One month...check

Ok so it's been one month already. It's strange to think that I have lived here for that long and that I will be here for 9 more months! What has happened?...I've really been enjoying my church family. It's great to have a good church way over here in Russia. On Tuesdays we have a young adult bible study. This last week I brought my guitar along and played a couple songs. That was nice. They are trying to get me to play for church. I don't think I'm ready for that yet. Maybe after a little while. Um...last night my friends and I went to this amazing look out spot. The pictures are from here. You could see the whole city and almost all of the Seven Sisters. The Seven Sisters are seven beautiful buildings that Stalin built. Probably the only nice thing that he did. I LOVE them. Every time I see one of them I just can't help but stare at it until it's out of sight. It's just amazing to me that I learned about Stalin in history class and you hear all these things about him and it doesn't really seem real. You know it happened but it still doesn't seem real. But now, being here makes that part of history come alive to me. I can see and touch something that Stalin built. I could go see his bunker and walk in his office. I saw Lenin's body! It's so amazing. That's what I love about Moscow. It has so much history. It's a modern city but they hold on to their history and honor it with passion. Their are statues of was heroes all over the city and most of the people know who they are and what they did. Some people even bring flowers. The Seven Sister that I walked by is now the University of Moscow. It was a fun night. It was late and there was a lot of walking but it was still really fun.

School is still really stressful. The kids are just starting to like me. I think they are realizing that I might be an OK person. They are asking me for help and trying to talk to me. If you can remember back to a blog about two girls swinging. At first they didn't know how to ask me to swing them. Then I got them to say, "Again, please." Now they are saying, "Swing me again, please." I think that's amazing! So after all that progress and a little light starting to shine at the end of the tunnel...it all changed. I was told yesterday that I will now be responsible for all of the kindergarten not just half. This means that I will be a teacher to twice as many kids and be constantly moving around. I feel like I'm starting all over again. I was just getting used to the schedule and now it's all changing. I was just getting these kids to talk to me and like me. Now I have to start all over again with a new group of kids. Anyways, this may mean nothing to you but I felt like crying. Right now at this moment, I would take my old group of kindergarteners in a heartbeat. I thought student teaching was hard?! I remember thinking, "This will be the hardest class that I will probably ever teach." Nope. This is SO hard. How do you discipline children that can't understand you? How can you help a crying child when you don't know what's wrong? I just have to keep going. I'm here and this is where the Lord wants me so I am going to do my best.