St. Pete

Well I obviously haven’t updated in a while…. But on the 10th of October we got to travel to St. Petersburg. We boarded the train at 12:30 a.m. on Friday morning and arrived around 10:30 a.m. It was a sleeping train so when we got on we made our beds and tried to sleep as well as possible. We slept in the kindergarten gym of the school the St. Petes group teaches at. We met the group and enjoyed hanging out with them in the evenings after we walked around and explored everything we could in those 2 ½ days. We saw the royalties winter and summer palace, and other beautiful old buildings that I cant tell you the names of. St. Pete was beautiful a little cleaner than Moscow but over all just a miniature Moscow. I think the highlight to me was going into the museum that is located in the winter palace, and being able to stand before the work of Picasso, Monet, Da Vinci and Van Gough. That was a really great experience and something to cross off my life-long to-do-list.

In Russia I am thankful for…

Pete (our bus driver)
The girls I live with
Gulia (our site coordinator)
The church
My scriptures
A warm coat
The ability to walk
Not buying gas
Warm/Hot breakfasts
Living on the 2nd floor
The school staff
Good school food
Hot chocolate
Positive attitude

What I take for granted.... In America!

Free public restrooms

Restrooms with toilet paper

Restrooms with and actual toilet and not a squater

Roestrooms that you can put toilet paper in the toilet

Smells (good smells, like Bath & Body)

Spending time with my family

Showers that are hot

Showers with water that is drinkable

Actual showers (not sitting down in the tub with a hose)

Gyms

A car- easy trasportation

Central heat

A clothing dryer

A washer that stays in place

Talking to my family and friends

Playing with my nephews and neice

My health- i eat a lot of junk food

Being outside

Being able to read everything

The country and a kind heart!

This is Andrea and I waiting for our bus at 7am to get to church which starts at 1pm. We were told that there was a bus that only came to and from our neck of the woods 3 times a day. So that is why we leave so early and chill in the city tell church starts. The country is beautiful and free of all the pollution and second hand smoke that is in the heart of Moscow. We certainly have some positives and negatives for living out here. It is georgeous and a good place to run, but a little hard to go anywhere with the lack of transportation. Anyways this day the 21st of Septemeber on our way home when we got off the metro there were only 5 of us. (Andrea started at a host family for 2 weeks and visits them on sunday) We noticed that every 15 min our bus, 532, came by. So 3 girls got on an earlier one and Taren and I waited for Andrea to come get on the 7:15 Charter bus ride. 45 min later when we reached our stop thats a mile and a half away from our home we started to walk in the dusk... light was fading fast. For some reason we were told that the bus picks us up in front of our home but will only stop at this specific location on the way back. But as we made it about 50 steps the same small bus that picked us up this morning drove by on our way... screeched to a stop and the driver opened the door and started talking to us. Through body language and the realization that it was the same drivier 12 hours earlier we hoped on. He knew where we lived, drove strait to our house taking us the 1mile and 1/2 free of charge. I was touched by the fact that he recognized us and was willing to take us without pay. It's sad they are viewed as a hostile country because there has been a lot of kind hearted people that are willing to help us. These moments make of kindness make me so happy to experience this culture.

First weekend out!

The top picture is of some statue near St. Basils and also where we viewed Levin. The other is of my group at 4 am after we had dinner. It has been the only time I have been able to see St. Basils. It is such a beautiful and magical building i cant wait tell we get to go back. I love being able to go into town. Its such a huge city that we never can get bored of exploring and experiencing their culture. Its really fun to see the similarities and also the differences of the Russians. By now i know only a couple words. The one i say all the time is spasiba= thank you. Hopefully the Russians will forgive us for the dumb things we do... i'm sure the phrase "Dumb american girls" goes through their minds often.

We have a love hate relationship!

Sorry I know this is lame picture to have up of MOSCOW but its the only one i could get before my time ran out. Ill do more later! Anyways this is my russian boyfriend. His name is Artok... yes and he is a model for GQ in Russia. HA... this was our first night out in Moscow. One of the girls from California has a friend that comes over to Moscow for business. He knew she was in town so he took us all out to dinner at the GQ bar. The bill for 8 people was 75,000 rubles which comes to 3,000 american dollars! Crazy! The dinner took 5 hours! We got there at 10 and didnt get home tell 4 am. And we stopped at St. Basils on the way home. This pics arent great but they are on here.

Well i teach 3 classes a week, basic reading 6 hours, kindergarten 4 and a catch-up class for 2 hours. I love my basic reading cause they understand a lot and there are 4 girls and 2 boys. The girls are smart. But the other classes are hard. I had no idea this that the teaching would be so hard!

I love Russia. It is so beautiful and green. We are outside the city so transportation is limited and we can only really go into Moscow on the weekends but we still have lots of fun back at our apartment. This last weekend when we went into town we toured a little bit. We went to Levins grave. (I think thats his name) Mcdonalds! Which was sooooo good. And i got a coke (no mt dew in russia) And we went to dinner with that guy. He was so nice and generous. But also brought up the gospel a lot in conversation. A good example of giving and reaching out to others. (he only knew one of us). Anyways and this weekend we are all looking forward to going back to St. Basils and going to IKEA!

Sorry dont mean to bore everyone with the long post. Ill let you know more of whats up and try to get lots more pictures posted. Love you all. Please e-mail marciedabell@gmail.com

Russia... a state of mind?

I am finally leaving! We were scheduled to leave on Aug 26... but our visas were delayed until Sep 8. A lot of people around town were surprised to see me and when one person asked "aren't you supposed to be in Russia" my reply was "I AM." Therefore Lauren wondered if Russia was more a state of mind for me. But it is not, i will literally be out of here Monday at 7:05 and arrive in russia at noon the next day.