This is NOT America!

My mom took this of an old man walking home

Are you having a bad day? Well multiply that by ten. What do you get? You get a normal day in Siberia. Everything in Siberia seems harder compared to America.The language is different, the way people dress is different, and today while you were probably enjoying a nice warm beach, here it was SNOWING!

Snow in May!

Do you hate going to school every day? Well try going six days a week! That's what kids do here.

The old lady that begs for food on our street

Do you hate that your parents work so much? Well come here where a lot of people can't even get a job! 

Do you get annoyed having to walk your dog? Well come here where there are hundreds of stray animals just wandering around with no food and nobody to care about them.

Do you like taking nice clean showers? Well, come to this part of Russia and you can take a bath in water that is yellow, or gray, or brown depending on the day!

  Are you grossed out by seeing green boogers on your tissue? Well, try blowing your nose and seeing black boogers!!!

  When you wash your face at night, does your towel turn almost black from the pollution? Well, then be thankful you are not in Siberia, Russia. This part of Russia is rated one of the most polluted areas in the whole entire world. Pollution is everywhere.It makes your nose runny or stuffy.  It makes you cough more. Did you know that in the winter here the snow falls down and then the pollution also falls down making the snow black? 

Black snow!

Siberia is very different from America. There are way more poor people here and they don't even have enough food. Kids don't have phones or iPads or sometimes even toys. People walk everywhere because they don't have cars. People don't smile very much here. Everyone seems very serious.

But you know what they do have here? Great food! Borscht and solyanka and chips with weird flavor. People don't eat out almost ever. Everybody eats at home and invites their neighbors over to eat with them. That part is cool.

Wet!

We finally arrived at my older sister Anya's apartment! And honestly, I can't lie - it wasn't my favorite. It's very different than an American apartment. There is only room for a fridge, a stove, a couch/bed and a sink. It is only 12 feet by 14 feet (bathroom not included!) 

Her neighbors have an even smaller apartment, if you can believe it! They are a brother and sister and the sister's little boy, who is seven years old. They all live in a tiny apartment that is as small as my bedroom at home. 

Anya told us that the apartment building is only for adults who grew up in orphanages or who were homeless. It is hard fitting all five of us in such a tiny space! But I didn't know things were about to get worse!

  The third night we were at Anya's, a flood happened. It was from an upstairs apartment and it flooded the apartment we were staying in.The way that it happened was there was a guy living in the apartment above Anya and he is really poor, too. So,when his pipes weren't working right, he tried to fix them himself, because he didn't have money, and so he did it wrong and the pipe burst and flooded everyone below. All of the clothes but mine were soaking wet and smelly. Everything was covered in water, and it made the ceiling crack and the wallpaper rip. By some miracle my clothes were in a plastic bag and most of them were fine! I guess I'm the lucky one.

So anyway, we all tried to clean but the electricity was out so we couldn't see. So my sisters Nastia and Anya stayed and cleaned the apartment all night  by using their cellphone light while my niece Sasha, my mom, and I stayed at Anya's friends' mom's little cottage for the night. In the morning, we had tea and then went back to Anya's apartment to help. Everything looked much better in the morning.

We are staying at Anyas apartment for one more night and we are thinking of going to a different apartment soon. It is really cheap to rent apartments here and it will be easier for everyone if we all have more room! Just our suitcases alone were taking up half the apartment! Here are some photos from after the flood:

Arriving in Russia.

It's a long story, so I will start at the beginning of it.

We left London at 11:50 A.M. (London time) on Saturday .Our flight was 4 hours.It felt like forever, though.Anyway, four hours later we landed  in Moscow, Russia and waited for the next airplane to Kemerovo, which is in Siberia, very close to China and Mongolia.Did you know Kemerovo in Russian is spelled like this;Кемерово? Well it is.😂 

Later we found out our flight was delayed again - for 3 hours!So instead of waiting three hours, we waited 6 hours. The flight was four hours long and very bumpy. They had only Russian food  and Russian magazines on the plane. 

When we landed, it was 6 in the morning there. We  got off the plane and a little bus drove us from the runway to the airport building. My sister and I got our bags and waited for somebody to come pick us up and take us to our "hotel". 

Honestly it's not what I imagined.I imagined something fancy.It was the total opposite from fancy though.We had a surprise at the airport that I forgot to mention.My sister's older sister was waiting behind us and we didn't even see her! And she brought her little daughter Sasha, and my mom's friends were there too. Everyone was hugging and talking in Russian. But my mom's friend Polina came and hugged me and welcomed me in English. Anyway we are at the "hotel" right now and it is nine o'clock and we are just relaxing. We are all confused because of the time change. It is eleven hours ahead of Marblehead!  I will write more about Kemerovo when I get some sleep!

A Day In London

Hi Everybody,

Yesterday I arrived in London.The bad part is that our flight was delayed 7 hours. We had to hang out at Logan until 2am. The good part is I get to see lots of my family! We are staying at my mom's cousin Heather's place. We rode on the London Tube, which is like the T in Boston:


Today I saw my sister! My sister taught me how to skateboard. She taught me all kinds of tricks.

Later we went to Camden Market.It is very busy, crowded, unique,and VERY hot I got a T-shirt, a necklace, and a pair of sunglasses.



We also went to an international food market and saw a giant plate of veggie fried rice.



Then we came back to my cousin's flat because we were exhausted. Oh! Are you wondering what a flat is? Well, a flat in England is just another word for an apartment.

Anyway I have to go because I have to got up really early for a flight to Russia. Bye!

One, Two, Three...Trip!

Hi everybody,

I'm packing for three different countries! I'm leaving for Russia well Siberia really, and England and Iceland! I'm going these places to visit family. In Russia I am visiting my sister Anya and my niece Sasha. In England I am visiting my sisters Sanita and Sindi and maybe my new little nephew Amari. In Iceland I am visiting a blue lagoon! Its like a spa outside where the water is hot and you relax. I went to Iceland before by accident with my mom because we missed our plane to America and they gave us a free night in a cool hotel.

I finished packing my clothes and now I'm ready to pack little things like a toothbrush, hairbrush, all that kind of stuff. I'm really, really, really, really excited! So last night I packed all the clothes I am bringing in a space bag, and when I sucked the air out with a vacuum it was almost fifty pounds I think! Ok, I gotta go play with my dog Toodles. I'm going to miss my animals!

This is me packing my suitcase.