Volva got mad at me this week... he brought his model airplane to school and he was really getting distracted by it, so I slid it to the side and he FREAKED out! He got up and yelled, "DON'T TOUCH! DON'T TOUCH!" ....wooooooah buddy. Apparently this model airplane is named "British" and British doesn't like me anymore. He (British)  is mad at me that I touched him. Volva motioned to Selina and I to be quiet and he whispered, "British is sleeping. We have to be quiet," and he tiptoed his model plane to a bookshelf to let him "sleep" and tiptoed back to his seat. For the rest of the 45 minutes, the whole class was in a whisper because British...the airplane... was sleeping. A few days later I asked Volva if British was still mad at me & he replied, "I don't know. He's in Tokyo" - ok, ok.... making progress here!! Hahahaha.


Volva got mad at me... British?? got mad at me.... and then a Russian lady got mad at me! THE RUSSIANS HATE ME!!!!! hahahha. Me and my group went down to the cafeteria to eat lunch and I was asking Chelsea some questions to help me figure out my schedule for next winter and I wasn't even being that loud (ok fine...maybe I was, I don't know! I was just talking in my opinion hahah) and one of the ladies at the lunch room stopped me and said, "Excuse me, but you are being too loud," and I said, "Oh I am very sorry-" and she stopped me again and said, "You are just too loud. I having been in lessons all day," and I said, "I'm sorry. I'll be quie-" and before I could end my sentence she starts again, "We just want to come down and eat and you are being so loud" - OKAY LADY! Hahahha I was trying to apologize, but I think thats just how Russians are. I see now why Latinos probably shouldn't come to Russia, hahahha.


Well, not all Russians hate me I suppose, hahaha, because there is one teacher at the school who is my faaaaaaaaaaaaaavorite!! I don't even know her name, but I just remember she became my favorite when we all went down to get our dinner at the school's cafeteria and a strong smell of booze was in the air. There were teachers drinking and doing karaoke and this one lady was SMASHED. She was singing at the top of her lungs and getting up to dance...she made my dinner enjoyable :) They saw us watching them, so one came up to us and tried offering us a bottle of alcohol, but we politely declined. Russians think we are strange because we don't drink or go to the "disco", haha. Ever since that night, every time my favorite would see us, she'd walk past and would say the same thing to us, "Good morning! Good day! Good evening!" no matter what time of day it was. I like her!


JUNE 21st IS MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY IN RUSSIA!! hahahahha. This is what happens: first, all week you get pancakes! There are picnics all the time! Second, they believe that this is the time when witches go out flying naked on their broom sticks (why naked? I don't know. Also, I guess this day is like their version of "Halloween") - on the weekend, you can find out your fortune. Girls like to go to a place they have never been before and say "I'm in a new place and I want to see my husband" and "their husband will be shown unto them". Another way, you can pick a book - have one person tell you the page and line number and whatever it says is your fortune. But to really know your fortune, this is your best bet - get chickens in your house and if they get along, you will have a good life. If they fight, you will have misfortunes and a hard life. Third, young people will jump over fires! Fourth, they encourage the elderly to be sexually active on this day on the ground so the ground will be good and fertile. This is just the most random holiday! YEAH, GO RUSSIA!!! WOOOOOO!!! Now my fellow Americans, let us take upon this tradition! Remember June 21st, 2012!

A little about my school...

Let me tell you about a kid named Volva. He is 8 years old and he is wicked smart! He already knows how to talk, read, and spell in English. Of course, it's not perfect. He just needs practice, but for his age, he rocks at English! He is seriously my favorite!!! I remember when I walked into class, he said I could only stay if I paid him $15 USD and another time, I was like, "Hey Volva!" and he squealed, "No! I'm WHITNEY HUDSON!" and he started singing, "and I will always looooooove youuuuuu" - so I joined him and we had a pretty awesome duet going on there. I'll never forget when I walked into one of the lssons and he was the only kid who showed up for class that day, so Selina (one of my girls whose teaching) was just staring at Volva and he was up at the chalkboard and I was like what the??? and Selina said, "Right now he's reciting word for word the airplane procedures and safety regulations," so I sat in and listened. It was seriously word.for.word. The kids we teach are sooo cute (they didn't start off that way at first though! they were HORRIBLE and so I emphasised discipline to my teachers and now they are WAY better...thats right, laying down the LAW BABY! hahaha). They are between the ages of 4-8. I think little Gleb is in love with me...everytime he sees me, he attacks me and starts like... making out with my cheek and doesn't let go until someone pulls him off me!!!!

So it had been 3 weeks and we have been FINALLY shown our kitchen, where to do our laundry, and where to put our trash. Also, trash had been building up in our rooms and I've been asking Svetta (the babe/model I work with here at the school) over and over and over again what to do with our trash and she just kept telling me, "I don't know. I will find out,". I even tried finding some sort of dumpster outside, but nothing. It was a problem...especially the first week we got here. The school gave us raw chicken for the weekend and I tried telling them that we didn't want it because we didn't have a kitchen to cook it in nor did we have a fridge to put it in, but they didn't understand. The cafeteria ladies don't speak a lick of English and Svetta (my translator) left to go home for the weekend. It started smelling in our room, so I threw it in a waste basket and put it in the hall, BUT THEN the hall started smelling and I thought, "OH MAN!!! What the heck do I do with this chicken???!", so I went to a different floor of the school (we live in dorms at the school) that wasn't occupied and left it up there. I would just dispose it when they will finally show me where to put my trash. Well, then the day came and I tried retriving the spoiling chicken and the door to the floor was locked... uh ohhh... what happened to that chicken? Did someone else find the chicken? Do they know IT WAS ME?!?!?!!?!?! - who knows, but I just think its funny. (but seriously, tell me what I was supposed to do!)

oh.... and then theres the laundry. We had 3 weeks worth of laundry to do between 5 girls. There are no dryers in Russia, so we have to hang up our clothes. On our floor, there are a ton of empty bedrooms, so we hung them up there. Well, apparently the principal of the school was showing some people (business-like men) the new additions to the school and one of those additions were these dorms we were living in. They went up our floor and to one of the "empty" dorms and saw all of our underwear, bras, and other clothing everywhere!!! bahahahhaha, OOPS! So.... spoiling chicken and underwear... Americans!!! hahaha

 Did you know it is bad to whistle indoors in Russia?? I had noooo idea! I was getting my food in the cafeteria and some song was stuck in my head, so I was whistling it and the lunch lady looked at me with a serious face, put her finger up to my face and waved it bacxk and forth motioning me to stop. I thought it was weird... maybe she didn't the song or something. I went over to my girls and was like, "Hey guys, so the lunch lady got mad at me for whistling," and they informed me that nobody whistles indoors because the Russians believe it is bad luck and that all your money will be taken away from you. Also, I give my leftover foods to people all the time and this is also bad!!! whaaaat? yeah! When you let others eat your food, they take your "power" from you. Well, I was thinking of getting some of the cafeteria ladies flowers and its good to know that in Russia, you want to give an odd number of flowers - if you give an even number of flowers to someone, that is bad. Even number of flowers mean death/funeral. Hahahha, can you imagine me coming in whistling and handing 2 flowers to one of the lunch ladies? I would be having good intentions and its just something would SOOOO happen to me!!!

I really do love the people I work with at the school! I have noticed that if you are total strangers with Russians (example: at the metros, streets, stores, etc), yeah, not very friendly...pretty rude BUT when you are part of their life, they care for you so mcuh! The lunch ladies at first, I thought they didn't like us....but they love us now! I know they do. I remmeber when we first gave them hugs and it was freaky for them, hahahah. A couple of nights ago, I gave Lena a hug and she hugged me back and squeezed me sooooooo tight :) :) and AWWW listen to this! I went outside on Friday night around midnight to make sure that the gate was unlocked (that's a long story haha) and one of the guards that works at the school was with me and I didn't grab a jacket cause I'd be outside for just a few minutes, but he pointed to his coat cause I had a short-sleeve shirt and I toldhim that I was alright, but he just off his coat and put it on me. Awww... they are so nice here!!!

There is a cereal here in Europe called "Muesli" (pronounced like "moose-ly"), so when anyone hears my name here, they get really excited and say, "OH MOOSELY! Like cereal!" - My name in Russian is Nusly + moose = Moosely :) 


That is Volva writing my name on the board :)

Sergiev Posad

Last weekend we went to Sergiev Posad - it had a beautiful monastery that is still used today! It's beautiful to see the passion of people of their beliefs. We caught a train and it was jammed packed, so the only place I could find to sit was between these two Russians. I was like, "well, hope you two don't mind if I sit in between you two!" and I squished in and they just looked at me and tried scooting over a little, haha. Me and Melissa were talking to each other and this 20 year old boy across from me handed me a rose he made from a napkin. I started laughing and thanked him and I thought CRAP!!! hahahha, you are NOT supposed to smile to a male because that is considered flirting here in Russia and it just eggs them on!! But it was just so unexpected that I laughed (and ugh! You know how natural it is for me to smile!!!) and then took out a pen and starting writing notes to us asking for our skype and what our names were. We gave him Melissa friend's Aren Muse skype :D

He wrote on the napkin, "I'm a good boy"

and I was like, "Haha...umm...sorry I...have a boyfriend." 

and he wrote, "I like girls with boyfriends"

and I was like, "WHAT!!!! You aren't a good boy! You are BAD!"

He wrote, "I'm a very very (not just once, but twice hahaha) beautiful boy!"

This is one of my favorite things he wrote, "Barack O'bama"

and I said, "Yes....President of the U.S."

and he wrote back, "Black man"         - hahahhahah!!!

and then he tried giving me beer and I told him how beer was bad haha and he then was like, "Jack Daniels?" and I was like NOOOO hahahha. So he got up and grabbed a baby tomato and tried feeding it to me and I was like, "No no, thank you", he grabbed my hand and put the tomato in it. He wanted a picture with me and I was like, "Sorry, no. I have a boyfriend" - hahhahaha I was trying to be a good example to my girls that I'm a head teacher over because HHAHAHA the night before, I was talking to them and giving them advise to NOT flirt with the men and be smiling and laughing with them.. and here I was!!! (worst head teacher EVER! hahaha) and he just shrugged and sat right next to me and got super close and took a picture. He asked for my email and I just wrote down "www.mormon.org" and told him to go to it and before he got off, he grabbed my notebook and put, "I love you!" - hahahha I was SOOOO glad he got off at a different spot! He was nice though.

On Sunday, we went to church at the International Branch and I loved it! Around 20 of us made the congregation, haha and there were around...maybe 70 put total or so. They were from the U.S, Nigeria, Congo, Germany, Russia, Ukraine, etc. Our bishop is the coolest...I love him so much already! He's from Germany and HE KNOWS BROTHER WAHLQUIST!!! (one of my FAVORITE professors at BYU-Idaho) Everyone is so nice and it felt like home away from home. I think its amazing how the church is the same everywhere on this earth and the Spirit can be so strong with our brothers and sisters of different cultures and backgrounds....but EVERYTHING is in common when your foundation is on Jesus Christ :) We are hoping to be able to go three baptismal services tomorrow of converts from Africa! 

My Russian word count: 2

"Spa-cee-ba" = Thank you

"Paul-ja-sta" = You're welcome

...maybe I'll learn a 3rd word by next week (it looks like I learn 1 word a week??? hahahha RUSSIAN IS HARD!!!)

Saint Petersburg!

So I'm in Russia right now! MIRA WOW! Crazy right?! So far, I am loving it!!! I mean it is completely different from China (but duh!), so I like Russia for its own reasons. I just appreciate everything about it so far! The people are not as mean and rude as I thought they would be! They're pretty rude at the metros and streets, but haha whatever. It just makes me laugh. I LOVE THE BABUSHKAS HERE!!!! Seriously, I'm obsessed with the little old ladies here. It's my goal to get yelled at by one of them! One of the girls from the other group got yelled by one for some reason and when they told me, I was sooooo jealous!!!! The old men here are really nice too. They give flowers to their women, awe :) If I were to describe Russia's smell.... lets add some booze + BO + cigarettes and BOOM! There's Russia for you!. 

So I went to Saint Petersburg my first weekend! It was AWESOME!!! I think you know how much I am in loooooooooove with the early 1900 period/Imperial time in Russia with the Romanov's!! GUESS WHAT I GOT TO SEE BABYYYYY!!!! I saw their gravesite and their summer and winter palace!!! Wow...they were unbelievable! Absolutely breath-taking!  I also got to see Church on Spilled Blood Cathedral and inside is GORGEOUS! Every single wall is filled with pictures of Christ and his life....stories of him....I loved it. It's one of my most favorite buildings in the whole world. The winter palace had all these collections from around the world SO Nusly Phillips was a very happy happy HAPPY girl when she got to see the EXHIBITION OF ANCIENT EGYPT!!!!!!!!!!!!! I SAW A MUMMIFIED MUMMY!!! and oh my goodness....you know how I love Ancient Egypt! It was hilarious cause we thought we would just spend an hour or so in the museum, but we stayed for close to 4 hours!!! We stayed there until it closed and we were kicked out! hahahaha! But I saw paintings by Rambrant (my favorite, Prodigal Son painting!!! A man from North Carolina was there and he said what brought him to Russia was to see that very painting, AWE!), Da Vinci, Monet (actually, at least I was in the same building as Monet! I didn't get to see it cause the museum closed...I almost cried haahah), Picasso, Van Gogh (loooooove), and there were just thousands of paintings and sculptures and I couldn't believe other things I didn't get to see in that museum. It's HUGE!!! I cannot believe a family lived in that place...I love trying to picture it being used as a home.

I saw some pretty interesting things walking along the streets...#1. a baby bear drinking what looked like strawberry milk (???) from a bottle #2. Clothed monkeys...a Russian man instructed me to put out my arms and he just put his monkey in my arms and it was a FREAKY MONKEY!!! it was twitching and started hissing and had a tight grasp on my shirt (Chelsea got a HILARIOUS picture of it) #3. A zombie ...on a leash? Yeah this bike-compact chick had a leash around this living dead creature. It was running after pigeons and people. It saw me from far away and tried getting to me, but its "owner" pulled him back... Hahahaha, oh St. Petersburg! It feels good to be home though because we have been on the GO GO GO since we got here and even though I have so much to do for my head teacher training, I feel like at least I can take a little bit of a breather now. When we were getting ready to go back to Moscow, our train didn't leave until 12:40 AM, so we were so exhausted cause we were out in the city from 7:30 am til 9 pm  (the school in the area let us sleep there for the night, but we had to be out every morning by 8 or 9 and couldn't come back til 8 or 9 at night....so it was super exhausting and my feet killed, but it was SO fun! I was thinking how missionaries are amazing cause they do that everyday and their feet must HURT - you missionaries rock) and it was super late in the evening - at the train station, its very crowded, so our group couldn't find chairs to sit/sleep in while we waited. So theres this group of us Americans sleeping on the ground of the station cause it wasn't that gross or anything like that and I did NOT care cause I was exhausted, so I slept there waiting for my train and all these Russians walking past us were getting mad and were disgusted (no one sits on the ground, and if they do, they all put newspaper down) and even took pictures of us, hahahaha.

By the way, Russian women are BABES....at least so far all the ones I've been around. They all dress super nice and are beautiful! There is this one named Svetta that I work with at the school....sometimes I have trouble saying her name because I swear someone says it differently each time, but anyways, when I'm referring to her to someone, I just call her "the babe" because she is this tall, skinny, blonde model (well, not really, but she looks like it!!)...I look at myself and say TRASH hahaha