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.