"Women's Day. It is a black day for men" -Nicoli

 Our friend Nicoli said this to us as a joke... He is so funny.

Thursday February 23^rd, 2012

We had a day off today, so nice, I love it when we have days off. We went to the souvenir market. It looks like a mini version of Disneyland. It was a dead day today though; there were not a lot of people selling that day. But it was still fun, we will definitely come back. I bought a beautiful Russian Fairy Tale book in English. I was looking for something like that and I found it! I was so happy. Then I bought 4 handmade Matrushka doll key chains that are beautiful as well. A lot of stalls were selling fur hats. A lot of the time I (and our group) were having hats shoved onto heads and the sellers wanting us to buy them. They were trying so hard to sell them to us. My friend Kris was attacked by this old man, he pulled her closer to his hats that he was selling, put one on her, pulled her into a huge hug, picks her up, twirls her around (definitely wooing her into buying one of his hats), and then ends it all with a big wet kiss. Kris is laughing hysterically until he kisses her, thank goodness our friend Jake, who speaks Russian, told us to move on as quickly as possible as he talks to the man to distract him so we can run away. It was so hilarious! I am sad I didn’t get a picture of him kissing her. Glad we didn’t linger though, he was kind of creepy and really old. Ick. Afterwards we went to Victory Park. There was a beautiful cathedral but it wasn’t open today and so we couldn’t go in, but it was beautiful from the outside. Sorry, but I am obsessed over cathedrals. Victory Park is so incredible. I love how it is so big and in the middle there is a huge spire, which has the name of cities in Russia running up and down the spire along with carvings of people, and other things. At the top there are angels watching over a scene below them. There is a man defeating a dragon with a spear as he is astride his horse. It is so cool! I love it. Then we went into the museum. It was so humbling to walk through the halls and rooms in this museum. We read about and looked at paintings that showed how bloody and how devastating World War II was for Russia. So many died, so much hate, so many terrible things happened. My own grandfather is a veteran of this war. It is amazing how much one can be reminded about how devastating the affects of war are for anyone and everyone. More people died in Russia then anywhere else even more than Jews were killed. I teared up at the cruelty and devastation that surrounded the world at this dark period. I wish it never happened, but we can’t change history. It was amazing to be in there. I love that museum. I wouldn’t mind going in and just spending a whole day in there. It is seriously so amazing. The feelings I felt in there were of joy, sadness, despair, victory. I felt everything. 

Saturday February 25^th, 2012

Today we went to the Armory today! It was really cool and there were amazing things to see. There was knight’s armor, armored horse, guns, and swords. Dresses made of jewels and silk, lavish gowns, robes that had long trains and made of fur, shoes, jeweled crowns, and amazingly beautiful jewelry. Golden encased Bibles with precious stones, pearls, and all other kinds of finery. It was amazing how big and thick they were. They must have weighed at least a ton. There were portraits devoted to Mary mother of Jesus; they were elaborately decorated and beautiful, made of gold, mother of pearls, and jewels. It was amazing how much money that this placed had. The artifacts are priceless; it is amazing how much was saved from becoming lost among the many wars and changes in government. Apparently these things have been saved for a long time in a very safe spot. One of the rooms was devoted to ornate carriages. They were absolutely AMAZING! Beautifully carved with angels, flowers, swirls, and anything you can think of. They were painted gold, or had paintings of angels, woman, and flowers. They were huge and heavy. Some had to be pulled by a team of 36 horses it was so big. There were also some carriages for little children. So cute, to keep the procession small they had ponies pull the carriages and have dwarfs be footman for the children. Isn’t that so great? Haha. I thought that was so hilarious! They had winter carriages and then they had summer carriages. They were so beautiful. I loved this part of the museum. The dresses and clothes were also fantastic as well. The Russians followed the French style with corsets, thin waists, and wigs. But I don’t think the wigs survived because I didn’t see any. The women’s feet were sooo tiny! The shoes were so small. But then for the men they were huge! The boots were just gargantuan. I think it is so they can have warm thick socks in them but still. The feet were at least more then 24 inches long, I am not kidding. The height of the boots would reach higher then my hips. It was amazing. I wish I could of taken a picture but we were not allowed to take pictures. It was amazing how much money the Czars would use just to decorate their horses when they went outside. The horses would have beautiful saddles, and silk surrounding them, headdresses with precious jewels and stones, their hoofs would be decorated as well, and then their chests would have something fun in the front as well. They were decorated beautifully. The Czars and leaders of Russia lived a very rich and luxurious life. It was astounding to see the richness and money devoted to such things as simple as the horse they would ride, down to their shoes.

Afterwards we went to a honey exhibit but Kris and I got locked right in the last second because we were trying to contact our friends Myron and Nicoli. So the other girls went in and realized that we were not there. So, we just hung outside and Sarah came and joined us because she had already been inside and decided to hang out with us. I didn’t know that there could be so many different kinds of honey. The girls said that it was fun and nice to try different kinds of honey.

We finally got a hold of our friends and we met up with them. The girls in my group stayed and the group of girls that were with us decided to leave. We went to Cathedral of Christ or Christ the Savior’s Cathedral. Oh my goodness, I know I have said this about every single cathedral that I have been to but I love this cathedral!! It is absolutely stunning and beautiful. It was so amazing to go inside as well. It was massive and had the most amazing art painted on the walls, the picture frames that framed paintings of the saints, and even the coffins were just so beautiful and amazing!! I loved it. I could have sat there all day watching the devoted people and look at the beautiful details of the cathedral. Then a service started and so we heard the beautiful singing of the worshippers and priests. I love cathedral music. It is so beautiful and peaceful.

Afterwards we went to the lock bridges. When I first heard about lock bridges I instantly pictured in my mind the Panama Canal. Never been but I have seen a bridge like this in New York. But the name is related to the actual lock that you can hook onto your bike or on a locker. On this bridge they have fake metal trees. It is tradition for newlyweds to bring a lock, write their names on it, write the date, and then lock the lock on the tree. These trees are filled with them. I think it is such a fun tradition! Then off of the bridge on the sidewalks they have the older trees, these trees are chock full of locks. They are so old and rusty. I love it! The locks vary in sizes, shapes, color, and style. Some are really cute and adorable while others are just ordinary. I love the idea. Call me a hopeless romantic but I think it is way cute and a fun tradition. We even witnessed a couple that locked their lock on the bridge. It was so cute!! They had a big celebration on the bridge; they had confetti, and some other things. It was really fun. They were so cute, loved them.

Sunday February 26^th, 2012

We went to church today and the kids sang in Sacrament meeting today and they were so adorable. I love it when the kids sing in church.

After church we went to a hockey game! It was Russia against Poland. All of the ILP groups went and then Myron and Nicoli joined us. It was so much fun because I had never gone to a hockey game before in real life so it was fun to witness. Of course being in Russia everything is so much more exciting! Well, Russia won so that was really nice. They did very well. Many of us wanted to see them fight, but they didn’t! But there was blood, a guy got hit in the nose and it was bleeding all over the place. Sarah got hit on by a Russian man who was wanting to “practice his English” with her, well he really wanted to just flirt with her and get her number. He asked Nicoli to give him her number but, thank goodness these boys are so great, Nicoli gave him his number instead of Sarah’s. True friends right there, they are always watching out for us. It is really nice.

Tuesday February 28^th, 2012

Learned more Russian today!! I love the Russian language. Sometimes it is really hard to say but once you get it you feel so good! It is a beautiful language. It is so much fun!

Wednesday February 29^th, 2012

Went to culture class today. I love culture class. Sadly, we didn’t make anything but we learned some history! Here it what I learned:

• Ivan the Terrible’s real name is actually Ivan the Storm. Terrible and Storm have the same root and can sound the same sometimes. He was very hot-tempered. He grew up learning to be two-faced because he learned that from his courtiers. They would be kind to him when they were in public and then they would be ruthless to him in private. So he grew up that way only having that as his example.
• Ivan married a women by the name of Roman; which later was the same name of the Romonav Dynasty (Anastasia’s family)
• After Ivan’s wife and son died he was very suspicious and more ruthless then ever. He became very cruel.
• He was religious and superstitious at the same time
• He made himself a Czar of Russia
• He is the Grandson of Ivan and Sophia III (she was a Byzantine Princess)
• The symbol of the two-headed eagle came from the Byzantine Empire; one head looks to Europe and the other looks to Asia. You will see this symbol all over Russia and throughout Russian history. This symbol is still used today because Russia is a part of Europe and Asia (Eurasia).
• The Intercession Cathedral (which is St. Basil’s Cathedral) was created for Ivan the Terrible.
• Ivan had the architects of the cathedral blinded so they wouldn’t be able to create it again because he thought it was so beautiful.
• Ivan had the country split in two; one for landowners and the other half for his army.
• There were two symbols of his army: 1. Broom = which meant that they were going to sweep the nation of it’s evil. 2. A Dog’s Head = soldiers would have the cut off head of a dog on their saddles which was a reminder that they were dogs obeying their master.
• The smaller cathedral at the Entrance of Red Square (LOVE THIS ONE!) is called Kazine Cathedral. It was built to celebrate the liberation from the Poles.
• Significance of names:
• Vladimir---vlad means peaceful/warful, Mir means world. (My friend Miron said his name means World and can mean Peace as well)
• Slava means fame
• Luba means love
• Sophia means wise/wisdom---Sonya is a nickname but it means sleepy
• Gulya means flower
• Ludmilla means kind, pretty, nice
• Svetta means light
• Bagdon means given from God
• Dasha/Daria means gift
• The names Oleg and Olga are from Greece. I thought they were from Germany. That was a big mind explosion.
• The name Alexander has 46 nicknames!! Isn’t that crazy?? I can’t believe, I think it is so crazy.
• Vladimir the Great (came after Ivan the Terrible) brought Christianity to the Russians

Thursday March 1^st, 2012

Went to University today to meet our new group! They were really fun and nice. We had a big group and apparently there is supposed to be more but so far we haven’t had all of them yet.

Saturday March 3^rd, 2012

All of us girls took it slow this morning. Slept in and just spent time at the apartment. Then we went to go ice skating with our friends from ILP, Nicoli, and Miron at 2pm. Sadly, right when we got there it was closed until 5 pm. So we couldn’t ice skate. But one thing that was interesting at Gorky park is that I used a squatter toilet for the first time ever! It was very interesting. Not as bad as I thought it was going to be. One moment in my life, that I can recall, that I wish I was a guy. Well, we decided that we were hungry and that Italian food sounded really good. The only people that showed up on time was my group, Nicoli, and Miron. We called all of the other girls to tell them it was closed so they went on to do their own thing. But our group and the boys walked around looking for an Italian restaurant. We went into a café call Moo Moo. It was so fun! The building was painted black and white like a cow. Then inside the whole place was cow themed. Loved it! It was so great but we were craving Italian food and it was really crowded. We found the Italian restaurant. Oh my goodness it was so good. I love Italian food!! We had pizza, bread, olive oil, and vinaigrette to dip the bread in. It was so delicious. The olive oil was super spicy but amazing. Then Miron went to the bathroom but when he came back he had 6 balloons in his hands for all of us. We all thought it was hilarious and so we held on to them or tied them on our backpacks.

Afterwards, Kris, Rauni, and I had to go to a ballet. So, we departed from the other girls and the boys. Then we left for the ballet and met up with some other ILP members. The ballet was Cinderella. It was soooo amazing!! I loved it a lot. The music and dancers were beautiful. The costumes were beautiful and creative. I still can’t get over how amazing it was. I love the Russian ballet!

Sunday March 4^th, 2012

Today we went to church as usual. I love church! Then Morgan and I met up with the boys to go to Robin’s apartment for dinner. She is another head teacher but for another group. That was a lot of fun! We made delicious Alfredo pasta. The boys went out to go buy cake because it is tradition to bring something when you are invited over to someone’s place. So they come back and bring back this massive blini cake and ice cream. All of the food was delightful. It was so good. The blini cake was strawberry flavored and then we had caramel flavored ice cream, and a vanilla that had some nuts in it. All of it was really good. We just talked with each other and it was fun. After that we had to leave because Nicoli needed to go somewhere. When we got onto our little Metshrutka bus there were three men and they were definitely talking about us. It was really scary because they were huge guys and it was dark outside. But I do know that our guards will watch out for us as long as we can survive to reach them. But they were so creepy and thank goodness they left before our stop otherwise I am pretty sure they would of followed us. And it was late so it was the last bus leaving so they couldn’t of followed us even if they tried/wanted to. We were both so relieved when they left. These guys were old. I don’t get it sometimes. These Russians can sometimes be really creepy and gross.

Tuesday March 6^th, 2012

Our kids were in this concert for women’s day. It was the cutest thing ever and it was dedicated to all women. They sang two very pretty songs: one was for mothers and the other was for grandmothers. It was so pretty. We had to teach the kids a song about cowboys and we had been teaching them for a long time. We taught a song that goes like this:

Buffalo girls won’t you come out tonight come out tonight come out tonight.

Buffalo girls won’t you come out tonight aaaand dance by the light of the moon.

Buffalo girls won’t you come out tonight come out tonight come out tonight.

Buffalo girls won’t you come out tonight aaaand bring my darling home.

Yes, that was our song. So great. They loved it and sang it very well. There is a lady who plays the accordion and they really wanted us to play music but we didn’t have any. Well the lady with the accordion had us sing the song and bam it two tries she whips how the whole song on the accordion. Genius. It was amazing that she did that. This song reminds me of the movie “It’s a Wonderful Life” because George and his future wife (I can’t remember her character name) were singing this song as they came home from the dance.

The kids sang songs from several regions around the world; China or Japan (not sure which one), USA, Greece and, of course, Russia. They were all dressed up in costumes for these different places. They danced, sang, and did some skits. They were so cute and I loved every minute of their performance. They kept waving at us but we weren’t allowed to wave back because it was a performance. We would just smile at them if they did.

Wednesday March 7^th, 2012

Today we only taught for one hour!!! It was so wonderful and so nice. What was even better that day was that we only had to teach 4 kids. Best day ever! We taught them all together. Morgan taught first, and then I taught. My lesson went too long so Mindy didn’t teach. It was the nicest day of teaching I have ever had so far. The reason that there were only 4 kids and it was only for an hour was because it is Women’s Day tomorrow. The Russians like to make their holidays as long as possible. Then the kids were so sweet and they gave all four of us (Morgan, Mindy, Sarah, and I) chocolate. The chocolate was amazing! The other school gave Kris and Rauni flowers and perfume. They looked up the perfume and it was very expensive perfume, the prices were close to $100 on some of them. None of them were cheaper then $80! And they bought three! One for Kris, one for Ruani, and one for Sarah. Wow! What a gift. I swear we teach the kids of Mafia members. Well, we are not really sure. They are so rich that they have to be doing something illegal. So far the parents that we have met have been very kind and wonderful so I don’t know what they do for a profession.

Thursday March 8^th, 2012

Today is Women’s day! So I was expecting a lot. No one said a word about congratulating us for being a woman. We girls of course said that to each other. But I was kind of expecting people to do it when we walked outside. So I was taken aback a little. I just had imagined women’s day to be this whole big thing because of all of the things that had been going on at our schools.  Nope, it seemed like a normal day. It was still a great day though! We went to a folk dance concert today. It was really cool, funny, weird, and amazing. It was a children’s folk dance concert. The kid’s ages ranged from 5 to 18. There were a ton of kids. They just kept coming and dancing. There were some really interesting dances/costumes and then there would be traditional dancing as well. The costumes for the traditional dances were beautiful. I kept thinking about my cousins because many of them did folk dance in college and I wish they were there to see it. It would have been a lot of fun for them. I loved the folk concert. It was very lively and the kids were solo good. I was amazed by what they could do.

We don't need locks, We have Man Power.

This is what Svetta told us when we were worried about being locked out of the school at night. There is one door that is open all of the time but their are guards in front so people can't just waltz without being noticed.

Tuesday February 7^th, 2012

Well there is not much to say about everyday because I do the same thing everyday. But I will just tell you what my schedule is like. This will be just a basic schedule of everyday but each day is somewhat different then the other.

8:50-9:00 am Wake Up

9:00-9:30 am Eat Breakfast

9:30-12:30 Prepare lessons, go to supply closet, read, get ready for the day, email, we can do anything that we want at this time.

12:30-1:00 Lunch

1:00-3:50 Get ready for teaching at 4:00 and do whatever at this time

4:00-6:00 Teach kids

6:15-ish Eat dinner and then after dinner we can do whatever we want, relax, read, exercise, talk to the guards, etc.

It’s a nice day. Nothing too special, but we get to do whatever we want. Sadly we can’t just go run off into the city during the day because we have to get back to teach and we have only Thursday and Friday off, which will probably change soon. What I mean by off is that we don’t have something that we have to go to like University on Mondays.

Wednesday February 8^th, 2012

We learned how to make Blini today!!! It is like a crepe/pancake. It is delicious. We just had some strawberry jam and sour cream on it and it was amazing!! On Wednesday we have Culture classes at 9:30 to 11:30 am. Today we made Blini and then our friend Gulya taught us about some Russian history and traditions. It is very fascinating. Sadly, I have been dumb and not bringing a notebook to write this amazing stuff down. I realized this on the 13^th of this month so I will definitely bring it next time so I can write a few things down. Russia is so fascinating. I am learning so much from Russian history, Russian culture and traditions, and other tidbits. Event though I am learning so many neat things, I can’t remember a single thing from this day.

Thursday February 9^th, 2012

Today is our off day from anything scheduled besides meal times and teaching. Today we also can go to the pool and gym by our school that we teach. The pool is soooo much fun! There are four slides. And two of them are water park status slides. They are so high in the air and they are super long. The other two are smaller but are still fun. Us girls have contests to see who can go the fastest. It is so great. It is like going to a water park for free! It is funny that we have such a blast from this. We look forward to Thursdays each week. We don’t go until after dinner at around 7 or 8 and then it closes at 10. We walk home with wet hair but we haven’t froze. We are actually sweating when we come back from the pool which is good because I would rather be hot then freezing.

Friday February 10^th, 2012

Kris and Rauni teach in the mornings on Fridays and the rest of us girls teach at the same time 4-6 pm. I wish we all were teaching earlier on Fridays so we could leave for the weekend earlier but it is what it is. Usually on Friday nights we kind of just have our own little party and then prepare for the next days adventure.

Saturday February 11, 2012

Today we left for a Young Single Adult activity that starts at 12 pm but we had to leave at 10 am because it takes us two hours to travel there. The activity was at the church that we go to on Sundays. It was really fun! It was nice to meet other people and talk to our friends. Our group was the only group from ILP that went. But it was great. A lot of the people didn’t speak English but there were a fair amount that knew how to speak English. We had to have an interpreter ALL day. Headache galore from all of the interpreting. At around 730 pm they finally started the dance. We were waiting for a while for it to start and we were anxious because we needed to leave at 8:15. We had a ton of fun at the dance and all of the Russians wanted to dance with us and it was great. We made some friends and talked to them. We left at 8:30 and then we had to go to a store to buy some food. We are provided food for the weekend but sometimes they don’t give us everything that we asked for, so we just buy it if they don’t.

When we were leaving the Metro to go a store there was a guy that started speaking to us in English. His name is Myron and he was really nice and friendly. He was funny too. We were on our way inside when Sarah was confronted by a man that asked us if we were American and then Myron shooed us inside and said “Go inside, I protect you”. Made us laugh because he is so thin and has a broken arm. He got my skype and email. Then we got together with him and a friend the following weekend which I will talk about in a second. Eventually, we told him goodbye because we needed to catch our bus. We were very late and the bus never came because we missed it, so we hopped back onto to the Metro to catch another bus that came later but then when we arrived we were too late. So instead of taking just two hours to get home we spent 3 looking for a bus. A man noticed that we missed the bus and he said that he would take us home for 1,000 Rubles (which is $100). But we decided that going home by this man was not worth our life and 1,000 Rubles put together because we don’t know if he was going to take us home or take us to a slave market. So we didn’t say yes to him. We kindly thanked him and he left us alone.

Sweaty (because of all the running around) and exhausted physically, mentally, and everything else we headed towards the Moscow 1 head teachers apartment. We all fell asleep in 2 seconds but the futon wasn’t very comfortable so it wasn’t the greatest sleep. We slept with our clothes on, didn’t brush our teeth, and didn’t wash our make up off. We woke up the next morning traveled the hour home, got ready, washed faces, brushed teeth, and then we set off for the two hour journey to church. All I can say is that the night before was an adventure but it was thoroughly exhausting.

Sunday February 12^th, 2012

Finally arrive to church but we are exhausted and can barely stay awake. Thank goodness we were able to wash up and get to church on time. After church there was a wonderful luncheon which made our day. It was the first time that we had American food since we have been here. It was really nice and it felt like we were back home.

Monday February 13^th, 2012

Today was our last time teaching this particular class of University student’s. We had to switch to Thursdays so Rauni and Kris can teach earlier in the day on Monday. I am sad that we won’t be teaching them anymore because apparently they speak and interact with us a lot more then the other classes for the other ILP groups. But next Monday Kris, Rauni, and Sarah will be teaching them while Morgan, Mindy, and I go to a special pancake celebration instead. So excited to go!

Tuesday February 14^th, 2012

We had our first Russian language class! It was so much fun! We learned the first half of the alphabet and so we can kind of read the signs that are on the Metros or in the cities. It is really cool to be learning another language. I am so excited and can’t wait until I can speak a sentence instead of just a few words here and there. I love class so much! Our teacher is way adorable and so kind, her name is Victoria, she is just the cutest thing in the world and she is probably just a few years older then us. We only have class once a week for an hour. Victoria is a teacher here at this school and doesn’t have a lot of free time. But I love it!

Wednesday February 15^th, 2012

Today we made Borscht! It was delicious! I have never had it before and it was way good. Borscht is a delicious blood red soup that is made out of beets, cabbage, meat, carrots, and other veggies. You put sour cream in it to make it creamy. Hmmm so good! And we had another lecture about Russia. I can’t remember much but it was really cool. I will bring a notebook next time so I can remember these things. But I do remember one thing at least. Red is a symbol of beauty, power, and strength. Red and beautiful have the same root and so sometimes people accidentally misinterpret them. Red Square actually is supposed to be called Beautiful Square. The color red is in many traditional clothing; it is used in celebrations, and for many other things. Russians love their red.

Thursday February 16^th, 2012

Our free day! We went to the pool and, of course, it was so much fun! We also went into a sauna for 5 minutes. It felt so good and we were warm all the way home. Every Thursday there is a guard that guards the gate and his name is Roslan. He has major crushes on all of us and is always wanting to communicate with us. He is nice but we try to not talk to him all of the time because all of us could get into trouble if people think we flirt with the guards and keep them from doing their job. He is nice but we don’t want to get in trouble and he is very forward in showing us that he likes us. He hasn’t tried anything, thank goodness, but he keeps asking us to go on walks with him. And we avoid that question and say no. Besides him, all of the other guards don’t flirt with us. All of the guards are really nice, sweet, and helpful. It is so cute because they are always waiting for us to wave at them or say hi to them when we pass by. They always wait for us to make the first move. At night they can’t tell who it is so we always wave or say hello to them to make sure they know who we are. It may sound creepy but they are not creepy at all and I am really glad about that.

Saturday February 18^th, 2012

Best day ever!!! We went to Red Square today. We had a blast. I cannot stop thinking about it. It was such a fun and good day. We went to this beautiful cathedral that is right in the front. I can’t remember the name of it but I will find out soon. There was a session going at that moment and so Kris, Rauni, and I went in to listen and watch. Oh my word. It was so beautiful, the music, the singing, the prayers, the praises, and the candles. It was amazing. Nothing can describe the beauty and spirit that I felt there. I could of stayed there all day just listening and watching. Another thing that I thought was really exciting is that I was able to light a candle! I thought it was really neat that I was able to be a part of the worship ceremony.

Then Kris, Rauni, and I switched with Sarah, Mindy, and Morgan and we gave them our stuff so we could go into Lenin’s Tomb and they would stay in the cathedral like we did. The mausoleum doesn’t allow cameras, cell phones, any electronics, or water into the tomb so we left all of our stuff with the other girls. Going into Lenin’s Tomb was amazing and then really creepy at the same time. The guards were scary. It was really dark and then they would just move their hand to point the way. They didn’t seem real but then once they moved, oh they were. The lighting was very dark and then when we saw Lenin’s tomb there was light surrounding him. It was so creepy. We couldn’t stop and examine him otherwise the guards would get mad at us for not moving. Well, my mom told me to thumb my nose at Lenin for her and I did, but very secretly. Otherwise I would have been in big trouble! It was adventurous and fun at the same time to do it. He was a bad guy.

After we came out we found Myron and Nicoli (hope I spelled it right). It is funny because they live in Moscow and have their whole lives but they have never been in Lenin’s tomb. We asked them why they didn’t and it’s because it is an American thing to go and see Lenin and that they have no desire to see a man that was not good for Russia. I can see why they wouldn’t do that but still, I think it is interesting. Also he was way creepy and I don’t think they wanted to see the evil, creepy dead guy. I actually I wouldn’t mind seeing him again, it was interesting. They really enjoy our curiosity about everything. The kept commenting about us being so curious and excited to do things like go into the cathedrals, tomb, and everything. It is interesting for us because it is beautiful, it is history, it is different than America. They were so much fun to be with. It was fun to get to know them more and to make friends that were our age. I never felt scared, worried, or nervous to be around them. They were gentlemen to all of us girls the whole day.

After Lenin’s tomb we went into St. Basil’s Cathedral!! Wow, what a place! It was so beautiful! I wanted to take pictures of the inside but I would have had to pay so I didn’t. It was so beautiful it is amazing how detailed and how remarkable the artwork was. The structure itself is a masterpiece. It was really nice to have native Russians with us because they were able to explain the history very well. The plaques had English on them but sometimes I didn’t understand the history or the context and then they would explain it to us. It was so much fun!! They would also explain the relics, the paintings of the Saints, Jesus, and Mary, the altars, prayer areas, and candles. I can’t remember much of it but it was really neat at that moment and still is even though I can’t remember. Haha. There is soooo much history!! I know there is a lot in a million other places, but I don’t know Russian history very well and so it is so much fun to keep learning more. It has been a blast to learn these new gems of history. St. Basil’s is absolutely beautiful. It was really fun inside because not only is it bright on the outside but it is bright on the inside, they repainted it in 2001 so the paint looks amazing. There are a lot of secret-ish passageways throughout the cathedral. It was fun to see what was around the corner.

After that we walked around, stood in the dead center of Moscow, made a wish in the center as is custom and fun to do, and then we ate together. Afterwards we had to part ways because we are going to see Swan Lake!! The ballet was so beautiful! The costumes, set up, and the ballet was stunning to watch. It was really cool to finally put Tchaikovsky’s music to story. The music was spectacular and so was the ballet. The ballet and Swan Princess are basically the same story; I had no clue that they were similar at all! It blew my mind. And I was excited to hear that because when I was little that was my FAVORITE movie ever (and I secretly still like it…haha). I would make announcements to my family about Odette being alive. It was great; I was obsessed about it when I was younger. Then we bolted to the metro so we could catch our bus. We didn’t want to have the same adventure that we had last weekend. I am glad we didn’t have to do it again. Thank goodness we didn’t.

Sunday February 20^th, 2012

After church we went to this beautiful cathedral that is really close by. It was so beautiful!! I love the cathedrals in Russia. They are amazing, detailed, ornate, and special.

Monday February 21^st, 2012

Mindy, Morgan, and I were invited to go to a breakfast celebration for Mazlanetia. Which is basically just pancake week. It is the celebration of the coming spring and the ridding of winter. It was really fun and so cute to see our children dancing and singing. The celebration was at the school where we teach. It was really fun. The kids were adorable and it was really fun to see the kids in a different setting and to have them see us in a different light as well. They would dance and play with us, hug us (which is not just a small hug it is a tackle to the ground hug), and show us their prizes.

Tuesday February 22^nd, 2012

Had our second Language lesson today. I love learning the Russian alphabet, and words. It is soo much fun!

Wednesday February 23^rd, 2012

Woke up today not feeling well at all. Threw up before breakfast. Decided to go anyway. Ate, then went to culture class. Did not feel good all day. But I made notes! I was pretty proud of myself for finally remembering to bring a notebook to culture class. So here are some highlights:

• I learned today that "Kremlin" means fortress. I had no idea! There are many Kremlins throughout Russia, but the one that is used by the President is in Moscow.
• Russians used to be a very dark and ruthless people. They would gather their enemies’ dead bodies and burn them or have other uses for them. For example; they would cut off the heads and put them on poles to surround their city to ward of the enemy. Or they would set the bodies, dead or almost dead, underneath huge platforms. Then they would dance and feast on top of the platform, which was on top of the bodies. Apparently, if there were people that were still alive but slowly dying you could hear their moans from the wait and also can hear the crushing of bones and body. So, they would be crushed to death. Yep, very gross. Gulya says they grew more civilized in later years.
• Monasteries are fortresses and the monks were always highly trained knights. That is so cool!
• Czar is actually the short word for Caesar. Russians stole this custom from the Byzantine Empire. Instead of being called a King, rulers would be called Caesars.

Today also I found out that we only were teaching for an hour because the children were leaving for celebrations. So excited and I decided to teach even though every second I felt very crummy. It was so nice to be teaching for an hour. The children were very good today, thank goodness.

What did the college students say when you asked what made you look American?

A question from my aunt.

They thought it was a really funny question but we wanted to know what made us stand out so much while we were in public even if we didn't talk. All they did was look at our clothes and faces and said you look Russian or you don't look Russian. There are some staple things that are VERY American. For instance ear warmers and plaid shirts and I don't really know what else. I want to ask them more about what makes us stand out but I won't be able to know until next monday. It isn't always a bad thing to stand out but it can be good as well. We don't want to stand out too much otherwise we could be targeted by thieves.

I am finally in Mother Russia!

Thursday January 26th - January 27th, 2012

My flight to D.C. went by pretty fast. There was a really cute older couple that sat next to me and they were on their way back to their homeland in Holland! They were really kind and had deep accents. Yon and Marg were their names. They gave me a key chain with a wooden shoe on it and it was from Holland, they also gave me their card and told me to call them if I ever went to Holland. It was so cute that they did that for me. I didn’t know what to give them back. It is customary to give a gift back to them if they give you one. So I decided then that I would give them two of my precious Kifa Bars. They were so touched that I gave them the bars because they were from home and they knew I didn’t have a lot of them. I told them what they were and they accepted the gift graciously and with many thank yous.

Flying for 14 ½ hours total was not as bad as I thought it was going to be. It went by a lot faster then I had originally thought because I had been on car rides as long as that and even longer so I knew how it felt. But unlike a car where you have to stop your travels to stretch, go to the bathroom, maybe eat something we kept on going through all of it. We were able to stand up and go to the bathroom when we wanted. We were served some dinner and breakfast, which was ok but not terrible. I was hungry so it was fine to me. Once we got there we had to go through customs and all the airport stuff to get out of the airport. Not only were we already a circus freak show to the Russians at the airport I had to drive my cart/trolley thing backwards because it wouldn’t work going forwards and EVERYONE was watching me and kind of laughing but I feel like they knew why I was doing that but oh well, it didn’t matter. It was really funny though because Sarah (our head teacher) understands some Russian and so she could hear and understand what people were saying and she said that many people were talking about us and saying things like “Americans…they don’t even speak Russian. They shouldn’t be here”. It is quite funny to see people gawking at us because we totally look American.

Our group, which consisted of our head teacher, four other girls, and I were helped by some friends of ILP into a bus with all of our stuff and we headed off to our school. Right after we left the airport our drivers decided to eat because they were starving so we pulled off of the freeway…. meaning that we were still on the freeway, we didn’t exit it, and we ate at a place that was basically on the freeway. We walk into this place and it is kind of dirty, filled with cigarette smoke, hookahs on the tables, and beads in weird entrances. I didn’t think much of it until after I left. But we had shuerma (I hope I spelled it right), which was a foot long. It was delicious! It is kind of like a burrito. I don’t know what the bread was wrapped around it but it seemed like it was similar to pita bread. Then it was filled with tomatoes, potatoes, something was a bean sprout or similar to one, cucumbers, a delicious sauce, super good chicken, and some other things. It was sooo good.

Our friend who picked us up and took us to lunch her name is Kashoosha and she told us that the lunch was a secret and we were not supposed to tell anyone especially the cooks. Now stuffed and full of shuerma we pile back into the bus and head to the school. Which wasn’t too far away. If the cooks found out that we had eaten before it would have been very bad because they took the time to cook us a meal for when we arrived. We arrived and people asked us if we were starving and we said yes.... not the greatest idea but what could we do. Then we had to have a second meal, which we could barely put down because we were already stuffed from the shuerma. They made us some pasta with a yummy sauce, and sausage (which was a hot dog that they call sausage), which was a little interesting because it was a hot dog and I am not the biggest fan of hot dogs but I ate it anyway. Then they told us that dinner was going to be in 2 hours and to get there at 6 o’clock sharp. We all looked at each other and we knew what the other one was thinking. “Oh no, we have to eat again and we are already stuffed to the brim”. Well, 2 hours later we go to dinner and we eat our dinner. We celebrated whoever finished dinner. It was a great accomplishment. I would just like to say I was one of those people. I couldn’t move after that. Exhausted, and full we were finally able to relax. We all fell asleep at 7 pm.

Saturday January 28^th, 2012

Then woke up at 4 am bright awake. Couldn’t sleep anymore. Then after an hour I decided to go back to sleep and we woke up at 830 am. That was hard. We had to wake up early cause we had things to do. We were busy ALL day long. We didn’t even have time to eat breakfast because we had to leave fast for our activities for the day.

We were dragged to many different places and told many things that I cant remember because I was exhausted and couldn't think very well. I kind of felt like I was on drugs because I was drained of any energy and my eyes were bright red and saggy looking. It was bad. But one thing that I do remember is that I went to RED SQUARE!!!! Sadly we were only there for a little bit because we had to do a ton of things that day and sightseeing was not one of them. We were not able to get breakfast that morning and also lunch. So, not only were we exhausted to the point of passing out any second, we were going to pass out any second because of lack of food and water. They didn’t provide us any water the first night we were there and it was really dry so all of us were dying of thirst. Sounds dramatic but it was true. We all thought it was funny that were stuffed yesterday but then hungry today. I guess it was kind of a nice break from food but it was way too long. Ok moving on to Red Square. Red Square was amazing and beautiful. I just couldn’t believe we were there! Every second I had to remind myself that I was there. It felt like a dream. One thing that I thought was really spectacular and sobering was a monument outside of Red Square. It was called the tomb of the fallen soldier. There were three guards watching the tomb. It was amazing. Flowers everywhere and a lit torch on top of the tomb made it look very serene and also very I don’t really know how to say it. It is a very respected place and they make sure to take care of the tomb, keep it nice, and also have guards watching over it. On a Russian couples wedding day which is always Saturday, they leave flowers on the tomb, walk around Red Square, and also have other ceremonies around Red Square. We saw about four couples that day that were in wedding dresses. I am pretty sure there were a lot more. It was really cool to see that tradition take place. Sadly we were only able to be there for a little bit of time. But we will go back soon. St. Basil’s Cathedral was so much fun to see in real life. We will go in sometime soon. I think it was Ivan the Terrible who had this magnificent cathedral made. He loved it so much that he had the artist’s eyes mauled so he could never create something like that ever again.

We will be able to go again and go inside of St. Basil’s Cathedral and Lenin’s tomb when we go to Red Square. We were able to go into one small church (I can’t remember the name of it but I will next time). It was BEAUTIFUL! We couldn’t take pictures of it inside because it is a working church. But the paintings, the statues were amazing to look at. The structure itself was awesome. It is customary for women to cover their heads when they go into cathedrals so all of us that were girls covered our heads with our hoods to show respect. We also saw a huge vat of holy water outside of the main praying area. Inside the prayer area they had holy water in a fountain (I guess that is what you can call it).

Sunday January 29^th, 2012

On Sunday we went to an International Ward, which was two hours away. We had to take a bus, metro, and then walk a little ways to get there. The ward was really fun! They only speak English so it was wonderful! Haha. The ward was super super kind and very helpful. The Bishop is so kind and he is German. He will actually be serving a mission in Germany after we leave. So he and his wife get to go back to their homeland. His name is Bishop…. I can’t remember at the moment but I will tell you soon when I remember it.

This will be funny for those from the BYU 35^th Ward this last fall. After Sacrament was finished I looked around at the people in our ward and I see a boy that I kind of recognize but he is so out of context I had no clue who it was. But after a while he looks up and I know exactly who he is. He was from my ward (BYU 35^th) before I left for Russia. His name is Jake Balser. It was really funny to see him and super weird. I felt kind of rude when I said it but it kind of makes sense. I said, “Um What are you doing here?” It is funny and random that we are in the same ward again but on the other side of the world.

For Sunday school all of the ILP people, Jake, and his friend Daniel (they are both doing an internship here and are going to a University to study while they are here until April) will be together and we have a lesson in English. It was fun to get to know the Bishop more and to get to know the other people in our group. That morning me and the other five girls in my group had woken up at 5 in the morning and starving so we had to eat at that time. By the time Sunday school hit (and even during sacrament) we were all hungry again. But the weird thing was that we were all shaking so bad because of a combination of needing food and tiredness. So we passed out some pastries (these are absolutely divine!!! And sadly all that our group thinks about when we are hungry or even when we are not is about these pastries…don’t worry mom I won’t be gaining any weight while I am here!) that the cook had given us just to our group and we were being super secretive about it but some people noticed what we were doing and were laughing non-stop. We were being a little selfish but what could you do when you were shaking so bad you felt like you were going to pass out. The whole day I felt like that.

Monday January 30^th, 2012

Monday we went to the Moscow State University of Environmental Engineering to discuss our English classes that we will be teaching there. Nobody knew that we were going to be teaching there until we got into Moscow. I think it is so cool that we get to have the opportunity to teach kids our age English. We are finally going to make friends out age! Haha. We will teach Mondays from 9-11 am and it takes two hours to get there so we have to leave early in the morning to get there. The reason that we are teaching at the University is so our Visas can be extended for even longer then they are. It is for when policemen stop us we are to tell them that we are here to teach English at the University and that we are studying at the University as students. Yep, just working the system. We are enrolled in the University as students and we even have an address of where we live on campus so we can show the policemen. Is this illegal? Maybe. Haha. The law is that if we enroll in the school we have to live at that school’s campus housing. But we are not, since we live two hours away but the policemen wouldn’t know that since we have an address to show them and someone to call if they need more answers. Pretty awesome and pretty sketchy at the same time.

Tuesday January 31^st, 2012

Tuesday was filled with relaxation, sleep, food, planning lessons, and training. It was the first time that we didn’t have a place to go besides the cafeteria downstairs for our meals. My goodness, the food here is delicious. It is not a normal cafeteria food; it is like a gourmet restaurant every time we go down the stairs. Thank goodness they only give a salad plate size of food. Otherwise we would stuff ourselves and gain waaaaayyyy too much weight. The salad plate of food use to not satisfy us at all and we always seemed to be hungry even though we had eaten and were full at the time of the meal. But now it is filling to us, which is great because it means we eat less food. Americans eat a lot of food and Russians do not. There are no obese people. The only people that are bigger are the babushkas, or not as old older women and older men. It is crazy how skinny everyone is. All of the kids here are so thin, and tall. Once they get a little older the boys get a little bit wider and the girls just grow tall, thin and beautiful.

Wednesday February 1^st, 2012

Wednesday we started teaching. It was ok. I definitely need to improve with my teaching and have the children learn English. I was so nervous. I didn’t know if I was going to do it right or if I was going to do it wrong. Will the children be good? Will they be bad? Will they listen to me? I didn’t know what to expect. Half of the time they would be good and then they would be bad. Not that they were mean to me or anything. They are just children and of course they have a lot of energy and want to run and play. I learned a lot that day and wasn’t as scared the second day. Oh my, that day was a little bit worse then expected. The kids were really rowdy that day. I am someone that is a no nonsense kind of person and sometimes I would have to have a little chat with the children about what they were doing. Then they would listen and then get all rowdy again and I would have to start over with my chat again. We are the American teachers; we are not as scary as the Russian teachers. I know I will get it down to all of them being calm and quiet and listening to me soon. There were definitely a lot of cute, little, sweethearts though. They did everything I told them to do and they listened. They spoke English when they were supposed to. Even the kids that were rowdy would speak a lot of English and it surprised me but they did well. The are really cute and good kids at heart but they just want to push our buttons and see what they can get a way with. Well, they won’t with me. Now that I know a little bit more about teaching and what I am supposed to do. I am teaching with two other girls and we teach the 5-7 year olds. We each teach for about 25 minutes each and rotate 3 times. So we teach three times a day but with separate groups with the same activity that we planned for 2 hours. Right now my focus is on arts and crafts, and gym. I do arts and crafts one day and the next I do gym. 2 hours may not seem a lot but it really is. By the end you are exhausted, sweaty, and hoarse. We have to focus a lot on making the kids behave and speak English. Many times they don’t listen, run around being crazy, speaking Russian, and being mean to other kids. These kids are ABSOLUTELY crazy. There are some good ones so I hope soon the rowdy kids will learn from the good kids. So what I did on Wednesday was the same for Thursday and Friday.

Saturday February 4^th, 2012

We were planning on going back to Red Square today but there were a lot of protests and were advised to not go to the city center because we could be in danger of physical harm or in danger of Russians thinking we are on their side about Putin being taken out. We are supposed to stay politically neutral while we are here. Our Plan B was to go to Cathedral of Christ because that is outside of the city center but alas it had to be the COLDEST day I have ever experienced in my Russian existence. We were icicles and couldn’t move. We had waited 20 minutes for a bus so we could go to the Cathedral but everyone at that stop decided they wanted to be on our bus and we were left behind because there was no room. Being the icicles that we were, we couldn’t take it any longer and decided to just go to the mall that was really close by to warm up and look around. This mall had some really good food like Shuerma and Blini. We finally got to try Blini! It was so good. I had a mushroom and cheese one. Hmmm delicious. During the weekends we cook for ourselves. Rauni, Kris, and I whipped out some food from what the school gave us and of course it was really good. That night we had a movie night together by putting our mattresses on the ground and cuddling together to watch the movie.

Sunday February 5^th, 2012

Sunday was basically the same except for Sunday school we actually participated in Sunday school. We had a lesson on 2 Nephi 1. Which was basically about the need for all of us to have a good attitude about bad things that go on in our lives. It is about the Lord chastening us so that we can get back on to the path of righteous and to not murmur anymore. Sometimes we need a reminder to get back towards God. We went to Relief Society and we learned how to better FHE in our families, or as a single person, or as a group (for example ward, or the ILP people). Both lessons were very good and uplifting. Great points were made. For dinner we made chicken, rice, and a yummy sauce made out of the chicken broth. Rauni, Kris, and I headed it again. The chicken they gave us was a little different then we expected it. It was a super fresh chicken so there was still a ton of blood and many other gross things inside of it. Guess who wasn’t afraid to cut that baby up? Me. I had cut raw chicken before so I didn’t think it would be too different but it was. I had to clean it up really well because there was blood everywhere and there was the gizzard to get out because that totally grosses me out and there were many other things that I won’t mention. So I had to cut open the chicken to get the gizzard out. We have a video of it so it might be posted. Not sure. I am not sure if my audience would appreciate it too much. But hey you don’t have to watch it. Cutting the chicken I felt pretty triumphant and I wouldn’t mind doing it again. It reminded me of our family’s chickens back home. I don’t think I could do what I did with that chicken with our chickens. Icky. But it ended up being delicious. So that is all that matters.

For church we have to travel two hours just to get there. We start with taking a half hour bus ride, then get dropped off at the Metro, then ride that for about an hour and a half, and then walk to the building for another 5, 10 minutes. Sundays becomes a very long day for us but it is totally worth it. Since yesterday was a fast Sunday and doing all of that traveling it had worn all of us out. I fell asleep at around 7 or 730 (I just couldn’t stay awake anymore) then woke up at 11:40 took a shower, brushed my teeth, etc to get ready for bed and then fell right back asleep.

Monday February 6^th, 2012

Well, I have finally caught up to today! Today was also another busy. It started at 6:00 am in the morning and we were supposed to wake up early than that but it didn’t work out. We had to take a two-hour bus/Metro ride to Moscow State University to teach college-aged kids English. That was the best part of the day. I wouldn’t mind just teaching those kids cause they are so much easier then teaching 5 to 7 year olds. They were really fun to talk to. There are two Sashas (their real name is Alexander, but everyone who is named that goes by Sasha…. don’t ask me why), Ravshan (pronounced Roushan), and Kashoosha. We are supposed to have another girl but we will see what happens. We teach from 8:50 am to 10:30 am. We just talked to them the whole time. Figured out what ages they were, what they liked to do, etc. Just getting to know them more. It was seriously the BEST part of the day. We were finally interacting with people that were our age and not with ILP. It was very refreshing. We teach every Monday. So every Monday we have to get up early and travel far. But it is way fun so I don’t mind doing that. Then when we got home we prepared our lessons, ate, and then taught our kids at 4. Oh my, hardest day yet. I was feeling very overwhelmed today about teaching. It is hard and the when the kids don’t listen or do what you want them to do it is frustrating. I tried getting language out of them but it didn’t work. They would say “yes, teacher, yes” and then look at me like I was the dumbest person in the world. It wasn’t fun but I hope that I learn from what happened today and that I improve and am more prepared tomorrow. I think also today was the first day that all that is happening right now is kind of sinking in and I was also tired from all of the traveling today. The cold takes a bite out of your energy as well. Your body is working so hard to keep you warm it becomes exhausted after a while. I don’t really know what happened today. It was difficult and I hope that will be the worst day and it will be better from now on. I can’t wait to finally perfect the teaching technique, but I know that will take a long time.

Random Tidbits

These will be just random tidbits that I have learned or have observed from my stay in Russia so far. And if I learn anything new it will be after the posts of my adventures.

Russian people are really kind, very giving, and try to help as much as they can. But they also can be flakey too. They expect you to be on time even if they will be late themselves. If you are late, they will get mad.

The people are very beautiful here, female or male. You are either beautiful or not. There is no in between. It is crazy to see that when we walk around.

The guards at the school that we live at are sooo cute (why I say cute is because they are just so nice and happy to see us everyday)! They are so nice, wave and smile at us when we pass them. They are really friendly and very helpful especially when we need keys for certain places around the school. There is one is particular that is so funny. He always has a huge, beaming smile when we pass his kiosk and he waves to us when we wave to him. It is so great. He brightens our gloomy weathered day because he is like that every day without fail.

The school we live in is GYNORMOUS. There are a million doors and floors. It is a really nice school. We are very spoiled here. Which also means that the kids are spoiled as well (that is why they are so hard). We live in a very rich area, a very nice area. We do live out in the woods but it is beautiful and nice here. When we walk around at night or early in the morning there are no lights so we have to walk in the dark very often. I understand because the school is so immense the electricity would be super expensive. But it is always an adventure right?

We have no shower curtain so we have to take a shower in the corner of the shower to not get everything wet. We have also had to make blockades, made of towels, to block water from dripping everywhere. It’s interesting and apparently very typical in Russia. I think it is really dumb but whatever. We don’t have a mop to clean up the water so it’s hard to anything if there is a great spill, which, thank goodness, hasn’t happened because we were smart with the towel placement.

Russia is a very beautiful place and also a very dirty one to. There is trash everywhere, and the ground is not very clean because the snow and dirt mixed in all together.

At the store that we go to we have to deal with a security guy named Igor. He has maybe two missing teeth from the top and about 5 or more teeth missing on the bottom. Yep, he is great and kind of creepy at the same time. He follows us around trying to speak but none of us speak Russian besides our head teacher so she kind of understands what he is saying. But we mainly ignore him. He has kind of backed off since he now knows that we are not just visiting the country for a little bit because we keep going back to the store. It is the cheapest one and closest one to us, so that is why we keep going back. I am so glad that he has backed off though. I just didn’t have a very good feeling whenever I went to that store because I knew he was in there. It is hard for me to be impolite to people but if you ignore him he goes away. So that is what I do.

The people on the streets are very friendly and willing to help. We have needed some help and we ask people and they help us. I guess we sometimes look lost so people have come up to us asking what we need and if we need help. Those who speak English help us out because they understand what we are saying. They are soooo kind. I have learned that Russians are friendly and helpful not cold and unfriendly like I have been told millions of times. And of course, it helps being a girl.

Apparently, according to the Russian college students, I look Russian! Hahah. We asked what made us look American. It was fun to see what they thought.

Прощай и спокойной ночи (Goodbye and Good Night)

With Love, Reagan Orme