BONUS POST!!!!

Are you shocked? Are you amazed? Yes I know...you can't believe that I am actually posting twice in one day. It really is quite a miracle. As I was going through the folder of photos on my good friend Janell's laptop, I found some funny photos that I had almost forgotten about. So, for those of you who check my blog, you are about to laugh your head off at some rare, never before seen footage of us in our apartment. Try not to pee your pants while viewing these. (I tried to post the videos...but it just wouldn't work. Maybe next time. For now...satisfy yourself with pictures).
Just so you know, these clothes DO NOT belong to any of us. We found them when we moved in. They were stowed in a giant laundry bag on top of one of our dressers, and we forgot about them for a while. When we rediscovered them, this is what happened. From there we proceeded to use them as paint clothes for the children, cutting them up to make bandages for a pretend game of doctor with the kids, and other such fun things.







My favorite one is the third one down. Remind anybody of my youth? Ah yes...the nerd that I used to be. Someone find a picture from when I was twelve or thirteen so I could put it up next to these ones...makes me laugh.

Moscow...At Night (similar to Celebrity Houses...At Night)

In writing about St. Petes, I neglected an important part in the chain of events. On Friday night we had a train that left at one o'clock in the morning, so we had a whole night to kill in Moscow. What did we do? We hit up Krasni Bloshit (yes that IS really what it's called) (and for those of you tuning in from the states that would be Red Square) . It was incredible. The pictures absolutely do not do it justice. I don't have the right kind of camera for taking pictures at night, but I hope you can catch a glimpse of how amazing it was. The only bad part about that experience, was that someone forgot to tell us that Red Square is a very popular place for people to go and get drunk, High, and in some cases both, so we had a few interesting run-ins with random people on the streets. These situations were made even funnier by the fact that, OH, we don't speak Russian. It was still really fun thought. Afterwards we went to Sbarros and got a piece of pizze. Yum. Then to the F-NASTY train station to wait till one so we could head to St. Petes. That's my story.
Tune in next time for: Helsinki - Take One


This is the building that runs the full length of the square. It's really just a huge intense shopping mall that I wish I could afford, but it looks awesome at night.


If you were wondering what Russian police cars look like, wonder no more! For I have a photo, with the wonderful St. Basil's cathedral in the background.


Most amazing cathedral of my life. SO beautiful. Wish these photos could do it justice.


That big building again. Trying to show you how long it is! See?


Me in front of the building. If you pull this picture up bigger (which I don't recommend) then you will see that it was pretty windy that day. I felt the chill.

St Petersburg

I am really behind on everything...so I am slowly going to update you all on the goings on the big trip. For those of you who don't email me, I went on a week and a half long trip to St. Petersburg, Helsinki, Stockholm, Latvia and Estonia. We literally have thousands of pictures from this trip, so I am going to slowly put them here. Obviously not all of the, but some of the better ones.

First off...St. Petes. Really not a ton to tell here. We saw a bunch of cathedrals...went to the hermitage (didn't go inside...saving that for the next trip) went and saw the movie SLumdog Millionaire in Russian...and then wandered around some more. All in all, a very eventful day! We enjoyed ourselves. The headmistress of our school has a daugher named Genia, and she came on this little soujourn (spell check) with us.

This has taken a lot longer than you could possibly imagine...SO I am done for now. Enjoy. More is coming later. (Thanks to all the people who have been pestering me to update this thing...mostly mom, jennie and rick...and amy).


Not having showered for a few days...



St. Isaac's Cathedral



See the statue...BE the statue (inside of ST. Isaac's).


Church of the Ressurection

Russian Movie Theatre

Chocolate Musuem (just a tourist trap...really it was a store...not a museum)

Starlite, starbrite, I want a hamburger.

So on monday we went to a folk dancing concert full of small children, and it was fabulous. There were lots of little girls AND boys dancing, and they were precious.

BUT what brings me to this blog today, is love. True love. That precious arrangement of meat, bun and cheese that comes together to form a cheeseburger. We went to the Starlite Diner, and partook of the wonderful American food that was a cheeseburger, fries and a coke. Delicious. Nothing could have satisfied me more.

While I was there I used the restroom *(hey it was free...take that while you can), and in the hallway they had pictures up of all the celebrities that have eaten at their diner. And there I saw Kirilenko. Just hanging on the wall, chunkin the deuces (sideways peace sign for those of you unfamiliar with that phrase). So of course I HAD to get a picture with him. I mean how often do you eat in the same American diner in moscow that Kirilenko has eaten at? I tried to act cool for the full effect...

*Most places here you have to pay money to pee. And it makes me think of that movie Bridge to Teribithia...there is a line in there where the girl starts chanting "free to pee, free to pee" and one time we were at the store, and my little sister Cat starting chanting that. And it was really funny. I too believe that everybody, everywhere should be 'free to pee'.

You wish you were me...oh wait...

Once upon a time...I was in Russia. We get bored a lot...
We went on a walk and made snow angels. There is a lot of snow here. We made food at our native coordinators apartment. Yum. And the other two pictures are just...strange. Go with it.

I hope you all still love me.

Wow I'm a Slacker

Why Hello!

To the few people who actually follow my blog, I want to apologize for the EXTREME amount of time it has taken for me to get another post on here. Lots of things have happened...and I forgot to share with you wonderful people. So relax, get comfortable, and get ready to hear about all that has happened since Red Square. (It's not really that much...but there are a few pictures to sit through...so just bear with me). (ALSO: how do you put videos on here?)

First off is the russian ballet. DISCLAIMER: I have NEVER enjoyed ballet. I sat through it for the sake of my sisters (and because my mom used to make me). That said, I want everyone to know that I absolutely fell in love with ballet! I have never been to see a proffessional ballet before, and I can now fully appreciate how amazing it is. I mean...it was truly beautiful. The saddest part about all of it is that the Bolshoi Theater is going through construction and updates, so it's closed. We were at an alternate theater...but it was still amazing. We couldn't take pictures during the performance (obviously) so I just have a few of the inside of the theater. Also, in the picture of me I look horrible. Just go with it. I had just run through a bunch of metros...up and down plenty of escalators, and through snow, ice, and puddles of slush to get to this ballet before it started; all in high heeled brown boots. Yeah. It was rough, but I managed to perservere (spell check?). Overall, it was a wonderful evening. Until we had to find a way home. Oh yes, this is quite the story. All of the other schools who went had a bus from their school come to pick them up at the closest metro stop. Us? Not so much. We went to Molodoshnya (our normal metro stop where we catch the bus home) and it was too late for the bus to be running. Gulya (our native coordinator) just told us to get a cab. Um yeah... NO! They are so sketchy, and we don't speak Russian, and we are not ok with being sex slaves. So that was out. We ended up having to call a cab from Gorky 2 (near where we leave) and he had to drive all the way there, and then back. It cost us about 1200 rubles (not too bad) but then when we got there the GATE WAS LOCKED and THE GUARD DOG WAS OUT. Awesome. We ended up having to call a bunch of people, and interupt either sleep or valentine's day activites. Dima (some younger guy from the school) showed up with his girlfriend and she was SUPER ticked, and did not hesitate to let it all out in her wonderfully perfect english. What a good night, eh? It really was quite fun. Oh I forgot to mention that two people had so stay in the city for the night at a different school's apartment because there wasn't room in the cab for five of us. They slept on pool toys. What troopers!

Mollie and Brooke at the ballet.

Nasty picture that proves I was at the ballet.

Alrighty. Another thing occured on the same day that deserves mentioning: Brooke's boyfriend send her a huge boquet of roses, and they were beautiful and we were all jealous. So, the next day being Valentine's Day, we awoke to find a single rose for each of us, and a chocolate heart! It was a beautiful thing. (Thanks Brooke and Janelle!)

Second: One day we decided to try and find Gorky Park...only we didn't get off at the correct metro stop, so awesome. We were lost. It was fun. We found a random mall thing...and we walked into a book store so I could look for a journal, and there were porn books in there. Whoops, wrong store. Anyway...this is a picture of the escalators. Exciting, I know.

So the mall madness was on a saturday, then there was sunday and church and many spiritual happenings (Brooke and Janelle both got called to the primary), and then on Monday we went and found the REAL Gorky park. There is an ice skating rink, and roller coasters, and all sorts of other fun things, and we are going back when it gets warm so we can do the amusement park. We had to cross a bridge to get from the metro station to the park, and the river was so beautiful! We didn't end up going into Gorky park, but we went across the street to this cool statue park, and had a lot of fun there. And then we went looking for a Starlite Diner that is in Moscow, and we couldn't find it, so we ate at this place called My-My (pronounced Moo-Moo) and YES it does have the theme you are thinking of. It was great! We had to get our food by pointing and grunting, and people were laughing at us. Ahhh...what a wonderful experience. Even the chairs were cow themed.
Anyway, here are some pictures of that adventure.

Some of them are a bit strange...but just go with it.

Last, but certainly not least, is PANCAKE DAY! Most wonderful celebration ever. We all had a blast...and there are better pictures on someone elses camera, but this is what I have that works. So enjoy. We had pancakes, and there was music and dancing, and clowns(?), and the burning of the scarecrow. All in all it was quite exciting. We had a lot of fun.

Just remember: It's not over till the fat lady sings. And it doesn't look like she's in a very singing mood, so I think it will be a while before it's over; (Whatever "IT" is). This is a picture of a teacher at the school that we love. She is always smiling at us, and waving, and saying things we can't understand. Lovely picture of her though. Everyone else is dancing and eating pancakes, and she was just chillin on the porch.

Red Square...for real this time!

We actually made it to Red Square! And it was quite an amazing sight. Saint Basils was everything I dreamed it would be, Lenin was at his creepiest, and we saw a large group of Communist supporters! All in all it was a very good trip. Not too freezing at all, which was nice. It's always a good day when you can go outside for more than five minutes without fingers or face freezing.

This is the building that runs most of the length of Red Square, and it is just giant shopping mall.

Lenin's tomb. Dark, creepy, and around every corner is young baby guard with a fur hat and a beating stick. They freak me out. But Lenin was so cool/creepy/weird. Really...I'm so glad we went and saw it/him. Weird fact about his body...his left hand was laid out flat, but his right hand was partially curled almost into a fist. Weird.

Alley between the shopping mall and the building being remodeled. There were so many people getting married all over Red Square! Apparently Saturday is "marriage" day, and that is when most everyone gets married. All the poor brides looked so cold and miserable.

Ice Skating rink on Red Square. We might go there sometime.

St. Basil's Cathedral. Most beautiful place I have ever seen. When I walked up the hill towards Lenin's tomb, this building slowly came into view, and I was speechless! It is such and amazing place. I fell in love.

Us being funny. Kinda...

This picture is of the Communist supporters that were leaving Red Square right when we were. (This picture is for you Marc).