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:)