The Big Apple

During the past couple of months I have been a traveling fool! From NYC, to Aruba I have been exploring the North West like its going to disappear. I am the type of girl who LOVES airports. There are so many different types of people, traveling to every corner of the earth. I have always loved to be in airports by myself. I love to be on my own schedule, and especially I love seeing the handsome chocolate men I missed out on living in Utah. :) 

But I decided I want to write down all my experiences for posterity and what not:) So My first big trip this year was to the big apple. The diverse, beautiful, and busy New York City. Tiff, being the amazing swimmer that she is, had a school that wanted her to come swim for them out in NY. So even though it was a complete inconvenience to me ;) I decided I would join her and my dad and gav for a short trip out east!

I also was still in my photography class, where I was assigned a photographer and had to try and create a photo he or she would take. My photographer was Martin Parr a British man (read with British accent.) He took lots of candid photos where he tried to use humor to reach the viewer. Like this photo for instance:

So for my project I used a modern pull on his photograph and took this one. 

So the rest of these photos are just of our trip and adventures wandering around NY. I have an awesome sister who would pose for me anywhere and anytime so she is in a lot of the photos:) And those curls are BEAUTIFUL!

I am so in love with NY. 

So while I was thinking of an idea to copy Martin, but still have my own flare I took about 50 of this photo. I loved that  some people were moving and the others were not. I almost used this one. 

Of course we went to FAO Schwarz for Gavin, and they had my all time FAVORITE! DIPPIN DOTS!!!! YESSSS!! Cotton candy flavored too!!

 This couple was adorable when we were on the top of the empire state building. Side note: it costs 60$!!! AHHHHHH!!!

After our adventure with the empire state building we go gelato in non other than Little Italy:)

I had to take a picture next to this HUGE lego statue of liberty. The first time I came to NY was a month after 9/11. The plane tickets were so cheap that my family and my best friends family decided to go. I remember still seeing the smoke coming up from the towers when we were there. We made many home videos on this trip including one where my older sister was talking about what we had done for the day, and I proceeded to stand in the back round pretending I was the statue of liberty. 

Did I mention I have awesome siblings who put up with my photography visions. 

 We saw these break dancers in the subway and decided to stay and watch them. At the end of their performance my sister and I put our number on a dollar bill and handed it to one of the dancers. Next thing we knew her and I were surrounded by these guys who were telling us how much they liked our hair and how cute Tiff was. It was super funny!

Time square, tiff dad and gav!:)

Over all the trip was super fun! I got my photography project done, and I had a blast with my family! The only thing that was missing was my mom, jocelyn alec, and our favorite baby Ari. 

My Photography Final

For my photography class we get extra credit if we publicly publish our work... So here it is!  I was going for a Helmut Newton kind of look, with a flare of race and gender. I wanted to show the girl, always in heels and looking great but also doing all the things everyone else expected from her like dishwashing, and doing laundry

My Photography class

I have always loved photography, but in Utah everyone and their dog owns a photography company. Being a lover of photography I always thought it would be fun, so my Senior year of High school I became the Year Book photography editor. Needless to say I took thousands of photos, some were great and others not so much.

 Most of the photographers that I know are self taught, which can be a great thing, but I wanted to know about "photography" not just about snapping a photo. Does that make sense? So I figured I would take a class:)  The assignments were not too bad and I seemed to be getting the hang of things.

I grew to really respect photographers who took photos of people. I also learned that it takes a lot of practice, and a lot of skill to be a photographer. This class has made me appreciate photography a lot more. I actually just printed out my final project, and will post it later. 

Thanks for your interest!

Russian things

My Russian Experience

1. They only shower on sundays for 2 hours, if they showered everyday they couldn't shower as long..
2. Deodorant isn't as hard to find as I thought but people don't use it as much as they should.
3. They have amazing winter coats that are all fur. One day I will own one.


4. The doors on the apartments have at least 4 bolts, so you have to turn the key 4 times
5. Paying to use the bathroom
6. Washers are very small, and no dryers.

7. I learned how privileged I am

8.squatting toilets, trust me you never want to be apart of these
9. recycled toilet paper, k this sounds gross but its just like that newspaper color

10. They are incredibly nice, and friendly once you get through that tough russian skin
11. Russians believe Everything will get you sick
12. They are obsessed with cats

13. Their accent makes them sound more scary than they are.
14. Their history is very deep, and they take high pride in their nationality.

15. The churches are to die for.

 16. Military men are attractive, but seeing their boys everyday made me miss american men.

17. Making Hideous faces has become my specialty 

18. One of my favorite things was how International the country is.

19. Dancing Bachata in a Latin Club with Russians, Africans, and Dominicans will be one of my favorite memories with my wing girls Sheala and Tristan

20. One word Prospekt 2.

21. I will miss my adorable Kids, especially level 1, look at those cute russian faces.

 22. There are so many stray dogs, we all wanted to take this beauty home with us. Nikora.

23. If there is one thing I learned it was that you can meet amazing people anywhere in the world, and I definitely did. 

Thank you Russia:)

Cats, and Moscow

Hey, I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything, I honestly have been so busy that when I get home I go to bed. Okay so a couple of funny stories. To preface this first one ill tell you that Russians are obsessed with cats, seriously they are everywhere. Shea'la and I had been talking about Russians and their cats this certain day:

Okay so since tristan has gotten here I have been almost working half the hours I was working. I went from 30 hours to 18, seriously amazing. Don't get me wrong I love the kids, but it is a lot of work. So on my day off Shea'la and I headed out for a little cruise around the town. We walked to the right bank of Voronezh walked around and saw some cool stuff.

Like this monument for WW2, I guess 90 percent of Voronezh was burnt down by the germans so they gave this this monument with a fire that will supposedly never  go out. (I hope the bill for the gas goes to germany too).

Pretty sweet huh? K so then we walked down to the center of the city ish and went to the large shopping mall that was there. So we get on the bus to get home bus 90, this bus is one of the few that cross the river and go to our stop and it is usually crazy packed. But this particular night it was INSANE. People were shoving their way onto the bus, to add on to this madness there was a traffic jam for a good 30 minutes were we were completely stopped. We stand there huddled together as this Russian man un zips his bag, sticks his hand in and makes a shushing sound. We look down and all of a sudden this cat jumps out of his duffel bag and around his neck, Shea'la and I loose it, we could not stop laughing, then the girls next to us start laughing which causes this train of laughter. The guy tries to put the cat back in as we held the bag open for him. It was hilarious, and crazy to see the Russians not so serious.

This is my host sister Jane, She is crazy smart and way nice. We went ice skating with her dad and Artiom that next day it was awesome mostly cause I didn't fall. She told me that I couldn't go to Russia and not ice skate:) They all own their own skates, and the rinks are free if you have your own skates.

Jane and me again:)

this is a church in Voronezh it is gorgeous!

A beautiful view of a street thanks bri:)

Love these two girls, Shea'la, and Bri and me:)

You could say me and Bri see a lot of each other:)

This is Paulina, She is quite the shy little rockstar!:) She is very sad when she doesn't sit in the front row.

HAHA seriously this picture is priceless. K the girl is named Lira, she is very cute but gets angry very easily when something is not the way she thinks it should be done. And this boy is Yaraslav he is the class clown, he is so silly and adorable and he drives Lira crazy!

This is a little hike we went on when we went to Moscow. It is maybe 5 minutes and then it brings you up to this clearing and shows you a panoramic of Moscow. It was so cool at night.

 One of the days we were here we were at St. Basils and a man who spoke English approached us and asked to have us take his picture. His name is Jesse, he is traveling around with a tour group from Australia of some sort and ended up hanging out with us for the rest of the day. Totally cool guy, but crazy he told us his next stop was Siberia

 This is the one and only St. Basils Cathedral which was the one thing I needed a picture by in Moscow because it's ICONIC! So we took lots!

We went to the ballet finally, and it was interesting, and frankly kinda boring:) But when in Russia:)

Okay so my host family told me there was this Beline (pancake) festival in a near by city that we should go to, it would cost money and I would have to find time off of work but it was a big tradition so of course I went. But what it ended up being was a class feild trip, that Jane and I crashed. We went to a very cold and almost deserted place and did random games like this. It was so fun to see but I felt sooooooo silly.

 Last but not least this is Kolya who is a crack up. He loves attention, and will do anything if I say I am going to put it on YouTube.

Being in Russia during all this craziness with Ukraine has be a very eye opening experience. I have loved exploring and attempting to learn the language. It's crazy I only have 9 weeks till I head home, but I am very excited to be back in the states, and to have a WALMART again. Seriously if I have found to appreciate anything it's walmart you can get it all in one place!:) 

Thanks for the love! I miss you all so much! Being here has made me a little bit more proud in my country (as if I needed any more encouragement).

Marissa

This week I also had a friend from work/highschool pass away, it has been incredible to see the mark he made, and the people he affected. I hope that when I die I will have left such a happy memory in peoples lives as he did.  My facebook feed has been nothing but love and support for him and his family. It is amazing that I was blessed with the knowledge of a god and his plan for us. God must have needed him in heaven because Edson was nothing but sunshine all the time. My prayers are with the Martinez family. 

I forgot one last thing! We picked up Tristan, It has been so fun having her here. It is so easy because I don't have to try at all cause she has known me my whole life. We went to a market type place in Moscow and I helped her bargin down a fur hat, and I got a 10$ fur scarf from a guy who was definitely under the influence.:) this is another picture of us and these girls at the ballet:)