Bethany Goes to Russia

I talked to Bethany yesterday on the phone, then received an email this morning. Then shortly after getting the email, she called on the phone again!!!

Yesterday's phone call:

Bethany called crying. She was having some stomach problems. She woke up yesterday morning with severe pain coming in waves. She was bent over sitting on her bed, when Tonya, her mom, came in and saw her. Tonya, in her very limited English, asked Beth what was wrong. Tonya told Beth that she was a doctor and told her to lie down, and then Tonya poked around on Beth's stomach. Beth had no idea her mom was a doctor!!! Tonya gave her a little white pill and told her that if the pain got worse during the day, to call and they would take her to the hospital. Luckily the pain eased up as the day went on. So it might have been something that she ate.

Most of the reason that she was crying when she called was that she was upset. She had been to her Russian language class. She was having a large wave of stomach pain when her teacher called on her to answer a question. She hadn't been listening because of the pain, and trying to decide if she needed to run out of the classroom to use the bathroom, so she told him that she hadn't been listening, with the intention to then tell him why. But he cut her off and proceeded to lecture her on wasting his time and if she didn't want to be there, she could leave. She kept trying to tell him what was wrong, but he kept cutting her off, going on about wasting his time. She finally gathered her books, and left. She was afraid that she would end up saying something that she would later regret. So she went to the head teacher's apt, and that's when she called.

Since she was the only one in the apartment, she could freely talk, and gave me the scoop about the other teachers. She is feeling a little distanced from them. They all come back to the apartment each evening and stay and socialize until about 10:00pm. Since she is the only one that lives far away, and either has to take the metro, which takes 1 hour to get home, or her parents come get her at around 8:00pm, she doesn't get to have that time with them. They have that bonding time with each other that she doesn't get. Of course there are some that she has made friendships with, and others that are little harder to get along with. But she's dealing with it.

She absolutely loves her family. She finally met her little sister, Ula. She is 5 years old, and follows Bethany EVERYWHERE!!! Ula will sit and stare at Bethany as she's writing in her journal in the evenings, or when she reads her scriptures in the morning. Beth said it's a little creepy to be stared at constantly, but Ula is a sweetheart. She will also come into Bethany's 'personal bubble space' (as Bethany put it) , and come right up to Bethany's face and reach out and stroke Beth's cheek. Bethany is definitely not use to that!!! She likes her 'personal bubble space' and often doesn't let even family into it!

This week is some sort of holiday week where the Russians celebrate it by eating bliny at every meal. Literally EVERY meal!!! Bliny, in case you didn't know, are Russian pancakes, sort of like crepes. They eat them with meat, vegetables, etc rolled up inside of them with different sauces on them, or with jam or sweetened condensed milk on them. The meat ones are sometimes served for breakfast and the jam ones are served for dinner. It doesn't matter to the Russians. As long as your eating bliny!!! For dinner the other night, they had bliny with jam, sweetened condensed milk, and nutella! She told me that when she comes home, we have to wait for her to make us bliny. She wants good ol' fashioned American food for the first week!!! Then she'll cook us Russian food.


Here is her email that I received this morning:

Hello, So sorry I couldn't write to you any sooner. I couldn't get on a computer until now. I did find out that my house has the internet because I saw the son on it. But I didn't ask about it, I'll do it soon. My stomach is feeling better, but not great. However, my nose is runny and I keep sneezing. I feel like I'm coming down with a cold, which I probably am since everyone else has it.

Also, I'm not going to be teaching my class with Kara anymore. Jesh said that he was taking it away from me since I live so far away and it ends at 7:30pm. Heather is now teaching it. SO now I'm only teaching the Kindergarten class. I'm kinda upset about that. I understand that he was trying to be nice, but I'm not sure how true his intentions were. I really think that he doesn't like me, and I don't know why because I never did anything to make him mad at me!

I also am not sure what to do about my Russian class. I REALLY don't want to go back, I've been praying about it, and I'm not sure what to do. I wonder if it is mandatory. I really don't think I can sit for 2 and a half hours looking at a man that I hate. He was so rude to me that all I'll think about is how I want to punch him in the face! He shouldn't have treated me that way. He was way out of line! Please give me your opinion?!

We are going to Moscow the weekend of the 19th, so not this weekend, but the next. Jesh is buying the tickets today. So I'm way excited to go down there! I can't wait to go. We aren't teaching on that Monday and Tuesday, so we'll be there until then, so don't get worried if I don't call or email during that time. :) And make sure you remember me in your prayers so I don't get "Taken" :) Though I told Brandon that if any of us get Taken, I expect him to come after us since he's a Marine!

Oh, also, you know how on the departing paper I gave you it said to send things to the school? Well, that's wrong, they told us NOT to send anything to the school, to send it to the boys apartment or my house. So if for some odd reason you feel like sending something to me, don't send it to the school! lol

Well I guess this is all, hope you are all well.

Loves you more and more each day!

Boo

PS Dad, I still haven't shaved my legs! lol :) I'm trying for the whole time I'm here! ;)



My phone conversation with Bethany this morning:

As she said in her email, her stomach is feeling better.

Here are 2 stories that she told me that are quit interesting:

There are wild, stray dogs EVERYWHERE in St. Petersburg. Doesn't matter where you go, there are dogs lying around, following you, etc. On one of her first days there, Bethany and Tonya were out walking with Bonya, the family's dog. Suddenly they were surrounded by a pack of stray dogs, growling and barking. The dogs wanted to get at Bonya. Bethany said that she thought, "I won't look at them. I won't let them see that I'm scared. I'll just keep walking. Keep your eyes away from them." She told me that she felt like a little child who covers their eyes and thinks that if they don't see you, you won't see them. So Bethany and Tonya keep walking with the dogs getting closer and closer when Bethany hears a loud BANG in her ear, jumps a mile high, looks over and there is Tonya with a gun in her hand laughing at the expression on Bethany's face!!! In her very limited English, Tonya points to her gun, saying, "Game. Game." And then points to the dogs and makes a chomping motion with her hand pointing to Bethany. So Beth is assuming it was a toy type of gun and that the wild dogs would have bitten all of them trying to get to Bonya. When she got to the boy's apt, she told the teacher's what happened. Jesh asked her if she thought it was a real gun. She said that she didn't know. She couldn't tell the difference and asked him if it's common for Russians to carry around guns. Jesh's answer was, "Only if they are in the Mafia."

Which brings me to the next story... But first a little background. Bethany was told on her first day there that her family was very wealthy and that her father is rumored to be ex-Mafia. So of course, Bethany has had this in the back of her mind the past 2 weeks. Well, last night, Vova, Tonya and Ula picked her up from school. They usually go straight home or if they stop at at store or anything, they always have Bethany go in with them. Last night they stop at a store, and Tonya tells Ula to stay in the car with Bethany. Vova and Tonya go into the store and come out with a package. They don't say a word about stopping, why they stopped, what they were getting, nothing! Then they silently drive to a building that Bethany has never been to. Once again Tonya tells Ula to stay in the car with Bethany. Tonya gets out, goes into the apartment building. Vova gets out and stands on the sidewalk, looking up and down the street. Then he comes back into the car, gets a cigarette and goes back to the sidewalk. Within a minute, a man dressed all in black suddenly walks up to Vova, lights Vova's cigarette, and walks on. Within another minute, Tonya walks out of the apt building, not carrying the package she took in, but 2 other packages. Vova and Tonya silently get in the car and they silently drive home. By this time, Bethany's imagination is running WILD!!! Of course she's imagining every scenario that she has seen in movies and TV. All she could think about was the TV show Alias, and she is sure she's going to see bullets flying!!!

Bethany is going to try to talk to her brother tonight to see if she can somehow hook her computer up to the internet so that she can email more frequently and upload the pictures that she has taken so that we can see them. She is able to go online when she's at the boy's apt, but she usually only has time to check her email very quickly because all of the teachers are wanting to use the computer.

She would love to hear from everyone. nicknaaronsbabe@msn.com is her email address.