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RUSSIA: COSMONAUT'S DAY
April 12 is celebrated as Cosmonaut's Day in Russia. It marks the
anniversary of the first manned space flight by Yuri Gagarin, who
piloted the spaceship Vostok I for a 108-minute Earth orbital flight
on this day in 1961. This is a day for speeches and educational and
cultural events.

Gagarin was called Columbus of the Cosmos, and his first words from space were "I see Earth. It's so beautiful."

More about the Russian space program.

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Professor C. gave us our vocabulary quiz, and made us read Klima. It was actualy very fun, to decipher the unknown words with Professor C. squawking and hopping around. How does squeaking "eee eee eee" help me figure out what that verb means? I don't know.

Reading that kind of thing only entices me, because the language is damn gorgeous and fluid. I'm so in love with Czech.

A check from Harris Interactive came in the mail today, for some survey work I did a long time ago for them. Free money in the mail is kinda nice. I'm worried the post office will lose my mail when I move. Tomorrow I need to fill out change of address and forwarding notices. Should run some errands related to the moving and packing. Fun fun fun. I should shuffle things around so I can vacuum, and resume bagging books. Tonight I will go to the first Mass in our new church. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

God. A kid at Bowie was arrested today and he had an AK-47 in his bedroom. Business as usual I suppose. It reminded me that I was considering April 19th, Waco, and Oklahoma City this morning. McVeigh is going to be executed next month, ten days before my trip, eleven days before my birthday. Much as I don't think violent terrorism is the right thing to do, or even the most effective here, I don't believe McVeigh should die. The death penalty system is profoundly flawed across the nation, and on my moral level, profoundly hideous. I know perfectly well that McVeigh choose to express his anger of the government sanctioned massacre at Waco in a very violent and awful way. But let me ask: Where is the outrage over the dead children at Waco? Children just like the ones in Oklahoma City died in Waco. Why is it forgivable for the government to kill children, and not one citizen? Because it was just stupidity and bad management at Waco instead of terrorism?

One of my most terrible memories centers around what happened in Waco. I followed the story in the news, just another current events obsessed kid in middle school. In every classroom, we had a television to show the time and sometimes movies for class. On April 19th, the televisions ran non-stop in the background of every class, the volume often turned down. All day long, over my teachers' heads, I watched the inferno engulf the Branch Davidian compound. Not a word was said, no explanation, no consolation, no concern that what we were watching was perhaps one of the most horrific things we had ever seen in our short lives. I'll never forget that, and I'll never forget laying awake at night wondering why we had to see. Perhaps then I realized how truly blind the people around me were.

Holy Thursday

The church is so lovely. Pale, clean lines. Simple. It has two columns and a stone altar. The floor is beautiful colored stone. Father Elmer has his enormous baptismal font now, with steps leading down into the water.

The acoustics are well done. To hear hundred of voices singing "Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again" is moving. Lent may be my favorite season, but the Easter music makes me happy. Something about the way it rings out. Happiness, maybe.

I have missed our crucifix above the altar, the one that originally bothered me so much. It's huge and metal. Christ is raising his arms, out towards us. I've come to love Him like that and I've missed him while the church has been renovated. Too see Him looking out at us again filled me with a quiet happiness, radost. In the light, the robes of the priests glimmered faintly, and they seemed so radiant at the altar. In those moments, I want to stay in the church forever and ever.