I really don't know what to call these lol

Sorry I haven't posted in a hot sec! I wrote the post for last week, but every time I went to post it my internet connection was super slow, so I never got around to it. I finally posted that the other day, but it took me a few days to get this post done cause I've been so busy.

This last week was good! Teaching is an adventure, taxi rides are an adventure every time (one day this week we got pulled over), and we did some fun things this week! I really want to be good at this teaching thing, so I'm trying! I have improved a lot already since I started I think, but I'm still ironing out some things. The hardest part for me is lesson planning. It takes me quite a bit of time to get them done just because it can be a little difficult to think of ideas that will keep the kids engaged. And with the kindergarteners, sometimes the lessons don't work like we planned, so we have to be ready with songs or little games to get their attention again, which can also be hard. I tried bubbles the other day and they loved it so that was a win. Some days are definitely better than others.

Our group went to a Georgian restaurant for a Galentine's dinner, and I am a fan. I got leek (onion) soup and lavash bread. So good. Pics below because I am now that person who takes pictures of my food. 

In April-May, we are taking a two week vacation! I'll be going with Abby, three girls from our group, and also our host sister Shakhnoza wanted to tag along. We are going to Amsterdam, Prague, Krakow, Vienna, Budapest, and Greece. Stoked. More on that later. 

On Thursday, we had our culture class with Gulya. She told us about the Russian alphabet, and how some letters in English and Russian are different. Like "P" is "R" which is so confusing. She gave us a paper with some basic Russian phrases to practice. She also had some chocolate and taught us how to ask for the one that we wanted. 

Also this weekend was super fun. Some girls from our group planned on going to a convent in Moscow, but when we got there we realized we had to pay and also it looked like it was under construction, so we're probably going to come back another time. It looked gorgeous though. Instead we found a little church across the street and went there. I like going to churches we find here, they're super cool and they're all over. After that, we went to the Olympic stadium. There's a huge statue of Lenin in front of it. They were shoveling snow off the roof, and it was so loud. So that was crazy. We also went to another church, and the oldest grocery store in Moscow. Which is the prettiest grocery store I have ever seen. We shared some honey cake, and some chocolate filled pastries there. Abby and I were craving some familiar, so on our way home we were going to go to the McDonald's in the mall by our bus stop, but when we got there there were a million people outside. They weren't letting anyone in, and there were police and a fire truck.. so we went home low key disappointed cause we just wanted some chicken nuggets ya know. 

On Sunday, we decided to go to the Russian ward at 1:00. Every third Sunday, some museums are free, so before church we met to go the space museum. We were going to meet the sister missionaries at the metro stop at 12:30 so they could show us where the church was. Malika came with us, and we got there early so we took some pictures while we waited for the rest of our group to get there. We spent some time in the museum, Malika and Abby went home, we grabbed some donuts and went to church. We were a bit late, because we left the museum late, and then we couldn't find the church. The map was taking us in circles. Two girls walked past us eventually, and someone in our group asked them if they were sister missionaries after they were a few feet away. And they were! One was from Alpine, Utah and the other one was from Frankfurt, Germany. They showed us where the church was, and we just stayed for sacrament. Even though I don't know what they were saying, it was still cool. The people in front of us kept looking back because we were quietly singing the hymns in English lol. And the bread was 1000% better than it is in America. Someone probably made it that morning to be honest. After church, we found a cute little cafe, and got some lunch. Customer service here is not like it is in America. They don't really want to serve you, and definitely not Americans. So our server was nice but we could tell he was annoyed. Oh well. I got bread with melted cheese in it. I wish I could tell you what it was called but I don't remember. That day the only thing I ate was bread so pretty much I'm killing it. After that we headed home. It was nice to get out of the house and distract myself from teaching and lesson planning for a bit. That's it! Here's a lot of fun photos for you 

pretty lights by my bus stop

a huge bench

my leek soup and bread

it was so pretty thursday morning

just taking pictures of the trees from inside the bus lol

all the metro stops are beautiful but it looks like there's a rainbow on the ceiling of this one so 

a cool gate

a cool door

this is inside the church we went to on saturday

the church from the outside. it was so little and cute

the olympic stadium with good old len in front

more metro stops

another cool church we went to 

these are from the oldest grocery store in moscow.. still in awe

a cool arch

there are some really long escalators here but taking pictures of them is hard 

metro stop somewhere

this is the monument outside of the space museum. it was very impressive

from the front

inside the space museum

the monument with the sun out

the cute russian ward's church

more bread <3 it has cheese inside

more from the grocery store

I am not creative with the titles sorry

We survived our first week of teaching! Not gonna lie it was a bit of a hard week. The kids are super cute, but we have some troublemakers for sure. For the next few weeks, we're trying to get the routine down, so hopefully we'll have less behavior issues. Especially at the kindergarten... they're crazy... Almost every day last week, a student gave me a picture they colored so that makes me feel like I'm doing a semi good job...hopefully.. I'm slowly getting the hang of things. It's a lot of work, but that's why I'm here so I'm trying to make that my focus. I didn't do much this last week other than teach so I don't have much to tell you guys today.

We saw some blue skies this week so that's exciting! It will start warming up next month, and then at the end of March the snow should start melting, so we still have a while to go. Everyone tells us it's been a warm winter here, so that's good for me because I do not like being cold. It sounds like it's colder in Utah from what I hear though. We were going to do fun things on Saturday but we didn't feel great when we woke up, so we slept in and relaxed after a long week. Irina gave us some chocolate for making it through the first week of teaching, and it was incredible. I already have a list of chocolate to bring home because wow.. it's so good.. and I am my mother's daughter.. and we share a deep love of chocolate. There's a little store on our way home from our school, so Abby and I stopped there a few times this week. One day we bought some bottled water, only to find that it was soda water when we got home so that was disappointing. Just trying to stay hydrated ya know.

Also we get a taxi ride home from Captains whenever we teach there, and it's always an adventure. On Monday, we were told we had gotten in the wrong taxi after we were about twenty minutes away, even though we were in the right one. So on Wednesday we made sure it was the right one. On Friday, the taxi driver who was there told us he wasn't our taxi, so we asked the guard and eventually we figured it out and he was our taxi. Our bus driver Alexander, who usually takes us to Captains from Barvikha, got fired apparently.. He only had to pick us up one time last week, and when the gate wasn't open for us, him and the guard were yelling at each other in Russian and we don't know if that has anything to do with it but I hope not.

On Saturday our host family had a barbecue, and a bunch of people came over. We had salad (I was so happy I miss salad so much), chicken, and then a combination of cow and chicken. Also I lied to you because Rex isn't completely okay with us yet. During the day it's alright I think, but when it's dark, it's not alright. We came home after dark on Friday, but the garage was open so we didn't need to call anyone to let us in. Rex left us alone until we got to the front door and he then he ran up and bit the front of my coat, but it's okay so don't worry. It was scary though so we're gonna make sure to call someone even if the garage is open.

On Sunday, you will be proud of us, we made it to church. And it was great. Everyone is super nice there, especially the sister missionaries. It was weird but refreshing to hear everyone speaking in English, because I have gotten used to hearing Russian everywhere. The meetings are held on one floor of a random building that's tucked away behind a bunch of other buildings. I'm glad we went, even though it's a long trip to get there. After church, we rode the tram and met Gulya. She took us to her flat, which is the cutest and tiniest thing I've ever seen. She taught us how to make piroshki, which is pretty much bread stuffed with various fillings. We made some with potatoes, ground turkey, and cabbage and onions. Surprisingly I liked the cabbage one the most. We made a dessert as well that I forgot the name of. But the bread was open, with cream cheese, raisins, and a cinnamon sugar topping. Also they have pear Fanta here and it's amazing. Also I really wish someone could give me a book of all the things people have said to me in Russian. That would be great. Alright that's it for this week so stay tuned. Most of my pictures this week are of food sorry.

These are the little desserts we made

This guy came and sat by Abby on the metro and I was laughing so hard. Pretty sure he's looking straight at me but it's fine

Sorry it's sideways, but this is our finished product at Gulya's. It was so good. Gotta love bread

A sweet snow fort we found in the park. I wish I could tell you that we made it 

Gulya made us these little ice creams on Sunday too. Also life changing 

Our host family makes a lot of bread.. but I'm not even mad about it. 

update from the first week

We have been here for a little over a week, but it feels like it's been a lot longer. I am still getting used to the different time zone. Right around 7 or 8 pm, I get super tired, and after dinner I crash. But then I wake up around 2, 5, and then 9 am. So that's fun. On Wednesday I made it past 8:30 by a long shot and I was so excited lol. I talked to my host family to keep my mind off of how tired I was. My host dad doesn't speak English but we still communicate a little bit. He knows how to say "hello" and "good." He will have us try something and say, "Good," and give a thumbs up. And he says hello to us whenever he comes into the room. He also was so nice and shoveled the pathway to the garage for us the morning it snowed. It's still awkward with them but it's fun. And it's getting better. They have hosted for a year, and they love the other American girls they have hosted. They always show us pictures and videos of them dancing or doing something fun. 

On Monday and Tuesday, we had some training at the main school in Moscow. Abby and I will be teaching catch-up and basic reading. The kids we're gonna be teaching are in kindergarten (age 4-6) and second grade (age 8-9). We met our program director Irina, who showed us one of our schools. It's pretty close to our house, still a little over a mile, but that's okay lol. The school is called Barvikha, and it's really nice. We teach there every Monday-Friday. Three times a week we will teach at Captains kindergarten school after we are done at Barvikha. A bus will pick us up in the parking lot and take us there. Our bus drivers name is Alexander, and we have heard good things about him. And then after Captains we have a taxi home, which is nice. 

Our first day of teaching was Friday. So this week we spent a lot of time preparing lessons and reading through some really exciting manuals about what to do. I was feeling a little nervous about teaching, especially basic reading cause I feel like there's a lot more to do, but I am sure I'll be fine once I get the hang of things. And we have a lot of resources to help us out too. The school will provide lunch for us, we just have to get there on time. We might have time for a snack and dinner on the days we go to Captains, but it honestly just depends on traffic. Irina showed us how to get lunch at the cafeteria at Barvikha. The lunch lady's name is Gulya and she speaks a little English so that is nice. We've eaten there a few times, and it's usually macaroni, rice, potatoes, and chicken. We drink a lot of tea at home, so we always get apple juice at school. They have a meat sauce for the rice or macaroni, and two kinds of chicken. One is just breaded, and the other is chicken with cheese. There a weird white sauce or cheese or something underneath more cheese. Our first day went alright. We taught basic reading, and then catch up at Captains. In basic reading, we had four kids. We might have more on Monday, cause one student was sick. They're really smart, and way cute. At Captains we had six kids. We just did an opening with them, so we sang songs and went over the calendar and weather. I felt a lot better after that because I felt like it went a lot better than it did at Barvikha. And they are also the cutest. 

On Saturday our group went to the Izlomailovkaya market. It's huge. And there's so much to look at. I got some wool socks and a warm headband because I couldn't find my hat when we left our house and I was freezing lol. I talked the guy down so not gonna lie I was real proud of myself. Jk that's kind of a lie. My friend got one for 550 rubles (about $10) and then I told him I would think about it so he dropped it to 500 ($8) so I went for it cause my head was cold. I definitely want to go to the market again, it's really cool and it was just so cold when we went. Also Abby and I went to the McDonald's in the mall by our bus stop. We were a little sick of soup and tea lol. Luckily they had kiosks so we could order in English. They had hostesses who sat us down at a table, so it's a fancy McDonald's. It's still fast food, but it's better than American McDonald's sorry not sorry. 

I don't know if I have mentioned Rex before. But Rex is my host family's German shepherd. At first, our family told us to let them know when we needed to leave, because he would bite us. But good news. This week we had a breakthrough. He didn't bite us. And he let us pet him. He did bite my boot, but don't worry I survived to tell the tale. Anyway moral of the story is he is used to us now, so we can come and go as we please. We still have to call someone when we get home to open the garage, but now we are not in peril every time we leave the house. 

Overall, it was a little bit of a rough week. With lesson planning, getting a LOT of information, being uncertain teaching, and feeling a little homesick. Saturday morning was especially stressful. We were supposed to meet our group at the metro stop for the market at 11. But Abby and I don't ride the metro very often, so we didn't know where we supposed to go, but we still had to leave two hours early if we wanted to get there on time. Umeda called her relative and they picked us up on their way to the city so we didn't have to walk to the bus stop. We made it okay, it was just a crazy time. I'm sure I'll get used to getting in a car not knowing where I'm going or what's happening eventually lol. Good times. After that we had a really fun day. Also I want to go to church, but it's so far and we have to get up way early. Abby has just wanted to rest the last two Sundays, but I want to go. It's still dark outside when we have to leave to make it on time, and I don't want to walk alone in the dark and ride the bus alone so I'm having a crisis lol. Umeda was telling me to just wait until April or May to go because it's so far and it's so cold, but I don't want to wait until April or May to go to church. I don't know what to do help lol. 

Things I took for granted in America:
-living so close to everything
-having cold and clean water to drink all the time 
-dryers (they do not have dryers here so our clothes dry on racks)

Things Abby and I miss:
-popcorn
-peanut butter
-Lucky Charms cereal
-smoothies
Pretty much every morning we are craving something from America lol.