The Greatest Risk

I have had a saying through my head for the last couple of weeks. “The greatest risk is not taking one.” I probably have repeated it to myself a thousand times. Especially on the first two flights lol. Also I'm not cool enough to know how to put pictures in the places I want them to go so sorry. 

Thursday, January 24-Friday January 25

I woke up, finished some last minute packing, said some goodbyes, and my mom and sisters took me to the airport. We got there a little bit early, but I couldn’t check in until someone came to get us our passports and some other important things we would need. I found some other people in my group, and we waited until the representative came. My mom left because the girls had to get to school, so I said goodbye to them. I teared up a little, but I think I was so numb to what was happening, I couldn’t cry lol. Abby and I checked in, and we said goodbye to her family. We went through security, and they searched my bag because I had sour patch kids in there lol. Abby, another girl from our group Addie, and I went to our gate together. The rest of the group was already there. We exchanged contact info, filled up our water, etc. The first flight was to Chicago, and it wasn’t too bad. I had the window seat and I sat by Addie and Lauren. It was fun to talk to them and get to know them a little bit. When the plane took off, I kept thinking that there was literally no turning back now, this was it lol. I was scared, and not too excited about our next flight because it was going to be long. 

When we landed in Chicago, we only had about half an hour before our next one. We ate some snacks and walked around while we waited. Our next flight was from Chicago to Brussels. It was about a seven and a half hour flight, but it was also delayed about an hour and we were a bit worried we would miss our flight to Moscow. With the time change, I had no idea what time it was or what day. They gave us dinner on the plane, a few snacks, and then somehow it was morning and we had breakfast. I was very tired, but I barely slept. Trust me I tried. To pass the time I listened to music and watched Footloose and Once. Both great films if you ask me don’t discriminate. 

When we landed in Brussels finally, we went straight to our gate for our last flight to Moscow. Emily (our head teacher) gave us some papers that we might need if we were asked to fill out something for immigration, and gave us a little more information about what we would need to do when we landed. The flight from Brussels to Moscow was kind of actually the worst. I was just ready to be done. My entire being was exhausted, I had absolutely no sense of time, and I was anxious to just get to Russia already. It was only about three and a half hours to Moscow from Brussels, and I tried to sleep but I struggled. 

Once we landed, we all headed to immigration, where they checked our passports. Good news they let us all in! We grabbed our luggage, but had to wait a bit because two girls were missing bags so they had to fill out paperwork. Our local coordinator, Gulya met us at the airport. She gave us some cheap phones to use to keep in contact with our host families, and so we had a Russian phone if we needed it to connect to wifi, or make a phone call without getting charged on our normal phones. I was impressed that she knew all of our names already. She led us to a bus where we loaded our luggage, and the driver took us to one of the schools that some girls would be teaching at. We unloaded our luggage and went inside to get warm. It is very cold. You’ve probably heard it before, but you don’t know cold until you’ve experienced a Russian winter. I’ve only been here a few days, but wow. Some host families came to pick their girls up, but my host family lives in the countryside outside of the city. And the son Daler usually would come to get us, but he had a problem with his drivers license. So Gulya arranged a taxi for us. So here we are. Tired, cold, we are in a country we’ve never been to before, we don’t know the language, our taxi driver doesn’t speak English, and we have no idea what’s happening. The taxi ride definitely didn't help calm my nerves lol. The guy was driving super fast, and honking at everything that moved pretty much. He stopped to call some people a few times because I think he was lost. He called our host family and they met us somewhere somehow and we followed them home. Our host dad and host brother met us outside and helped us with our bags. They have a garage, and you have to walk through the garage and through a door that takes to their front yard. I was expecting the garage to go directly into the house, but we had to walk down a pathway to get to the actual house. They have two rooms to take off shoes and coats, so we left our winter clothes and came inside.

We met the rest of our host family, and I am going to butcher some of the spelling, but Umeda is our host mom, and Bahadoor is her husband. She speaks a little English, but our host dad doesn't. Their son Daler is married to Noza, and they have a three month old son David. He is very cute and they all adore him. He was born the day before my birthday! And Umeda has the same birthday as me! She said David was her present from God. They both speak English. There is a younger daughter Malika, 11, and Dony, 13. Malika loves dogs and she wants one for her 12th birthday in March. There is also another daughter named Shahnoza. I have had to practice how to say everyone’s names a lot lol. They are very nice, and so is their house. It has three stories. Abby and I slept on the main level. The rest of them sleep upstairs. In the basement there is a bathroom for Abby and I, the laundry room, a family room with a ping pong table, and there is a separate room for the shower. They have a German shepherd named Rex who will bite us so we have to let them know before we go outside so they can distract him. When we arrived, the family introduced themselves to us, showed us our room, and made us some food. Umeda is a really good cook. The first night she made us a kind of soup, that was like chicken noodle soup but so much better. It had one big piece of chicken in it, and there were some green leafy vegetables. There was bread that had cute little designs on it, and some seeds on top. Malika gave us orange juice that was very grainy. They had us try some Russian deserts as well. There was a wafer that had what tasted like chocolate frosting in between all the layers. And then another chocolate candy bar that was good as well. They love drinking green tea. Like, a lot. I brought some herbal tea for them to try, and they seemed excited about it so we'll see. We hung out with them for a while, and Daler showed us around. He told us not to flush toilet paper because it clogs the toilet, and to always turn off the lights behind us. Abby and I share a room, and we both sleep on couches. We have really really thin pillows and really really thin blankets, so good thing we brought some from home. We were both so tired from flying, so we went right to sleep.

Saturday January 26

The plan for the morning was that our host family would show us where the bus stop was that would take us to the Molodozyna metro stop, and Gulya would meet us there to show us how much money we would need and what to say. But Umeda told us when we woke up that one of their relatives was going to drive us to the metro stop instead. I tried to call Gulya to tell her the change of plans, but she didn’t answer. I finally got a hold of our head teacher Emily and she told us where to go. We had some breakfast, and got all bundled up for our first day in Moscow. We had some cereal, which was pretty much Coco Puffs, and we also tried some boiled dates. Our host dad walked us to the gate and let us out when the driver came to get us. He spoke a little English, but we didn’t talk much. His car had seatbelts, but there wasn’t a buckle.. so.. Abby and I just put it around us. And that was a good thing because the guy got pulled over on our way over there.. The officer looked at his papers, and I don’t really know what happened, but he let us go so that was a relief. It was a little funny because a few minutes before that happened, I had been joking with with Emily that I didn’t want to meet the police, and then we got pulled over lol. But anyway, we got to the metro stop, and found our group. Gulya took us around Moscow to show us around a little bit. We went to the Red Square, a little souvenir shop,  the biggest children’s store in Russia, and a little shop called French Kiss, where we had a cup of chocolate. It’s pretty much just a cup of melted chocolate, and it's sooo rich. They had dark and milk, and I liked the dark one best because it wasn’t as sweet as the milk. Gulya showed us how to use the ATM to get cash. 60 rubles=1USD, which is really confusing so I’m gonna have to work on that. It was snowing, and it was dark and gray pretty much all day. We were going to go to the observation platform but we wouldn't have been able to see anything lol. We also looked at tickets for a ballet or an opera. We may be able to score some tickets, but it sells out so fast so we'll have to see. I would love to see either. Gulya helped us with the bus for the ride home and told the bus driver to make sure we got off on the last stop. Also she told us that we live near Putin's residence. There is a road by our village that she called Putin's Road. So that's fun. Anyway Daler and Umeda met us at the stop and showed us how to get back to their house. It’s about a fifteen minute walk from their house to the bus stop, and the bus comes every twenty minutes, so we’ll have to really plan ahead when we go places. We walked a lot that day, and we were so tired. We had dinner which was something called poff, and I'm definitely spelling that wrong, but it is rice, meat, and then you can add garlic, onions, and eggs if you want. They just put two big bowls of it on the table and everyone ate from their own side. Our host family has hosted before, so they asked us if we were going to church, and we told them we were going to stay home this week. Umeda was telling us how that was okay because we can pray at home, and God is everywhere. I still want to make it to church, but I like the thought of God being everywhere. Abby and I were so tired we just went to bed after that.  

Here is my group! 

This is the cup of chocolate. So good

This is a huge museum on Red Square. There's so many museums here 

Not a great to take pictures, but still cool. 

This is Malika!

Malika, Abby and I sat on a snow covered bench

Shortly before this picture was taken, a guy clicked his tongue at me. It is really hard not to smile because I am a retail manager so I smile at everyone. But here that is not normal and it also sends the wrong message lol. It's hard let me tell ya. 

This was only half the wall.. also sorry it's crooked

This is next to the souvenir shop we went to. Russia is beautiful 

Sunday January 27

The rest of our group went to church today, but Abby and I needed some time to rest and get unpacked, so we slept in. And also church is far away from us, and of course it's at 9. Why is it always at 9 for me? To get to church on time, we would have to leave about two hours early. We would have to walk to the bus stop from our house, and then the bus would take us to Molodozyna. And then we would ride the metro to church. So that is going be a struggle not going to lie. Our host family made us porridge, and there was also bread, dates, and of course tea. They always have tea. Umeda has a fancy pitcher that boils the water for her, which she uses for tea, and for clean drinking water. She fills up glass bottles with the clean water and puts them by the window to keep them cold. They also have a cream that is similar to American sour cream, and they put that in everything. I just kind of follow their lead, because I'm not always sure what to do with their food. I have liked pretty much everything they have fed us though. Except the dates. The boiled ones I can handle, but I don't like them when they aren't boiled. Abby and I decided to walk to the bus stop and back today just to make sure we knew how to get there before tomorrow when we have to ride the bus to Moscow. Malika came with us, and it was very fun. We threw some snow at each other and joked around a lot. Their family likes to joke around and tease, so that's fun. We walked all the way to the corner where we would turn for the bus stop, and then Malika wanted to go to the shop a little bit further down. She had some money and bought some pastries, Pepsi, and some crackers that were crab flavored. It was very strong lol. There is a park across from the apartment buildings by the shop we went to, and there were some people sledding. We didn't have a sled, but we slid down a few times on our coats, which was fun. The snow was already compacted down for us, so we went pretty fast. We also played on the playground. There is one of those slides where you put your legs and arms over the bars and then slide down, and I did it twice, but the second time I went so fast I fell into the snow lol. Since my coat is so long I had to lift it up to get my legs over so my pants were soaked. Malika showed us a shortcut, and eventually we got back to the house. She had us wait outside the gate so she could get Rex, and then we came inside and had some traditional Russian soup. I honestly don't know what it was, but it was pretty good. It was better with the cream that they put on everything lol. Abby and I organized our things, and Malika hung out with us a little more. We shared some of our American candy with her, and then we brought it all out for everyone else to try. It was funny to watch them eat things like fruit snacks, Andes Mints, Jolly Ranchers, Reese's, and some more. They don't have peanut butter here, but they seemed to like the Reese's. Umeda likes chocolate and mint, but Daler doesn't. Malika pretty much likes it all, she's so funny. She also loves Sour Patch Kids. Dony and Malika tried Life-Savers too. Dony lost a tooth when he ate one of the chewy Jolly Ranchers.. we felt so bad.. but he was okay, it was already loose. He always says hello to us when we see him in the house. Dony and Malika are pretty good English speakers, and it's nice to have a few people to talk to. We are supposed to talk to them so they can practice English, since they are in the ILP program. After that Abby and I were really tired, and we tried to stay awake because we are trying to get used to the time change, but we both ended up sleeping for a few hours until dinner lol. For dinner we had noodles, I think mashed potatoes, and meatballs. The meatballs were made of chicken, veal, and rice. Our host dad gave us some biscuits to try with the tea, and he said, "Good." So he knows a teeny English, but mostly we talk to Umeda, Daler and Noza, Malika, Dony, and Shahnoza. In April, we get 16 days to travel, and Shahnoza wants to come with us. She really wants to go to London, Prague, and Paris. I don't really want to pay to travel all the way to London, and I don't really care about Paris (sorry), but Prague looks awesome. So we'll see where we all decide to go! Anyway, that is pretty much it for now. I hope this made sense cause I'm tired but I wanted to get it done cause I won't have time tomorrow. I still can't believe I'm here and that this is real. Also I just heard Malika on the phone with someone who asked if more Americans were living with them, and she said she liked us, so I am glad about that. Also my computer keeps sending me notifications in Russian, but I can't read it lol. Also I know how to say no, yes, thank you, and two, so I'm basically ready to go.