Fun Times with the Girls

Disclaimer: The stories that proceed this note are by no means the sum total of the funny, memorable, silly moments with the other teachers. They are, however, composed of the little things that brighten my day everyday. 

Laundry-

We didn't have a washing machine for the first 3 weeks of school but they kept telling us we would get one. *Thank goodness I brought plenty of underwear!* So you do the math, 6 girls + 3 weeks of not washing clothes= a ton of laundry! Also it is important to know that Russians don't use dryers. All of these clothes needed to be hung somewhere and there wasn't room in our dorms for them. Because we are pretty much the only ones that live in the dorms we decided to use the handrails starting on our floor and working up. Imagine about 4 flights of stairs filled with drying laundry. The next day, Chelsea was walking back up to our rooms when she realized she was following the principal taking a group of rather professional looking people on a tour of the school. They got closer and closer to "our" staircase and it was all she could do to follow and hope that they wouldn't go up that one. Sure enough, they did. It gets better. Then he showed them into one of the unoccupied rooms... don't worry that is the room the "delicates" were drying. There are some days I'm glad we don't speak Russian:)

Too Lazy-

We have a basketball gym on the floor beneath our dorms. We recently discovered this during our exploration of the school. One night, Hailey, Chelsea and I were laying in our beds before we fell asleep and I said, "I wish our floor wasn't so dirty so I could just exercise here."

Hailey, "Why don't you just use the gym? It's only downstairs."

"I don't want to go all the way to the gym...." Followed by silence for a bit. Chelsea pointed it out first by saying, "Really Selina?" And we all broke out in laughter. It take takes a minute or less to get to the gym. Needless to say I gained a reputation of being lazy that is stinking regardless of the fact that I do exercise. 

Hailey-in-a-box-

One night our neighbor delivered our fridge to our apartment and we were SO excited! Afterwards the giant box was in the hallway. While I was next door in the other girls' room Hailey jumped in it so that she could scare me when I came out. I came out of the room right as Hailey began to jump out. Only unknown to either of us our neighbor, Sasha, was also playing a trick. He jumped out from behind the door towards Hailey. A blodd curdling scream erupted from Hailey as she jumped INTO the wall and collapsed on the ground. I was laughing so hard I started crying, Hailey was rolling around in her box laughing and Sasha was doubled over a little ways down the hallway. That was the first of many "scares" from Sasha, though I think this was the funniest.

Other Random Quotes:

"I'm so excited for breakfast!" This is a nightly quote from at least one of us before we go to sleep. We have awesome breakfasts here.

"What kind of meeting isn't a no pants meeting?"
"The Talk meeting."

"Just call me Kathy" Thank you Bre.

And of course I can't forget all the back/head scratches while we talk about life, the gospel or random stuff that happened to us. Or about how on days where one of us has a really hard day the other room mates always pull together to make her feel better. Thanks guys:)

Friends with the Guards

Because we live in dorms here on campus we have made friends with the guards. A few of them want to learn English so we help them practice and learn more English and they attempt to teach us some Russian. Usually that means that they laugh at our attempts to repeat after them. It's a great dynamic. Friday nights we like to go to classrooms with couches and watch movies on Laura's laptop. It's a ton of fun especially when the guards show up. The first time we were watching "Anastasia"(because we are in Russia) and the guards showed up. They were speaking to us in Russian as we charaded and spoke in English. As always, there was a lot of laughter on both sides and very little real communication. Eventually, they just shook their heads, waved us off and said "Goodnight!"

 We have also learned that is you are friends with the guards, you can get in anywhere here. In the guard office they have a whole wall covered in key hooks and their accompanying keys. That being said there are also a lot of locked rooms in the school. One day Hailey, Breanna and I were exploring the school and we asked Peter, the front guard, where the auditorium was. Without hesitation he walked over to the key rings and pulled a set off. He motioned us to follow him and he unlocked the auditorium for us! When we had hid behind all the curtains, tinked around on the piano and admired the room enough we left and he locked up behind us. It was a great moment. 

Another night the same guard asked us to teach him English. After the English lesson we were all sitting at his computer using the online translator. Pretty soon we were swapping funny YouTube videos with him. For the record- you don't need to speak the same language as someone to laugh at people falling off tables or getting their pants scared off. 

World of Knowledge and a Boeing 777

School is well under way here at World of Knowledge and there is so much to say it's hard to know where to start....

I teach 3 group of kids: one is composed of three 8-9 year olds who are learning to read. The other 2 are made of 3-6  four year olds who are new to school. It's a pretty wide spread but I really enjoy the differences. There are pros and cons to both. I teach from about 2-6 pm everyday. I spend my mornings reading, prepping for lessons, studying scriptures and we can't forget breakfast and lunch! We really do love our meals here. 

The kids I teach are hilarious, primarily Volodya, aka “Vova”. He is the most constant student in my Advanced Basic Reading Class. At about 8 years old his antics crack me up. A week or two he began talking to me about airplanes, specifically the Boeing 747 and the MD 11 FE. He drew me a picture of the MD 11 and surprised me when he started reciting the Emergency spiel for the Boeing 747 but he finished it too! It was almost word for word and he drew me pictures of the different things they talked about. That boy loves his airplanes.

This last week Vova brought his model Boeing 777. The plane is a boy and his name is “British Airways” or British for short. While British was paying attention for the beginning of class he started becoming a distraction. Teacher Nusly took the plane away and Vova FREAKED. British didn’t like her and wouldn’t talk to her for the next hour and a half. Anyways, British fell asleep after that and so we built a fortress for him in the back of the room. I explained to Vova that we still needed to have class so we whispered for the next hour including the songs we sang. I never realized how TIRED whispering would make my cheeks! At the end of class Vova had 14 tokens so British woke up and I had a pleasant conversation face to face with a model airplane. It was a great dayJ

Metamorphosis

So there I was lying on my back in Russia making plans to change my life. My "well-made" bed with its non-fitted sheets and impossibly silky blanket served as a platform as I thought about my life. Thoughts about who I was filled my mind, but much more pressing were the thoughts regarding who I wanted to become. A few days prior my computer dove off the bed and the charger broke beyond repair. I decided that even was a blessing; it would give me the chance to improve myself and not detract from my time in Russia. I have since found myself spending a lot of time reading, studying my scriptures and searching my life.

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I remember as a preteen hearing one of my older cousins being referred to as a "social butterfly". In my young imagination I saw that as the ideal life. A social butterfly would be well liked, her schedule filled because she always has an invitation to go out. She would spend her time flitting around between various parties, never at a loss for dates and generally living "the life". I recall making a defined decision to be a social butterfly, I would go out every weekend or at least have plans. When it became more appropriate I would date and date a lot. The decision itself nearly forgotten- it formed a large part of my life. Since then I have found that there is a significant amount of power behind decisions supported by visions.

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Laying there in Russia, staring at the ceiling I realized that past decision had run its course in my life. It was time for a new vision. This was the moment I needed, even craved, for so long and it came to fruition in the strangest of places in an unexpected moment. I wasn't planning on changing and long held views when I lay down. I believe my initial though more closely resembled, "I'm not sure what to do with myself... I'll lay down for a minute, plug in my iPod and just relax." After about ten minutes of thinking about the ceiling my mind began to focus on deeper issues.  What did I want out of my life? That was an easy question to answer: I want to be really and truly happy. I want to live close to the Lord, to be happily married and have my own family. Other questions presented themselves, pleading for long overdo attention...who are you now? Are you who you want to be? How will you change? What will you do differently to make it happen? How will your life in Provo look? What will prevent you from slipping back? And that's when it started to happen. I finally began to find concrete answers to all of these questions. I lay there with music pulsing though my body as I envisioned this "new" Selina... 

She glows with happiness as she is now living a balanced, Christ-centered life. While her schedule is busy she is sure to put the Lord first by studying her scriptures every day, praying with her whole heart and attending the temple weekly. She is actively working on improving herself and takes all her troubles to the Lord. After a few years on the dating scene she is still open and friendly but careful about wearing her heart on her sleeve and even more cautious about giving her heart away. She understands now that successful dating is determined by quality, not quantity. She will not drop everything to "go out" and prove that she is social. She is honest about her feelings with herself and others. During a first date she will not be pressured into agreeing to a second but reserve judgment. Her priorities guide her actions and because of this she remembers how to keep her head on straight. This is a girl who makes sacrifices for better things because her perspective allows her to do so. 

I sat up and grabbed my journal and the closest pen, all the while knowing that this was a pivotal moment. After recording those impressions, I gushed at Hailey about the experience and then continued to make goal in my journal both for the present and for my return to school. My life may seem random but I know that everything happens for a reason, even if I don't know what the reason is. 

"Without change, there would be no butterflies." -Anonymous 

It's getting colder

So there I was....

That's how most of our stories start out here at our school so I thought it would be appropriate now. It really is getting colder here, we are consistently in the sixties and swatted are cropping up in abundance.

Great things that have happened as late:
WE GOT A FRIDGE IN OUR ROOM! This will be great when they give us food for the weekend. And if we ever want to have a cold drink.

My computer charger broke! Now, this may seem like a terrible thing and in some respects it is. However, now I have been spending my time more wisely and I feel like I'm getting more out of the experience. I spend my days prepping for teaching, teaching, reading a novel, Talking with my room mates, writing in my journal, studying my scriptures and other such wonderful activities. I'm feeling less homesick and more fulfilled. Blessing in disguise perhaps.

I sleep for about a full eight hours a night. Enough said.

I really am loving my time here and while I know I still have a lot longer I'm still excited for it and excited for the many adventures ahead. My teaching is improving and I have been reminded that I really do love teaching, I'm not sure what it is about it but it gives me a natural high. The kids are super funny and I love getting to know their personalities. I live with awesome girls who don't gossip and share my goals in life. While we are all very different we come together and get along rather well.

It's strange to think that I have been here for a little over two weeks. It feels like a month or more.

Onwards and upwards!!!!

-Selina

Because in this neighborhood an Audi is "low-end"

Today, Hailey and I were walking over to our "Supply Room" to prep some lessons and such. This walk involves going through a guarded gate, signing for a key and going around to the back of another building. The whole walk from our room takes about 15 minutes. We were passing the 1st guard he came out and spoke to us. We knew he knew some English but he asked us to speak with him in English so that he can practice. We ended up talking to him for about an hour, switching languages and swapping helpful hints and talking in English. It was really fun and we learned a lot about the neighborhood. 

For example, there a ten year old kid and his younger sister who speak Russian, English, French and Italian (those are only the languages he knew of that they spoke). As to the cars that they drive in this neighborhood.... Audis are considered "low-end". yikes. Also he said that the parents here are the type of people that went to schools like Cambridge. This is one nice place.

Back to the point. I've been so impressed with the Russian people because the ones that speak English look for opportunities to practice their English. While I was taking Spanish classes back in Provo I had to be pushed to practice my Spanish with native speakers. I really hope that I can be that brave when I go home. I feel like there are a lot of Russians who really take advantage of the opportunities that they have. In my limited experience. 

More Pictures from Russia

Changing of the Guards at the Eternal Flame monument to the Unknown Soldiers of WW2

The Kremlin/ The entrance to Red Square

The Kremlin

The Mall at Red Square- 3 stories of Ritz and Glam

St. Basil's Cathedral

My Girls! (The other teachers at my school)

River Boat Ride in St. Petersburg

Chelsea, Me, Nusly

Random Band jamming outside the metro station

Ice Cream man that gave us lots of free samples and loved speaking English with us! He also hates the movie Anastasia... because he is  a History major 

Because why would you not have a pet bear and feed it strawberry milk in a bottle?

Or for that matter why not have fully clothed monkeys available for photo ops?

DaVinci Painting

Michelangelo's "Crouching Boy"

The Romanov's Burial Site

Inside the Hermitage

Outside St. Issac's Cathedral

St. Issac's again

Organ Grinder on the street leading to another Cathedral

Cathedral of Christ over Spilled Blood

Mosaics- Jacob's Dream

Mosaics in the interior of Spilled Blood

Lunch... BLINIS!

Romanov's Summer Palace

Summer Palace Fountains

Me and Chelsea

Melissa, Me, Nusly

Old lady selling flowers and herbs

Panda head

loved her hair

Winter Palace

In the Hermitage

Beautiful Empty Room

Dorm Room

Me on my bed on the first day of school

Shower with no Shower curtain, we're that good:

Chelsea, Me, Hailey