The Childrens

We started teaching this week. And it has been great! The kids are just so adorable, and so sweet. Well...for the most part. They have their days...and certain kids are just brats/punks. There is no getting around that, haha but really I am quite enjoying myself.
One of the funniest things about the kids, is that when they go outside for recess, they have to completely change their clothes, and put on an entire new outfit; every time they want to go outside! It's so funny!
There are some picture posted of what the kids end up looking like. And trust me, there is a very intense, very specific process to getting them dressed. We are technically supposed to be helping the teachers dress the kids for outside, but after the first day we weren't doing it to their exact specifications, so they asked us to stop. So we just play with them outside when they are done.

The girl on the right has my favorite outfit of all the kids. CUTE! She looks like a little snowboarder.

This is Kolya. He is one of my kids, and he can be quite a handful, but he tries to stay on my good graces by just giving me a hug. He's funny.

This is Sasha! She is in my prelanguage class, and she has so much personality! Sometimes it's a little hard to control, but overall I just love this little girl.

This is Fidan. Her older sister is in the program too, and they look EXACTLY alike. Also, I think she might be my favorite prelanguage kid. She is so fun! And smart.

THIS is Egor. He is one of the smartest kids. But whenever he gets mad he will stand on a chair and scream at you, and it makes me wonder what his father is like...scary...but I love this kid. I hope that you can all kind of see his mullet going on. It's great.

This is Donya. I have a very huge fear that this kid will break my heart when I come back to the U.S. He is super smart, and has the cutest little voice and accent, and he has the most heart-breaking half smile i have ever seen. I want to take him home with me SO bad. He is the biggest punk when he is with Egor, but away from him he is the smoothest little charmer. This kid my FAVORITE here. Also Donya has a small round little mullet going on...you can't see it in this picture very well though.

Red Square...or not

Yesterday at dinner we were told that today was supposed to be a lot colder than it has been. All of us were just thinking "okay...awesome" and that was all. But when they say it's going to be colder, they mean its GOING TO BE COLDER. I mean seriously, it was so freaking cold today! The second you walk out of any building anything that isn't completely covered in multiple layers, freezes instantly. It was interesting. This morning we had to walk to our bus stop (about ten minutes from our house) and then it was about a half an hour ride to the Metro where we were meeting Gulya and the other Moscow groups. When we got on the bus we could tell it was a lot warmer because our breath only lingered for about two seconds instead of ten or twenty (I'm really not exaggerating about this).
Then we spent the day figuring out the Moscow Metro system! It really is quite simply. I mean, I can't read any of the signs, or any of the instructions, but luckily every line has a color and a number, and THOSE I can totally read. Another strange thing about the Metro is that every station is totally decked out, and kinda classy looking. One had chandeliers all over the ceiling, and ionic benches next to the pillars. Another had cool wrought iron benches and decorations that looked like plants. I wish I had taken pictures of these, but really...my hands were way to cold to take out of the gloves and use a camera.
We finally got to Red square, only to find out that we weren't going to be let in because there was some governmental ceremony going on and it was closed off. But I guess seeing the back of the Kremlin is almost as cool :) haha so we took pictures of that, and after taking a few I literally could not feel any of my fingers anymore. I really hope all of the pictures convey how truely freezing it was there.

This is us waiting at the bus station. It was SO COLD.

Russian McDonalds :)

Russian guard outside the Kremlin. This is how most of the guards and policemen dress. The hat is very Russian All the men seem to wearing them...although civilians don't have a badge on theirs. Of course. That is the Kremlin in the background, and that is as close as we got.

This is me outside some building in the courtyard outside of back of the Kremlin. Don't really know what is is...but it looks cool.

Freezing anyone? Yes, it was that cold.

Me OUTSIDE the Kremlin, not being able to feel my fingers.

This is the one of the cool stations! Isn't it fancy looking? Not what you would expect from the entrance...pigeons and skeezy looking stalls everywhere. One little booth had on wall full of condoms, and the same booth had a wall of cigarettes, and another of alcohol. Awesome.

The guards not letting us pass...and some sort of ceremony of flags and vodka going on in the background. Too bad really...I was really looking forward to Red Square. It was a still good though, albeit a little freezing.

On our way home from Moscow, we were sitting on the bus and this old man in front of me and Mollie kept turning around and looking at us. He seemed nice enough, and his whole row of top teeth was gold (I have already seen three or four people with gold teeth...weird). Anyway, eventually he started to talk to us in Russian, and kept gesturing, and he just kept on going, like eventually we would catch on or something. Haha we felt so stupid. Turns out some random guy on the bus could speak english, but he only stayed on the bus long enough for us to figure out that he was telling us that he spent a year in Cuba as a guard to Fidel Castro. What? I don't know. Haha my vote is that he was just a crazy Russian man. I tried to get a picture of him, but he got off the bus too fast.
And that was our exciting day. Red Square...almost. Grocery shopping. And then a fun ride home with a crazy Russian guy. Lovely!

So we made it. We are here...safe and sound. And surprisingly in a very nice apartment. We got to the airport around four o'clock, and then drove to our apartments in a wonderful little van/bus thing that had no seatbelts. None of us are really sure how long of a drive it was because we were all basically asleep. Once we got here, we looked around at our apartment, and then went straight to bed. An eight o'clock bedtime actually isn't too bad, and since we got up at 5:30 we have just been relaxing. I got everything unpacked...so did Mollie. Now we are just waiting till 9:30 when we are supposed to meet our bus driver man outside our front gate and go meet Gulya (our native coordinator).
I can't even explain how pretty it is here. I am loving it!

This is the view out our bedroom window, and to the right.

This is the view straight our our window. That white-ish building in the distance is our school...the one with a bunch of chimnees. And we have these awesome 'princess' windows that open inwards and the sill is really big, so it's easy to sit on.

This is my Bed.

This is Mollie's bed.

Our awesome blue kitchen. The best part about it is that the far left cupboard that you can see there is the dishwasher. It is just designed to blend in with the other cupboards! The downside is that the water tastes and smells like sulfur...so we have to either boil everything, or drink water with the purifier in the fridge. Another upside though is the awesome cheese that we have! It comes in a giant ball...bigger than a softball, but much smaller than a basketball, it has a weird smell, but it tastes really good! We have already eaten half of it.

This...obviously...is Mollie modeling the bathtub. Notice there is no shower head. Just a handheld one. A little awkard...but its okay as long as we don't get water on the floor. Apparently it's a big "no-no" to put a towel on the floor.

And this is what Moscow looks like. This is us sitting in our van right across from the Metro.

I will have more pictures tomorrow! We are going to Red Square in the morning.