"Google Earth" is a fascinating program from Google.com that you can use to look at much of the earth from space using satellite images. I was amazed to see how many details you can see when you look at places around the world, even in Russia! Use these pictures from Google earth to visit us here in Oryol.

The Earth
Here's how an American views the earth.

Turn the Ball
From this angle you can see America, Europe, and part of Africa.

North Pole
Looking down on the North pole, you can see Russia on the right, and America on the left.

North Pole Rotated
Now we have America on top and Russia on the bottom.

Europe
This view shows us all of Europe, the Middle East, and much of Africa.

Europe
You can see the outlines of the European countries.

Europe
Most of the familiar countries and major cities are shown. Moscow, Russia is in the upper right, Our town of Oryol, Russia is just below Moscow.

Eastern Europe
Much of this area was under Communist control, "behind the iron curtain", until 1989.

Russia, Belarus, Ukraine
In 1994-95, I visited Minsk, Belarus. We lived in Kiev, Ukraine (Kyiv) for over 3 years. We have lived in Oryol, Russia since December 2002.

Moscow and Oryol
We are 250 miles south of Moscow. Kaluga and Tula are major cities between us and Moscow.

Oryol Province
Oryol is the capital city of the Oryol province. The city has 318,000 people, and the entire province has 787,000 people.

City of Oryol
The city is narrow, located on both banks of the Oka river, which flows north toward Moscow, and then into the Volga river.

City of Oryol
If we look a little closer, we can see a gray oval on the west side of town. That is the Lenin sports stadium, where the soccer team plays.

Stadium and House
Looking closer, we can see a red "L" shape just north of the stadium. That is our apartment building!

Stadium and House
Just across the street from the stadium is the apartment building where we live. You can see the soccer field in the stadium.

Home Sweet Home
We live on the very top floor right near the bend of the building.

Route to Church
The green line shows the path from our apartment to the house where we have church. It is about 2 miles away on the other side of the river. Sometimes we walk there if the weather is nice.

Church House
You can't see much of it in the picture, but the green line ends at the house where we have church services.