Well Tuesday marks only a month left here! I can’t believe
that! So in honor of there only being a month left, this blog is going to be
set up a little different, more like a question and answer session!
Q: So tell me Kelsee, how are you doing? Homesick?
A: I am doing so good! :) In the words of my friend
Jallyn “I am anxious to be home, but I am not homesick”. As the holidays are
getting closer it is getting harder, but I know that I am going to be here only
once in my life, and so I really need to treasure every moment. On the days
that I want to go home, I just remember that this opportunity will never happen
again and so I need to enjoy every moment! That usually helps!
Also I have goals that I have made, and so now that there
is a month left, for some of them I feel as if there is not enough time to
accomplish them and I need more! So that is a really good distraction!
Q: Is your host family working out for you? How is that
like to live with a Russian family?
A: My host family is sersiouly the best! I have been so
so so blessed in this area! Alina is a doll! I don’t see her that much, but she
is always so kind and is such a hard worker. She speaks quite a lot of English and
understands me if I speak slowly!
My host brother Daniel hardly speaks any English but he
is a student at the school, this is his second semester so he is learning. He
likes to quote movies and call everything “dis” (Russians have a very hard time
saying “TH” this is an example of Daniel’s sentences “Wherds dis?” which means ”What
is this?” or “You go to eating?” which means “Have you ate dinner already?”
Then I have my host mother! She is the front lady at the
desk at the school, so I see her a lot! She is very feisty and only expects the
best from her kids and they get in trouble if they get low marks in school or
don’t do their chores, but you can tell that she loves them very much! She is
always so kind to me and does so much for me, I feel so spoiled! She does my
laundry, she cooks me meals, she washes the dishes, and is so kind! Definitely
a mother! Some of the other people in my groups host families are carefree and
don’t really care to much about what you
do, but my host mother always wants to know where I am, and what I did and her
biggest thing is dressing warm! Since she works at the school, she sees all of
us teachers come in and tells us if we are not dressed appropriately enough.
Sometimes she approves and sometimes she doesn’t. I cannot leave the building
unless I am all dressed warmly. She speaks about as much English as I do
Russian, and so we do a lot of charades! Thank goodness for dictionaries too!
Me and my host mom- Yes she hand knitted the hat and mittens- yes it is my favorite souvenir! Ps- that is her coat that she is letting me borrow! She takes care of me!
Q: What is the food like in Russia? Where do you eat at? Is
it the stereotypical potatoes? What is the grossest thing you have eaten? What
do you drink?
A: Well for
breakfast I usually go out of my room to eat after my host mom has already left
for the school. So she either makes Blini, French toast, eggs, or if she doesn’t
make anything then I eat corn flakes in milk. Breakfast is always so good! I
have eaten a lot of other delicious things too! Each breakfast there is always
the “main” dish. And then it is paired with either yogurt or this delicious
cheese cake chocolate treat, and then a tall glass of whole milk! Haha back
home all I ever drank was skim- I had no idea what I was missing, and now, man,
I feel like skim milk will taste like water!
Then we eat lunch at the school. The food is pretty much
the same every day it is as such:
1)
There is always soup. Either sauerkraut or some
potato noodly soup.
2)
There is always some potato concoction, whether
it be mashed potatoes or wedges or something else, there are always potatoes. I
can think of only one day there wasn’t!
3)
There is most likely going to be a bread thing
too! Either rolls, or raisen filled bread, or pancakes, always bread
4)
Then there will be something random sometimes.
When we eat lunch we don’t count carbs- there is no
point! :) haha
We all eat lunch together- it is a party!
Then me and Zhana (host mom) drive home together and she
makes something amazing! Usually chicken prepared awesomely! She also feeds me
rice or vegetables with it. She uses the right seasonings and it is so delicious!
I love all her pastas, pizzas, chicken dinners, everything she makes is delicious!
The only catch to that is the fact that I don’t get to
pick my portions! Serisuoly, this is coming from someone who LOVES FOOD! But
she gives me so so so much. I used to not eat all of it, but she would ALWAYS
question why I didn’t eat it, and I hate to see her throw it away and so to not
even put up a fight I eat it all. Remember- I LOVE FOOD and the portions she
gives me is WAY TO MUCH FOOD FOR ONE HUMAN BEING! So my stomach has very much
expanded!
What do I drink? I drink water, but very sparingly. You
can’t drink out of the tap here, and so Zhana buys all of our water, but it is
about 2 dollars to fill up the jugs, and so I can’t drink to my heart’s content.
I usually drink only about a water bottle of water a day- tell me that is not a
big change! They all drink tea and coffee here, I have had lemon tea before (without
the tea part of course, but I don’t like tea). So I drink milk and water.
Sometimes they will buy juice- it is very popular here!
Luckily I have been spared gross food! No holodets, no
cavier, I have been blessed! Really the grossest thing I eat is tomatoes
covered in mayonnaise (and I know that is not even gross to some of you!) or
sometimes she will make sausage eggs where she cooks the sausage with the eggs
but the sausage is really thick and the eggs are never cooked all the way, so
that kind of grosses me out! She has offered me raw fish on bread before, but I
turn that down! No thank you!
YUM!!!
Q: How is your Russian coming? How do you live in a
country where you know so little of the language? How do you do things?
A: Haha so I haven’t been studying Russian (I know… I
already feel bad, so please don’t guilt me!) but I have picked up quite a few
phrases and words just from living here and realizing what is important!
Haha How do I get by? I am sure all you return
missionaries or people who have lived in a different country know that you just
go for it! You go into the situation knowing that it is going to be awkward but
you do what you need to do! Like riding busses, you just pay attention to what
is going on and then you get the hang of it. If you need to order something at
a restaurant then you do your best, or point, or look confused, or all the
above! Like the other day I needed to print off pictures. So I just went into
the store where the develop pictures and said “I only speak a little Russian,
but I need pictures” and then held up my jumpdrive. They pointed where I needed
to go, then they had me point to the size and then they always hold up a
calculator with the price! Haha then I accidently said “You’re welcome” and
then laughed and said “oooops! Thank you” (all in Russian) haha and they sometimes
laugh but this time they just stared, and you know you have to go tell all your
friends because there is never a dull moment in Russia!
It is always successful when you go to the grocery store
and they don’t know you are foreign!
1)
Bring your own bag! They are not free here
2)
Pay in exact change!! Never just give them a
bill because they will look at you like you are dumb and act really mad!
3)
Don’t smile or look happy! (ok so that sounds
mean, but Russians really are reserved in public)
4)
Act like you know what is going on and
understand what they say to you!
There are some days where I understand and then others
where I look totally stupid! I do have to say though, my Russian I do know has
helped a ton!
Q:I have noticed you talk about the Voronezh LDS Branch a
lot, is it really that awesome?
A: YES!!! Seriously every week is so entertaining- I LOVE
IT SO MUCH! I think that is one of the things I will miss the most! The people
are so friendly and kind and smile and are so faith filled! :) The spirit
resides there and it is my favorite place to be! The missionaries are so
awesome and friendly and we love doing FHE with them! The Branch President is
one strong member. He knows the scriptures so well- it is so joyus to see! So
the missionaries or this one legit Russian man translates sacrament meeting for
us, and then we do English Sunday school with us ILPs and then the Senior
Couple (WE LOVE THE FROSTS!) This week I actually taught the lesson! Then in
Sunday School we have a Russian sister translate (yes she is the one
translating Jesus the Christ into Russian!).
Today the Relief Society lesson was on Israel. The
patriarch is coming to Voronezh for 3 days in December and a lot of members are
getting their blessing! It turns out that the patriarch said that all tribes of
Israel are equally represented here in Russia! (The lost 10 tribes are lost no
longer- they are here in Russia!) That was really cool! The sister teaching the
lesson was from Dan!
So this Saturday the church had an open house to invite
all the people on the street to come check out the church. I guess they had 5
investigators from it! But me and 2 other ILP girls went to help sing and to
just be around the saints! It was so fun to get to know some even better! The
people were there for 8 hours! Talk about dedication to the church! I want you
all to come here and meet these people!
I love it because you can tell they are all friends! They
do socials and activities together and we are all truly brothers and sisters
united in the gospel! This next Saturday is their talent show! (We have other
plans, but it sounds like it will be awesome!)
OPEN HOUSE!!!
If you could only meet one member in Voronezh, I would have you meet Yevgeny! He is the coolest craziest individual!
This is him with Ryan and with his guitar!
He rocks awesome shoes, that great pink shirt, and a mullet!
He is always full of spunk and LOVE MUSIC
He knows little English but this is what he will always say
" Do you know Pavlovs Dogs? (the band) That beautiful music! American group American Group!! Beach Boys, I love Music!!!" hahaha! He is seriously rad! He has shown me all the pictures on his camera of him in his tanktop playing his guitar! haha he is the best!
He picked out Ryan the first day because Ryan had a goatee and so he always talks to Ryan about Rock Bands and they are best buddies!
Q:How it teaching? Are the kids just adorable?
A: I know that it is supposed to get easier as time goes
on, but it seems to have gotten harder! We have a child who is really really
difficult and he takes a lot of work to handle. Then we have a perfect first
group! They are angels and we love teaching them! Then our second group is
really loud and full of bites, and Russian talkers, and distracters. So our
first 2 hours go really well, and then our second 2 hours go by so slowly, and
pretty much we feel really dead by the end! :) But I love the kids so much! The
Lord has really helped me feel his love for them! They are so cute and fun and
just adorable! I am going to miss them all so much (some more than others!).
The kids who are 6 who have done kindergarten a lot and are pretty advanced are
so much fun to talk with!
Really though like I mentioned before, we have about 17
new kids out of 33, and so we feel very proud of ourselves that we have
progress! Take 17 kids who have never been to an ILP English class, only know
Russian, and are between 3-6 and then teach them to sit quietly and only speak
English. Needless to say we are very happy with our progress, even though it
doesn’t seem like we have done anything some days! It definitely takes a lot of
work- but it is worth it to see the growth!
He is so smart this is an example of a sentence "I don't like pizza, but I like spaghetti and in Canada I have eaten bacon and I like bacon." (HE IS BRILLIANT!)
Yes this is our difficult child! He is crazy and I wish you knew what that really meant!
I have learned that anything can be broken and anything can be used as a weapon.
He is cute though-just determined not to learn!
Q: We know you have been thinking about serving a
mission- is that still on your mind? Or has this experience kind of cured you
of it?
A: Haha This experience has really opened my eyes up to a
mission. From living in a foreign place for an extended period of time and also
watching how hard the missionaries are working I have really been enlightened.
I don’t want to make any promises, but we will just say that if I am 21 and
nothing come up in my life then I am GONE! I have always wanted to be a
missionary since I was little because both my parents had served missions and
it always sounded cool! Now that I have been around so many people that don’t
have the gospel and not being able to say anything to them, my desire has grown
even more. So if it is also the Lord’s desire for me- I really want to. I know
how happy this gospel makes me, and so I want to share it with others! :)
Q:When I think of Russia, I think of COLD!!! How is the weather
A: So I have the weather updated on my IPOD everyday and so I also have Erda, Leeds, and Rexburg. To be honest it has been colder in Rexburg than here! hahaha why does that not surprise me?
It has been snowing on and off here, but usually it doesn't stick! This week the it is supposed to get down to 15 degrees and so that will be a little chilly!!! However I always dress warm!
It is not unbearably cold! Nights are really cold, but I am never outside at night and my apartment is very warm!
Snow in Russia!
Take that Luke!
Q:What are things you are going to miss when you go back
to America? What are some things that you won’t?
A: Well obviously the people! My host family, my fellow
ILPS, the kids, the missionaries, the ward members, and everyone who has helped
me!
Also the entire opportunity to live among a foreign
people everyday- to wake up every morning and remember that I am in Russia!
I will also miss the great food that my host mom cooks! I
will miss having everything be so crazy and being able to laugh at every
experience! Seriously crazy things are happening all the time!
I will also miss the nice break I have had from my normal
life- this has been an experience like never before!
I will not miss the crazy dirty potholed streets and the
busses (although they are very convenient sometimes, they are scary to ride!
They are crazy drivers!). I will also not miss the forlorn look on everyone’s
faces (I know it is just their culture, but it drives me crazy!)
I also won't miss spiders!!!
This beauty was in our kitchen on Thursday night- and yes that is a screw to the right of the spider and so yes that is how big the spider was! EWWW! And my host family will not kill them! People in Russia honestly don't kill spiders....
*gag*
So this is Slavic- and he is still chillin somewhere in the kitchen (or maybe my bedroom....)
Q: What are some things you cannot wait for when you get
home?
A:Obviously the people! :)
Also, I plan on eating a lot of Mexican food, just sayin :)
Also I can’t wait to see drinking fountains and drink all water freely to my
desire (I may have to camp out in the bathroom for a few days though… TMI..
sorry!) Also I can’t wait to pick my portions and pick what I want to eat!
I can’t wait to
know what is always going on and being able to ask for help in English! So many
times we are so clueless here!
I like Russia a lot! It is so fascinating and interesting
and has been awesome, but I can definitely say that I LOVE America! :)
Q: Any last thoughts?!
A: Thank you for all your support and advice, it helps a
lot! I love getting your messages and e-mails and just hearing from you all!
This has been so awesome and I plan to finish off with a
bang! An experience will never happen like this again and so I am planning on
soaking it all in!
Life is good, I am healthy (I have a cold that I haven’t
been able to get over, but it is mild and that is the worst that has happened)!
I am so excited to go home but I am so excited to still
have another month in Russia!
:) Happy Thanksgiving! Eat lots of ham and turkey for me!
We will be celebrating it on Saturday with our coordinators- should be fun!
Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers- they
help, I always feel safe here! Keep on doing the right things and miracles will
happen!
I send you my love from Russia!
:) –until next week!
Ето всё!
Keep smiling too! :)
