Catching Up

I have neglected this blog for a little while because I went on vacation and when I came back the internet didn't work, so that is why there are no new things for the month of March. Here is kind of an instant replay of what happened. Gabe, Ted and my birthday are within a week of each other and so we had a party week that is still going on even now. It has been a lot of fun. There was a man's day and a woman's day in the past little while and over the woman's day vacation, we went to Nizhney Novograd for our first out of Moscow vacation. It was awesome. We rented an apartment for two nights and it was really inexpensive for lodging. We got to see some crazy stairs that are shaped into a giant figure 8, I touch the Vulga River, and then the next day I went and had a snow ball fight on it because it is still frozen over. I played around in the Kremlin, I bought a mace because Russian maces are important..., I slid down an ice patch inside the fortress and had quite the audience staring at me as I did so. I have seen more churches on every street corner here in Russian than I did in Utah and that is saying something. I rode all kinds of public transportation, I met some really amazing people at a ward social in Nizhney that I will never forget and I will always love. One of my life long dreams has been to go inside a mansion that you read about in classical novels i.e. Count of Monte Cristo, or Pride and Prejudice, or more apropriatly, War and Peace, and one of the most amazing families lives in an old merchants house that was turned into an apartment complex during the communist reign and I was able to watch the Best Two Years inside a house that has more history in it than I will ever have in my entire life. The oddity of watching the Best Two years in this mansion adds that much more to the expience for me. This vacation was incredible. So many things that could go wrong didn't, and everything seemed to have a way of working out.
Teaching has been a lot of fun and work. Some of the kids truly hate me for reasons that I don't really understand. It does bother me because all of the other reports from other head teachers say that the head teacher is the favorite person in the whole group. I have concluded that I am the one that gives the most disipline and therefore I am the dreaded, hated, and feared Ms. Megan. That has not been the best part of my teaching expirence, but I love to watch the little kids faces light up when they understand what you want them to do and can respond correctly in English.
There have been the weird stories from my teachers about public transportation that have caused me some stress as the head teacher. For example, one Sunday, Ted Angie and Gabe were riding home on the metro after a missionary discussion and there was a crazy man who came and sat across from Ted. He had a backpack and when he got on the metro he pulled out a saw and a rope that he proceeded to tie into a noose. Then he hung himself from the hand bar and smile creepily at Ted and then ask very polietly in English if he could do Ted the service of hanging him. When Ted told him no, he then asked if any of the people in my group had been into the Russian forrest at night and where we lived and what school we taught at. I had mixed feelings about this story. I was angry that they stayed in that wagon as long as they did, I was jealous that I missed it, and I was terrified that people actually do that.
That was the same day that I filled in for one of my teachers at church. She has a calling in the Sunbeams. I thought that it wouldn't be a problem because I teach little kids the rest of the week and I love my niece who is a sunbeam. I came out of church with foot prints all over my shins, scratches down my arms, and bit marks on my calves. I have never felt so irreverent than trying to help teach Sunbeams. Not to mention I felt abused and frustrated because there was not one thing I could do accept for chase the little girl named Rachel into the priesthood meeting and carry her out of the room interupting all of the men's comments. I must have a way with children because there is not one in Russia, even if they were born in America, that likes me.
I am leaving for Finland, Sweden, and St Petersberg this week so I will not be around to blog about my adventures, but when I get back there will be some much needed good times, and some much needed new stresses. I am pretty excited to visit some new temples and see some pretty amazing new culures.