Next Post August 24, 2009

So, it has been forever since I have written anything on here.  I am home from Russia and trying to figure out what I next.  I have a few ideas about what I want to do, but still trying to decide which path I want to take.  Decisions are not my strong point, I think that I must be the most indecisive person on the planet, so I am having a little bit of trouble with this.

Other than trying to decide about what is next in my life everything has been basically just life.  I have been reading a lot.  Really to much, I had to cut back on it because I never did anything else, but my life is a little bit more balanced now.  My family has done a few things.  We went to Washington D.C., to the lake on the 4th of July to rent boats, and to an amusement park last week.  It has been a fun summer, other than the fact that I decided that I hate summer, to hot.  Now to figure out the rest of my life, or at least what I am going to be doing in the next year.

St Patrick’s Day March 18, 2009

This is what I wrote yesterday.

This morning I was going to wake up at 7 and shower before school, but it didn’t work out. I woke up early enough for a normal day, but all of us woke up at 7 and tried to shower. When I found out that everyone wanted to I decided that I would after school.

On the school bus Aliona and I were looking at her princess book, and she told me that she had a Peter Pan toy(she had to show me in my dictionary the word for toy, because I didn’t understand that one), so I said “u menya yaest Peter Pan koneega(I have a Peter Pan book)”. That is the most that we have ever talked on our own, I was so excited. It was actually just a couple of days ago that I learned how to say I have, so even last week that was more than I would have been able to do. I haven’t been being good about my Russian lately, but I am trying to do better. I am going to study for an hour every day, flash cards, reading, translating, and trying to speak to Jamie in Russian as much as possible.

Breakfast this morning was lemon, cheese cake, puffy, pastry stuff. I don’t like it at all, so I just ate the bread and bologna.

Jamie and I spent most of the morning trying to come up with things to do with the preschoolers. We came up with several ideas, but none of it worked. They still ran around, they still didn’t pay attention, they still screamed, and they still didn’t learn a whole lot. At one point I was holding Max in my lap, we were trying to make crafts, and he didn’t want to sit in my lap. Mark came over and started pulling on his arm, then he said something in Russian, and Jamie laughed. I asked what he said, he said “let my beloved Max go please.” I was really annoyed with them at that point, but I have to admit that was so cute.

In kindergarten since it is St Patrick’s Day we had a party. Yesterday we told all the kids that today was a holiday in America, so they all had to wear green. They all had special outfits except Timur. He was wearing the same thing that he wore yesterday, but it was a blue green, so we called it green. The party was so much fun. First we played St Patrick’s Day memory, with things like gold, clovers, and rainbows, then we did a craft, a picture of a rainbow with a clover and pot of gold at the bottom, and in the pot of gold we gave them chocolate gold coins, then we had a dance break, we just danced around the room, then we watched a music video, read green eggs and ham, then we played St Patrick’s day bingo, then musical chairs. It was so awesome. At one point some kids came through our room in a line, and Timur looked over and said “sprasneecom”, which means “with the holiday”. I was so insanely happy that I knew what that meant. Kira was making her picture, and Louisa asked her which glue she wanted, and she said, without it being modeled, “I want blue glue”. That made me so happy. When she got here just a few weeks into this semester she couldn’t understand or say anything. She is doing so much better, it is just amazing. I love her so much. While reading green eggs and ham I tried to get the kids to beg the guy to try the eggs. The other kids all did it, clasped their hands in front of them and begged, but Timur just rolled his eyes and said “please eat the eggs” in an irritated voice. He has such an attitude problem, and he is only 6.

Lunch was pot roast, potatoes, and chicken noodle soup.

After lunch I didn’t really do anything, just typed on the computer. After a while we set up for our party for the older class and got started. We went up to meet the kids, then while Sarah and Louisa were taking them down I went to get cups from the cooks. One of Aliona’s friends, Onya, has decided that she likes me. She will sometimes come down with Aliona when she comes down, and lately has started hugging me. Well, today I found out that she knows English, at least some, I am not sure how much. She translated for Aliona and me for a couple of minutes and did ok. Well, as I was trying to get the cups her and Aliona came in. I asked her if she would help me get some cups. I told her that we were having a party and asked if she could help me. She asked me if she could have some candy. I told her yes, but that my candy was downstairs and they were having class, so it would have to be later, but could she help me get cups. She again asked for candy, and I again told her after class, and repeated my request for cups. She told me no and left. I managed to get the cups without her help, but I was a little bit annoyed with her.

The party was fun. They all remembered to wear green, which was great. We had all kinds of green candy. We did the same things with them as we did in kindergarten. The book went better. Since I had read it once I was able to make it more interesting. We did more acting, and I over acted the lines more and they had more fun with it.

After class they all went upstairs. While I was cleaning Sophie came down and started crying. It took me a while to understand what she was saying, but she said Onya’s name, then candy, then mimicked taking it away and eating it. I finally realized what she was saying and asked her if Onya had taken her candy. Yeah, that was why she was crying. I was so mad at her. I went and got her more, but I was pretty upset. I was kind of glad that I didn’t see Onya again that day, I was not sure what I would have done.

We were all the first ones on the bus. I sat down by Sarah, and the others kind of laughed and said that I would have kids fighting over me. Sarah wanted to try something, so she put me by the window and her on the outside, to see what the kids would do. Aliona gets on the bus and goes to sit down beside Caitlyn. She actually puts her stuff down beside her, then looks all over the bus, and finally sees me. She reaches out, behind Sarah, and says my name. I take her hand and she gives me a sad look, so Sarah says “alright” and gets up.

At home we didn’t do much, just kind of hung out. Jamie had had a bad day, so we had some ice cream and watched a movie. Louisa let us borrow She’s the Man, and we watched that. At first it was just Jamie and I, but Sarah joined us after a while. It was a pretty funny movie, but not one that I would watch over and over again.

Jamie agreed to help me with Russian, so that I am actually learning the things that I need to speak, not just learning what I need to get around.

From Monday March 18, 2009

Sarah got home this morning. I had thought that she was going to meet us at the school, so I was surprised when she walked in the door(Caitlyn let her in).

Jamie and I spent most of the morning trying to come up with ways to make preschool better. We put a bag over a stool and changed our throw the animal on the shelf game, so that we show them a picture then they get a ball, but they are getting tired of that, so tonight we are going to look up things on the internet to do. It is just hard, because we can’t just look up things for little kids, we have to look up things for three year olds, that don’t understand us, that won’t make them out of control, and that will keep them talking. We will find stuff, though.

Poor Max does not like preschool. I can’t really blame him, all he knows is that he is trapped in a room for an hour with two big people that he can’t understand. Mark seems to do a little better. I think that he understands that we are speaking a different language, but I don’t think he knows that we don’t know Russian. He will point to something then ask me how to say it in English.

The Russian word for “give me” is die. Mark had something that Max wanted, and Max sat there pulling on it saying “die, die, die, die.” It was so funny, because I knew what he was trying to say, but the way it sounded since my native language was so different.

After preschool I taught kindergarten. I did Peter Pan for drama. Timur really gave me trouble. He is a smart boy, but he just does not want to be good and sit still and pay attention. He is constantly getting up and going to play with things, and making noise, and doing whatever other distracting things he can think of.

I was really nervous about my shop activity, because it was something that I know could have been done in five minutes, but I had to make it take twenty five. We were going to make Indian tepees, and all we were doing was tying three straws together, making a cone out of paper, then putting the paper around the straws. It worked, though. First I showed them the Peter Pan book and talked about the Indians in it. I had made Indian headbands, so we put those on and talked about it, then we all sat on the floor and talked about how Indians sit on the ground, then we all went “ahhh” and tapped our mouths, then we talked about the tepees. We were using straws to make them, so I brought in two different kinds of straws, and we talked about how they were different and how they were the same, then by the time we were actually making them we only had like five more minutes. I was so nervous about them. I was really hoping that Caitlyn didn’t come in for that lesson, but of course she did. It makes me so nervous to have her there, but it is her job as the head teacher. Everything went ok, though.

After lunch was Russian class. We went over some more food, then some numbers. Next week I think that we are doing verbs. My biggest problem with Russian class is that I actually want to learn Russian, I want to be able to speak it, but the other three are just interested in being able to get around while here, so that is what we are focusing on. I can still learn stuff from it, but the stuff I want to know, how to congregate a verb, all about the different cases, stuff that will actually let me speak the language I am not learning.

I did a little bit more studying after class, just going over flash cards. I am getting better at placing the accent, but it is still hard for me. In Russian class the teacher told us that she wanted us to make a list of verbs we wanted to know so that we don’t just have a random vocabulary. I couldn’t help laughing about that when we got back to our room. I get most of my vocabulary from trying to pick out words in church and looking them up in the dictionary, so I know words like honor, branch, and law, but I don’t know the colors, and I can’t count past 10.

I made a tokens chart for the older class. Doing the store with them always exhausts me, because it is so hard to explain to children that don’t know what you are saying that they saved this many tokens from yesterday, they earned this many tokens today, the thing that they are saving for costs this many, so they still need this many more. It is hard anyways because they are still young, but to add in the fact that they don’t really understand is just hard. I made a little chart that goes up to 70, and they each have two markers. The green one is how many tokens they have. When they first come up they can see how many they had at the end of yesterday, then they can count theirs, count the spaces on the chart, and move their marker to see how many they now have. The second marker they have is blue, and it shows how many the toy they are saving for costs. That way they can look at where they are, and see how many they still need, and it is a physical thing, not just some words that they kind of understand. It worked so well. Arena, the one that I have the most trouble with, got it immediately, and was even able to figure out on her own how many tokens she still needed and didn’t give us any trouble. It can take me five minutes to explain it to her sometimes, but this was so easy and quick.

Sonya cutesy formed my name today. In Russian you can add things to the end of things to put them in cutesy form. Not everyway will work with every word, but the way I know is the take away an a from them end of a word and add ichka. At the end of class while I was helping Sarah with store Sonya called me Samantichka. I thought it was so cute. That is basically a form of endearment, and I thought it was so sweet.

At home we had FHE, then played spoons. It is more fun with more people, but it was still fun with only a few people.

Samantha

Aliona’s house March 13, 2009

I am going to go ahead and write about today, and then I will catch up on everything else later, because I am just getting more and more behind, and I am going to forget all the details of today, so I will catch up on what I have left out later, when I have time.

I think that I am almost over this stupid cold that I have had for a week, not quite, but hopefully almost. It is just ridiculous, I am usually the last to get sick, if I even get sick, which I don’t often, but this time I am the only one sick, and I have been for almost a week.

On the bus when I sat down by Aliona she starts showing me pictures of things, then telling me the name, and I would repeat it. The only thing is that the words she was telling me that were impossibly long, and I couldn’t even begin to repeat them, so she would say the word, then either say it one syllable at a time, or even say it letter by letter in some cases so that I could repeat it correctly. She is such a patient teacher, but I think that she doesn’t correct my mistakes, so I know that I pronounce things wrong.

We had potato pizza for breakfast this morning. It was just like your normal hot dog pizza, except that it had potatoes in it and no sauce. I actually liked it, though.

Today was supposed to be my planning day, because I have no classes, but I was lazy. I was so close to finishing Pride and Prejudice for the third time. Lydia had just run away and I couldn’t stop because it was just coming to the happy conclusion. Of course since I am a slow reader that little bit took me most of the day.

After breakfast I did just about the only productive thing that I got done today. After sitting there for a few minutes with my headphones in reading I noticed that Sarah was trying to get all her stuff done for her lessons. I asked her if she was going to be done in time and if she needed help, so I helped her draw on her bingo board. I did the stars, then she had to go(she had two classes, and the bingo was for the second class, so she didn’t need it quite yet). I was going to keep working on it and have it done when she got back, but after drawing on some barely recognizable banana’s I decided that I was going to ruin her boards, so I waited til she got back then asked what she was doing for game pieces, so I cut out all her game pieces while she finished the drawing.

Gulia came for culture class today. First we made a beet salad, then we talked about Ivan the terrible. We also talked a bit about Russian superstitions, but that was just a little side thing because Gulia happened to drop a knife. I think that she said we are actually going to have a lesson where we spend some time on that.

One thing that I love about the culture classes is hearing Gulia talk about it, then making a connection with something someone did, and realizing why they did it. Like the other night a boy had candy, and while talking to another boy about the candy he made a fist but stuck his thumb out between two of his fingers, and I didn’t know why he did it. Gulia said that it is something little kids do, about the equivalent of sticking your tongue out, but it basically means “I have something and I am not going to give it to you.”

After lunch I just went and hung out. When it was time for the older class Aliona came down to hang out with me. She didn’t have class, and she came down, asked if I had class, and when I said not today she spent the next hour and a half with me. We didn’t do much at first, we threw a ball back and forth, then one of Jamie’s students came down asking for her, so we went up to help him find her. She wasn’t in her usual classroom, so I wasn’t sure where to look for her, but I was just walking down the hall when I heard someone say “who has the button?” and figured it was her. After that Aliona helped me with some of my Russian, pronouncing some of the things on my flash cards, then we looked at pictures on my computer. Apparently looking at pictures is a big thing here, and Aliona brought pictures on the bus one day of herself to show me, so I showed her some pictures, until my computer died, then she helped me sort through some of my stuff, old projects that I hadn’t taken apart and put away. We also played with a mirror and pretended to be parrots by putting feathers on ourselves. It was so fun to hear her laughing. On the bus we just sit by each other, down in the classroom we were playing, and she was giggling about everything. She was also really excited because I was going to her house that night for dinner. That was the first thing she said to me when she came down, she asked if I was coming over that night. At least I think that is what she asked, from the hand motions and the few words I know that is what it seemed like she was asking.

When we went upstairs without even thinking I began eating dinner. I had eaten a bit when I realized that I was going over to Aliona’s house for dinner, and right then, as I was staring at my food thinking about this Louisa looked at me and asked if I was eating two dinners that night. I didn’t want to take my food back uneaten, so I ate some of it, just not enough to fill me up.

I went home with Aliona and her mom when her mom picked her up after school. We hadn’t been exactly sure what was going to happen, so we made sure to ask how I was getting home and all that before I left. Aliona’s mom said that she would take me home before 9:30. It felt almost like I was a little kid, having to be taken places and making sure I am home early and all that, but I didn’t want to be stranded someone in Russian alone trying to get home after dark. Louisa had also been a bit concerned about me going over to a Russian’s house without Jamie to translate, but Aliona’s mom speaks excellent English.

At the store last night I bought presents for Aliona and her family. I bought her a little candy bracelet, and a box of nice chocolates for her family, so I gave those to them when we got there. I met Aliona’s family, she showed me her new bird(she has been really excited about this bird all week, and we thought that she was saying that she got a new parrot, but it is actually a parakeet, but the word that she was using if you look it up in the dictionary says parrot), then we went up to her room. In her room she has this amazing, I don’t even know what to call it. Up nearly against the wall there is a wooden ladder type thing, and on either side of it, hanging from the ceiling are the ring things that they use in gymnastics, then on one side a rope ladder and on the other a climbing rope. They also have something that they use for a slide that they attach to the wooden ladder. It was amazing, but I was so afraid that Aliona was going to hurt herself when she started hanging upside down on the rings and the rope ladder. She did have a mat that she put under herself, though.

I was a little worried about dinner, because I am so picky, and I didn’t know what we were going to be eating, but it was pancakes. They cooked a whole stack of pancakes and laid out all kinds of things on the table that you could eat it with. I liked the powdered sugar the best, but I also had a pancake with red currant jam(she made it herself), and I even decided to be brave and put a tiny bit of caviar on one bite of pancake and tried that. I almost gagged, though I think that it was more the thought then the actual taste. I am wondering if there is any other fish related thing that I need to try while I am here. So far I have had dried squid, raw salmon, and caviar. I did have a salad with dinner, though, a real one with lettuce. Jamie says that the entire time she was on her mission she only saw a real salad once, and that was at an American’s house.

After dinner Aliona and her brother wanted me to dance with them, but it wasn’t so much dancing as it was running in circles around that room. Aliona took me up to the room that she shared with her brother, and the three of us played for a little while. I don’t think that her little brother understood that I didn’t speak Russian. He just kept chatting away to me, and every once in a while he would say something that I knew was a question. I can’t understand a bunch of Russian, but I know a little, and it is frustrating when the only thing I get out of a sentence is “do you want”, because I know that they are asking me something, I just have no idea what. It was also really amusing seeing them whispering in Russian around me, because they didn’t want me to hear what they were saying, like I would have understood it anyways, and then when they were speaking Russian and I started hearing my name said several times, but didn’t understand anything but the fact that they were talking about me. Anyways, after a while Aliona said something to her brother, and I think that she said the Russian word for English, so I am pretty sure that she was telling him that I only spoke English. It was a little frustrating being with two little children and not being able to talk to them or understand them at all. One of the first questions that Aliona’s mom asked me when we got in her car was how Aliona and I communicate. I told her that other than a few little words here and there, and some hand gestures we don’t. I tried to play some games with her, but it was hard because she couldn’t explain to me how to play. I managed to get the basic drift of it, so we were able to play.

After we played for a while Aliona wanted to paint. Her mom showed me some of her drawings, she is fantastic. I would have never thought that a 7yo little girl had drawn those pictures. There was one that was a self-portrait, and her mom said that it took her a month to do. So we both painted each other, and hers was better than mine. She then painted her hand and made a hand print on the drawing, and I did the same. Her and her brother both painted on their hands. I loved stuff like that when I was little, and since their nanny walked through several times and saw them I figured it was ok, but when the boy started painting on his face I figured it was enough, and started trying to persuade two children who didn’t understand me that they needed to clean up. The mom came in and that helped, because they understood what she was saying.

Aliona wanted me to watch a tv show with her, so I watched a Russian cartoon then we got ready to go. I took the left over pancakes home with me, and some palmnini. During dinner Aliona’s mom asked if I liked palnini, and when I told her that I bought it every weekend she showed me that she had tiny ones, then gave them to me.

When we got to the apartment they walked me all the way inside. I had kind of expected that they would wait in the car til I was in the complex, but they went in the complex with me, up the elevator, then made sure that I got inside the apartment before saying goodbye. I really did have so much fun. I have no idea why that girl likes me, but she is so sweet, I love her.

When I got home everyone was in the middle of playing phase ten, so they let me join in at phase 6, because they were all somewhere around there. I guess they had been playing that for a while, and were really happy when it finally ended.

Samantha

Russian is frustrating March 5, 2009

One thing that I forgot to write yesterday was that Monday, March 8^th, is women’s day. It is a big deal here. Kira’s mother came and told me that Kira would be bringing us stuff for women’s day, and asked what we would like best. She said that usually it was sweets and alcohol. It was just Sarah and me in there, and we looked at each other and said, “umm, sweet would be good, but we don’t drink alcohol.” Her eye’s got big and she said “none of you?” I guess it was just inconceivable that five young adults all did not drink.

This morning for breakfast we had casha, then some weird egg, lemon, puffy thing, then you put condensed milk on top of it. It wasn’t very good, but I was hungry, so I ate four pieces of bread with bologna on it, and the snacks in preschool.

Preschool went ok, but not great. We tried the color game, and it worked for about 30 seconds, then the kids figured out that they could just jump on whichever color they wanted without listening to us, then they started crumbling up the paper, so then we put the paper away. Got a ball, and they both said the balls name, then we played with that for a minute or two, then we got some legos. We were going to try to go over colors with them, but they did not want that, so they just played with them for a little while, then I went up to get snacks. They people in the kitchen have gotten to the point where I don’t even have to say anything. The first time I went to get snacks I had to really work to get them to understand what I wanted. Now I just walk up there, they see me, then they get my stuff without having to say anything. They have these really good sweet roll things, and I was really hoping that they would give those to us those, so I was really disappointed when they gave us some bread instead. It was some kind of fancy bread, not regular bread, but it was still bread. I brought it down, and Sarah grabbed a piece and told me it was warm. I decided to have some, and it was so good. I was glad that they had given us this instead of the sweet rolls. It was sweet to, but only a little, and warm, and soft, and so good. I came out and told everyone that it was warm, and the all had half a piece, then Caitlyn went up and got us more. It had cooled down, but it was still the best bread ever. I made Jamie tell me how to say “what is it called”, then had her spell it for me. I wrote it down, took the piece of paper and a pen to the kitchen, showed them the paper with the Russian words on it, then gave them the pen and had them write the name. I am so happy, I am going to see if Gulia has a recipe for it. Jamie says that the school probably doesn’t really have a recipe, they probably just make it. She said that when she was on her mission and would ask for recipes they would either tell her that you just make it, or tell her what is in it, then when she asks how much they tell her “however much it needs”. She said that Gulia is probably my best bet for getting the recipe, and if that doesn’t work I am looking on the internet, and if all else fails I am going to beg the school for the recipe, though that will probably be more like having Jamie beg the school for the recipe for me. It probably won’t be the same when I make it, though, but I can try to make it.

I was kind of hoping that they would give us more of the bread at lunch, because I very carefully(and incorrectly I later found out) told them how much we like it. We didn’t, though. They gave us roast and potatoes, which where really good.

During lunch we had been told that Irena wanted us in her office at 2, so at 2 we all went to her office. She had all kinds of flowers and stuff in there, and she had three tulips for each of us and lots of little fun sized candy bars, Snickers, Bounty(Almond Joy), Mars Bars(kind of like Milky Ways), Milky Ways(only different, well, same name, but they are the Russian version of them and the Mars Bars taste more like Milky Ways than the Milky Ways do), three kinds of dove, Twix. She gave us all of this because on Monday it is Women’s day, which is a big deal here, so they were giving us stuff.

After all that I prepared my lessons. We were making fans in the older class, so I had to hot glue Popsicle sticks together to make the handle thing, because I knew that we wouldn’t have enough time in class, cut out pieces of paper, and make little folds. It was a lot of fun, and the kids enjoyed it. We didn’t get finished, I never finish my crafts in there, there just isn’t enough time, and the main thing that we are supposed to be doing is talking, that is the purpose, the craft is just to make it fun and give us something to talk about, so I had them all write their names on their fans and I am going to finish them and give them to them.

The games were fun. We finished off Cat, cat, dog today, since we barely got through the rules yesterday. They had fun with that. I came up with different ways of playing, and I would switch how we played after a few minutes, like we hopped instead of ran, and it gave us something new to talk about, and made it so that it didn’t get boring, because it was changing. I loved it. I am glad that games are working out. Teaching is going a lot better, and I feel like I am finally almost getting it.

When we got on the bus I sat down next to one of my students, Sasha. I looked over at her and she was eating this long green thing. At first I looked at it and wondered where she had gotten a gummy worm, then I looked closer and just though “oh my goodness!” She wasn’t eating a gummy worm, she had rolled out play dough like a snake and was sitting there eating it. I tried to tell her no, that it was clay, but she said it was good. She was just eating it. Jamie had apparently also tried to explain to her that it wasn’t for eating, and she hadn’t listened. I am glad that it is not toxic, but I can’t imagine anyone eating it, that is just nasty.

When we got home we all went to the store. Since Monday is woman’s day we decided to get stuff for people. Louisa and Caitlyn got some stuff for Irena and Veronica, and Jamie, Sarah, and I got stuff for the cooks and other random people. For the people that we don’t really know that well we got a few different kinds of little candies and are going to put them in little bags with a hand written card that just says the equivalent of Happy Woman’s Day. I wish that I knew more about this. I really don’t know what is an appropriate gift, or who you are supposed to give gifts to, or anything. All I know is that people give gifts to women. I guess everyone knows that we are American’s, so they don’t expect us to really get all their traditions right.

At home we didn’t really do anything, just kind of hung out. Oh, one thing that happened. At lunch Jamie was talking to someone and at the end I heard her say “paka nyet”. I know that paka means see you latter, and nyet means no, and I couldn’t figure out what she was saying. I finally asked her and she laughed, told me that she loved confusing me, then told me that paka also means yet, so she was saying not yet. Russian is so confusing, I don’t understand it. There are also 4 ways to say I, and all different kids of cases, and I look things up in the dictionary and they are not there, because it is a case. It is just confusing. Word order doesn’t matter the same way it does in the US. I love you is Ya tibia lu-blu(I to you love), but you can rearrange those words in any order you want and it means that same thing. I guess that isn’t always the case, though, so you just have to know. Anyways, yeah, Russian is frustrating.

I have horrible Russian spelling. I am trying to make flash cards, but I am trying to write the words in Russian. I will write out how I think that it is supposed to be, then hand it to Jamie, and she will cross out my mistakes and correct it. Jamie is so patient with all of this, I can’t believe it, she just lets me annoy her to death with Russian questions. I really want to talk to her in Russian, just have times where we can only speak in Russian, but the problem is I really can’t. I have to look up every word in the dictionary, and that takes so long, and then I get frustrated and start talking in English because I just don’t know how to say what I want to say. It makes me more sympathetic to my kids, because this is how they must feel all the time, trying to talk to us in English and not being able to. I so want to learn, though.

Samantha

My week so far March 4, 2009

Saturday night we didn’t really do anything, just talked to one of the guys that were staying with us.

Sunday Jamie, Sarah, and I wanted to go to the Russian branch, so Sarah and Jamie were only going to the Russian branch, but I had a calling in the international branch, so I had to go to that as well.  When I went to nursery, though, I found out that more people had been called to nursery, so I only have to be in there every three weeks.  The relief society lesson was good, though, about letting your light shine.

After the international branch I was set apart, then I went to join Sarah and Jamie in the Russian branch.  One of the sister missionaries sat by me in sacrament meeting and translated for me.  She is Russian, but she speaks English really well.  I was almost kind of able to sing to one of the hymns, so that was really cool.  It is easier to sing to the hymns because they are broken down into groups of just a few letters, so I am not trying to sound out an entire word.  Sometimes there were still strange letter combinations that I just couldn’t get, or letters that make one sound in English and another in Russian, like H makes an N sound, and I didn’t have time to stop and think about it before I said that sound.  It was really cool.  I like just listening to the Russian, and in Sunday school and Relief Society I was able to pick out a few words.  There was this one word that after a while I noticed that it was being said again and again.  I listened and figured out how I thought that it should be spelled in Russian, because I was sure that I would never pronounce it right, even though it was really short, because it had a funny sound, so I just remembered xpam, and when we got back I spelled it out for Jamie and she told me it meant temple, which made since, because the entire Relief Society lesson was on temples, so that was why they kept repeating it over and over again.  I also enjoyed the testimonies in Sacrament meeting.  After I thanked the sister for translating for me, and she hugged me, which felt a little funny because I am not used to being hugged by missionaries, but that is because most of the wards I have been in have had elders, not sisters, so of course they are not going to be hugging me.  She is nice, I like her.

By the time I got home it was about six, and I had left the house at about 7:20 that morning, so I have been gone nearly 11 hours that day, at church for more than six(if you count that we were there early, then there was time in between the two branches, and the time it took afterwards to actually leave, because we all had people that we needed to talk to and then bundle up and everything), then the traveling to and from.  Next week, though, I don’t have to be in the international branch.  I don’t know if anyone else will want to go to the Russian branch again next Sunday, but if they do I am only going to that.  I love church, but six hours of it is exhausting.

On the bright side, I got peanut butter.  One of the members of the branch presidency, I think, bought peanut butter for the ILP girls.  His wife’s calling is to help us, so when a few of the girls started asking where to get peanut butter he went out and bought three things of it, then gave it to the groups, and told us where to go to get more.  I got home and had peanut butter apples, with milk, which was so good.  Those were probably the two foods that I had been missing the most, peanut butter and milk.  I am so glad that the milk tastes good again.

I didn’t do hardly anything that night, I was to tired.  The guys staying with us had gone back to Voronez, so we had our apartment to ourselves again.

Monday we had school again.  Mark came back to preschool and passed off almost all of the stuff on his chart.  I felt bad, Mark knows a lot, he pays attention and learns, but Max only had three words passed off on the chart.  The chart is more for us than anything else, so that we don’t keep spending all our time on words that the kids already know, and also so that we don’t have a ton that they don’t know.  We can look at the chart and think, “ok, they know the words that we are focusing on, lets add in a few new words now” or “there are 7 words up there that none of them know, lets practice those before moving on”.  We also use it to kind of reward the kids.  When they learn a new word(they still know it coming into preschool and can tell us what it is without us having to remind them before we have had to tell them) then they get to put a sticker on the chart.  Anyways, Mark has them almost all passed off, but Max only has three now, he remembered dog this morning, so we made a big deal of that and let him put on at sticker.

Preschool yesterday did not go well.  The kids made a game out of trying to escape, and the parents were sitting in a room outside.  The thing was, if we don’t let them out they start crying, and keeping them in there isn’t doing any good, they were not learning anything, but we didn’t really know what to do.  Finally we came up with a game.  There is a shelf that they like to throw stuffed animals on.  We hold out a stuffed animal, they say the name of the animal, they get it and can try to throw it up, then they come get a new one and try to throw that new one up.  That was fun for them, and got them saying the names of animals.  I am going to come up with some games and activities like that that we can do, because just playing with them is crazy.  Sarah had an idea, we are going to put different colors of construction paper on the floor, say a color, and they have to try to jump on the paper or the right color.  I am going to come up with a few more as well, so we can keep them busy and hopefully things will go better in there.  Today was better, because we played the animal game most of the time, but they are going to get bored with that, and there is only so long that they are going to be learning anything from it.

The other day after preschool Max and his grandmother stayed for a little while in a different room.  Max kept coming in and saying something, and we would just smile and say hello, because we didn’t know what he was saying.  After a while his grandmother came in and told us that Max was so confused, because he kept coming in and asking where the trash was, and everyone kept saying hello.

Kindergarten on Monday was fine.  We made a tower out of toothpicks and pom poms, and saw how tall we could get it.  We had to put it together on its side, and when we stood it up it completely fell over.  For drama we did Bambi, and in one of the pictures Bambi was looking at the opossums all hanging upside down, so I took each of the kids and hung them upside down over my arm(which was a little difficult with the little girl who was wearing a dress).  Yesterday when Kira came in she was trying to ask me something, and her mother translated for her.  Her mom was a little confused, but told me that Kira wanted a opossum.  I laughed and then explained to her what had happened yesterday, then hung Kira upside down again.  It was nice that she remembered and had fun with something in my lesson.

Yesterday in Shop we made flowers out of pipe cleaners, and in drama we did a story about a little boy who gets a new baby sister.  We started talking about families, and I asked if they had any brothers or sisters.  Sonya, little genius, tells me that she has one older sister, then her little brother Vova.  I tell her that I have five brothers and three sisters, and she is just astonished by that, and realizing that the others didn’t understand what I had said she immediately translates that into Russian for the other kids, because they have to know that, it is just amazing.  Over here people can’t really have big families, for a lot of reasons, and so it is even more amazing here than it is in the US.  Sonya then also realized that the other kids didn’t understand the question I had asked about if they had brothers or sisters, so she translated that into Russian as well.  She really isn’t supposed to do that, but I hate telling them no when they are only trying to help.

In the older class yesterday there was a birthday party, so we didn’t get started til way late, so we only had time to do one rotation, so I didn’t teach games, just arts and crafts.  I am a little nervous about teaching games, today will be my first time ever teaching it.  Arts and crafts wasn’t bad, because it is so much like shop, the only real differences is that with the shop you make something then take it apart again at the end, with arts and crafts they just take it home.

This morning was I walking down the hall and I turned a corner, and I smacked my hand against the wall so hard that I felt a little dizzy and my knuckles started bleeding.

They still give me casha for breakfast every morning, but they did give us yogurt to take home yesterday, a lot of it.

The older class went well.  For arts and crafts we finished the chicken that we hadn’t finished yesterday.  At least we finished enough that they could take it home.  For games we played duck, duck, goose.  Well, it was actually cat, cat, dog, because I don’t have pictures of geese, but I have stuffed cats and dogs, so we used that instead.  It went pretty well.  We were actually still talking about the rules when it was time for class to be over, so we are going to plat again tomorrow.  They had fun, at least they seemed to be having fun.

We give out tokens depending on how well the kids speak and how well they understand, then at the end they can buy things with their tokens.  I think that the highest I have ever seen a kid get was around twenty, and that was really good.  Well today one girl got thirty.  I knew that that couldn’t be right.  She is not one of the most advanced ones, and to have that many something had to have been wrong.  I  wasn’t exactly sure what to do, so I told her that there had been tokens already in her bag when she got it, and that she had earned 15 today, because that was what another girl at about the same level had gotten.  Really she probably didn’t get that much, I think that she usually gets around ten, but I didn’t want to give her less than she should have had.

On the bus ride home Aliona asked if I could get off at her stop instead of mine and then she would walk me home(she is on the stop after ours).  Jamie and I were going to, but then her nanny picked her up at an earlier stop.  It was cool because the driver saw her nanny, recognized her, pulled over, and called for Aliona by name.  I love how everyone knows everyone at this school, it is so amazing.

When we got home Jamie had to go to the store, so Sarah and I went with her.  I got some cookies and a chocolate ice cream log.  I have decided that I just have no self control where sugar is involved.

Lunch and dinner today were both some rice dish, and it was so greasy.  I ate some of it at lunch, but not much, and all I did at dinner was pick out the meat.  I didn’t really eat breakfast either, just half of one of the hot dogs that they gave us and some peas, so when we got home I was starving.  I fixed myself some palmnini, but as soon as I had some I was no longer hungry.  I ate most of it, though, so at least I have eaten something today.

After I ate Sarah, Jamie, and I all dragged our mattress pads onto the floor in our room and watched my Pride and Prejudice movie.  It was a lot of fun.  I love that movie.

Samantha

Pancake festival March 3, 2009

This is like the third time I have typed this out. All of my emails keep getting erased. Usually my Microsoft Word will save them automatically, but it hasn’t been lately, so when I leave the computer for a minute and someone else gets on it and shuts down my windows my 4 page email is gone. Since only mine and Jamie’s computers get internet I really don’t mind people using them, but I hate it when people get on my computer and shut down the stuff that I have up, especially when that stuff is a 4 page email that I really don’t have time to retype.

So, after Jamie and I found out that the guy she was supposed to find had moved we went to go meet the others at the Trampoline. One the way we bought bobushca bags, large plastic bags that zip up. They were pretty cheep, less than five dollars. I am going to use it for the trip I am taking to Finland and Sweden, and here you have to buy bags to put your groceries in, and I have had the bags rip and things fall out, so I have been taking my duffel bag into town if I know that we are going to the store, but this is so much easier, because it folds up nice and small in my backpack til I need it, so I don’t have to carry my duffel bag with me.

Jamie and I also got lunch before we went looking for her guy. Here there is a thing called Sharma. It is shredded, umm, some kind of meat in a tortilla, then there will be different things in it depending on where you get it. The place that we got it at had cucumbers, tomatoes, mayonnaise, some kind of red sauce, and few other things, but Jamie has also said they have cabbage and pickles and other stuff, and another group said they had some with ranch. I got mine with just meat in it, but they put some of the mayonnaise on one of the ends. I did try it, and then wiped it off and ate the rest of the Sharma. At the Sharma place I had to have Jamie order for me, because I didn’t know how to say I only wanted meat, and that drew people’s attention. We were on the street at a stand, and people start trying to talk to me, except that didn’t seem to understand the meaning of “I don’t speak Russian.” Actually, they probably didn’t understand the meaning, because they didn’t speak English, but they should have at least understood the fact that we were speaking different languages. Finally Jamie came to my rescue. They all thought that she was Russian and I was the only foreigner, because she has a great accent and speaks really well. Finally we got our food and left.

So, we got to the Trampoline early and just looked around for a bit. We found a bookstore that we had never seen before, so we went in there. I want at least one Russian book to take home with me. I can buy Russian books off the internet in the US(Jamie says that if I know where to get them they are pretty cheap), but I would like one that is from Russian, just because it would be cool, but I probably won’t buy myself more than one, because they are heavy and take up room.

After we have looked through the bookstore we went up to the food court to wait. While we waited Jamie taught me how to play California speed. We played that for a while, til a policeman came and told us we weren’t allowed to play cards in the mall.

Caitlyn and Sarah were late. Their bus had gotten caught in traffic or something, and had taken an hour and a half instead of 45 minutes. Louisa hadn’t been feeling well, so she didn’t come.

By this time Jamie and I were tired. It was almost four, and we had been in Moscow since about nine. There was another group of ILP teachers coming up from another city in Russia, Voronez, on one of their school holidays to see Moscow, and three of them were staying with us while the other five stayed with Megan, one of the head teachers in Moscow. Caitlyn was supposed to meet them at the metro station at 6:30, so they couldn’t leave yet. We decided that since Jamie and I had already been there for seven hours that day we were going to buy food then go home, and Caitlyn and Sara would walk around Moscow for a while then meet the other group.

I bought more bread at Ashan, except this time it wasn’t the sliced bread, I still have some of that, though I am not sure if it is still good, I bought some of the fresh bread from the bakery for about 50 cents. It was really good. The only problem was I thought that I would only eat a little so that I could have it all week, I didn’t think about the fact that it tastes better fresh than it does old. It is good, though, and there are a million different kinds for about 50 cents a loaf. I also bought more ice cream. The kind that I bought last week thinking that it was vanilla wasn’t. Everyone in the apartment tried it trying to figure out what it was, but all we came up with was that it wasn’t vanilla or coffee. The kind that I bought this time was definitely vanilla.

When I got home I went to make me a glass of chocolate milk. The milk here is different than regular milk, it tastes funny, so I have to put chocolate in it. Jamie told me that I have to get used to it, so I always take a few sips before putting chocolate in it to try to get used to it. Friday when I took a sip of the milk it tasted so good that without really meaning to I drank that whole cup, then had to pour myself more for my chocolate milk. I was so happy, the milk tastes good again.

After I had all my food put away and all that I took a shower and changed into my pjs. It was still early, but I have gotten into the habit of doing it, because that is what they do here in Russia, and even though I am not living with Russians I am living with Jamie, who lived in the Ukraine, sometimes with Ukrainians, for 18 months. We both change into our pjs almost as soon as we get home at night.

We waited for Caitlyn and Sarah to bring the other group. When they finally get here I went to open the door for them, still in my pjs, expecting Caitlyn, Sarah, and three other girls. No, it was Caitlyn, Sarah, and three guys. I open the door, say hello, then quickly go back to my room, sit down on Jamie’s bed, and tell her that we have guys living with us. We were both really surprised. Gulia is not LDS, but I didn’t expect her to have guys living with us. We made it work, though. There is an extra mattress pad that we don’t use, and the couch fold out into a double bed, so two guys slept on the couch bed in the living room and the other on the mattress pad on the floor. They were all really nice. We fixed them something to eat then they went to bed.

The next day, Saturday, we were going to go to Lenon’s tomb. Gulia said that we should probably go around 10:45 to beat the crowds, and then Caitlyn and Louisa wanted to go to the internet café before, so they were leaving at 7:25 and we were leaving at 8:55. The boys were leaving with Cait and Louisa to meet up with the rest of their groups so that they could see as much of Moscow as possible before going back to Voronez. That meant that I got out of bed, hair unbrushed, in my pjs, and let a bunch of guys out of my apartment. The whole having guys stay with you thing is really awkward. We didn’t really know, though. Gulia just asked if we would be willing to have a few people stay with us, and we just assumed that it would be girls, never crossed our minds that it would be boys, so we said yes. Once they were here we couldn’t really tell them no, you have to go try to find some place in Moscow to stay tonight.

We all got out of bed just a little bit after they left to get ready to go. We met Caitlyn and Louisa at the Trampoline, then went to Red Square. When we got there we found out that Lenon’s tomb was closed until April, so we went to the souvenir market instead.

There is so much at the souvenir market, it is a little overwhelming. I don’t even know where to begin when I go there. I am trying not to buy anything yet, though I bought my hat and my bag because they are things that I want to use while in Russia, not just souvenirs to bring home. I want to kind of figure out kind of what I want so that I am not just buying anything that I see, and get a better handle on prices. Sarah is good at bargaining I found out. I don’t think that I will be any good at it, but I will try.

We walked around for a while and looked at stuff, then we met back up with Caitlyn and Louisa. Caitlyn and Louisa wanted to go to the internet café(after getting here at a little after 8 they found out that it didn’t open til 10, and we met them at 9:30, so they didn’t get to go this morning), then they were going home. There was a pancake festival that afternoon in Moscow, so Jamie, Sarah, and I were going to go to that, so we split up again. On the way out Sarah wanted to look at the coats. We stopped at this one stall and Sarah found a coat that she liked. The men only knew a little bit of English, and they used cell phones to bargain. They would type in a price, then Sarah would type in a price, and back and forth. It was crazy. I would have felt so uncomfortable if I were her, in fact, even though I wasn’t the one buying the coat so I wasn’t the main focus of attention I still felt uncomfortable. One of the men came over and put his arm around me and led me into the stall. One of the men buttoned up Sarah’s coat for her then hugged her.

She did get the price down a lot, though. She took it down from 4,500p almost to 2,000p. That is still quite a bit of money, though, and the coat didn’t quite fit right, so we left. They didn’t just let us leave, though. One of the guys actually chased us, trying to get Sarah to come back. Other people tried to grab Jamie and me as well, other people wanting us to look at their stuff. I don’t like how walking through the market people will grab my wrist and try to pull me over to their stand.

After we left the market we decided that we were hungry. There was a mall right across from the market, so we went in there to get food. Since it was pancake week I decided to get a pancake. I didn’t want the one with meat in it again, so I looked at the picture on the menu to find something else, since I had no idea what the words said. There was one with chicken that looked good, but then there as also one with salmon. Since I seem to get chicken every time I go out to eat I decided on the salmon. Jamie got a chocolate and banana pancake, then stands there while I order mine. We get our food and go join Sarah at the table. When we get there Jamie asks me if they cooked my salmon. I was a little confused and asked why they wouldn’t, and she told me that they eat a lot of raw fish here and a lot of places don’t cook the fish. I never even considered that fact that my salmon may not be cooked, I just assumed that if I order some kind of meat that it is cooked. I sit there for a while trying to decide if I still want to eat it, and finally I decide to just try it. Uncooked Sushi doesn’t kill people, so uncooked salmon wasn’t going to kill me, at least that is what I thought, until Jamie started talking again. She told me, as I was cutting my pancake to take a bit, that on her mission she had been offered a lot of uncooked fish, but it was against mission rules to eat fish, because the fish over here made people sick. I drop my fork and say “so this is going to kill me!” She then tells me that salmon is one of the few fish that they were allowed to eat, because it is imported, it is only fish that they catch around here that will make me sick. Something about radiation I think she said. After glaring at her for a few minutes I say “fine, but if I die it is your fault” and try my pancake. It took me three bites to decide that I didn’t like it, though I am not sure if it was so much the actual taste or the thought that I disliked more. After I decided that I was not going to eat my pancake everyone tried it, then I went to get something that I would eat from KFC. When you don’t speak the language it is kind of hard to order what you want. I accidentally ordered the hot chicken instead of the regular, and, after trying to ask me if I wanted ketchup(someone finally showed me the package of ketchup) they didn’t bother asking me what kind of drink I wanted, so I got pepsi. I did manage to get a combo meal(the word for combo meal is combo said with an accent, so it wasn’t hard), though, which is good, because I had really been wanting fries.

After we had all eaten we went to the pancake festival at Red Square. It was so much fun, it made me so excited. They had a huge doll in the middle, but I don’t think that they were going to burn her, because she didn’t have straw in her. There was singing and dancing, though. They were selling huge cotton candies, so Jamie, Sarah, and I all shared one. It was either pina caloda or banana, or both, not sure exactly. I also messed up my whole not buying anything thing, but I decided that it was ok, it wasn’t like I was just going out and buying stuff off the market, this was probably the only time in my like that I was going to be at a pancake festival in Russia, so it was probably the only time in my life that I would be able to buy a Russian sun doll, or a Russian winter doll. The winter doll is a little straw doll that is supposed to be burned to say goodbye to winter. I am of course not going to burn it, it is my special doll from Russia, but I had to get one. I also got a little doll with a sun for a head. They were both only three dollars a piece, and I figured that this was the only time in my life that I would be able to get one.

Ok, it is late. I really will catch up tomorrow, because I am going to have a lot of free time, and hopefully I won’t be as tired since I am actually going to sleep tonight, and not waking up at 6.

Samantha

Pancake week March 1, 2009

So on Tuesday we had school again. Since it was pancake week only the kindergarteners had school. In case anyone is wondering, pancakes are a symbol of the sun, so pancake week is to welcome in the spring. At the end of it they make a straw woman that represents winter and burn her to say goodbye to winter.

On Tuesday we went out as usual to wait for the bus. We waited, and waited, and waited, and it didn’t come. Finally we called Peter, he told us to wait, then he called back and said that the driver wasn’t picking us up, go back and wait in the house, he was coming to get us and would call when he got there. So we went back inside and waited. We finally got there way later than we usually do. We had pancakes for breakfast of course, then went down to prepare out lessons. Tuesday was the only day last week that I taught Kindergarten. I had preschool til Thursday, but that is way easier than kindergarten.

I was really busy trying to prepare lessons before preschool, but Max, the only one there, didn’t get there til half past, so I had lots of time. My drama lesson was about a little boy who gets picked on by a bully, so he pretends to be a super hero. After we still had more time, so we talked about what they like to pretend to be.

For shop we did sailboats, but they didn’t look much like sailboats, they were just flat foam pieces of paper with straws and rectangle paper for the sail. It was fun, though.

When it was time to go home we didn’t have anyone to drive us home. Our Russian teacher went out and found one of the drivers to drive us. As soon as he got there he put his arm through Jamie’s and started talking to her while leading her to the bus. When we got there Caitlyn asked what he had said, and Jamie said that he had told her that we should have come and gotten him, he had just been in the little house drinking vodka. As she told Caitlyn that she realized what he had said. We all got really nervous, because he was acting a little strange, but we got home fine, so it was all good.

We were all tired, so we didn’t do anything that day.

Wednesday I just had preschool, so it was nice. I got a Russian lesson from Max’s grandmother. She doesn’t like the way I roll my Rs, say my Os, or say this really weird letter that I do not like that I am trying to get erased from the Russian alphabet. There is no sound in the English language, or any other language that I know, that I can compare it to, and trying unsuccessfully to say it makes me feel like I am choking on my tongue.

Wednesday we didn’t have pancakes at all. I was kind of sad. Caitlyn and Sara were going to go see this museum, but Louisa wasn’t feeling well, so we all stayed home.

Thursday Jamie didn’t go to school because she didn’t have class. We weren’t sure how exactly to tell everyone that she had decided to stay home, so when the cooks tried to bring us out five plates we told them that Jamie was asleep, doing the thing where we put our hands together in the air and lay our heads on them with our eyes closed.

I was kind of proud of myself. They haven’t been bringing us snacks in the preschool like they are supposed to, so I went up and got snacks from ladies that do not know English at all.

That night Caitlyn, Louisa, and Sarah were all going into Moscow to see an art museum. Neither Jamie nor I wanted to see it, but we talked about maybe going and seeing something else, since it was both of us. Then we decided that since neither of us had school the next day the two of us could go into Moscow while the others were at school. We were going to have to pay to go to Moscow, and this way we would have all day, instead of getting to Moscow at around 3 and only having a few hours there. So we stayed home, then went to the store. One the way to the store some men were walking down the road towards us, and them and Jamie started talking. I didn’t find out til later what was going on, because since I didn’t speak Russian I just kept quiet. Jamie has a wonderful Russian accent, and people can’t tell that she is American. I guess as they were walking towards us one of them said to the other one “look at those girls, they are smiling”(we were just walking down the road smiling at nothing in particular, not even talking to each other, which isn’t done in Russia). Jamie told them that it was a good day, so why not smile, and then they congratulated us on the coming holiday(women’s day). It was kind of fun.

When we got home we just hung out for a while, then watched the Bourne Ultimatum. Jamie had never seen it before, but I had. It was really cool, because as we were watching it Jamie picked out the name of someplace that we had seen, one of the train stations they were at in Moscow. It was fun, I like watching movies and being able to say that I have been to the places in them.

We had so much fun. So that we could both see the movie we dragged our mattress pads onto the floor then put the laptop on a chair and laid on the floor watching the movie. We had so much fun.

The next day we got up really early and went into Moscow. Jamie knew someone back in Utah who knows someone that lives in Moscow, so he asked her to take something to him. We decided to go take the package to him, so we bought a map of Moscow and got on the metro. We found the metro stop that we wanted, them couldn’t find where to go from there, because the streets here don’t have street signs. We asked people, and they kept saying that we needed to take a bus. One the map it didn’t look like much of a walk at all, but finally we did. We weren’t sure which bus to take, but someone told us. Before getting on we checked with the bus driver, and he said it was the right bus, and he would tell us when to get off. Well, we sat there for a while, then all of a sudden three different people start yelling at us. They were saying “girls, this is your stop.” I thought it was sweet that three different people all told us that we were about to miss our stop.

From the bus stop it wasn’t that far of a walk. We managed to find the apartment, but couldn’t get the speaker thing to work so that we could ask him to let us in. Finally some lady came that lived there, and actually lived right across from where the man that we were delivering something to was supposed to live, but she said that he had moved two years ago. She took us up to her apartment and spent forever trying to help us get his new address of phone number or something. She really put a lot of effort into helping these two American girls that she didn’t know. We never did get the address or phone number of this guy, but between the old lady and the people on the bus who helped us it was a really cool experience.

I am still behind, but I have a lot of free time at the school tomorrow because I don’t have classes in the afternoon, so I will catch everything up then.

Samantha

Men’s day February 28, 2009

Ok, so on Thursday I had this whole big email written out that I was going to send that had everything I had done all this week, I was just waiting because it was still afternoon and I was waiting to see if anything else happened that I should write about, then it all got erased. I didn’t have time to write it again that night, and yesterday I had a bad headache, so I didn’t feel like writing anything.

Ok, lets see what I can remember. My ice cream burst on the way home. It was everywhere. Luckily nothing was ruined, I just had to put my bag in the shower.

At church on Sunday I was sustained as a primary worker. I wasn’t sure exactly what that was going to mean, but then the primary president put me in nursery, so that was fun. There were only four kids that day, and two leaders, so it was easy. I guess there are usually about seven kids, but still seven with two is better than the 15-20 we sometimes had with three in my old nursery. Just having less kids makes it so much calmer. We played with blocks and dolls for a while, then had snacks. The other nursery leader and I both ate some of the snacks with them. There was this one chocolate filled cereal, and it was really good. This one girl at first didn’t realize that it had chocolate in it, so we bit it in half and showed her, and for the rest of the time she kept taking one, biting it in half, looking at it, the exclaiming “chocolate!” showing us, then eating it and starting it again. One of the little boys fell asleep in my arms over snack time, and I asked the leader if she wanted me to lay him down and she said no, just hold him, so I got to hold him. I just sat there with him for a while. I felt a little guilty, like I should be helping, but that is what she asked me to do, so I did. I read my English Ensign for a while. I have been doing so much better at reading, I can read a short paragraph in the time it used to take me to read a long sentence, and I no longer need to look at the book anymore. My goal is to be able to sing a slow hymn in the branch by the time I leave.

On the way home I actually got someone to smile at me, and not just a “ok, you are smiling at me, so I am going to smile at you” a real smile. It was so cool. I smiled at another man and he just looked down and smiled and shook his head, like the silly American amused him.

Monday we didn’t have school, because it was men’s day, so we went into Moscow. Louisa and Caitlyn went to the internet café, and Sara, Jamie, and I were going to meet them at 12 at the trampoline. We left at 10:30 because we have always been late, so we wanted to make sure that they did not have to wait for us, and of course the first time we were early was the first time the bus was on time. We showed Sara some stuff, around our little market, and looked at some stuff in the mall.

At almost 12 we went up to the food court. Sara didn’t have any money, because she had just gotten here, so Jamie took her down to exchange money, incase the person only spoke Russian, and I waited in the food court for Louisa and Caitlyn. For some reason I really wanted to have food by the time Jamie and Sara got back up. I don’t know why, I had ordered food by myself before, but Jamie had been right there waiting to help me if I needed it. The fact that Jamie was going to be three floors down when I ordered my food meant that I was completely on my own. I just wanted to be safe, so I got KFC. I was so proud of myself when Jamie and Sara came back and they both looked surprised that I had food.

Louisa and Caitlyn were late. The first time we were early they were late. When they got there we went to find this mall that we had heard about. On Saturday I thought that I saw the biggest mall that I would ever see, but no, this mall was six stories tall, plus the basement. There was one elevator that said it went up to a seventh floor, but we never went up there. I did go to the sixth floor, and took a picture. The fifth and sixth floors were just parking, but it was so cool.

We were kind of hungry, so we went and found the food court. We looked around and there was this one place that sold pancakes. Not like we have at the school, but like stuff wrapped in pancakes. Sara and I decided that we wanted that, and Jamie wanted pizza, so after making sure that we could pronounce what we wanted she left us to order. I got the meat wrapped in pancakes. I wanted some orange soda, but I didn’t know how to say it. At first they asked if I wanted Pepsi, and I said no, then they asked 7 up and I figured that was the best I was getting, so I got that. Getting orange soda at the trampoline wasn’t difficult, because they have Fanta, but here it was some little brand.

After we ate we went to find Louisa and Caitlyn. We met them down at the door, and took them up to the food court so that they could get food. While they were eating I decided to get ice cream. We went over to Baskin Robins. I was trying to sound out how to say two scoops(it was on the board next to a picture), and standing there sounding it out, and finally the lady just says “speak English”.

After Caitlyn and Louisa ate we went to the movie theater to see what was playing. We all thought that we wanted to see at least one Russian movie while we were there. Dark Knight was playing, and some other movies that I didn’t know what they were. The one everyone wanted to see was the Dark Knight, but it didn’t play again for another five hours, so we decided to wait to see one.

After we left the mall we just walked around for a while. We didn’t really know where we were going, so we just walked. We found a little temple and went in, and then walked around some streets with apartment buildings. We took some pictures, then went back home.

Ok, it is late, and I have church tomorrow, in fact, I have 6 hours of church tomorrow, and another probably 3 of traveling, so I will finish this tomorrow.

Samantha

Red Square February 25, 2009

So, I am really behind, and going to try to catch up.

Saturday as usual Caitlyn and Louisa went to the internet café and Jamie and I stayed home for a little while. Sara decided to stay with us. She didn’t bring a laptop, because she didn’t think that she would have internet. This time, though, Jamie and I decided that we were not going to be late. We were meeting them at the food court at 12, so Jamie, Sara, and I left at 10:30. We both noticed that since we were early our bus was actually on time for the first time. We got to Moscow a little after 11, so we decided to show Sara the market and everything. We showed her around, and then went to go wait in the food court. Sara didn’t yet have any rubbles, so Jamie took her down to exchange money(Jamie went with her because the lady only spoke Russian), and I decided that I was going to go ahead and order my food. For some reason I wanted to already have my food before Jamie even got there. I had ordered food before, but Jamie had always been right there to help if I needed it, this time I wanted to do it completely on my own. So, I decided to just be simple and I went to KFC. I was really proud when Jamie and I Sara came up the stairs and Jamie was surprised to see that I already had my food.

Caitlyn and Louisa were late. It figures that the one time Jamie and I are on time Caitlyn and Louisa were late. I don’t mind waiting, but couldn’t they have been late when Jamie and I were late, so that we didn’t feel so guilty?

After that we all went to Red Square. I was determined not to buy anything, but as soon as we got off the metro there was this man selling fake fur Russian hats. I just had to get one, and they had exactly the one I wanted, for only 500p, which sounds like a lot, but it is only really like $14. It was actually supposed to be more, but Caitlyn and Louisa were thinking of buying some, and he said if they bought some it was only 500p, but then while they were trying to decide I told him that I was waiting to see if they were buying one and if I could get it for less, and he just gave it to me for the lower price.

Right outside Red Square Louisa took a picture with a monkey. There was a place where you could pay to take a picture with either a monkey or a hawk. I kind of wanted to, but decided that I didn’t want to spend the $15 it would have taken for one picture.

Inside Red Square was so beautiful. I took so many pictures. I will send them as soon as I get my email thing worked out.

We went inside St Basil’s Cathedral. I got in at a discount because I have an international student insurance card(students get in half price). I didn’t get any pictures of the inside, though.

After that we found this huge mall that a few of the people in the group had heard about and wanted to go to. It is called gum. It was the biggest, but beautiful mall I had ever seen, it was insane. I gave up trying not to be a complete tourist, and Caitlyn, Louisa, and I all took pictures. It was amazing. I found this beautiful fur coat that I wanted, it was so gorgeous, and only 266,000p, about $7,600. I felt so out of place walking into all those nice stores proudly wearing my fake fur hat that I had just bought at a souvenir stand. It was so much fun, though.

After we walked around for a while to nowhere in particular. We did go inside a little temple, which is something that Jamie has been wanting to do. It was really pretty. I know that it is not the same as our temples, but being in there, that is where people go to worship God in the best way they know how.

We went to the Ashan and got our food. I really wanted more ice cream, but not $7 ice cream, so I looked at the ice cream in a bag. It was only $1 a bag, so I got two, what I thought were chocolate and vanilla. I also found canned pineapple!!!! And sliced bread!!! It is weird to be so excited about such simple things, but I was.

I have to go to bed. Tomorrow I don’t have hardly anything to do, I have to teach pre-school for one hour, then I am done for the day, so I will finish this tomorrow.

Samantha