Stories...

Hello, Everyone!

I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I'd fill you in on a few things and share some more pictures!  It has just been business as usual here.  Eat, sleep, teach, and so on.  But we have started planning our vacations, and that has been really exciting.  I think the first place we are going to visit is Moscow, and then we'll start heading out of the country some weekends after that!

I only have a few random stories to share, but here they are!
Story number one! Remember how I said that overall people here seem to not mind us too much? Well, maybe I was wrong about that... The other day a few teachers and I were walking home from school and were, of course, speaking English.  We have started to get more comfortable here so maybe we were being a little loud or something.  When we reached the end of the cross walk, a guy turned around and gave us a death glare (Like, "Go back to your own stupid country" glare) and spit right in front of us where we were about to step on the sidewalk.  We were all taken aback because all we were doing was talking!  In the heat of the moment, one of the teachers softly says, "Well up yours, Buddy..." and he kept walking and gave us the finger.  We probably should have been more scared, but at the time we thought it was kind of funny.  We didn't know what to do, so we laughed.  But really, what do you want us to do, apologize for speaking English?

Story number 2!  Last night was Kristin's 25th birthday, so we went downtown to have dinner.  We all got dolled up just for fun and had a sleepover afterwards.  Some of the girls put on bright red lipstick just for the heck of it (mine was bright pink).  While we were downtown, we noticed we were getting A LOT of stares, and some glares.  I jokingly mentioned that maybe having on red lipstick means you're a hooker.  We laughed....but, maybe it does...haha.

Story number 3!  I was walking home one day from one of my levels classes and was carrying the  Jenga game.  I decided I wanted to stop by the store, but the game didn't fit in my backpack.  So, I decided I would just carry it in with me.  Well, I get up to the line to pay and I drop a coin on the floor.  Now, there is no top on the Jenga can, so when I bent over to pick up the coin the Jenga pieces fell everywhere!  I looked like such a dope!  This girl passed me in line because I was taking to long to pick up the pieces...thanks for the help, Lady!

Also, one of the ladies that works at the kindergarten taught me a Russian game!  I'm totally memorizing it and playing it with Kian and Ella when I get home!

Now for the pictures!

Gates on our way to the park

Masha

Masha and Radion

Andrei

Masha

Masha and Radion

Cute Radion

Masha

Jenny and Varya playing a game

Elephant at the park

Cute Taime

Cute Michael

Varya and Jenny (they put makeup on me!)

Cheese!  Jenny didn't want to smile!

Andrei

Me and Nadia (One of the women who works at the kindergarten)

Andrei and I found 33 acorns!

I tricked him into looking into the camera!  He started cracking up after this.

"Spaceman-walking" to their seats

Andrei and Katya

Goofs!

Michael

Silly teacher "Bratt" (that's what they call him)

Taime pointing at something outside

Bowling!

Taime

Fixing the pins

Michael

Katya

Andrei

Nevsky Prospekt

Someone intentionally photo-bombed...cough, cough *Caitlin* cough

All lit up at night

Entryway of one of the buildings

A tea shop

The bottom (couldn't get a whole photo!)

Random art

Caitlin looking intently at the menu haha

Until next time! 

-XOXO ~Keeley

Church

Church was interesting, as I expected!  Our ward meets in a building about 30 minutes away, and our ward is very small!  There are two sets of missionaries, one is an older couple, and they are all from Utah!  It is really nice to have people to communicate with easily!  There are also a couple of people besides the missionaries who speak Russian and a good amount of English that help us out during classes.  We have a woman in Relief Society that sits behind us and translates, which I have to admit was a tad awkward at first! But I am grateful for the help!  The church is still pretty new in Russia so our ward is different than what I'm used to back home.  But it's sweet so see people living the gospel and trying their hardest in a place where it's not very common.  One funny thing happened during Sacrament Meeting.  We have little walkie-talkie type  radios that have headphones so we can hear the missionaries translate for us, and mine all the sudden wigged out!  It started blaring  incredibly loudly with the awful sound!  It was so loud a couple of people two rows ahead of me turned around and started to giggle.  I think the missionary accidentally hit a button in his microphone because my friends heard him say "Whoops!" Haha!  Church was interesting, but I'm excited to learn some hymns in Russian!  We also saw this awesome church on our way, and I of course, had to take a picture of it.  Here's some photos from our Sunday!

-XOXO ~Keeley