Just an update!

I haven't written anything is awhile so I thought I would let ya'll know whats happening. It's been pretty cold here lately, but mostly cause of the wind. School is going well and I'm only gonna teach two more times. My Russian is getting better, but it's hard when everyone is wanting to speak English with me--but I'm trying to hold strong and speak Russian. Anyway nothing new is actually happing--I wish I had something exciting to tell you all, but what can you do.
This is a picture taken behind our dorm. It's really cold and windy here, but was a gorgeous day!
And this is my roommate Luisa and I--enjoying the sunshine--not that we can actually feel it or anything.
The next two are me and friends out on the town.

Well everyone hope all is well and just have to say that I'm loving the pictures your putting on your blogs. I love seeing what everyone is up to. Till next time...

I went to the OPERA!

Some friends and I went to the Opera last weekend. It was really pretty and the costumes were gorgeous. The story was a fairytale of sorts and it was fun to listen to it in Russian. Luckily there were subtitles!! Yeah, above the stage there was this video thing that showed the subtitles--it was nice because I was able to understand everything that was going on. Anyway here are some pics of the theater.



Other than going to concerts, plays, and opera's things have been going well. Ok I made that sound like all I am doing is going to those kinds of things, which I'm not--BUT I have gone to one of each and have a couple more coming up. We are hoping to go out into the country soon to see yet another palace and see the sights there. Thats been one of the best things I've done is see the different palaces and historical places around St. Peters--It's really been great!

English class is going well. I actually have three different groups one on Thurs. night and two on Friday. Two of the groups speak really well and have plenty of questions about American stuff and it's been fun comparing the different cultures. Class for me is going well--my Russian has been improving..at least I can say more now than I could when I first got here. It's a challenging language, but am enjoying learning it and hope to cont. to get better.

I miss everyone and can't wait to see you guys in Dec/Jan!!! Later

Found a Graveyard!!

Some friends and I wanted to go for a walk then find somewhere to eat. On the way we took what we guessed was a shortcut and it turned out to be a huge graveyard. It was really neat to see it cause its not like the graveyards I have seen at home. Well most of it anyway and its really not saying much since I haven't seen all the graveyards, but this one reminds me of what you would see in a witch movie or something scary. But it wasn't creepy or anything it was (as Becky put it) peaceful to walk through. It was really huge and we didn't go through all of it, but I took some pics of the different parts. Some parts are completely grown over the graves and some are taken care of (cut grass and so forth). Anyway here are some pics...
Oh yeah and the white little specks you are seeing is what I am sure you already know is snow! For the past several days is has done a little bit of snowing then would stop. Its like mother nature is just gearing up to dump it on us.


This is just Julia (Italy) and I after we found our way out of the graveyard. I think I have decided which language I want to learn next and now I have people that I can stay with now. I mean who doesn't want to see Italy?
Well as for me everything here is going well. I am just going to school (almost everyday anyway hee-hee). I have started to--well its not really teaching, but conducting an English speaking class. It's so the students can have someone to speak Russian with. I had my first two classes last Friday and it was actually a lot of fun. My first group are beginners so they struggle, but overall understand quite a bit. They want me to talk about shopping this coming Friday and I really don't know what to talk about. Anyway my next group are advanced speakers and they want to talk more on buisness and school related topics. This next week the advanced class wants me to explain to them the rules of football HA that'll be interesting. To me all I see are a bunch of padded men running into eachother every couple of minutes trying to get the ball to the other side. Oh and you know can anyone explain to me why the US is the only country in the WORLD that had to change the real name of football (aka soccer)? I just don't understand it. Anyway so thats going well.

Anyway, hope all is well with you and will chat later.

Oldest City in Russia

Well its the first city anyway. Last weekend we went on a trip to Novogorod and went around to the different highlights of the city and it was great. It's not the most gorgeous city, but was pretty and had a lot of history. There were so many church-so many in fact I think it beats Provo and thats saying something. Most of them are not used anymore and are just sitting there, but I was able to go into a couple of them. Anyway here is what I saw...
This one below is a church from the 14th or 15th cent. I can't remember which, I would have take more pics, but they didn't like me doing that so...what can you do.
This is the inside of another church!



This one is so Russian--out in the country this is how people do laundry. It was so cold outside--well ok not cold cold, but too cold to be working with cold water doing laundry.





Well thats Novogorod for ya!