Happy Halloween!!!

Saturday, Melissa and I went and checked out Victory Park. It had a huge monument dedicated to the second world war. It was really impressive. We wished we got to go inside the museum to see this room that had this ceiling covered in crystals. They look like tear drops and each chandelier piece represented 10,000 people who died in the war - we're going to try another time. As we were walking, I could hear music and we decided to go check it out. We stumbled upon an abandoned carnival park... you guys, it was the CREEPIEST thing ever; all the lights were on and this eerie music was playing but there were seriously NO people. Me and Melissa were laughing...so creepy. We thought it would be funny if we rode one of the rides but FREAKING RUSSIA!!! It was like $8 for bumper cars...are you kidding me!!!!!?!

That night, I was coming out of my room mate's room and Sasha and his friend were right outside the door. It scared me and I was like, "Oh hello!" Sasha handed me a chocolate bar and the friend said, "We sorry for..." and he tried using his hands to motion backwards. I think they were trying to apologize for the few weekends ago when they were drunk; singing and knocking on my door at 1 in the morning. I laughed cause seriously it was just really funny. I replied, "Oh really, don't worry about it." I tried getting around them, but they had something else to say, "Can you sing with us Hotel California?" uhhhhhh-ohhhhh...I could smell the booze off their breathe - well, I knew they wouldn't leave me alone so I did. I joined them as they played the piano and I sang it with them, hahahha. That night was just filled with other little random moments: 1.) Sasha handed me plum jam 2.) Sasha brought out his pet hamster and cracked open the other girls' room and let it loose in their dorm 3.) I thought I was finally going to get some rest, but then I heard a knock on my door and "Nuuuuuusly....Chelseaaaaaa...." - before we could go to bed, Sasha and his friend insisted on singing a song to us. They played the guitar and piano and sang to us a traditional Russian folk song while me and Chelsea swayed back and forth. Awesome.

Yup, so those are my neighbors!

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In church, guess who I got to teach???! THE SUNBEAMS!!!! (the little 4 year olds!) Last Sunday, Sister Snow came up to me and Melissa and asked us if we would teach for her since she as going to be out of town. Okay, well, I LOVED it! I hope she asks me again!

Me: "Whose example do we follow?"

Little Keegan: "Jesus!"

Me: What can we pray for?"

Little James: "Water!"

Little Christopher: "The people who are sick."

Me: "What can we do to be like Jesus?"

Little Anna: "Plant flowers!"

Little Avvie: "Play with others."

Little Christopher *while praying*: "Thank you for letting us all be friends"

So simple, but so true. I mean, am I right? :)

On my way home from the metro, me and an elderly man were staring at each other. I gave him thee CHEESIEST smile ever and he continued frowning and he shook his head. I said, "What? No? No smiling?" and I widened my smile even more (...if that was possible) and he continued shaking his head. Basically I have staring contests with the Russians on the metros. I always win.

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Here is a little Halloween for you guys: In Russia, they don't celebrate Halloween...such a bummer man because Halloween is AWESOME. My group decided we were going to have our own party (SOOO FUNNNN...I just wish I could put it into words for you guys!!!) but Sasha caught on what we were celebrating. I come out and I see this (picture to your left) and he goes "BOOOOOO!!!", scared the CRAP out of Hailey, but hahahha, this is where I lost it: I followed Sasha because I knew he was going to go scare the Russian teachers that lived on our floor. Once he got up to their door, he busted it open and he scared them BADDDD...curling screams I tell ya! One teacher had a knife in her hand and it looked like she was about to kill him.

We also played truth or dare and we made Selina dress up as a ghost and go get Hailey's laundry from the other side of the school building. She had to wail like a ghost the entire way. The guard was laughing so hard and clapping...we feel successful when we bring a smile to a Russian's face :)

Now off to Sweden, Finland, Estonia, and back to St. Petersburg for the next two weeks! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! YEAH BABY!

Librarian's bellydance?!

At a souvenir market in Moscow.

A couple of weeks ago I was in the school's library and Olga, the librarian, came up to me and asked me if I would teach her 6 year old daughter, Masha, English. On Saturday, me and my friend Melissa went over to Olga's friend's flat. It was a little modest home - very small and crowded up on a few floors of an apartment building, but that is all they needed and are happy with it.

Masha and Maxism eating dinner

We met her friend named Yulia and she had a son named Maxsim. They were the cutest little kids! They wouldn't stop smiling or staring at us. Olga said, "They are so curious. They have never seen foreigners before,". I did a little lesson with them and it was FUN! They are better than some of the kids I teach at the school, hah! Afterwards, we all had dinner together. There were 9 of us in the little kitchen, but it couldn't have felt more comfortable. The food was so good and filling! We had traditional Russian food: noodles, chicken, pig, tomatoes with cottage cheese, stuffed eggs, and for dessert some apple pie with a milky-hot drink. Mmm...   After dinner, Olga asked me, "Would you like to do some belly dancing with us?" - WHAT? My librarian BELLYDANCES??! YEAH! Olga and Yulia were legit at it too! They were teaching us proper techniques and wrapped bells around our waists. The kids were going crazy and having fun...Maxism even took his clothes off except for his underwear. Olga told me he was being an "American Indian", hahahaha &Yulia was even multi-tasking: breastfeeding and bellydancing! Now that's how its done! Hahaha.

After church on Sunday, there was a brother there sitting in a chair waiting. I went over to him and found out he was from Nigeria and his name was Collins. I  asked him, "Collins, could you give me some good advice about life in general?" and he said, "Dear sister, everyone you meet, make sure to treat them with kindness," - well said, Collins, well said. He then asked me for some advice as well and this is for Collins, but also for all of you out there, "Collins, make sure that you take everyday of your life and LOVE IT! Embrace every opportunity, every person, every lesson, every thing...even down to the food you eat and sidewalk you walk on. Be happy!" - we both continued talking and I was so blessed to hear from this young man. As we were saying our goodbyes, what he said made me smile, "Oh Nusly, you have no idea how much you made my day," - and he said it over and over again. My friends, if the Spirit prompts you to go to talk to someone, don't shrug the thought away. Do it. You never know what new friend you'll make. You'll never know how much you'll touch them. You never know how you could have possibly made someone feel...significant and special. You never know how much they'll touch you. You never know what you will learn. I encourage you all to go out and make a new friend - or maybe you'll even realize that as you talk to someone, it was a friend who was just waiting for you to finally meet up with again in this life.

I'm beautiful and maybe fat?

I saw the Nutcracker Ballet at the Kremlin (also known as the former hall of Congress of the Communist Party)on Saturday and it was pretty awesome! Afterwards, we went to a mall in Red Square. As the girls went into a store to shop, I stayed outside to people watch. A guy came up to me and started speaking to me, but I replied, "Sorry, no Russian. English Only," and he said, "Ohhh.... you are very beautiful!" and just walked away. AWWW...well that was really nice! But then seriously like 5 minutes later, that compliment totally got WIPED because this man pointed to my belly and demonstrated a pregnant belly and I was like, "What? ME?! No! No!" and he said, "Da! Da!" (Yes! Yes!) and I kept telling him no, but he wasn't asking me if I was pregnant, he was telling me I was, hahahahha. It's funny just because I know I'm such a skinny thing. I did have on this dress that kind of bunches up and poofs in the mid-section....or maybe I'm just trying to make myself feel better, hahahah.

Yesterday, I heard someone knocking on my door and them coming in and I was in the middle of putting on some pants so I quickly pulled them up and it was only Svetta. She asked, "Nusly, could I ask you a question? Please come out to the hall." - so I did and do you guys remember Sasha (the drunk guy knocking on my door and singing to me two weekends ago)? Svetta said to me, "Sasha would like to know if he could draw a portrait of you if it would be alright," - of course! haha! So Sasha and his friend Natalie first drew me as I was reading my scriptures. It was funny cause eventually Natalie said to me, "Smile," and so I did, but I felt weird smiling as I was reading in the Old Testament of 70 men getting their heads cut off and the heads being put into baskets. After that, Natalie came and handed me a guitar to pose with. Sasha left and came back 5 minutes later with a hat. Once he put the hat on me, Natalie exclaimed, "AH! Very good! Perfect" and continued drawing, hahahha. They said I had an "interesting" face. I like Natalie - I would see her every now and then always going into Sasha's apartment, but I never officially met her until Sunday. She came into the library as I was skyping a friend and she handed me a book and said, "This is for you. Happy birthday!" and I said, "Wow! Thank you! That is so nice! but, it's not my birthday," and she said, "Well, I still want you to have it" - sweeeeeet....I finally have a map of the metro. I love unbirthdays!

Sofa, Nastya, & Stesha

Kindergarten is going so great. I LOVE OUR KIDS!!! They are so fun and crazy! I always look forward to going to the schools everyday. You guys, I so badly want one of my own Vovas!!! I want a son like him so bad!! hahahahha. So last week, Selina and Hailey were teaching Basic Reading and one day, Vova said his name was Cleopatra and the next day, he was Sheeva (the 6 armed Hindu god) and he would only answer to those names. Well, Seroja and Vova were whispering to each other and drawing on paper and Selina finally took it away from them and they yelled, "NOOOO! DON'T LOOK! GIVE THE PAPER BACK!". The paper had the classroom set up drawn and arrows pointing to the door and to the hallway....it was an ESCAPE plan! hahahahha!!!

I have been here for 2 months already... cannot believe it. After next week, I go on VACATION BABY!!! WOOOOOOOOOOO!!! We're going to Sweden, Finland, and Estonia! I'm WAY excited!

Random stories put together :)

 Here are some random stories from my past couple of weeks!!!


STORY #1: I live more out in the country. I don't technically live in "Moscow" - I live 20 minutes away from it. I live in a little countryside called Petrovo Dalyene. I went on a walk down by a river to think and read my scriptures when this elderly man came up to me and we had a conversation....well kind of. I was speaking in English and he was speaking in Russian, hahaha.

Me: "Wow, you smell of booze!"

Old Man: "Da" (yes in Russian)

Me: "You know alcohol is bad for you?"

Old Man: "Da"

He then started making shooting noises and demonstrating shooting a gun. So our conversation got unto WWII. 

Me: "World War II huh? Must have been rough."

Old Man: *replies in Russian*

Me: "Yeah, it was rough for everyone. My grandpa fought in the war. He was in Japan."

Old Man: *still speaking good ole Russian!*

Me: "Yeah he even got shot! He received the purple heart."

Old Man: *....and he still just keeps replying in Russian hahaha*

This went on for about 30 minutes...and I loved every single minute, haha!

Eventually I told him I needed to go, so I got up and waved goodbye. I was really cut off guard cause he came in and gave me a hug and then kissed me on the cheek (not in a creepy way - its a way to say hello/goodbye to a friend). Can I tell you guys that talking to this old man made my day? :)

STORY #2: SOOOO...between 2-3:45 pm, we teach 7-8 year olds at the main school and two days in a row, none of them showed up. I ran into Svetta and asked her what was up with that and she told me all the kids dropped. What???! Hahahha, ok was anyone going to let me know about this? Anyways, I told my coordinator about it and she called me later that day and informed me that all the kids decided to drop because their Russian teacher decided to give them the option to either go to English class OR go play outside....what kid is going to choose class?! And then also parents found out that we were Latter-day Saints (Mormons) and didn't like that. It "scared" them (well, look at me. I am pretty scary... haha) We still have our kindergarten and basic reading class....just no more 1st grade.  I teach adorable kids at the kindergarten and I am loving it :) So, 1st grade class..all I have to say is I LOVE BEING A LATTER-DAY SAINT and THANK YOU for less teaching hours! Hey, gotta look at the bright side, right? :)

ps. WE ARE STILL TEACHING VOVA!!! so no worries!!! more Vova stories will be coming your way soon! Vova is AWESOME cause he DIDN'T DROP! WOOOOOOOOOO!!!!

STORY #3: Well, on Friday there was a huge teacher celebration and of course, being Russians, the teachers were drinking. We live on a floor of mostly empty dorms. We occupy 2 rooms and then next door to us lives the handy-man/custodian of the school named Sasha. He's pretty cool and very nice, but on Friday, he was HAMMERED. I really wanted to go to bed, but it was almost 1 AM and Sasha and his friend were singing really loud out in the hallway. We had to lock our doors because one came in and told us, "Go home Americans!" - hahhaha. I was so tired.... they kept knocking on our door and trying to sing to us. It was funny cause the next day I saw him and he was like, "HELLO!!!!"