Around the House and Village

 Host Brother Makar laying on the couch getting ready to eat a marshmallow.

 Oliana eating a whole big marshmallow. The kids eat the huge marshmallow and then can't talk for 5 minutes while they are chewing it.

 Victoria and Me at Susie's doing the dishes after we were done making popcorn and cinnamon rolls.

 Me and Oliana in our village.

 Victoria and Oliana in our village on our adventure to go out and explore it a little bit more.

 Random forest in our village. It was really nice to go in and walk through. Reminds me of home.

Friends in Russia

 Me and Brittany on the couch in Susie's apartment after a long day of teaching.

 Me, Victoria, and Sergey at McDonald's one day after school

 Sergey and Masha. They ride the bus with Victoria and me. We live in the same village.

 Me and Victoria being silly. These white scrunchies are worn by girls on their first day of school. It is a tradition here in Russia.

Russian Friends

 This is me, Victoria, and Sergey at McDonald's near the school.

This is Sergey and Masha. They both ride the bus with Victoria and I sometimes.They live in our village.

Level 3 Playing My Violin

 I brought my violin in for my class to see and talk about it. They had me play a lot of songs because they thought it was the coolest thing ever and then they wanted to try themselves. This is Anya and Daniel.

 While we were playing with the violin Kolya was making bracelets out of ribbon for people. He gave me the blue and pink one on the right. He is really sweet and tells me he loves me everyday.

 Here is Daniel dramatically playing the violin. He is such a funny kid that reminds me so much of my brother Levi. I sweat they could be twins. He makes me laugh every time I teach him.

 Here is Anya and Varya playing with my violin. Varya was actually pretty good but Anya really wanted to play it and wouldn't ever leave it alone. I think she may end up trying to play later in life.

 Here is everyone when I first brought it out. They all thought it was amazing and wouldn't touch it at first but after the first person played it they wouldn't put it down and I had to practically rip it out of their hands to put it away so we could move onto something else.

 Here is Daniel rosining my bow for me and being a goof ball. He is such a character. I love having him tell stories in class because he uses facial expressions and gets very animated.

Here is Kolya playing. He was taking it very seriously. It was funny because he was trying so hard not to laugh while I was talking the picture.
I love my Level 3 class so much. They are so full of life and energy. I love being with them and learning from them. They teach me so much and I hope I am doing the same for them and not wasting their time. Children are amazing and we can learn a lot of stuff from them.

Host Family

 For everyone back home wondering what my host mom looks like here are a few pictures. She is very camera shy so I had to take pictures of pictures to get some of her. Their dad died some time ago and this is a picture of the family at the funeral. The children were very young and only Makar really remembers their dad but they don't talk about him very much. They loved him a lot so please appreciate this pictures and know that this is something very personal to the family that they allowed me to share.

 Here is a picture of Mom and Dad with Makar on a vacation somewhere that I can't quite remember the name of right at the moment.

This is Mom and Dad when they were first married at a party. They look so happy together and I wish I could've known Dad. I've only heard good things about him and I know that he loved his family very much.

Princess Caslte :D

 This is everyone after the hour long bus ride out to see the Castle. It was a beautiful little wooded place that I really enjoyed walking through.

 There's the Castle!!!!

 Amy found here king while we were there :)

 Everyone Standing under the archway as you enter the back garden area of the Castle.

 (Left: Susie, Mikah, Amy, Brittany, Victoria, Chance, Michael) It was really amazing to see a Castle.

 This is a summer Castle given to a German princess by her uncle as a wedding gift in the late 19th Century.

 Brittany found a hidden door on the back of the archway gate.

 Here's a fireplace inside the Castle. It was really dusty inside and looked very run-down.

 Some of the people who used to live in the Castle.

 The Ballroom! I will admit that I may have taken a few turns and spins while in here. Might have even been singing a few songs from Anastasia in my head too :)

 These are where the people used to shower. Doesn't look like it would be very warm or clean.

 The Grand Staircase that you use to enter if you were a guest.

 The Balcony. We were unable to go up to the second and third floors because they are working on remodeling it. I wish I could've gotten a picture from the top but this will have to do.

 Here is Mikah on the grounds of the castle. I just turned a looked and had to get a picture of her.

 The bridge that you cross 7 times to bring you luck in finding a future companion. It was a long time crossing that bridge with everyone 7 times.

 Susie and Chance standing on the stairs as you enter the castle. Behind Chance is part of the dungeon where they used to possibly keep all their animals like bears and tigers and such.

 This is everyone making the trip down the stairs. It was quite a workout. It makes me wonder how the royalty could stay so pleasantly plump when they had to walk up and down those stairs whenever they went out.

 Here's Michael at the bottom of the stairs.

 Me on the Stairs.

 Here's a random wedding car. In Russia most of the cars of the bridal party are decorated while the car with rings, doves, or some other wedding decor has the bride and groom. They travel all around town honking horns and taking pictures at all the different sites.

 Here's everyone waiting to go into the Russian Ballet. We weren't allowed to take pictures inside but it was amazing. We watched the Nutcracker which was really amazing. Had a lot of fun watching it.

Here are some random trees that they lit up in the park during the night. Thought it looked really cool.