Fourth week in Voronezh:)

I can't believe i am staring my fourth week in Russia! I have been having a blast. I have definitely decided I am a city girl, I love the busyness of it. 

On Sunday we went to city grad which is a mall that has an ammusment park in it! Totally cool, until the next day when I was incredibley dizzy from this ride for the whole next day:(. 

We also went to Barack O' mamas 

this cafe type place and hung out with all the teachers and some of our russian friends. I ordered a mojito, and fell in love with it. 

I am loving teaching the older kids, it's more structured classroom and the kids are just as cute! I sure do miss a couple of my kindergardeners, like this cutie named Anya she seriously melts my heart!!! 

She always wears this bunny sweater so I ended up getting one this weekend hopefully she will wear it and we can match:) 

I also converted this hottie to red lipstick, and I haven't seen her without it on this whole week!:) I love making girls embrace their femininity! 

Artiom and I found this awesome cotton candy place in the park next to out house:) 

Okay so a sweet story about him, I was sitting in my room when he comes in, super upset and shows me this porcelain fridge magnet from Egypt that he broke.

 I took it from him and asked if he had any super glue and we could fix it no problem. He looked in some drawers then was very upset when he couldn't find anything. I told him that we could just run to the store, only problem is he has to tell his mom before he leaves the house because she is at work. He calls his mom and I wait as he speaks to her, then I asked what he told her. He said "I told her we would go to the store for some sugar( meaning candy)" I said oh okay sure, you can't lie to your mom though so when she gets home you can tell her about the plate. He then was really sad but kinda agreed. We headed to the store where we actually found some I was amazed! We went home fixed it and he was very worried about his mom coming home to see this broken magnet. I told him the story of when I broke my moms candle, and she for gave me. He then explained that his mom is not like my mom and that she will yell. 

I got home late that night

Because I had gone to the City Grad and played Billiards! It was a blast! 

But I was welcome home by sweet artiom telling me about how his mother said it was okay he hugged me and told me that maybe our moms were the same! 

I had a pretty good week besides being sick on Monday! Church was fun, it always is. I love being part of the russian ward, it makes me feel like I am actually living here. 

Thanks for the love and support:) 

Ps I also was told this week that my family has booked their flights to come see me!! Yay! I am so beyond excited! 

Riss 

Teacher bonding time

So this week I got moved from kinder garden to levels. I was really excited to

Move up to the older kids, but the first day I did it I was so sad cause I missed my kinder garden class! Seriously how can you not miss this!! 

This little boy is dripping with sweat cause he constantly runs around during our two hour class! One of my favorites for sure

On tuesday night we went to FHE with the ward, which was very fun. When we got to the door to call up, the missionary I played one-on-one volleyball with answered and told me " say elder Naylor is better at volleyball". I replied with a " I will not say such blasphemy". Fortunately he was nice enough to still buzz us in:)

On Thursday night I hung out with a couple of the girls and we made these Russian pancake like cheese dessert things. We got some delicious pistachio ice cream! Oh I try to block this part out but we also tried pickled fish... 

Friday night we planned a "girls weekend" type thing. We go stuff to make home made pizzas, nail polish for painting, and tickets to a ballet on Saturday night! 

Friday comes and I am stoked! Lindsay, Ashley, sheala and I were all done earlier so we sat in shealas apartment and laughed and laughed about silly jokes. We blasted beyonce and drake and it was a blast! We made pizzas, then watched vines for about 2 hours. I decided we were going to make grapefruit mojitos, and found some stuff to make a makeshift one.

these were pretty good, but not as good as the ones my mom and I make. Everyone loved them, and I wished I had bought more stuff to make more! yay! 

I mentioned to the branch president that we wanted to learn some Russian, so he called someone to be our Russian teacher, so on sat morning we met at the church to learn some Russian!

This is me and my girl Brie! Seriously this girl is my other half! I love her! 

This is Brie, and Madi sleeping on our long bus ride to go shopping yesterday.

As we were shopping we saw this girl, seriously look at her coat, it's magnificent!

Madi and Brie bought Russian hockey jerseys, they were totally cool! I now wish I would have gotten one, but they were about $70 bucks. 

we got all dressed up for the ballet, and we had left the tickets in the school, which we don't have a key for. We called the owner of the school, and he drove all the way over but then his key wouldn't work. Then he went over to the cleaning lady's house, and her key wouldn't work either. Russians have lots of superstitions, and bad things happening in 3's is a bad sign. So we decided since we were all dressed up we needed to do something. We ended up going to this cafe type place, called Barrack O'Mamas. 

Barrack's was jammed pack full and was so fun to be there because the Russia vs. Usa hockey game was playing. It was so loud, I couldn't talk to brie without yelling. It was so awesome when we won, we wanted to yell so loud but figured we valued our own lives a little more.

We went to another resturant to eat, Bri and I got a Calzone, It was pretty good!

I finally came back to my host families house, and they had eaten all the See's Chocolate without me, you could say I was slightly sad, but then i realized I did give it to them as a present. It was a really fun week, I am so excited to go to church, it is one of the funnest things I get to do all week!

love riss

Exploring Voronezh

Hello all!

This week has been really great! On Monday I decided I would attend Family Home evening even though I would be at least 30 minutes late because I teach until 7pm. One of the other girls has been struggling with teaching, she feels as though she is not qualified to teach, as an attempt to brighten her spirits I brought her along. After a long bus ride we made it to the house of the couple missionaries where FHE was being held. We walk in and find 20+ adults, yes! I love ADULTS! I met many people, most of which I needed one of the missionaries there to translate for me. I talked to one of the recent converts who said he would show me the other parts of the city I have not seen, so being my fathers daughter of course I agreed. 

The next night this girl was having a rough time again so I invited her along with me and John (the guy from FHE). We walked though what is in the center of my city "Lennon square" It was too dark to get a picture with the statue, but not far from there was this fountain which he said has actual water during the spring not just lights. 

It was really fun to get to know someone who was a native, well kinda he's from Congo, but has been here for three years. 

Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday all kinda blend together. The overall feeling from this week has been really great! I finally feel like I know how to teach the kids. It has been so crazy cause we are missing some teachers, but my cousin Tristan will soon join me! YAY! 

this is us by some dog statue, that is in the middle of this random quart yard, yeah so obviously we had to take a picture of it:) 

I am growing to love being in a new city, and trying to figure out where I am. Friday  was really fun I went and saw the college that is here, and met all these foreign kids from khakastain, japan, China, Ukraine, even Moldova. I watched as they played soccer against each other it was really fun to watch, and to see non russians:).  Saturday I went and helped clean the church then got some food at this really common sidewalk store. The hamburgers are really delicious! We then went into town and walked through a market that we are defiantly going back to cause it had amazing clothes. We also went to the church after this and played volleyball with the member's, and I found someone who is just as competitive as me.

This is some random girl. I am slightly obsessed with the style of all the girls here, they all (for the most part) always wear black heel boots (my mother would fit it great), and fitted coats. This girls coat has a belt on it, which many of them wear around their coats. As you can see there is a lot of snow, go Russian woman!

this is that dog, really don't remember why he is important, but yes, there is a dog in the courtyard. 

this is such a creepy picture, but I had to put this on, I am in LOVE with the fur coats here, they are so beautiful! Every time we go into a store with them I can't not touch them! I am hoping to get some type of fur, like maybe a scarf, but seriously they are incredible!

 this is my school! Yay! 

Lindsay Ashley and I were walking one day and stumbled upon this cafe, it was so great cause these little pizza things were just like the pizza roll things you just zap in the microwave, I was in love! I am still on the hunt for some good french fries, I am in desperate need of some real crispy curly fries, but I will settle for some good regular fries. :)

this magical place is right across the street from my school. It is ran by this little old lady who will fill up my water for only 6 rubles, yeah  you could say I am in love considering, It is quite the event to try to explain that I don't want carbonated water. I may say the right words, but it is crazy that someone who not want carbonated water, so I get asked questions I don't know:)

This i don't know if you can tell, but it's my socks, and gloves that are sitting on the heater, it's pretty much as crucial as brushing my teeth.

These kids are so crazy, but I am already in love with them, these two are trouble!

this seriously describes this class perfectly, one kid under the table, the chairs falling over. 

okay seriously this wasn't planned, we saw another random dog and had to get a picture with it!

It's been a really great week, I am so excited to have Trist here. I am also very excited to go to church tomorrow Linds, Ashley and I convinced these boys from Congo to come to church tomorrow, I am almost positive it was because we were american girls but thats okay:)

Miss you all lots, and love you!

Rissa

One week down... Kinda

Sorry these posts are getting longer, I seemed to have gotten here without my journal, so this is were a slightly edited version of my thought are going to go:) I have tried to separate paragraphs so if your skimming it's easier, I also don't have as many photos this time!

 It totally feels like I have been here for a week but it has only been 4 days... geez. If you read my last blog post you will know the trip over here was far from fun, I think that may be a big part in why the transition has been hard. It was made a ton easier when I got to go to the school where I will be teaching on Friday. We got to walk around, see the supplies they have, and meet the owners of the school. It was relieving to finally see the school, and feel like my 5 months will finally have started. We received our assignments for our grades and I am teaching along side the girl I traveled with (yeah). Luckily I am assigned a very fun age of kids 4-8, or "Kindergarten" as the school groups it.We have to plan lessons for each day, there are 6 different categories of lessons. We are short teachers so when we would usually only have to teach, plan, and make props for 2 categories, we now both are teaching 3, okay sure I can do that. BUT.. then I was informed that I am going to have to to teach another 2 groups of kids. It is going to be a little crazy here in Russia till we can get some more teachers over here.


For the past couple of days I have had Jane taking me to and from the school every day, but yesterday I called her informing her I could come home by myself. After completing this task, I finally felt a little independence yay! The only issue is that to ride the bus I need to have 11 Robles, which are about the size of a quarter and a nickel, I don't buy a lot of things so I don't have the change. I also don't speak Russian or as I like to tell the locals " mu-y Roo-ski ploe-ha" ( my Russian is bad) so it's not like I could just ask for change, and the Russians seem very stingy about giving people large amounts of change.
Yesterday while we were in the supermarket I needed to get change so I could ride the bus, I bought a water and some chocolate (the essentials) and headed to the cash register with my 500 bill (which is only about $15) with around 100 Robles worth of merchandise. Luckily my head teacher who speaks more Russian was there when the lady at the counter started talking fast at me and pointing to her register, my head teacher informed me she would pay for my stuff because the lady did not have change for a 500 bill GEEZ! I was told before I came that Russians were aggressive people, but they keep just seeming quite angry (maybe because they NEVER smile).
 It hasn't snowed while I have been here but the whole ground is about 8 inches of packed dirty snow it is weird to see cement:)
I also called the Elders yesterday, and they are sending a sister to come pick us up for church tomorrow at one of the bus stops. This is totally great, and I am sure ill be able to figure out which bus stop (because we are meeting by the McDonalds) but I don't have any CHANGE!! So I am going to have to go attempt to buy something this morning to find change. I am hoping my host family may have a better Idea for me to get more change.
Speaking of my Host family, they are really great. The youngest one follows me around, and begs to play on my phone (which just makes me feel at home). The older one is very great as well, it is interesting seeing that she plays the role of mother a lot because her mom works everyday. She cleans, takes the younger one to gymnastics, and makes the food.

We went to church, meeting up with the sister went great, church was interesting to say the least. We arrived and were greeted by the branch president who knew exactly who I was because my father had contacted him before I left, the other girls were very surprised that he knew who I was (go dad)! We followed the Senior couple up the grand stairs to the meeting, it was very small maybe 100 people but there were many faces that were not Russian. There were 5 elders, and 4 sisters there and they all came over and talked with us. Elder Taylor (I think was his name) was going to translate for us, and he did a very good job, well it was entertaining. One lady made her way up and I could hear him sigh into the microphone, then she started to speak and he tried very hard to translate, but then informed us that she speaks really fast and he couldn't understand. As one man was walking up our translator said " okay so this guy is Armenian, he has a strong accent ill try my best". Despite his doubt the translator did great with the Armenian.

(This is the church, gorgeous right?) Next a little girl came up and he told us how cute she was, that she was his favorite little girl in the ward. He was an awesome translator, it was nice to have someone who was easy to understand. We had an interesting testimony that was born (I don;t think that is the right spelling of born.)  from one of the girls that was with us, that thankfully was over looked after the guy after her got up and sang a song for his testimony.  The Elder also translated for me in Sunday school (you think I would remember his name) and was really good at trying to get the meaning across not just the words.  We headed to relief society, which had many babushkas (or grandmas) who were very feisty, and fun to listen to.

I then I had to meet some girls in my group for some planning, I knew the direction of where I was supposed to go, and we were meeting at the golden arches (mcdonalds) so instead of taking the bus I walked. It was so great!

 I found a really cool park, and this vedor that had delicious food. I also just felt as though I was a local (this need for local feel must come from my father). I knew where I was going, I was starting to figure out the city (or just the 2 mile straight stretch to my school from my house). It was a really good weekend.


I also got to Face-Time some of my favorite people tonight! I hope to face time my family later tonight because they are still at church!

 I can never catch them staying still!:)

these pictures are for Gav, he gave me a Flat Stanely before I left. Here is stanely sleeping in my bed, with my silk pillow case. And then stanely is playing Badminton which we play a rough version of in the living room:) 

p.s. Super sad about missing the Super Bowl, the family I am with does not get the channel for it, and the Fox streaming website won't stream to Russia. I am hoping to get some what of live score updates, but we will see. But of course my team knows Ill be cheering all the way over here. Visualizing the win, that's what it takes right? Go Broncos!

I love you all! Thanks for the Love and support in being in Russia!