Briercrest Russia: Norma Jean and Novgorod Photos

Hello once again,

Since my last post I've attended a Norma Jean concert, visited the historic city of Novgorod to see an 11th century Cathedral, and сontinued being misunderstood in grocery stores all the while.

The Norma Jean show was quite unique, the venue we were in was quite small and several people inside were smoking in the poorly ventilated area. The place smelled like a creepy great-uncle's basement where he's smoked a pack a day for the last 37 years. It was weird, the first two bands that played were probably in the top 5 worst bands I have ever heard, the people that were smoking often dropped their ashes on the floor, and everyone was REDICULOUSLY excited for Norma Jean. It was sweet to see though, everyone was so happy to see them. We also met a few guys at the show who spoke English as well as Russian. One of the guys had a brother who is studying in Halifax and he plans to study french in Montreal. Here is a short video clip from the show--notice the heavy accent in the chant.

I won't blog alot about the trip to Novgorod. We left at about 9 in the morning, drove through a bit of the Russian forest land, and arrove at our destination at about 11 o'clock. It was really cool to see the churches, which were old even by Russian standards. Novgorod is a much smaller city than St. Petersburg, and because of this, it feels a little more like Canada. The pictures show some of the beautiful scenes that I experienced while there, and I am also throwing in a picture of Brenno and John on the banks of the Neva River with our Russian friends Pavel and Eliah (Paul and Elijah).

This is a completely wooden building that was built in the early 20th century. Not that old but really cool:

Here are some church bells:

Constructed between 1045 and 1050 St. Sophia's chapel in Novgorod is the oldest church in Russia. To put in in historical context: this church was built around the time Leif Erikson first sailed to North America!