Scrabble losses: Mass E-mail update - Sept 2007

Greetings!

Alister and I have finally arrived in Ukraine – ok – we’ve been here almost a month – but now it seems we are finally settled. I’ve cleaned the apartment from top to bottom (who knew a one bedroom flat could take so long to scrub down?), and we’ve gotten into a routine of eating, work (Alister is teaching a class on Paul’s Epistles at a local Seminary and I am fully engrossed in language study), and playing scrabble.

I’m on a losing streak with the Scrabble. Last game, Alister beat me by 150 pts. I blame this fact that I try for longer, interesting words like saliva, or nature (with one amazing play of adoptions – which was, so far, the only game I’ve won). The words, though creating a larger letter turn-over for me – mostly serve to open up multiple spaces for him to create triple words while only using three letters (an, on, to, too, en, la, te – seriously –I never thought I would need to increase my knowledge of two letter words!).

In other news, I’m trying to get connected to observe for the latest and greatest Ukrainian Parliamentary elections. It fits in with my Thesis as well as providing an opportunity to get connected with other democracy building organizations and people in Ukraine and so open up job possibilities. So far, the traditional means haven’t taken me very far – but as in Croatia – Ukrainian life often functions through connections and so now I’m working the back channels with slightly more promising results – though we will see what happens in September.

Some pictures of the wedding and honeymoon can be found at www.alisterandsarah.blogspot.com as well as this e-mail and some other ramblings. I’ll keep sending out e-mail updates upon occasion – but they will be kept short while I will use the blog for longer stuff to keep your mailbox clear. Can’t promise how often I’ll be updating – but I’ll try.

Talk soon!

-Sarah