Sunday, June 14, 2009
Randoms
We are freaking awesome...in the back eighties...Russia ROCKS!!!!!
Russian Flag in our camp
Russian Colors are out for Russia Day
Mr. Lenin and the CCCR
OK, I can't believe I forgot to write about the CIRCUS!!!!! It was so fun and super cheap...lions, tigers and no bears unfortunately, but there was a cheetah!!!! There were so many cool acts...one of the guys that was like running on a rat wheel thing that was swinging around was seriously tripping up and I thought I was going to watch him die. A lot of the acts were geared towards men...enough said.
One of the statues in the park of fallen political statues...Lots of lenins there and soviet union
So this is in front of the red square...all proletariats of the world unite!
This is when we met that random kid Alexander who took us to the palace because we were laughing at the ridiculous photo that we got of me unfortunately because of the wind.
Wisdom from the Beatles: All you need is love
Ok guys, I know. I’m a slacker and haven’t kept anyone updated for 3 weeks…so I’ll try and get the highlights. And also before I forget, HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA!!!!
So starting from this weekend. It was my first time out of the city. I went camping the church which turned out to be quite the experience. I think I felt true culture shock in Russia for the first time. It was quite the adventure walking through a small town and then poison ivy along the river to get to our camp site ;) I finally learned the word for “poison” in Russian because everyone kept explaining that I would regret walking through the bushes with shorts on because they were poisonous and then I would try and explain that I didn’t have pants to change into. Well, besides my super itchy legs and the billion gazillion bug bites that I got this weekend, this was probably my favorite experience. The land was absolutely beautiful. I loved looking at something besides the tall buildings. The forests here are a lot like Oregon. So I had my first soccer experience playing barefoot in a field of super tall grass and it was a blast. While I was flying to Russia, I read a travel article about how we should let our feet “experience our travels” and, well, my feet definitely had their own experience during the game :) We just played around and sang songs. Their music is incredible and it is so rich with history. One of the songs they sang was the CCCR anthem. It was kind of eerie hearing that song while sitting in Russia and thinking about how recent that history is. We slept under the stars last night, and all I could think about was how much life has to offer. I never could have imagined seeing the sights that I saw this weekend. So this morning, after waking up and realizing I slept on an ant hill (half of which I pretty much took home with me in my backpack) we ate and I left early with three other students from our group. One of them had hurt their ankle during Frisbee, so we took a different way that was on like this back road way instead of walking in the marshy land. I am so glad that I got to see that way. The whole time I kept thinking about Everything’s Illuminated- I know, it’s the Ukraine, but it was really similar. I feel like I finally saw “Russia.” We passed this huge open field with the wind blowing and walked along a narrow muddy road next to the river and crossed a pretty sketch bridge that was long and swung a couple feet back and forth when you walked on it…it was just a way fun walk. We then caught a bus to the train station, took the 1.5 hour train back to Moscow and now I am back in the city.
So my favorite part of this week was going to the hospital. OH MY GOSH I WANT TO KIDNAP THIS LITTLE GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I fell in love with this little girl Nastiya and her little squeaky angel voice. All the little kids were so fun to play with because they had a blast making fun of our Russian and talking with us…I now know what my favorite part of the week will be. These kids were from all over the country and some were even from out of the country so I am not really sure what makes the hospital so different from others because as far as I could tell, the inside was super depressing and like a sanatorium. But wow…little kids are the perfect reminder of what life’s all about :) I can’t wait to get to play with them again!
So what else…it’s kind of hard to recap about 3 weeks…So we had a delicious authentic Georgian meal this week which was delicious (p.s. I am hesitant to post pics because I’ve definitely gained weight but I will because Mykle might kill me if I don’t). Also, Chandler and I went to this newspaper to be interviewed this week which was slightly stressful because, well, it really doesn’t need to be explained-being interviewed in a foreign language ;) Anyway, one of the questions that was posed to me was “do you have a love like Anna Karenina” I kinda thought that was a question that I misinterpreted and so I looked over at the director that brought us and I was laughing. I said I don’t think I understood her, and he just laughed and said that I did. Then she asked me again if they had to worry about me jumping in front of a train while I’m here…I just laughed and reassured her that there was no such love like that in my life ;) Well, after we had a bunch of really confusing questions like the previous one, the lady finally explained the newspaper was solely devoted to reporting about good things that are going on in peoples’ lives like love and service…she was especially interested in mykle’s friend who adopted two Russian kids. The newspaper sort of supports a HUGE orphanage outside of the city and I think that I am going to try and go visit it.
On Monday we had FHE and I had to just read a scripture and pretty much read a sentence that I had written about the scripture and I just about DIED of fear!!!!!!
OK, so the rest…highlights
*Went to the zoo- fun, zoo-like, all the animals looked like they were about to die
*Met a random guy on red square who took us (don’t worry, a big group) on the metro…people started dropping off because they were afraid he was taking us somewhere sketch so the group ended up being four people in the end…but we found ourselves at Catherine the Great’s Moscow Castle and in a field that was just absolutely jaw-dropping. I could not believe how pretty it was there.
*I went to the “Banya” where they pretty much bake you until you cannot breathe any longer, then you get several cold buckets of water poured on you then you jump in ice cold water then you go back into the oven and get beat with branches…FUN!!!! We also rubbed melted chocolate all over our bodies. Mind you, all of this was done naked. The prep process for the room involved airing out the room by whipping towels around the room and waving them up and down. Let me just say, that was the first time I did squats naked (sorry for the image) and I wanted to laugh so hard because it was the strangest thing.
*I went to my first “diskoteka” and stayed up all night on red square waiting for the metro to open in the morning at 6.
*I sat in on a recording of Russian dancing with the stars which was hilarious to watch…we were in there for a ridiculously long time and it was BOILING!!!!!! Anyway, I felt pretty privileged to see Russian celebs ;) Our Russian friends had an in.
*I watched a crazy documentary about the gas chambers at Auschwitz –“Mr. Death.” –I recommend watching it.
*Finally went to park pobedy (victory park) but unfortunately there was some crazy young kids all dressed in the same sailor outfits drinking around the fountains so we were kind of wary the whole time
*Went into Christ the Savior’s cathedral----Wow. Behind the iconostasis there was a beautiful picture of the last supper that was hung around a curve so it looked like it was 3D and Christ and his apostles were truly behind there.
*Speaking of Apostles, Elder uchdorf and Anderson came to Moscow. They gave incredible talks, especially Elder Uchdorf. It was crazy hearing him talking about the history of Russia and Germany and hearing him talk about getting choked up coming into Moscow while he was a pilot and passing the landmark where the Germans entered. What a crazy history. We had a lecture this week on the economic reasons that led to the fall of the soviet union, and a really interesting point was made about the richness of the personal lives that the people had in the Soviet because there was really nothing to work for when there were absolutely no luxuries to spend any excess money on.
*Also, I was telling mom about this-The death rate is super high above the birth rate here which means that there are tons of incentives for having kids here like getting a better apartment or free transportation or lots of stuff…there are creepy happy family pictures all over the metro. I just heard this week that last year there was a national day off to procreate because it’s that bad.
Anyway, that was just super interesting to me, and very sad.
OK, so I will NOT do that again…it was hard to think back and try and remember everything that has been going on because I have just LOVED it here!!!! Moscow seriously rocks. I am loving it here.
Life is incredible…this world is incredible!!! God is real and he loves us!!!!
p.s. I found tennis courts this morning (clay courts) so expect to hear about my freaking rockin tennis experience next week ;)
I LOVE YOU ALL…I posted a bunch of random pics…
So starting from this weekend. It was my first time out of the city. I went camping the church which turned out to be quite the experience. I think I felt true culture shock in Russia for the first time. It was quite the adventure walking through a small town and then poison ivy along the river to get to our camp site ;) I finally learned the word for “poison” in Russian because everyone kept explaining that I would regret walking through the bushes with shorts on because they were poisonous and then I would try and explain that I didn’t have pants to change into. Well, besides my super itchy legs and the billion gazillion bug bites that I got this weekend, this was probably my favorite experience. The land was absolutely beautiful. I loved looking at something besides the tall buildings. The forests here are a lot like Oregon. So I had my first soccer experience playing barefoot in a field of super tall grass and it was a blast. While I was flying to Russia, I read a travel article about how we should let our feet “experience our travels” and, well, my feet definitely had their own experience during the game :) We just played around and sang songs. Their music is incredible and it is so rich with history. One of the songs they sang was the CCCR anthem. It was kind of eerie hearing that song while sitting in Russia and thinking about how recent that history is. We slept under the stars last night, and all I could think about was how much life has to offer. I never could have imagined seeing the sights that I saw this weekend. So this morning, after waking up and realizing I slept on an ant hill (half of which I pretty much took home with me in my backpack) we ate and I left early with three other students from our group. One of them had hurt their ankle during Frisbee, so we took a different way that was on like this back road way instead of walking in the marshy land. I am so glad that I got to see that way. The whole time I kept thinking about Everything’s Illuminated- I know, it’s the Ukraine, but it was really similar. I feel like I finally saw “Russia.” We passed this huge open field with the wind blowing and walked along a narrow muddy road next to the river and crossed a pretty sketch bridge that was long and swung a couple feet back and forth when you walked on it…it was just a way fun walk. We then caught a bus to the train station, took the 1.5 hour train back to Moscow and now I am back in the city.
So my favorite part of this week was going to the hospital. OH MY GOSH I WANT TO KIDNAP THIS LITTLE GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I fell in love with this little girl Nastiya and her little squeaky angel voice. All the little kids were so fun to play with because they had a blast making fun of our Russian and talking with us…I now know what my favorite part of the week will be. These kids were from all over the country and some were even from out of the country so I am not really sure what makes the hospital so different from others because as far as I could tell, the inside was super depressing and like a sanatorium. But wow…little kids are the perfect reminder of what life’s all about :) I can’t wait to get to play with them again!
So what else…it’s kind of hard to recap about 3 weeks…So we had a delicious authentic Georgian meal this week which was delicious (p.s. I am hesitant to post pics because I’ve definitely gained weight but I will because Mykle might kill me if I don’t). Also, Chandler and I went to this newspaper to be interviewed this week which was slightly stressful because, well, it really doesn’t need to be explained-being interviewed in a foreign language ;) Anyway, one of the questions that was posed to me was “do you have a love like Anna Karenina” I kinda thought that was a question that I misinterpreted and so I looked over at the director that brought us and I was laughing. I said I don’t think I understood her, and he just laughed and said that I did. Then she asked me again if they had to worry about me jumping in front of a train while I’m here…I just laughed and reassured her that there was no such love like that in my life ;) Well, after we had a bunch of really confusing questions like the previous one, the lady finally explained the newspaper was solely devoted to reporting about good things that are going on in peoples’ lives like love and service…she was especially interested in mykle’s friend who adopted two Russian kids. The newspaper sort of supports a HUGE orphanage outside of the city and I think that I am going to try and go visit it.
On Monday we had FHE and I had to just read a scripture and pretty much read a sentence that I had written about the scripture and I just about DIED of fear!!!!!!
OK, so the rest…highlights
*Went to the zoo- fun, zoo-like, all the animals looked like they were about to die
*Met a random guy on red square who took us (don’t worry, a big group) on the metro…people started dropping off because they were afraid he was taking us somewhere sketch so the group ended up being four people in the end…but we found ourselves at Catherine the Great’s Moscow Castle and in a field that was just absolutely jaw-dropping. I could not believe how pretty it was there.
*I went to the “Banya” where they pretty much bake you until you cannot breathe any longer, then you get several cold buckets of water poured on you then you jump in ice cold water then you go back into the oven and get beat with branches…FUN!!!! We also rubbed melted chocolate all over our bodies. Mind you, all of this was done naked. The prep process for the room involved airing out the room by whipping towels around the room and waving them up and down. Let me just say, that was the first time I did squats naked (sorry for the image) and I wanted to laugh so hard because it was the strangest thing.
*I went to my first “diskoteka” and stayed up all night on red square waiting for the metro to open in the morning at 6.
*I sat in on a recording of Russian dancing with the stars which was hilarious to watch…we were in there for a ridiculously long time and it was BOILING!!!!!! Anyway, I felt pretty privileged to see Russian celebs ;) Our Russian friends had an in.
*I watched a crazy documentary about the gas chambers at Auschwitz –“Mr. Death.” –I recommend watching it.
*Finally went to park pobedy (victory park) but unfortunately there was some crazy young kids all dressed in the same sailor outfits drinking around the fountains so we were kind of wary the whole time
*Went into Christ the Savior’s cathedral----Wow. Behind the iconostasis there was a beautiful picture of the last supper that was hung around a curve so it looked like it was 3D and Christ and his apostles were truly behind there.
*Speaking of Apostles, Elder uchdorf and Anderson came to Moscow. They gave incredible talks, especially Elder Uchdorf. It was crazy hearing him talking about the history of Russia and Germany and hearing him talk about getting choked up coming into Moscow while he was a pilot and passing the landmark where the Germans entered. What a crazy history. We had a lecture this week on the economic reasons that led to the fall of the soviet union, and a really interesting point was made about the richness of the personal lives that the people had in the Soviet because there was really nothing to work for when there were absolutely no luxuries to spend any excess money on.
*Also, I was telling mom about this-The death rate is super high above the birth rate here which means that there are tons of incentives for having kids here like getting a better apartment or free transportation or lots of stuff…there are creepy happy family pictures all over the metro. I just heard this week that last year there was a national day off to procreate because it’s that bad.
Anyway, that was just super interesting to me, and very sad.
OK, so I will NOT do that again…it was hard to think back and try and remember everything that has been going on because I have just LOVED it here!!!! Moscow seriously rocks. I am loving it here.
Life is incredible…this world is incredible!!! God is real and he loves us!!!!
p.s. I found tennis courts this morning (clay courts) so expect to hear about my freaking rockin tennis experience next week ;)
I LOVE YOU ALL…I posted a bunch of random pics…
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