they would still be the grooms friend but not when the Bride was around.

After that the two friends left confident that their friendship with the groom was still in tact and went of to complain about the Bride as they enjoyed a pint at the pub. 

Unfortunately the two friends never saw the Groom again.

Question: Why don't we help people?

If you remember last week I uploaded a little story/monologue called I saw jes...someone. It was based around the sort of ideas and excuses that I sometimes have used to not help someone out who I saw in need. One of the things that really struck me, after I actually finished writing it, was how many excuses I didn't include that I also use.

The one that struck me most was "I'm too busy to help them." It's seams so strange and so against the grain of the bible where we regularly see people dropping everything to help others. I would love to attach this to culture or something but in reality it's not. Back in biblical times people worked pretty much all day everyday [bar Sunday of course] and yet the bible doesn't seam to view this as being too busy to help.

What this really says about my motives and priorities is that going off to do my job, to get home, to meet friends Is more important to me than helping someone. There maybe good reason for this, after all what if one of my friends was about to commit suicide, it wouldn't be surprising for me to priorities them over a strange who I don't know what their situation was.

However, as you may be surprised to hear my friends don't actually try to commit suicide everyday.

Another thing I can say about work is that sometimes I have to get to work quickly for my next lesson which really does start very soon and so end up passing the same homeless people again and again. I know these people will be there and yet I am always rushing past. If I simply woke up and set of 10 minutes earlier then I would have at least 10 minutes to spend with this person! What could I do with that time!

So I want to open it to you, What good and what bad reason do we think of for why we don't help other people? [and what do these "reason" tell us about our priorities and motiviations in life.]

AND

 most importantly how can we overcome these problems?

A VIDEO Question: what makes you feel like yourself?

I know I'm in shock too but I finally actually made another video! This one has a little question for you. I hope you like the intro to it :)

Confession: susceptibility to adverts

One of the things that I have been challenged on a lot of the last week is how susceptible I am to consumerism and marketing.

It really started last Thursday when I remarked that people as a collective are generally very stupid and I always shock myself by how susceptible I am to advertisements.

Take for example Old Spice…I can give you loads of reasons why I have Old spice products, such as memories of my Dad’s old aftershaves, hearing about how my grandpa would only settle for Old spice, being given some for Christmas [a better excuse I admit] However I really know it is because of the “old spice man adverts” that I first noticed about a year ago. Not long after this I needed to buy a new male product [I have experienced sensitive skin since I had some very bad spots suddenly emerge a couple of years ago] and when it came down to cheap own brand product and the Old Spice one…I choose the old spice one. Next I needed some shampoo and noticed one with some old spice deodorant for free. The shampoo wasn’t my favourite but free old spice deodorant! How could I resist…finally I received some at Christmas [after the two previous incidents].

Now I really like the smell of these products, but now I don’t know how genuine that is since I got my first sample purely because of the adverts and I still have no idea how the home brand products are! I was completely hooked by and an advert and it worked!

The next event I had was to start to read a couple of books about idols and how they both talked about Money as an idol. It made me realise that since I have been out here Money has probably been the biggest worry for me and as such is probably the biggest idol for me. When I added in the reflection on how long I spent thinking about spending money It was really a shocking experience.

To top it all of last night I was starting to read an old guitar magazine I had bought when returning from the UK to keep me entertained on the flight. I noticed that I was pausing and almost reflecting on the adverts that I saw.

I don’t need a new guitar! As it happens I actually have 3 now, 2 in the UK (an electric and a steel string acoustic) , 1 here in the Ukraine (a Nylon string) an amp and effects pedal in the UK. I can make pretty much any guitar sound I want with those different option [they won’t sound the exact same but really it is certainly good enough] and yet there I am, looking at things which could cost over a months salary, which could be used to literally allow someone to live for a month instead of die or even dramatically improve someone’s life.

It was at that moment that I closed the magazine and hid it from myself, I don’t need to have those adverts inflicted upon me.

It did get me to wonder though, have I actually been the one who suffers for getting different things for free of the internet by paying through adverts? Perhaps paying money to be free from adverts really is worth it?

A letter to God: How did you get invented?

There is a nice story that I found on Jonny Barker's blog. A six year old wrote a letter to God entitled "how did you get invented?"
Her father decided to email it around to a few different groups including the head of theology at the Anglican Communion and this was the response sent back.

Dear Lulu,
Your dad has sent on your letter and asked if I have any answers. It’s a difficult one! But I think God might reply a bit like this –
‘Dear Lulu – Nobody invented me – but lots of people discovered me and were quite surprised. They discovered me when they looked round at the world and thought it was really beautiful or really mysterious and wondered where it came from. They discovered me when they were very very quiet on their own and felt a sort of peace and love they hadn’t expected.
Then they invented ideas about me – some of them sensible and some of them not very sensible. From time to time I sent them some hints – specially in the life of Jesus – to help them get closer to what I’m really like.
But there was nothing and nobody around before me to invent me. Rather like somebody who writes a story in a book, I started making up the story of the world and eventually invented human beings like you who could ask me awkward questions!’
And then he’d send you lots of love and sign off.
I know he doesn’t usually write letters, so I have to do the best I can on his behalf. Lors of love from me too.
+Archbishop Rowan

I think it's an interesting response which I'm sure could be attacked for being very simple, yet it was aimed at a 6 year old. so maybe simple is better.

What would you have written if you were old Rowan?

The parable of the Dancer

Jenny stood at the side of the hall watching all the other girls spin and twirl with glowing faces as their partners lead them across the dance floor.

She had heard about these dances and had always though that they were so stifling and ridged, not like this free flowing, energetic and, dare she say it FUN event. In fact when Jenny was younger she had often go along to dances in the hope that they would be as free as she was watching here, yet they had sadly disappointed. Her dance partners had always rigidly followed each step and been so serious about insuring they were following the correct technique, she sometimes wondered if they cared more about insure the dance was right than actually enjoying the dance itself!

So here she was again, at a dance, all be it one that was like she had always imagined dances should be like, and she had barely taken 3 steps from the door! In the past she had always had to go up to a guy from the group who was resting on the side and ask him to dance with her in an attempt to force herself into the dance. Sometimes it resulted in the guy firing back a load of questions about what styles she knew to make sure she was up to the task of dancing with him, sometimes they had even taken a glance at what she was wearing and quickly, and not too discreetly, walked else where and started to discuss her with the other dancers.

It was for this reason that Jenny didn’t like dances…so why was she here again?

As she rested on the outside watching in on the dance, it happened. A guy came up and asked her to dance! She had never had this happen before at any of the previous dances! She politely turned him down pointing out that she was still unfamiliar with the dance styles and moves the other dances were doing and didn’t want to make a mistake. The guy told her it didn’t matter, opened the invitation again (which once again Jenny quickly refused for lack of confidence) and so the guy invited her to sit with some of the other dancers who were resting and have a drink.

Jenny couldn’t believe it, she had never been welcomed by the other dancers like this! Usually the other female dancers got very upset at the thought of competition for dance partners and yet here they were talking to her as thought they had been friends for years. She had been invited to dance by 3 different men since the initial offer and although she had so far turned down every offer she had certainly grown in confidence and the other girls had been encouraging to give it a try, even if she got it wrong, no one would care.

And so she accepted an offer, and there she was dancing, free, getting her steps wrong, stepping on toes…and yet she was free. Surely this was what dancing was all about. 

Graphic: you can not serve two masters

Taking inspiration from the series by Nat Gillet I though I'd do a little graphic myself. I hope you enjoy it.

"My house shall be called a house of prayer."

I made this chart basing it off a typical Sunday service back how. What is really striking is that dispite in Isaiah 56 God calls his house a house of prayer [and then Jesus backs this up later] there was, and still is, a shockingly small amount of planned prayer. [To give full credit, somepeople do pray during the periods of sung worship and even during the sermons and so to draw a distinct division is unfair, but I don't think it is wholey unfair. Especially as I think there are other churches that do less.]

This all begs the questions...are we turning the church into a den of robbers...or worse?

However we shouldn't end on a negative note. Let's committee to pray more, after all church is not just a meeting for 1:30/2hrs on a Sunday.

Please feel free to comment, perhaps post what you think the statistics are in your church/churches you have attended.

I Saw Jes... someone yesterday

I saw Jesus yesterday,
at least I think I did.
I didn't look too closely just in case he was indeed...he.
I crossed the road and trotted on by, excusing my action with typical British sensibilities of "it would be rude", "he wouldn't understand what I was saying and I wouldn't understand him".

Jesus has really let himself go.
His face was so warn, his hair has grown long and unkempt, not like all those pictures of him in the windows I've seen.
His teeth look like they've rotten away and Alcohol is the most likely cause.
His clothes are really falling apart, I can imagine how they keep him warm in the -20 winter winds.
But above all this.

Jesus SMELLS!
no, smells isn't right, He stinks!
I gagged from the stench of piss and crap.

I know he is my friend but I don't want to end up stinking too! (and what would people passing by thing of me for speaking to him!)

Anyway I'm sure Jesus, not that I am certain it was him... will be there tomorrow...
After all he was there last week when I walked by, and the day before when I gave him a pound. He looked really happy at that. I even stopped for a few seconds to accept his thanks and tell him it was nothing...
What a good friend I am to Jesus.

Matthew 25: 31-46

#Lovemonday Week 2

If you haven't read about #LoveMonday then why not go over to Martin Saunders Blog and take a look at what it is all about.

This week I though I'd do a slightly longer Blog shout out to three friends who are truly amazing and deserve encouragement for all the great things they do. So with out further ado...

Ollie Ewing:

For being an amazing friend since we were teenagers. You have such great energy and enthusiasm and throw your whole weight behind everything you do! You great to be around and can cheer me up no matter what. Bless you mate.

Steve Winslade:

You have been such a great ear and voice of wisdom whenever I have needed it. You video messages whilst I have been out here have been a great comfort and I can't wait to hang out with you again when I'm back in the UK. Your always one of the first people I speak to about a problem I am facing. Bless you mate.

Matt Rowe:

You seam to be as silly as me, and yet can be incredibly serious at the same time, definitely a talent! I miss our regular coffee/meal/whatever that we use to have in Leicester and we will have to meet up in the summer. Chelmsford (and espeically their laddies) are lucky to have you there. God bless mate.

TEFL: Intergrational Vs Inductive motivation

On Friday we had a teacher training session focusing on a chapter of a Jeremy Harmer book about "what makes a good Learner". This looked at not only the student but also the teacher.

One of the most interesting parts, for me, was he talked about the two different groups of motivation and how effective they were. The first was a Inductive, which appears to be the most common. In this case the students wants to know the language for a specific purpose and is interested in the language to achieve this goal. examples include learning English for business, learning English for school, pressure from parents, or other such advantage that knowing the language would provide.

However, Intergrational is where the student has an interest in the culture that the language is from/spoken in and what's to fit in to that culture as well. This is a much more effective motivation and produces much better results in students who want to learn the language.

Taking a personal reflection on my own life, when I was at school and learnt French and German I found both subject very hard to learn. I didn't make much progress until very close to my GCSE when in a desperate attempt to actually get a half decent grade I somehow managed to pull out a C in German (by this point I had already dropped French).

Paradoxically, with Russian I had an interest in the language and culture from when I did a module in Russian politics at university. This continued and then, of course, with arriving in the Ukraine, the motivation was exaggerated further with the desire to be able to communicate and adapt to the society I am in now.

Prior to this I had wondered why, despite Russians complicated cases system and other features, I had found it so much easier to learn than previous languages I had studied. I don't think this is the complete explanation [understanding about my own language and having full submersion have certainly helped too] yet it does seam to go a long way for the explanation.

My personal application from this is going to be trying to provide students with more insights into the different English language cultures to try and activate a stronger intergrational motivation.

There are application of this idea beyond just teaching languages as well.

The parable of the "Kind Giant"

I want to tell you a story about a Giant.

Now this Giant was a kind and gentle Giant, certainly not the type who went around terrorising villages. As such he was loved by the local townspeople for all the good that he did. Protecting the townspeople from other giants, hosting regular feasts, helping those in need and even acting as judge in the local court. The whole town was very pleased and regularly spoke highly of the Giant to each other, an act the giant did nothing to stop the townsfolk praise.

One day a villager came to the giant, he told the giant about some trouble that was rising in the village. Some people from a nearby tribe had settled on the outside of the village, not within the realms of the villagers terrain but very close to it. They had started to grow their own wheat there and had even been using the same water supply as the villagers.

At first the Giant wondered why the villagers were worried. Surely this had nothing to do with the villagers? After all it was outside the village territory. However he realised that this was the territory the villagers would need to expand into if the village grew, and on top of that there was the risk of the new village expanding into the Giants village.

The Giant thought long and hard about what to do, he thought about his villagers and although he was sure they didn't currently need the territory on the other side of the river his mind was full of what if's. What if we do nothing and then in 5, 10 years time we have grown too big for here? What will we do then? All the villagers will think I was the coward to afraid to act.

So the giant started to think of a plan, he considered going to the villagers and talking to them about the problem, maybe they could come to some sort of agreement. However this plan had a big problem, what if this prepared them for what was to come. And so the Giant had another idea.

Late that night the Giant put his armour on and set of to the river. When he arrived he let out a might roar waking the sleeping villagers from their sleep. As they ran, panic stricken outside he ordered them to leave the village for good and never come back. Immediately the villagers ran away without returning to their homes and only with the clothes they had on their backs.

The Giant returned to his village to a hero's welcome. A parade was organised and many songs and poems were written about his kind and generous heart to risk his own safety for the villagers.

The next evening a man snuck into the Giants house and confronted him. He Shouted into the Giants ear and raised him from the depths of his slumber. The Giant demanded to know who the Man was and why he was here. The villager explained his story and that of his whole tribe. How they had been fought across the country, how they kept settling in different areas and yet they were always chased away by someone else and how they had heard about the kind and generous Giant and hope they would be safe here at last. The village told the Giant about how they were preparing a great feast for the two villages to show that they weren't a threat.

The Giant was crushed, he hadn't even considered what the other villagers had gone through or why they were there, he only thought about what his villagers thought about him and tried to maintain that reputation. The Giant started to think, what should he do next, he thought about speaking to the villagers again. If he spoke to them maybe they would understand and feel moved by their situation...but then the Giant thought about the villagers reaction, they had been so negative straight away and didn't even want to know about the other villagers situation, they were only worried about their land and looking after their future families. As he thought about it he realised they wouldn't want to hear what the other villagers had to say, in fact they would probably be angry at the Giant for speaking to them about it!

He was sure they would start to wonder if the Giant was really loyal to them or if he was loyal to something else, pretty soon they wouldn't start to criticise him behind his back and question if he really was the Kind Giant they had thought before. He didn't know what to do...

Feral Children

A couple of days ago we had a lesson about Feral Children. One of my students said something that really got me thinking.

“isn’t it strange how when animals live with humans they are still animals, they don’t really change. But when humans grow up with animals they end up acting like animals.”

I don’t think this is a hard and fast rule, after all we do have domesticated animals and zoo animals who won’t attack their trainers but it does make you think about how much people are influenced by their environment.

When we see horrible situations in the world where humans act so disgustingly to each other is it perhaps possible that really their backgrounds have brought them to this point? And that we in similar situations would be not that dissimilar. 

What do you think?

Can you take me to Gargarina street please?

Can you take me to Gagarina street please? 

Haharina street? Yes. 

No Gagarina street. 

Haharina street?

No gagarina, it’s at the top of Karla Marksa. 

Yes Haharina.

It was at this point that I remembered something I had been told about 2 months earlier. For some Ukrainians, even those who speak Russian most of the time, they can not actually pronounce the sound Geh, and instead pronounce a Heh sound [hence the source of the above confusion with a taxi driver, for further amusement the actual street I wanted was Gogolya street].

In fact in the Ukrainian Alphabet the letter Г is pronounced as an H there is no G sound. What is interesting Is how long it actually took me to realise this. In addition to my conversation with the taxi driver I have noticed it two other times, Once when returning from a friends wedding in the UK where my fellow sleeper train riders wanted Hariachi water [rather than Gariachi which means hot] and also recently when I was at a salsa party and heard the instructor also say something being Hariachi too.

Perhaps this has been more due to fellow people understanding me when I pronounced G’s rather than H’s and my lack of Russian knowledge making me just not know words as well but having previously never encountered this difference in pronunciation [despite being around at least one of these people on many occasions before, I know have noticed it several times.

It really goes to show that sometimes we can be completely blind to things that people are saying or doing around us until we know what we are looking out for.

New Years Aims 2011: April Update

To see the original article click here. To go to the page with links to all the others click here. 

1.I will give at least a 10% tithe in addition to any other giving I will do.

This goal has been achieved this month AND I have become more generous in addition to this giving. Having said this I have noticed I have still been far to concerned and worried about money and my additional generosity is still very much in a limited sense. I have a post I want to write on it soon so I'll leave it there but admit that it has been an improvement. 

2. Making Prayer a stronger habit. 

Again I've had some more success here as well, one of the things I realised is that there was a great chance to pray quickly for students in my classes whilst they were working through their activities. In addition I have had some success in changing my morning activities so the first thing I do isn't always going to get a cup of coffee. I haven't yet completely changed my routine but it's on the way.

3. Use skype more to chat to people back home/Britain

This month I have had several chats, some short, some longer including a couple with people I haven't spoken to in a while. So all in all a success.

4.  I will improve as an EFL teacher.

I have definitely improved in this area again, a few simple things have lead to big improvement in my teaching. I certainly thank the more experienced teachers who I have gained some much from their supervision and guidance. For the upcoming conference I am trying to put together something with some of the other teachers about motivating teenagers in class. If you know any good resources then please pass them on. 

5. I will improve my Russian.

The Russian has been coming along and I have managed to get hold of a resource that I haven't had for a while. I picked up the learners dictionary at the old school which has Russian words arranged by usage. As such it is a good way to check how many of the most common words I know. Admittedly this is not the best way to learn words as they are usually very different from each other and it is easier to remember groups of words that are connected with each other. However it is a possible way to remind myself of words that are just starting to enter my active vocabulary and force them along. 

I am fairly certain that I could do with a Russian grammar book to help me advance my understanding of the cases as that is certainly an area I am weak on. 

6. I will write more songs.

er.... there are some songs coming and I have been experimenting with changing around some things. One of the biggest challenges is that when I do have time to write songs I usually revert to consumer mode and just want to watch a film or listen to something rather than produce something new. Still I have written the start of a few things and I guess now I just need to finish them and then actually put them up for peer review [the part which is scaring and hindering me the most!]

7. Host a weekly meal at my flat.

This has been an area where I have failed the most recently. I don't think I have even had one meal in my flat this month! I can throw out excuses about meals out with the new teacher who arrived. The high work load and so not feeling like entertaining but there has been plenty of time and I have failed in this aspect. As such I am inviting people round tomorrow evening to start this month well!

8. Regular and higher quality blogging.

This month has been of mixed success here, most recently there has been a continued period of lack of blogging [with this long weekend being an exception to the general pattern. However I've still put out a lot of post this months that you can look at in the archive. 

9. I will get involved with some form of charitable work in the Ukraine.

I have attended the orphanage less this month, due to a few reasons including being ill on a couple of occasions. One of the things that really struck me on one occasion was that I really didn't feel like going and then inside my head I tried to persuade myself to go. What shocked me was that I was trying to pursuade myself with incredible selfish motivators. "you'll feel good afterwards" "you're a good person and this is what good people do." " what will other people think if they find out you chose not to go." and a few others. I Didn't really think about whether the kids there would want me there, how they'd feel having someone else around to talk to. 

10. I will make a Public video each month.

I have some video footage from the weekend that I'm making into a new video so you can see some of the stuff from the weekend. I may even get some more clips today to add in. However this will probably end up being next months video, so yet again this is a fail I'm afraid. 

So that was April, there are certainly some areas to work on and some progress from the month before. Please comment add advice/point out criticism/ ask for skype chats etc. 

Blog round up April 2011

So the moment you've been waiting for! The blog has seen an increase this month to 901 page view it's second ever highest amount! [and I barely blogged last week]. Most people visited the Blog from the United Kingdom, then Iran!?!?!?! Then the Ukraine.

The most popular post was... Words on the Whiteboard... that old classic, I think it goes to show how far a catchy title can go.

Most of my visitors came from Facebook.

The post I was most proud of this month was my attempt at writing a Haiku in Russian.

I was finally asked a question on Vyou!!!! please ask another!


My favourite video this month was... This


My favourite song this month has been... You are mine by Mutemath


My favourite post that someone else wrote was... this

I would like to also say that the Russian Language blogs in the Blog feed have been really useful and I recommend you check them out.

5 day weekends, Workers day etc

The last few weeks have been very slow for me in terms of blogging, this being despite the abundance of recent days off. I could offer up a host of excuses for this [Introducing a new teacher around, travelling off to Donetsk, lack of home internet connection [due to my mobile dongle using up credit at an alarming rate!] or various other factors.] However it would be better to simply let it rest at sorry and to give you a brief update on things here.

Summer is well and truly on it's way with various fountains having been re-opened for the summer, Out door restaurants opening, shorts being spotted on men and not a single fur coat in sight. There has also been extensive work by gardeners to repair the ground after the torture that the winter months exposed the grass to, and in preparation for the coming blazing sun. 

This weekend due to today being workers solidarity means that there is actually going to be a 5 day weekend for me! Something which I haven't objected to at all! With having so much free time I have set my self the challenge of doing something new every day or at least visiting somewhere else new. 

So far I've gotten lost again in the market, which shows that despite being here almost 7 months the market is still a maze for me. Other than that I have sunk a bit into a rut of not doing new things, Though luckily there are still three days in which I can continue to experiment with new things. On the plus side I have had a chance to catch up on some the activities and work that I have lagged behind on recently...such as writing this blog post. 

Anyway it is time for me to head of and do something new. I hope everyone in Britian enjoy's their 4 day weekend.