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