... and its back to the forest!

With all of our big travels now out of the way, this past week gave us the chance to relax a bit, enjoy a few sights around Moscow, and get back into the swing of things with school. Some thoughts:

Is it really November?
Almost invariably, the first thing people would say to me when they'd hear I was coming to Russia was that the winters were going to be unbearable. This might still be the case--we have 4 more weeks here--but thus far, the weather has been surprisingly warm and snow-free. At least when compared to what I'm used to in northern Wyoming. And Logan. We so far have remained well above freezing temperatures (with a few exceptions), and have yet to have any of the little snow we've seen actually stick. The biggest indicator that we are slowly sinking into winter hasn't been dramatic changes in weather, but in the amount of sunlight: its completely dark a little after 4 pm.

Putting in some miles.
Since snow and cold are inevitable, though, I've been taking advantage of this nice weather and been squeezing in as much running as I can before retiring my running shoes for the year. The area we live in has been ideal for maintaining my running addiction: the footpath I use every morning runs between the main road, where I pass several police officers everyday (so yes, its safe), and the forest (which makes it scenic as well). I'm going to miss my little dirt trail.

My awful attempt at taking an artistic photograph:

My beat up Nikes with the road I start my jogs down in the background.

Something interesting always seems to happen on my morning jogs.

Take yesterday: as I've mentioned before, I wouldn't exactly call the Russian police we've seen warm or particularly friendly. Therefore, as I run past several of them in the mornings, I always envision one of them stopping me, demanding to see my passport and, when I can't produce it, hauling me off to some Russian prison where I can't communicate with anyone and all I'm given to eat is stale bread (of course, everything after "produce it" would never happen... I don't think...). The other day, though, I learned that the policeman aren't all so stern and robotic after all. After running past the security guard station in front of the President's house last week, I suddenly heard yelling from the 3 guards who'd been out front. Immediately, my heart sank--I had been the only other person in sight, so I knew their shouts were directed toward me. What I saw when I turned around, though, completely took me by surprise: all three of them were smiling and waving their arms at me! One of them even did the universal sign for running--yes, swinging your arms--and start laughing before starting up his enthusiastic waving again. Were they making fun of me? Probably a little bit, yes. But it was so unexpected and amusing that I couldn't help laughing and waving back before continuing on.

Gearin up for the "Spec-tacle"-
The culminating event of our kids' semester of English is called "The Spec-tacle," which is basically a music program to showcase for the parents that the thousands of rubles they've spent to have their children spend a couple of hours with us a day wasn't a big fat waste of their hard-earned Mafia money. Wanting to make the performance both Christmasy (the school requested that it be Christmas-themed) and quintessentially American, we had the brilliant idea to do a Cowboy Christmas skit--complete with "filthy outlaws," cattle lassoing and "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." We just finished writing up the script and creating the visuals to teach the new songs (its felt an awful lot like putting on a Primary program for sacrament meeting...), and we're all pretty excited about it. One of my more notable contributions to the whole thing was the basis for our main outlaw, "Cowboy Joe." When he is introduced, he and his band of no-goods are singing a very condensed (and grammatically edited) version of the University of Wyoming fight song, which is going to be awesome. Hopefully these kids can learn the songs and their lines before December 3rd.

Some pictures I got of my kids just recently... Gosh, I love these kids. Most days. :)

This is Vadim. He's such a sweet kid... he always opens doors for us or makes sure we have chairs... its very cute. So cute that I'm willing to sing the stupid "Baby Shark" song over and over and over everyday--its his fav.


Mischa (left) and Danya, two of our older boys. Mischa is going to be Cowboy Joe, and Danya will be one of his outlaws. I can't wait.


Agata has to be the cutest little girl in all of Russia. Us teachers aren't the only ones who think that either, since two of the boys in her class are always fighting over her. She is very quiet, but when she does speak in class, she tries sooo hard to repeat correctly. Such a cutie.

Going back to church.
Because of our crazy travelling the past few weeks, it had been, well, too long since I'd been to church. I love our little branch here so much. One aspect of it that has really had an impact on me is how much of a push and a priority missionary work seems to be. Just this last Sunday, 5 new converts were confirmed in sacrament meeting. Four of them were the Yamba's, a black family who only speak French (I've come into contact with so many different languages here in Moscow, its crazy). But anyway, the Spirit was there so strong, and it was so awesome to see the joy on those people's faces. I was so happy to be back to church after just missing a few weeks... I can't imagine how wonderful it must be to finally find the gospel after 15, or 30 or even 50 years. Go missionaries.

Other notable moments:

Watching the man trying to sell us tazers (sp) and daggers cut off a chunk of his finger to demonstrate how sharp his knives are. Yikes.

Almost walking into the middle of a scary drunken brawl in the Ploschad Revolutsi metro station. Double yikes.

Bustin up laughing as all of us tried not to gag playing "Bing Boozled" with the ILP director and his wife from Provo (why, you may ask, would this game make one feel like gagging? Read on...)

Tasting "skunk," "dog food" and "baby wipes" flavored jelly beans... very interesting.

"Texting" my sister Emily all week through my email (technology is amazing... I've gained a greater appreciation for the good things that can come from it here, since its been how I've kept in touch with my family and friends this whole time).

Signing up for classes!! Can't wait to be an Aggie again!!!

Hearing that Jessa and Wes are going to be Aggies again as well (woot!).

Finishing Mockingjay (intense...), my first Clive Cussler (enjoyable), and working on President Monson's biography (loving it).

Getting a birthday card in the mail from my Lovell grandparents (it made my day!!).

Hearing some awesome stories from my favorite missionary. :)

Learning my part for our role in the Spec-Tacle (we're supposed to reenact part of a Tom and Jerry-like Russian cartoon. Its pretty hilarious, and the song is super cute. You can see part of it on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMimPY6WTVE

The song starts at right about 5 minutes. For some reason, I got chosen to play the mouse with the very high-pitched voice.)

I love Russia! Its been such a blessing to be here--I've learned and experienced so much. I miss everyone, though, and am excited for December 19th!


...


Okay, one more thing. My roommate Whitney found this Russian music video and, while most of you won't understand the words (we don't either), the storyline is easy to pick up through the video itself, and its just... so cute. Plus its all filmed in Moscow, which makes me love it all the more. Its worth a look:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XFURc_YkJjk