Email 8/31/11
I just wanted to write a few random facts!
So there are about 29 ru. To the dollar. Which may seem like a lot but really it just makes it difficult to do math. But it breaks down to about 1000 ru=34 dollars... And 3000 ru= 100 dollars. In st petes to ride the bus it was 21 ru. In Moscow it's 50.... So thats not much fun... But we have to take a bus anywhere we go because we live forever away from the city.
It takes us two hours to get to church and two hours to get back home :) but seriously.... Church today was amazing! More on that later!
So there is very very little food that i have been served that I haven't liked! The first day, the first meal, we were served what we think was liver...... Ummm I gagged.... It was gross! I could only eat a bite.... Which was ok because sveta... The girl that lives and works at the school that we teach at... Anyway, she only ate like two bites cuz she is skinny as can be, so I felt ok about not eating it :) other than that as of right now, I can't tell you much about the rest of the food, besides the face that it is so good! And also so greasy! They make everything with butter! It's almost sickening! But we don't get the names because we go to the cafeteria and there is food on the tables for us... It's like magic.... We rarely see the cooks and when we do it doesn't matter because they don't speak any English :) so we can't ask them what we Are eating! But we have had these huge sausages. We have porage almost every morning, which is alright because it's so good! And when i say so good, i mean i will miss it more than anything else i think! and tomatoes with lunch and dinner :) also, the juice that they serve us is amazing! I love it! Mostly it has been cranberry and grape... Which normally I'm not a huge fan, but it's tasty here! Today we had this cranberry cider that was absolutely delish!
Ok you all need to know about sveta and the generation of Russians that were born After communism fell. (she is the babe in talked about in my last post) Because it is so obvious! Sveta is 22 which if you were to see her you would not believe it! She is very good looking! And defiantly looks older! And she dresses super fancy all the time. And she tells us how she loves to go clubbing and drinking! And she wears high heels all over then city! Along with all the other girls who were raised after communism. It's like they truly became free. All of the older people are much more conservative! Another note about the people of Russia, I went to macdonalds in st. Petersburg... Please don't judge, we were desperate. But while there I noticed that the people working there (the managers any way, the kids had to be in uniform) but they all wore super nice cloths. One girl was in tights, a skirt, an a button up white shirt. It's like even thought it's the worst job in the world it's still a job....
The other day went to sergeev posad, which is a little town about 44 miles out of Moscow. It was so pretty! We went because they have this awesome monastery that is really old... It started out as a log cabin basically and is now this huge monastery with a spring of holy water, three churches and a bunch of other building. It was way cool to see the Russians practicing their religion! The churches smelled like incense. One of the churches was where sergeev posad, who was a monk, is buried. Which was amazing because outside of that church people line up for ever so that they can kiss his grave and light a candle because they believe that it brings them blessings. The line was so long and our coordinator said it was always that long and sometimes longer! One of the other churches was still in it's original state and it was just absolutely beautiful! It was just amazing to go in and see the paintings and the icons on the wall. And to see people lighting candles. Also there were so many monks and nuns walking around the whole monastery! It was so interesting to see! I loved it!
Also in that town they had an amazing market! It was so funs to bargain and to see all the different Russian trinkets! I may have spent too much money... Shhh!
Well today was the third day of teaching. I have come down with a small cold so I didn't have a lot of energy. So it wasn't the best day, but we are learning all the kids names and faces and we love it! I am getting to attached to some of them! Some of them I could live without, but for the most part they are sooo dang cute! The lessons are fun to! I guess you could say that all in all I'm having a good experience! Much love!
Love,
Hailey Dawn
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