Second Week in Russia

Hey Everybody!!

Wow, I have so so so much to talk abut! I even brough my journal to talk about it all. See, everything that I have experienced, all my memories are now in the past week and youi don't know any of them!!

Mommy called me on Friday and that was a huge relief...I hadn't planned on talking on the phone at all, and was just waiting until today so thta I could email...and then she called. I was a bit overwhelmed, still, and wow..haha,. I did finally get my suitcase! it came at midniht monday night...and man, when you're already asleep and smeone comes into the rroom "vctaite tvoi chemodan zdec" let me tel ya, it's abrupt. lol. but everything was there, they thought my alarm clock was a bomb. lol kind of funny after the fact. Daddy called on sunday, another great surprise, haha, and my landlayd (Zhanna) kept saying that I was talking so fast! lol we laught a LOT at home, and really half my time is spent talking to her. which is great. lastnight her nephew came over from work and he talked with us for aboutr 2 ours. he taught us a lot of slang and we drank kracni chai (tea from flowers) and ate little cookies. so much fun! (the food is great...and we are walking around SO much..no worries) these people have so much patience, most of the time. lol today i went to mail spencer's letter at the post office, and man i stumbl3ed through that process. bu I accomplished it! haha, just gotta get out and do it!

wow, so, where dO i begin? im afraid this WILL be all over the place, plus this keyboard is not quite boriekn in so it's not the easiest thing to type on. nechevo. okay, so the russian is till at time so overwhelming. i have better days and I have worse days. man! last Thursday? I think my gurp went wandering around one of the main streets, nevski prospect, and just looked at some of the amazing museums here!! there's so much history and on saturday we went on an excursion on a bus...and the narrative was in engloish so I understood it all. I've been taking so many pictures but I ,elft my camera cords at my apt, so maybe next week. also, i dunno. anyway, sabout the trip, the ting that sticks out most in my mind (well 2 things) was the visit to this memorial, i forgot what it's called, but it's the memorial where all the people who died during the blockade here (1941--nazis) are buried. it was a mass burial and each day about 5,000 ppl died and cars went around picking them up. they were given...2 kg (?) it hink each day.i.wa s this tiny little piece of bread. and they had in the museum there a jounral from a 13-yr old girl. she wrote each day that someone else in her family had died. an dthen at the end, she wrote "all died. I am alone" It really made me sad and made me think about this city and why I Love it SO much! I mean...learning bout the history...see, st. petersburg was built ad modeled after the european cities becack peter 1 loved europe. so, it doesn't really look like russia to me. I can't wait to go to moscow, novgorod, and hopefully finland. but the mmeorial made me think so much about what i have and what i live on and how sad this time must of been for these people; yet they still lived. they still worked, went to school, and they still survived. that's the russia I love. i love how the language reflects the people and their history so much. and i love learning about the history here it's amazing. Zhanna has talked a little bit about the blockade (she was really little) and I feel frustrated that I cannot communicate with her better about it (we do communicate quite well though. lol it's really hilarious at times)...speaking of language, my best language blunder was sunday. hahahah. okay...
at church one of the bretheren (I'll tlak more about church later) gave a talk (he's american) and he talkec about a break up with is girlfriend. I was tryig to explain this to Zhanna, and when I said "break up" she asked me if I knew what that meant. I said I thought I did...she explained that it means to rip off one's cloths! lol....hahah, we laughed really hard about that. and now, one of my filler sounds is "num-num"...it's so great. i love it and i love her....

the first day of class was icredibly hard. I didn't understand anything, but the second day (yesterday) i sat closer to the teacher so that I could focus on her, and I really felt like I understood more. plus, hearing/readig/speaking russian all the time is amazing practice. it frustrates me when other people in the roup speak english ALL the time. granted, i do slitp into it, probably more often than I would prefer...but I am trying to only speak russian. well, I gues swe ahave different goals. so, yeah, i'm finding that if I don't knwo how to say it in russian, I just dont' say it. I'm a lot quieter here, as a rule actually because the Russians are a ot quieter people. and man the metro! lol it was y first time on the metyro, and it was crazy.! but now it's completely noral. I ride it at least twice every day...it takes me about an hour to get ANYWHERE. I'm really lucky to have everything else near by( grocery store, other stores, park, [i went running with my roommate aubree], post office, fountains...) .i really want to show you some pictures, but I cannoty right now.

Hm, okay quickly about church...it was a 6 hour ordeal. lol, my porgram leaders asked us who wanted to be adventurous, and ofcourse I said I did...so me, my roommate, our friend Rachel, Tim (he served here) and Kevin are going to this ward in a subburb or st. P. ...it's about a 30 min metro ride, then a 30 min bus ride..it's so great! lol. Um, so, we get there, and there are..maybe, 13 people. yup, tiny tiny branch. and it's mostly old grandmas's there's this one 18-yr old girl who just glowed! I want to get to know her so well...and these two other girls, 14 and 12, I think? I want to become their sister! it's so wonderful to be i such a Prixod (branch)...I mean, never have I have anything like this given to me. it's so awesome! so, haha, during relief society all we did was tlk about ourselves and and get to know the old babushkis (5 of the?). oh, and then after church the branch president (senior missionary, there with his wife) came up to me...and asked me if I would be comfortable speakig next week in sacrament meeting. whoa, what! lol, ofcourse I said yes, and i am exictedto prepare. I am actually about as excited as I was last sumer. It's like, I've been studying a lot aout trusting in God and just how and why and what it gives us and the different tangents of it...and that day the closing hymn in sacrament meting had been "I"ll go where you want me to go" and MAN, did that have significance to me. I can't explain all the emotions and comforts and calmness it brough to me sitting there signing it IN russian, IN russia...it was amazing. so I am exicitned to alk. I have not yet gotten a\ny where near ready...15 mins in russian! ah, haha, great! my friend, tim, told me today that it's his fault that I am speaking. he said the branch pres asked him which of us 3 girls spoke the best, and he said me. I told him he's probably not right, but I'm still honored and excited (and nervous) to speak. but the ward is so loving, that I really just want to share with them what I've been learning and how we can apply it...I'm not so much worried about the langauge as commnicating something of importance and use to them. Pray for me and that the spirit will bve with me in my preparation as well as my deliverance!

I only have 20 mins left...how does time go by so fast! and it's already 4.15 here. I am 9 hr ahead of ar...10 from ut...11 frm nevada...haha, i slept for 11 hours when I first got here. I dunno what else to talk about...so many things in my mind and in my thoughts. Iam fudning that I understand more than I can speak. hopefully tha'ts the first step...whew.

So, please know that I love you all so much! Let me know what is going on at ome, if you have time, and Mommy if you could please forward this to spencer...I haven't forgotten him and I am still happy to hear about him. I pray for you all! I love you! Until next week...:-D

Love always, from Russia,
amber