Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Orphanage

The first snow day! (me, Polina, Kat, and Jamie)
It was so windy and cold I thought I might turn into an icicle and blow away!





Me and Poina in the orphanage pretending to be in class.
















Me and Elena the runt of the orphanage. I wanted to take her home with me!





















We spent all day Saturday at the orphanage! It was great. We brought them care packages and birthday presents. Then we had a huge birthday celebration. The kids loved it. I think there was enough sweets there to make them all sick to their tummy. I spent the afternoon playing games and getting to know the kids. It was great to see how the Lord can work through language barriers. My very little Russian got me a long way. Plus everyone understands smiles and hugs. I can't wait to go again in a few weeks!

Thursday, October 25, 2007

Siberia

This is one of my favorite pics that I have taken here. This is at the 860 year anniversary concert we went to at Victory park.














These are some of my third grade boys on
field trip to the park. Pasha is the blonde,
Robert is laughing, and Ivan is looking
confused as usual


This is what we call a Russian can opener.
It was invented by Dana Hollis when she really
wanted to eat some pineapples and discovered
there was no can opener


I just learned how to add pics. So I will work on perfecting it later. I have hundreds more but I can only put a few at a time on here.

So my students never cease to amaze me and make me laugh. I thought I would share a few stories:

I was having a private lesson with Leo yesterday and we were talking about horses for some reason. (Leo is in 4th grade) Then he told me that his grandfather has horses. So I asked him if he has ever ridden one and he said no. I asked him where his grandfather lived and how long it took to get there. He said "Well, I don't know in car but in plane, about 3 hours." I went on to ask him does he live in Siberia or something. Leo says, "Yes, he does! He is the president of Siberia." Um I don't think that he used this word correctly because Siberia is technically part of Russia but I still understood what he meant. He meant that his grandfather pretty much runs Siberia. I was amazed to say the least.

Then there is Nastya. She is in the 8th grade and yesterday was our first private lesson together. I found out that her father sells airplanes. Thats all she knew about his business. And she went to the Beyonce concert last week that I really wanted to go to but couldn't find out how to get tickets. I am going to really enjoy her because I can talk to her normally! Yea!

The kids are all great this week. Its been wonderful. Even my normally bad ones have been pretty good. But I think we are all ready for fall break.

Thanks for all the encouraging comments. I really love them and love you guys!! I'll be home in less than 2 months so get ready!!

(Mel, my email has changed to ringlets1985@yahoo.com. I need to give you updated flight info.)

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Mail

Can we talk about how much I love receiving mail! I got a card from the Thomspons gang yesterday!! Thank you so much! It definately made my day. I loved the drawings and all the sweet messages, even the one in Russian! And I noticed it only took 12 days to get it. Thats not too bad! So if you want you can all send me cards!! They are very exciting.

Monday, October 22, 2007

Running Away

So this weekend was mostly calm and quite. It was cold and I had an extremely long week so we spent the evenings indoors enjoying the fellowship of friends and good food of course. Since the sun rises around 9 am and sets around 5 pm, it leaves limited time during the day to do anything as we try to stay indoors as much as possible when it is dark outside.

Dacey and I went looking all over Moscow for these boots she wanted on Saturday afternoon. While we were out we noticed this man began to follow us. Thankfully we are always aware of our surroundings and noticed him. So we link arms and begin to walk as fast as we possibly can. He catches up to us still. So I decide we are going to go into this grocery store and maybe we can loose him. But he follows us in. Usually there are security officers in every store so I thought this would be a good idea. No security officer. So the guy is like 3 feet behind us and we bolt out of the store, pushing through some ladies, and run all the way to the mall about 300 yards away. He ran after us! But by the time we got to the mall he was gone. I had already passed several security officers earlier in the mall so I knew this would be a good place. So nothing happened but he sure did freak us out. I think maybe I should by some mase (sp?). But don't worry, this kind of thing doesn't happen everyday.

Monday, October 15, 2007

White Christmas

Everything outside is white!! I feel like it should be Christmas but it is only mid-October! I just don't know what to do with myself and this weather! It was so windy and snowy yesterday that my umbrella kept turning inside out even when I held it with 2 hands. I am looking out the window right now and everything is covered in snow. How crazy! It should snow most of the week and then warm back up to the mid 30's. Then come November it will snow till March or April. Oh my goodness!!!

Polina came over on Saturday and we had a wonderful meal and my first Russian lesson. It went wonderfully and I am so excited about spending time with Polina. She is a wonderful girl.

I began dance lessons last week. (Don't laugh) I know this sounds funny because we all know I can't dance very well. Hence the reasoning in beginning classes. The dance teacher at Presnya is offering a class for teachers. Today we will have class again. I am so excited!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Observations

I know it has been a while since I have written but it seems like life has been pretty busy lately. Sometimes I feel like I hardly have time to breathe much less get on the computer.

Praises:
  • My observation went wonderful on Tuesday. My supervisors and other teachers watched me teach fourth grade. They had wonderful things to say and thought that I did a great job. They actually wanted to know how I did some things. So that is very exciting for me.
  • I have a Russian tutor! Her name is Polina. We will meet on Saturdays and I will feed her in exchange for her helping me with my Russian. This is a huge answer to prayer as I could not afford to pay a tutor but need to learn Russian badly. Yea!!
Other than that I am just trying to keep warm and dry as it is nearing freezing temperatures and raining all the time!

Monday, October 1, 2007

Monday's

So its a beautiful Monday in Moscow as was this weekend. Too bad the temperature and pressure changes have made my head feel like it is going to explode! But I tried to enjoy it the best I can.

Sorry the last blog was a little crazy. I was just letting out my current frustrations. You know, some days are like that. And some things just really drive me crazy. I think I got so frustrated becuase this man has told me before that he is a believer. So to say those things is just a little ridiculous to me.

Oh, and sorry for the spelling errrors I tend to always have. I type kinda fast and have very little time on the computer. So I am trying to check all my stuff and write so I don't usually read over what I have written. Sorry.

And I have had a request to write about what I am doing here. Well, I am teaching conversational English to pre school through 4th grade at Moscow Economic School. I attend Internation Christian Fellowship and have enjoyed getting involved there. I attend a small group and will be helping lead a youth small group soon. We are also going to be volunteering in an orphanage this month. So I am attempting to follow God's call and this is where He has lead me. I am having a great time too! Let me know if you would like to know more!

I'll be back soon....