A Picture At A Time: December 2010

12/30 - Connor Again

So not going to lie, Connor is probably going to be a big part of my album for the next four months. He is just the cutest thing I have ever seen plus I will just be working so there's not much else for me to blog on that is worth anyone's time. This picture was taken as we were babysitting Connor on Thursday night. He was just a little ball of fun! We had the best time sliding him on the kitchen floor on his tummy as he laughed away! The funny thing about this picture is that Matthew was lifting him up and then he would stop and pose. His arms are behind his head like he's ready to fly away! :)

12/29 - Pelmeni Time!

I have been wanting to make my family something Russian since I got home and today I took charge and made dinner for them. It only took four hours to make pelmeni all by myself (much faster with five people)! It's alright though, it was fun to make it and give my family a taste of classic Russian cuisine. They said they like it - I hope they were telling the truth - but I can't see myself making it again anytime soon. It was fun while it lasted :)

12/28 - Readjusting

I know this is a random picture but I just have to say that it's one of the few things that I am having trouble getting used to - light switches on the inside of the room. Everywhere I ever went in all of Europe had the light switches on the outside of the room (no idea why) so after a while there I got used to it. Now I am back in the States and have been known to slam the wall outside of my room to turn the lights on with no success - imagine that. One other thing that I will have to get used to is free plastic bags at the grocery store. I know that one is weird as well but they cost about 10 cents in Russia so instead, you just shove everything into your purse. Danielle and I went to Walmart and I flipped when we got to the cash register and I realized I wouldn't have to stow everything in my bag - they give bags away for free! I could tell she thought I was a little weird at that point.

12/27 - Christmas, Take 2

Monday was more like our real Christmas because everyone was there, Michael and Courtney, Tarsi's, Cobabe's, and even the missionaries. We opened up our presents on Saturday but still had to exchange gifts with Michael and Courtney. I was dying to gift Connor his gift!! Luckily, he liked my handmade stuffed dinosaur from Estonia! Michael told me that he doesn't really have any stuffed animals so it will be good for him. I see it as, one day he will think it's cool that he has a dinosaur from Estonia - Michael told me he thinks it's cool already.

12/26 - Reunited

As most of you know, this is my dear little nephew, Connor. Isn't he just the cutest thing?! So him and his parents, Michael and Courtney, got home from Boise on Sunday afternoon and I was able to go over and see them all again. Connor doesn't remember me but that's to be expected considering I've been gone half of his life. Now that I am home for four months, we will have plenty of time to get reacquainted :) I didn't take this picture but the ones I did take on Sunday were accidentally recorded onto my camera's internal memory because I forgot my memory card in my computer.

12/25 - CHRISTMAS!!!

First off, how incredibly wonderful to actually be home after all of the troubles in Germany! Anyways, so this is the aftermath of our gift opening. Every year, my sisters get up at 3 AM and play games until 4 when they wake us all up to go down and open presents - extremely early I know but it's become tradition. So I was walking upstairs (fully awake at this time of course with the jetlag) and when I got to the stairs, I found my mother passed out on the couch surrounded by all of the gifts. I just thought it was cute so I snapped a picture :)

12/24 - Oh Kaylynn...

Every Christmas Eve, we have dinner with my Hokanson grandparents, open their presents, and then open one other present that's under the tree. Since I had been gone until the evening of the 23rd, I didn't have time to scope out the presents so I just had my sisters pick out a present for me. I ended up with Kaylynn's present to me and this was it. Talk about going above and beyond as a sibling!! It ended up being pictures of my Russia adventures framed and individually wrapped - what a great present!

12/23 - HOME!!

After two days in Frankfurt with absolutely no hope of getting home anytime soon because everyone and their dog was trying to get to the States with all of the cancellations, I finally got on a flight home! I really wasn't supposed to make it on the flight, it was a miracle and a blessing that I was able to get on. I was the last person to board with about two minutes until the plane left. The only reason I got on was because the guy at the counter thought I was cute and probably thought I was looking a little desperate. I honestly had no hopes of making it on that flight but once he told me he was printing me a boarding pass, I just burst into tears and he very nicely helped me onto the plane and then all of the male attendants helped me with my luggage and getting me to my seat. I will forever be grateful to that guy at the counter that I don't know but got me on the flight when I know I wasn't the next person in line to get on. I am going to give him a big hug in the next life!!

12/22 - Germany

Although I was stuck in Frankfurt for two days, I was able to get out a little bit on the second day when I went to the hotel the airline paid for me. It was nice to get out since I had been completely distressed for a while considering I had no hope of getting out of Germany anytime soon. I met a few people in line at the airport and when I had gone to the hotel, they were there and we decided to meet up and just look around the town. We only walked around for an hour but it was still nice to go do something besides sit in my room doing nothing, hoping to get on a flight the next day. Where we walked to was all lit up for Christmas. I have no idea where it was but it was fun to get some Christmas spirit!

12/21 - Hannover

How exciting to go home after four months in a foreign country?! Yeah, too bad I would have to wait! Everything was fine when we flew out of St. Petersburg but once we were in the air, the weather turned bad in Germany so the Frankfurt airport closed. How does an airport close? Anyways, our airplane had to go to Hannover, Germany and wait there for two hours until the airport opened again. This picture is when we were just chilling in the airplane with a bunch of other planes that were doing the same thing as us - waiting until we could go to Frankfurt. Once we were able to fly, we got to the airport and many flights had been cancelled including mine. The rest of the day was spent standing in lines just to end up on standby for a flight the following day.

12/20 - I Threw It On The Ground!

So we have to wear slippers inside at school and from about a month in, mine started falling apart. Me, being the stubborn person I am, refused to buy another pair because they were free to begin with and I didn't want to pay for more when I was only going to be there for a couple months. Anyways, we went and had lunch at the kindergarten for the last time then it was time to say goodbye to the slippers that hardly stayed on anymore. This picture is when I had decided to throw them on the ground in honor of the YouTube video. If you haven't seen it, it's pretty funny and then you will understand why I did this.

12/19 - It's My Happy Birthday!!!

Yes, today I turn the big 2-1 in St. Petersburg, Russia. Can't think of a better way to celebrate than some Russian vodka in an elevator! Just kidding!!!! No, Sarah and I were heading home and I needed a picture with some alcohol still as a joke and this empty can just happened to be in the elevator so we frantically took a picture. Don't worry Mom, I didn't drink anything I wasn't supposed to! Anyways, I also spent my birthday decorating my host family's New Year's tree with Masha at 1 AM and going to church. It was actually a very nice birthday even though I didn't do much. Just said goodbye to the wonderful church members and missionaries of the Ochinsky branch. We had cake last night that my head teacher, Whitney, so graciously made for me :)

12/18 - Coldest Day of My Life!!

We all headed out to a lovely sunny Saturday morning all excited that the sky was clear, only to realize about two minutes in that it was freakishly cold!! I'm talking painfully cold! That's how Audra described it and it's truly the only way I thought you could accurately depict the extent of the weather. We could only stand it for so long before it was necessary to go inside somewhere and warm up. We checked at one point online and it was -1 degree Fahrenheit with a wind chill making it feel like -19! Ridiculous!! I'm so excited to go home and live in 45 degree weather for the winter in Washington!!

12/17 - Last Day

Friday was our last day of class :( We decided to forget teaching for once and just watched "How The Grinch Stole Christmas" instead (that's still some English for them, right?). It was also our last opportunity to take some pictures with the children we have grown to love dearly. This little kid in my arms is Vanya, one of the kids in my home group. He used to drive me crazy with his out-of-control ways but it seems that the kids you have the hardest time with are strangely the ones you grow to like the most. Anyways, I just love this kid. He is so cute and he laugh melts your heart. He wouldn't smile for a picture so I had to tickle him for this picture. Love it!!

12/16 - My "Family"

After four months, I FINALLY have a picture of my host family. They've been really great to me and I really appreciate everything they have done for me! My host dad's name is Alex and he's the one that can speak just a little bit of English. He know's enough to get by and helps me out a lot. My host mom is Nastya. She looks mean in this picture (that's just how Russians smile - it's all about the model pose) but has been very nice to me even though we can't understand each other besides eat, okay, and hello. Masha is the only child and apparently decided to be a model as well for this picture. Anyways, there you go Mom - my host family. I will tell you more about them when I get home in five days.

12/15 - Line Up!

For some reason, in the mix up of line up at the end of class, I managed to get roped into the line. I think Nastya (the one in the pink) grabbed my hand as I was walking by from the other class I was in and then there was a long line of other kids that latched onto my other hand and I became one with the kids. Just made me laugh :)

12/14 - Dear Dasha

Tuesday mornings we don't have class so some of us decided to go over to the Brown's again to hang out and play with their kids. All we really did was watch movies and pig-out but it was delightful! It's the little things that we've learned to miss while being here so doing nothing is actually very nice. On our way out, Dasha (this cute little girl) and her mom, Mandy, were headed to the bus stop for Sofia so they walked with us. Dasha told me I needed to put my coat on and when I did, she was putting hers on and I pointed out that we were both wearing pink. She got really excited and I felt it was necessary to get a picture of it.

12/13 - Dog Pile!!!!

I don't know why but I frequently get dog piled by most of the children. Usually it starts with one child being sweet and coming and giving me a hug and then a few others come to join the love and then I think that what happens is that one rily little boy will come and tackle the love resulting in many other children coming over jumping on top. This has for some reason come to be a daily occurance. Not going to lie though, it melts my heart a little bit when I hear them all yell "MISS LISSSSAAAAA!!!!!" then come flying into my arms :)

12/12 - Dinner With The Browns

We were all invited over for dinner tonight by the Browns - a family in our ward who is working for the US Consulate and is living here for two years. They've been here just as long as we have, have three children, and are delightful! They made fajitas for us (my most favorite dish) and let us marvel at how American their apartment felt. There were so many things we missed but didn't realize it. It was such a wonderful evening filled with lots of food and laughs. I think we marveled the most at their children being able to speak English. We knew that (they are American) but it's just so weird to listen to these girls speak fluently when we've spent four months with children who don't have a clue. Here we were playing Pretty, Pretty Princess with Sophia and Dasha. We have three more dates with their family this week!! We are thrilled to play with the kids and watch a movie in English on an actual television!

12/11 - Merry Christmas Coke Style!

Yup, I found this here. It was fun to find a legit glass Coke bottle at the store and enjoy some pop with Santa's face on it :)

12/10 - Watch Out!

The icicles here are pretty dang intense. There's a man in my ward who works for the US Consulate and he told us that there have been 11 people hospitalized this month because of the icicles and three people killed last year!! I actually had an elderly man the other day kind of nudge me to the edge of the sidewalk and point up at the icicles so that I would understand that he was trying to protect me from the icicles - how nice.

12/9 - St. Isaac's

I've been to St. Isaac's Cathedral a few times but never made it to the top of the dome. It's something like the fourth tallest dome in the world and you can pay about $3 to go up and walk around it. It was my last "must-see" thing to do in St. Petersburg and since I am going home soon, I needed to do it ASAP. We had the morning off so Natalie, Sarah, and I headed over there. It was so fun to go up! It was beautiful up there but what I think was the most fun was being able to look out and point at all of the places we've been. We've been to so many places here and I am so grateful that I have had the opportunity to come!

12/8 - New Year's Is In The Air

In Russia, they celebrate New Year's much more than Christmas. Christmas is actually on January 7th and all of these decorations are for New Year's like that beautiful New Year's tree there. Kind of backwards right? Anyways, this is the school I work at every day and just a few of their decorations. They go all out decorating for the holidays. It's so wonderful to come to class and have Christmas cheer (for us that is) all over!

12/7 - Stacking Children

I was trying to teach the children the dance to our end of the year show but after a while it got kind of old and we got restless so instead, I sat on the ground and they just decided to start piling on. I shoved them all off so I could get my camera out and take a video. Sorry it's a little long but we were having fun! I am going to miss these children terribly!!

12/6 - Nyet On The Breathing Room

I am going to miss these kids so much! For some reason lately, they have decided to sit super close to me when we are doing store. I feel like they've figured out that I am leaving soon so they are trying to get in as much time as possible before then. It just breaks my heart knowing I have to leave them!

12/5 - Too Much Snow

I am woman, hear me roar!! I'm not sure if you can really tell but this is a ton of snow that's not been shoveled in a long time. I managed to make it through this in heels!! It took a long time because I was walking a long way but I did eventually make it and didn't fall once!

12/4 - Pelmeni!!!

Sveta (she's behind me eating) taught us how to make my favorite Russian dish today, pelmeni. It's like ravioli with meat inside and then you put sour cream on top. I can't wait to make it for my family back home!

12/3 - Stars To Share

This was my arts and crafts lesson for the week. We colored popsicle sticks and I glued them all together then we put glitter on. Took a while but it's all done and we are going to use them for the end of the semester performance they are putting on as decorations.

12/2 - Wool :)

Lovin my wool socks! They keep me so warm and although they make make me look a little ridiculous here and there, it's okay because I just may make it out of here without any frostbite!!!

12/1 - Are You Kidding Me?

Class was outside today for an hour. I am pretty sure that is the dumbest, most irresponsible decision I have ever heard in my life. Class outside isn't so bad except that this was the first time since it's snowed. Now remember that we have like a foot and a half of snow and the temperature has been around 15 degrees or so if we are lucky. These children (22 of them) were all bundled up but had already been playing outside for an hour when we got them. Apparently it's a new rule that children here have to have 40 minutes of Russian classes then 2 hours of outside time in the mornings. Anyways, they were so frozen that they would come up to us in tears because their hands were so cold from their wet gloves. We tried our best to warm them up by rubbing our own hands around theirs but it didn't really make that much difference. We started trying to sing songs and do some teaching but it got to the point that I made the executive decision for all that we bag any sort of learning and just have the children run around to keep them warm as best they can. We had fun despite feeling like we were suffering from frostbite. I hope we can figure out a way to change this and have class indoors - this is just stupid and it makes me furious to have these children suffer (I'll step off my soapbox now)

11/30 - Bless Her Heart!

Natasha is my girl. She's the one in stripes here. After having an awful time with 90 minutes of roudy kids, we get to store and two girls didn't get prizes. They both completely burst into tears along with lots of screaming. Natasha did get a prize but gave it to one of the girls and then sat and patted Paulina's head to make her feel better. It made me want to cry because I appreciated her help so much!

11/29 - Sunset?

Sometimes it can be just so beautiful here! I think this was a sunset but it was only like three in the afternoon. You can definitely feel the effects of Daylight Savings Time here and quite frankly, it's such an awful idea for Russia. It already get's cold and dark here early, why encourage the madness?

11/28 - Too Much!!

So much snow!!! It's here for good no was of a few days ago :(

11/27 - Catherine's

Sveta took us to Catherine the Great's palace. It was very beautiful and very cold!

11/26 - Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving feast!!! We all managed to pull together and have a fantastic feast while still in Russia!! It was delicious!

11/25 - Pigeons

There are also a freakin ton of pigeons here. They seem to stick together when it's cold out

11/24 - Cold

The start of the blizzard

11/23 - Dogs

There are so many stray dogs here. Nobody pays to fix their dogs so there's an excessive number of wild ones all over the streets

11/22 - Ivanya

Ivanya is my guy. He can be a real turd sometimes but then other times he is great and gets so excited to see me. Today, we had class outside in these pavilion things. I got up to start and before I could say anything, Ivanya runs up and starts telling the class that they need to be quiet. It made me laugh and of course I needed a picture!

11/21 - Oh Elders

These are two of the four missionaries that translate for us, Elder Burban and Elder Anthony. The one on the inside got transferred a few days later but they came over to talk to Ray and get a picture with us.

11/20 - I Found the Romanovs!

Our excursion with Sveta this weekend was to the Peter and Paul Fortress. It is an island in the middle of St. Petersburg where the whole city began. It's a big fortress that was well protected during wars and later held political leaders as a prison. This room is in a cathedral and is where the Romanov family is buried (underneath the floor). Each white plaque is for a member of the family. The one on the far right of this wall in front is Anastasia's.

11/19 - I Can Breathe Again

I am thankful for this knob right here. It controls the heat in my bedroom. Russians like it much warmer in their homes but I don't :S

11/18 - Too Dark For Comfort

So we got to Whitney's apartment and after waiting for a while, the elevator door opens and the lights are out. Talk about scary! Do we trust elevators in Russia with no lights? We decided to risk our lives and did it. This is the outcome. P.S. We lived.

11/17 - Thanks Mom!

I was deep cleaning out my room and realized that I forgot to take a picture of the package my mom sent me. They told us to make sure there's pictures of Christ so no one will open them but Mom went a little crazy. Not only was that one on the bottom taped on, there was also one on the bottom of the box and more loose in the package! Made me laugh :D

11/16 - Best Hair Ever!

Man, I wish someone would do this for me! Then I wouldn't do my hair for like a month! Anyways, I came home from school and Masha had her hair like this. I first just said, "Cool hair, Masha" then I had her come back so I could look closer and comment "REALLY cool hair Masha."