Bureaucracy Update: Tuberculosis Tangent

Last month I had my meltdown over the kids' medicals. Maybe it's good that I didn't know another month would go by without getting them done!

We were sick until early January, then everything in the country was closed until January 9th. As soon as offices opened back up, we were at the clinic with the kids.

We went to the kids' section of a fancy private clinic down the street (not the same one that failed to diagnose my appendicitis in a timely fashion). We consulted with a pediatrician first ($$$) per the rules, then got the kids their Mantoux skin test which rules out tuberculosis. That's what is required by immigration authorities, and it has to be entered into a vaccine booklet, which we didn't have yet.

Speaking of tuberculosis, one of Andrei's students got sick with TB this year, and he (Andrei) had to go to the infectious diseases hospital and get all the tests done to prove he wasn't infected! The student likely had had a latent form anyway, though.

Since we got the skin probe, we were thinking about going ahead and getting the kids a TB vaccine (BCG). It's given at birth or shortly thereafter in Russia and some other countries. Our kids were born in the U.S. and we hadn't gotten around to getting them one. The BCG is not given to adults because 1) it hasn't been shown to be effective beyond a certain age and 2) it doesn't prevent the form of TB that affects the lungs. (some new research is currently coming out, though!)

There are some pros and cons to getting the BCG vaccine...

Blurting things out

Are there any topics that you find yourself arguing about and then regret it later? (mine are down in the second half of the post)

I find that with social media especially, I am always sticking my foot in my mouth.

Before there were faster methods of communication, reticence tended to save me from saying anything stupid, except around people in whose company I felt totally relaxed. Yeah, I got into ridiculous arguments with siblings, but nothing out of the ordinary. A friend and I had this game called the "random game" where we would just say the first thing that came into our heads. Innocent life before Internet...

Then came chatting via instant messenger, where it was just silly banter.

For emails and blogging, I would always take the time to choose my words carefully. In some ways I still prefer those forms of communication, and that's why I hang on to my blog here. Since I type on my laptop, the effort of powering it up and finding a quiet moment to sit down and write acts as a buffer for some of the crazy thoughts that are coming out.

But really, before social media, I didn't weigh in on heavy topics in a public way. And now I'll hit send without giving it a day to mull it over. Discussions move fast, and I wouldn't want to deprive anyone of reading my opinion on it...ha!

Seriously, though...there are times when I cringe seeing that notification that someone has replied to one of my previous arguments. Why did I write that? What was I thinking? What must people think of me now? And then I sit down and write another rebuttal...ugh! I'm sure I'm not the only one who does this...it seems like a new sort of addiction these days.

I don't necessarily regret the things I write. I own those words. But, I have to constantly remind myself that satisfaction in life doesn't come from knowing you're right and are able to enlighten other people. ;) Time and time again I'm reminded that the delivery of a message is important, and sometimes that means just not saying it. And also, I don't have to worry that someone will be lacking wisdom if I don't give them my superior point of view...we have the Holy Spirit to lead and instruct, and we have to trust that other people will get the message at the right time, too.

This evening I'm writing this blog post instead of delving into other corners of the Internet. By the way, I'm not on Twitter...it sounds stressful!

Here are a few of the topics I have commented on in the past without thinking...

January term oddities

One of these days I'm going to do a photo dump and give these posts some visual appeal! Today is not that day...

I was going to write about how weird our schedule is in January, but then I realized it sounds like a normal family's schedule: work in the morning-afternoon, then errands.

It's different for us since Andrei leaves so early. David has been getting up and listening to audiobooks while Sophia and I sleep a little more.

Okay, that doesn't sound so weird, but how about this: since Andrei is teaching an intensive course that fits in all the credits in short sessions a few times a year, he has been teaching for stretches of like 8-10 days, including Saturday and Sunday. It was really confusing at the beginning of the month because there were the holidays, and then Andrei jumped into teaching, so he went from being home every single day (for like 2 weeks) to being not home every single day. So it's very disorienting not dividing up the days according to a work "week."

On Sunday he was supposed to teach all day and then go straight to church, but then he got out early and was able to come get us and go to church together. That definitely helped restore my sanity a little!

Lately I've just really wanted to be alone. I can't really say it's a stressful season with the kids, despite occasional bickering. We definitely have screentime quiet times during the day, but I still get to this point where I just don't want anyone to talk to me or need me! The kids are getting older and more independent, so I can't figure out what's bothering me. Maybe I'm in dialogue with them more than before? What if it just gets worse?

As far as homeschool, we still haven't really started up a full day again yet. But since Andrei is still giving exams (along with the intensive course) for the first semester, we're pretty much just in sync with him. We actually have 2 weeks before we're "halfway" done. David has been asking about some of his subjects, but we've been just doing Language Arts and Math.

Meanwhile, the errands we've been needing to do are related to bureaucracy! I'll do a more detailed post with an update on that. Andrei gets home from work, then we go adventuring in search of the latest form. It's actually kind of fun having an excuse to go and do something as a family. We were going to go to the movies as a reward for getting some medical tests done, but that's been delayed, so we still have that to "look forward to" in February.

Long story short, we're probably going to Finland next week.

New Year's Eve in the suburbs

Okay, we don't really live in the suburbs, just a residential area, kind of on the outskirts of town. We've got lots of stores and banks and public transportation. But, that's about it.

Meanwhile, we were sick on Christmas...then New Year's Eve rolled around, and we were STILL sick and STILL didn't want to pass it on to the grandparents. And hadn't gotten to the store to buy groceries, let alone presents.

Some good friends of ours (Russian) just emigrated to Canada. Like, in November-just over a month ago. I've been keeping up with their teenage daughter on social media, and she wrote this heartbreaking post about not being able to find the holiday spirit. Now...this was after Christmas. So, most people had done their celebrating already, in North America. But when I read that, I realized that she was sitting there, still waiting for the holiday like we Americans wait for Christmas. In Russia, that holiday is New Year's Eve. And if you've ever been in Russia for New Year's Eve, you know that American New Year's celebrations are pretty lame low-key. AND these friends are out there in rural Canada, where everyone is likely hibernating until school starts up again (probably this week, whereas Russian schools are off until January 9th). And she's still waiting for the holiday magic.

I know I wrote a post recently comparing Thanksgiving to Russian New Year's, because it has that overall non-religious/political open table warm fuzzy feeling. But, the holiday magic, and the tree, and decorations, and gift exchange-those, of course, belong to American Christmas/Russian New Year's.

By the way, I'm looking out the window right now late at night, and the Lakhta Tower (you can read about it) is lit up like a Christmas New Year's tree: Green with little glowing yellow lights.

One of our local shopping malls has a big open foyer where there is usually a fun holiday display. A few days before Christmas, I dragged the kids there, even though we were all sick, to see the holiday decorations. Silly me, it was almost Christmas but still more than a week until New Year's, so the holiday decorations were under construction. We got our gingerbread ingredients and I pretty much died carrying it all home.