Orthodox church

April 23 2011
Today I went to the orthodox church.  It is tradition to go a day before Easter to do a number of things. All throughout the day you come and bring your food offerings to the priest, so the priest can bless them.  The reason for this is because during lent Russians are suppose to be vegan, but on Easter they can go back to eating normal.  So the day before people bring the food that they are going to eat on Easter so the priest will bless it.  Most Russians don't become vegan it is just a tradition to go to the church and have your food blessed.  Then after that is done people buy candles and take them into the church.  There are stations set up all around the church and each station stands for something. For example, one station stands for good health, so if someone wants good health they will lite a candle there and pray for good health and so on and so fourth.  Then after you are finished with that you come back at midnight and stay at the church until 6am.  People come and chant prayers and listen to the priest chant prayers.  I didn't do that.

Teaching some English

Ever Since November I have been teaching an English class on Saturdays. The Program is Bible based and 13 weeks long.  There was a beginners class, intermediate and advanced class.  I taught the advanced class.  The class would start out with the video, and then I would go over the vocab and talk about meanings and the way they are used in a sentence. Then we would discuss the topic in the video.  This last week was our last class, march 12th.  It was a little sad.  Each week my class would have about 4 students on average, some weeks more and some weeks less.  The beginners and intermediate were bigger.  All the students were great and very interesting to talk with. I am going to miss it very much :)

This is part of the intermediate class.  ( not everyone was there)

Before we broke up into our classes we would have annoucements and a little grammer lesson

waiting for class to start

Some of my students.  Super nice:)  It was lots of fun to talk with them

This is at our break time. (Cookies and tea....YUM!!!)

BROWNIES

 Tonight we made boxed brownies!  My dad sent them to me from America.  I was so excited because you can't get them here.  They were dark chocolate betty crocker brownies.  I put caramel over the top of the brownies.  It was was soo yummy! 

Girl's Night

Yesterday we had a whole bunch of girls over for a cooking day.  We had three groups of girls and each group was assigned a certain dish.  One group made a Mexican appetizer.  The appetizer was nachos and a Mexican salad.  The second group made the main dish. The nationality was Italian.  They made chicken Alfredo and garlic bread.  The third group also made an appetizer and the dessert.  The appetizer was cheese bread and the dessert was baklava.  It was a lot of fun and everything was delicious.

This group made the Mexican dish

Nachos

The whole group

Such a great group of ladies

chopping garlic and buttering bread

This is the group that did the chicken alfredo.  I was also in this group too

Tolu and I

chatting before the meal

Lots of socializing:)

MORE FOOD

caviar on bread and butter

This a pie cake dessert and the round crackers.  They are called sh-oo-sh-key(сушки). They dont taste like much,but they are a good snack.

These are all the desserts we had during tea. Cake,waffle cookies( my fav) etc.

Trying lots of new food!

The past couple days I have been trying lots of new food. Some things have been really good and others have been very interesting.  I am finally having Russian food on a regular basis.  I usually have American food.  Russian food is quite delicious:)

This a soup with chicken broth, potatoes, and dill.

 Chicken

Laminaria seaweed. It wasn't bad tasting:)

Raw Pickled Herring(селёдка) The russian word means salty herring or just herring.  I had a little on bread with a cucumber, and it was very saltly, but it actually tasted cooked.

                 This is what their money looks like.  100 rubles is about three dollars

                                                     
       This is a bus ticket and before the conductor gives it to you they always tear it.

Interesting things to know

The exchange rate is 34 rubles to 1 US dollar( It is always changing, and it also depends on where you live in Russia)

I take bus numbers 11,13,14

The two American fast food places in Krasnodar are Subway and
McDonalds.  They also have Baskin Robbins, Cinnabon, and KFC

Ikea in Russia is as popular as Costo in the US 

Trolley bus and the tram cost 10 rubles

Marshrooka costs 13-15 rubles

Marshrooka is a van that is like a taxi but more people can fit and it is less expensive.

Krasnodar doesn't have Oreos, Reeses, Root Beer, or Dr. Pepper.  The have Dr Pepper but it is three dollars a can

They don't refrigerate their eggs

They have Snickers, Twix, Milkyway, Cola, Pepsi, M&M, Starburst, and Skittles

They have crab, mushroom, bacon, and ketchup flavored chips

When you come into the house you always take your shoes off

When you get invited to someone's house you always bring a gift of some sort.  (candy, cookies, teas, a game if the family has kids, etc.

Mcdonalds is VERY popular.

Mcdonalds is so popular that it is acceptable to have a date there 

Most people walk places

Lvahsh is a very big tortilla

If you buy flowers for someone it has to be an uneven number

Russians eat lots of bread.  When they have their meal they eat bread until the main dish or salad is completely gone

Russians LOVE tea

When they have tea they always have something sweet with it

I go to school for about 4 hours a day

On the stop lights there is a timer for when the light is going to change, so people can decide if they have enough time to make the light.

People J walk all the time

Russians don't smile at each other on the street.   They just stare a lot, but never smile at a stranger

I go to Kuban State University

Clothes are very expensive

I have been to two movies in Russian.  I went to the third Narnia and Rapunzel

 Bread is Very cheap and Yummy  It is fresh and not processed

In some places they have holes in the ground for the toilet and someplaces have toilets but no toilet seats