I never thought of how an elephant feels as you sit and watch every move it makes. Whether it is doing something as simple as eating or walking back and forth. Now I do. No matter where we are or what we are doing it seems I have a sign that says, "Hello, I'm American" written on my back.
Oh boy, adventures come in every direction. I have always taken for granted churches being on every corner of the street. Always in walking distance. I remember, one summer, visiting my Aunt Marcie in california and we had to drive thirty minutes to go to church. I was shocked. Now we must leave our apartments at ten to reach our church house by noon. Riding the metro is never boring, however. There are interesting people in every direction. For instance, yesterday I sat and watched in complete awe as this fine gentleman stood in front of the sliding doors and had a complete conversation with his reflection. Not all people are crazy though, no no no. On the contrary actually. Contrary to popular belief the people here are quite normal. Yes, you get your few cranksters here and there that yell at you for this and that, but luckily the yelling sounds just like the talking so you smile and walk away.
Church was really fun. We went to the international ward so everything was in English. It was quite strange at first, because I am so used to trying to speak any words possible in Russian and not being able to understand a thing. Here everyone spoke English and it felt like I brought a little piece of home with me. The missionary couple came to meet us at the metro stop and we all headed toward our church. Never thought I would be so cold in my life. It's a nice little walk passed a lot of old red brick buildings that use to be hospitals in the time of the Soviet Union. Every building here has a story and I love it. Our bishop is from Germany and is so funny. For some reason he can take the simplest thing and make you laugh. I wasn't even upset when he was still talking and I saw the big hand pass the 12 saying that it was time to go home. We journeyed back to our deserted school that would be filled with children running to where ever we were going in the morning.
We woke up the next morning in the dark of course (the sun doesn't come up until about 9:30 in the morning). We went down to breakfast and were starving. Our cooks actually leave, along with everyone else during the weekend. So we are left with food from the school's owner's farm. Surprisingly this has been delicious. They leave us lots of fresh fruit, homemade pasta and all sorts of other things. But this morning, it was different. We walked down the four flights of floors to the main level, down the hallway to the front. Said доброе утро to Peter (our guard that never seems to sleep) and ran down the next two flights of stairs to the cafeteria. Everything was pitch black, which we learned is typical for our school. Lights are never turned on unless you can absolutely not see. Lucky for me I brought my handy dandy head lamp.
There on the table in front us, was the cutest little breakfast I had ever seen. Our cute chef Leena brought in a fancy porcelain pot filled with delicious porridge/ oatmeal/ yumminess. We sat down to eat our mini french toast like patties topped with jam or something that tasted like condensed sweetened milk. We ate everything on our plates. It was divine.
After breakfast we gathered our supplies we brought for the school and began the layering process. My pants felt a bit tighter, but I blamed that on the two layers of leggings I was wearing underneath. Definitely had nothing to do with the pastries we had been eating two at a time. Looking like we were headed for a week long trip through the tundra, we set off for the journey to our school. On the way we stood and waited for the other girls to catch up. Mindy turned to look at me and suddenly broke out in laughter. Thinking I had a frozen booger now resembling an icicle coming out of my nose or something I began to brush my face off. She finally got enough composer to tell me my hair was a lovely shade of white. It had frozen. That is how cold it was outside. My hair was not even wet. With a quick picture and some more giggles we hurried to our school.
We put on our little booties that are in the front of every building and trekked through the building to our little supply room. We spent the next few hours discussing school supplies and planning our activities. I can't believe we begin teaching tomorrow! After that we ran back to the cafeteria fearing that us being late would be extremely offensive. We ran down stairs in a fluster and got some more delicious food. This time we were not alone in the cafeteria. We finally were able to see all the students and teachers. It was so interesting. The boys were dressed to impress with what looked like top $ suits and the girls in stilettos.
After lunch we were off to the mini bus once more. We were meeting the other groups in the metro to find the university where we will be teaching once a week. Scary right? I was scared enough to teach six year olds, lets just times that by 4 and add a whole bunch of smartness to it. The director at the university was so kind. We learned a lot about the city and places to shop! After a long, and I mean long wait at the store that sold hair dryers and straighteners, we were on our way home. What can you expect from a group of over sixteen girls? We finally made it back to our metro stop and made a quick stop at the grocery store. We found it easy enough and found some treats for the journey home. We began to walk to our bus stop and after a few minutes realized we had no idea where it was. Sarah tried asking a babushka while we sat and froze in the icy night air. After lots of walking back and forth and tracing our steps we finally arrived. Seeing our school had never been such a pleasant sight.
Today is our first day that we will actually be staying at our school all night. Gulia is coming to show us our classrooms and then we are planning, planning , planning. Tomorrow I become an official teacher! Wahoo.
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