УРА! At last!

Officially I am a kayaker! I went out yesterday after having donned a lifejacket and fastening "wings" to the kayak (the wings were a pole with bottles at either end to add balast to the kayak) at the request of my trainer, jumped in and promptly rowed about 4 kms.

I included the picture to show you what the kayak I'm working in looks like. It's pretty long and has a little rudder/keel on the under side that you work with your feet. These, of course, are all much nicer than the one I'm in.

Proudly returning to find my coach waiting for me, he said let's try it without the wings now. It's true, it's really hard to maintain balance in a kayak. I was pretty proud of myself however, I stayed afloat quite well . . . for five minutes. I was surprised when I found myself toppling over and experiencing the wetness of the river (the same river near where I'd found the "tick"). We pulled the kayak out of the water, waited for it to drain, and my coach started to haul it off. I was surprised, so I asked him if I could try it again. He let me and I sat down in the boat, 30 seconds later I was in the water again. My third attempt was slightly more successful, I started to feel like I was understanding, but I ended up in the water again. At the end of the day, Evgenii Mikhailovich informed me that I'd graduated from the 5 liter wings to the 2 liter wings, progress is being made!

So, after just over a month, I got into a kayak. I still don't have any news about the children's camp I wanted to work at, hopefully I'll go out there tomorrow. I thought my efforts to find a place to teach English were successful after I interviewed at Ruslingua, but based on the work they've sent my way (um, nothing) I guess it wasn't quite as successful as I thought.

No, I haven't done what I expected, but yes, it's definitely been worth it to come. I've learned a lot here about family and what I hope mine will be, job-hunting and how to interview, stick-to-it-ivness, and how to enjoy myself/have fun whatever else is going on. We'll see what else happens with the rest of the time I'm here, I have a feeling that I've got more than one adventure left, only time will tell.