Твоё достоянье на все времена!

The semester I spent in Russia wasn't an easy one for me—culture shock is never kind—but it was wonderful. I'll admit I felt a little out of place at first amongst the girls who ended up being my co-teachers. Michelle and Natalie had chosen to go to Russia together. They knew Staci and Emily, who'd chosen to go to Russia together. Esther and Stephanie also chose to go to Russia together. That left me and Tiffany, who was wonderful but was on a different teaching schedule, so it took a little while to get to know her.

Me and Tiffany on one of our first days at the school

Monday, Monday

So, it's ten to ten and I just remembered that I forgot to tell Rachel to go to bed. It's not like she's six years old and has to catch the bus at eight o'clock in the morning or anything like that. Oops.

She's just so quiet now. It used to be that we'd put her to bed and she'd be obnoxious until she'd finally fall asleep. Now she does what we'd call USSR in my grade three classroom (that stands for Uninterrupted Sustained Silent Reading—and it's funny because USSR (even though I started grade 3 in 1993 so the USSR was no longer the USSR but the Russian Federation)). Rachel, if left uninterrupted, could probably sustain reading silently all night long (and that's no exaggeration).

Miriam likes to read in bed as well—she even set up a "reading center" at the foot of her bed with a special pillow, some reading buddies, and a "library" of books to choose from—but she has self control (and a killer need for sleep) and will turn off her lamp and be fast asleep long before her sister.

Benjamin, I'm proud to say, has taken to sleeping quite well as of late (I hope I didn't just jinx myself). Last night I was having a hard time getting him to believe it was bedtime. I must have tucked him five or six times before Andrew took over. He helped Benjamin lie down, tucked him in, kissed him on the forehead, said, "Good night, Little Monkey!" and walked out of the room.

Within a minute Benjamin was sound asleep.

Tonight bedtime went a little better for me. I tucked Benjamin in and told him I was "going to go get my book" but really I was going to see how long he'd stay in bed by himself. He lasted for quite some time but eventually I heard him get out of bed, muck around in his room, and make his way to the door.

I met him at the doorway with my book in hand.

"Back to bed," I said, ushering him along.

I smiled when I saw he'd stopped to tuck in three baby dolls before coming out to see what was taking me so long. I moved the dolls out of the way, tucked him back in and settled down on the floor next to his bed with my book. I don't think I'd even turned the page before he was softly snoring (I finished the chapter anyway).

I could get used to having everyone in the house go to bed (more or less) when they're told and even when they're all crazy on sugar and/or Olympics.

New Pew

Things were shaken up at church yesterday when both the Relief Society presidency and the Young Women presidency were reorganized. Our church organizations are run with volunteer steam—from the bishop (the leader of our congregation) to the Primary presidency (that's me—the secretare-extraordinare) to the Valiant 9 teacher (that's Andrew) to the higher up officials (like the apostles) to the 80,000 missionaries worldwide—everyone donates their time.

Sometimes the callings are rather taxing—like that of the Relief Society Presidency—and other times they're pretty low-key—like that of the Sunday School Presidency (what do they even do?). It was quite obvious the Relief Society President was relieved to be excused from her position (while our newly called president looked a little nervous).

On a side note, one of the tasks the Relief Society is charged with is assisting new mothers. It seems like half the women in our ward are pregnant right now. Three women have had babies in the past month and we still have about a dozen to go before summer hits. This means that those of us in child-bearing years who are not pregnant are having to walk around being as blatantly asymptomatic as possible so as not to arouse suspicion of any underlying condition.

Seriously—on Tuesday night I got an innocent drink of water and was asked (and I quote), "Are you just thirsty or do you have an announcement to make?"

Just thirsty. Honest!

Oh, what do you do in the wintertime when it's rainy, wet, and cold?

This week, as I mentioned, has been mostly cold and rainy, which means Andrew's been taking the van to school, which means that we've been trapped at home. For the most part this has been okay because Benjamin has a nasty cold—his nose has been replaced by a mucus faucet—so we probably would have skipped playgroup anyway.

Just because we would have been staying home anyway, had we had the van, it doesn't mean that we didn't have any stir-crazy moments. Fortunately Benjamin and Miriam are both pretty good at creating long-lasting games and we can usually entertain each other until Rachel's bus finally pulls up.

Today Benjamin spent some time pushing babies around (and around and around) in strollers:

Oh, Russia

The 2014 Olympics began in Sochi, Russia, today and it's also my ten-year anniversary of teaching English in Voronezh, so I'm in the mood to celebrate.

On Tuesday I dug out the "shawl" I made in Russia when I was learning to crochet. It's a beautiful bubble-gum pink and the yarn is so incredibly soft. I wanted to make a blanket but after I eventually bought all the pink yarn at the market (a chaotic square filled with stalls and tents, merchants hawking their wares over shoddy wooden counters, children running around with cabbage leaves on their heads) they never restocked, so this is as far as I got:

Rainy Monday

We're in for a rainy week. Today rain started early this morning and didn't let up until late in the afternoon. Miriam insisted she wanted to go for a walk.

"A walk?" I asked. "But it's pouring!"

"Oh, well!" she chirped. "I'll wear boots!"

She grew too small for her sassy pink rain boots, however, so all she's left with are her winter boots. They're waterproof, though, so I thought they'd do.

Benjamin recently inherited a pair of rubber boots but they are far too big (they're barely too small for Miriam) so he also wore his winter boots (because they're only moderately too big for him). They're waterproof, so I thought they'd do.

Little did I know how much splashing the children intended to do.

Stand up!

Benjamin's method of standing up has caused more face-planting than he'd care to admit.



Sometimes he'll pop into that semi-handstand position several times before deciding to finally stand up. I'll admit that it's fun, but when your head's the size his is things can get a little unsteady.

He also has no idea how to lie down on his back and it's hilarious to watch him try. It's also something that I thought he'd have figured out by now, but I guess not. I mean, he usually sleeps on his back and he's been able to roll over in either direction basically since coming home from the hospital (so still two weeks before his due date). It's not like being on his back is foreign. It's not like he's never gotten onto his back on his own. But ask him to lie down on his back and he just can't figure it out.

Buses

I'm a huge fan of public transportation. This probably doesn't come as a surprise considering I only got my license a year and a half ago. Unfortunately, due to the makeup of our communities in North America many—if not most—have inadequate public transportation systems. I've griped about this before.

Basically, I think buses should be more plentiful and cars should be...less plentiful.

To catch the bus here, I'd have to walk over a mile (along a busy road with no sidewalk). It is impossible to take public transportation to Rachel's school (at least via google maps—it says walking is the fastest option and gives no bus route options). Any bus that I can catch on the main road runs every hour. When the girls see a "city bus" they get excited...because it's unusual.

I'm grateful for our van and I'm also grateful that I can drive (even if I don't love it). I'm even more grateful for our scooter and for the weather we have here that allows Andrew to ride it so often (because gassing up the scooter is much cheaper than gassing up the van and if he rides the scooter often enough we can go three week to a month before we have to fill up the van). I just wish that public transportation is more of a priority to our society. But it's not.

I think this author hit the nail right on the head. He's discussing the need for better public transportation in Salt Lake City. A bus route through his neighbourhood was proposed by the city but his neighbourhood has been fighting against it:

One neighbor stated at a recent city council meeting that he found the very idea of rapid transit distasteful, simply because “families and children don’t ride buses.” I know he doesn’t represent the majority of people in the neighborhood, but I would have hoped such a view would have been widely criticized and shamed as wrong for the 21st century. This attitude denigrates public transportation users as a ‘certain kind’ of undesirable for two reasons: one is clearly based in class prejudice and the other based in custom. If poor people are the only ones riding public transportation, we as a culture have completely misunderstood the importance and need for public transportation. Its greatest benefits accrue when we value public transportation for everyone—families and singles, elderly and young, rich and poor. This requires a cultural transformation, and the reality is, it also requires making public transportation more convenient and accessible.

Public transportation needs to be convenient and accessible (in respect to location, travel time, and cost per ride). I'm sure there's some sort of bussing initiative someone could think up to encourage people to ride the bus...if a city would make a leap to make buses more available.

With the recent snow storm (the forecast says we're due for several inches this coming weekend—I sure hope not) I heard several people talking about how unsafe buses are. I'm not going to say that buses are always safe (because they're not) or that they never slip on ice (because they do). However, I will say that buses are generally safer than cars. They're designed to be safer than most cars and eliminate a lot of traffic (which means fewer accidents).

Anyway, I don't know what the solution is, really. I just wish we had more walking/biking/busing/metro-ing than individual automobiles. Maybe if we all talk about it and wish for it long enough it will happen...

Football vs. Eight is Great

This evening we had a baptism preview (called "Eight is Great") for the seven-year-old class. Each of them will be turning eight this year, "the time when a person begins to become accountable" for their choices (they've been taught the difference between right and wrong and have learned to recognize the spirit, etc.) "and can be baptized."

We had several speakers. The primary president spoke about baptism and read an entry from her journal about her baptismal day. She admitted to feeling scared because she wasn't entirely sure what to expect but that it ended up being a wonderful experience and she never wanted to forget how clean and pure she felt.

The children came up to sing a song.

The cub scout master spoke to the boys about their imminent initiation into the cub scout program. He also gave a brief introduction to the Faith in God program.

The activity days leader spoke to the girls about their imminent initiation into the activity days program. She also mentioned the Faith in God program.

The bishop got down to the nitty-gritty details of organizing a baptism program, date, interview, and so forth. He took the kids on a tour of the font and gave them some words of advice, which will hopefully help them feel more comfortable on their own baptism day.

We sang a closing song, blessed the refreshments, and ate. We gave the kids a white towel with a poem and a picture in a frame.

It took about a half hour to get through the program (which was just about perfect for a seven-year-old attention span), we ate every last crumb of food, and the men broke down our set-up in record time.

Seriously. It took three women nearly an hour to get everything set up perfectly—tables, chairs, table clothes, podium, piano, food—and about ten minutes for the fathers of the children to put everything away (including wheeling the piano back down the hall). I was impressed.

And then I realized that it's Super Bowl Sunday! Obviously there are no men in the primary presidency. We planned a church event smack dab in the middle of Super Bowl Sunday!

Although our attendance rate was high (seven of eight children attended the program with one or two parents in tow, along with some grandparents and siblings) it was obvious some of the men were ready to bust out of there (especially when it came time to clean up—never have I ever seen a group of men volunteer so quickly to get things put away).

(Next year Rachel will be attending Eight is Great. That's just crazy.)

Frozen

We have listened to the Frozen soundtrack so many time on Spotify that we finally decided to buy it—support the industry and no more commercials (win, win). It's fairly safe to say that two-thirds of our children know most of the words to every song (there are still some lines they sing funny—for example, Rachel asked me yesterday why Elsa says, "Up here in the golden air I finally can breathe." The lyrics are "cold, thin air").

Even Benjamin will sing along with 'Let it Go' and 'Love is an Open Door,' though he only sings one word for each of those songs (go and door, respectively). His favourite song is 'Frozen Heart.' He has choreographed a dance for it. And it's adorable. And I took a video of it but if I post it YouTube will get mad at me for copyright infringement or something so you'll just have to imagine his adorableness (and that of the girls dancing and singing to the soundtrack).

At first Miriam was really drawn to Anna's character but since then she's converted to being an Elsa fan. She was invited to a princess-themed birthday party for her friend Lauren, who, incidentally, had a princess-themed birthday party that we attended last year.

Last year we arrived to the party wearing regular clothes and found the house full of pretty, pretty princesses. Miriam was mortified—even after Lauren's mom said it wasn't a problem and found an extra princess dress for Miriam to borrow. This year, Miriam was determined to be the belle of the ball. She hired Rachel as her designer and the two spent quite some time yesterday coming up with the perfect Elsa costume: