здравствулте!

здравствулте! In other words, hello! This blog is where Philip and I will record our experiences that we will have in Russia for the next 4 months! Below are 2 posts about Russia from our normal blog that are relevant to this experience:

THURSDAY, OCTOBER 28, 2010

Russian and the MTC

SO Philip has been trying to teach me Russian ever since we got married. I can't lie, I haven't always been very responsive to his attempts. I listen and respond when he teaches, I just haven't really made a huge effort to learn Russian. I actually would love to learn Russian, but the thought is quite intimidating because Russian is so different! Its alphabet is so confusing to learn too!

Well last night I became inspired to put some effort into learning Russian. Philip goes to the MTC to act as an investigator for Russian Training missionaries quite often, and last night I decided to go with him. We were with 2 sister missionaries who had been in the MTC for 7 weeks and were expected to answer any gospel question we could come up with completely in Russian. These sisters did a pretty good job, especially considering that Philip tried to challenge them to use more vocabulary. Well, as I sat there listening and only understanding extremely small snipets of their conversation, I began wishing that I understood more of what they were saying and wanting to contribute but not being able too. I realized that unless I really get serious about learning Russian this is how I will feel the entire time I am in Russia with Philip! I want to learn Russian!

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 26, 2010

Goin to Russia!

Right now Philip and I are really excited about the opportunity we will have this winter to teach English to children in Russia for 5 months. We will be going to Voronezh, Russia. This is a city of about 1 million people and is around 350 miles south of Moscow. We will be living with a host family who we look forward to getting in contact with. We are going through the International Language Program (ILP). If you would like more information you can check out ilp.org. This is a non-profit organization. Meaning that we are paying for this trip and going as volunteer's. We don't receive school credit for this time, but a break from everyday life here in Provo will be nice.

I am really excited to experience the everyday cultural aspects of Russia. This will be my first time out of the United States, and a very different and exciting one it will be I'm sure! Philip of course is uber excited to go back to Russia (even though this location is practically half way around the world from where he served his mission in Russia) and get to speak the language with locals and experience life in Russia not as a missionary.

Being able to speak Russian when you go isn't required (lucky for me) because all of the teaching is done through interaction with the kids while speaking in English. Luckily though, Philip speaks Russian, so while we are out and about he can communicate with the natives. I really hope to learn a lot of Russian while we are there. Then we can have a little Russian speaking family! =)

We will definitely try to do good at keeping the blog up to date about it all when we are there so that anyone who would like to read about it can!