A Painting for my Sestra

Winnie has been telling me about Swansea, the city in Wales where she was born. It sounded very beautiful and she sounded very homesick so I decided to paint her a picture of it. I love to watercolour and Mama says I am not so bad at it! Every proper painting has a name so this one is called, "A Painting for my Sestra." In Russian, sestra means "sister." Enjoy!

Do you like to paint, or have some other art you like to do? Tell me! Kisses, Dezhi

Battling Homesickness!

Mama let me hang up my favourite poster today. This summer I went to a concert called Europa Plus Live. Sergey Lazarev, Dima Bilan, Timati, Nyusha, and MakSim are some of the best and most popular artists. It was so cool to see them in person, and I bought this poster! Now when I look at this poster I will be reminded of home. Hopefully it will help me not miss it so much!

It also really helps to have Winnie to hang out with. She has told me what it was like for her when she moved to America and some of her feelings are exactly the same! But I tried to play some of my music for her and she wrinkled her nose. She doesn't like music if she can't understand it! I've tried to teach her some phrases of Russian, but she's not too interested...

Kiss, Dezhi

Sleeping in!

Mama says I don't have to start school until the spring, which is nice because she is helping me with my English at home. Today I slept in until 10 am! All the traveling the past few days wore me out. Plus, Winnie and I stayed up a bit late last night. We had a kind of slumber party just talking and getting to know each other. She is sweet but I think she finds me weird. I really like the Welsh accent a lot. 

Here we are last night, having our little pj-party:

Привет!

Hi, and welcome to my blog! My name is Nadezhda, which means "Hope." Americans seem to like nicknaming me "Dezhi," so whatever makes them happy! I just arrived to America from Kazan, Russia, to live with my mama and half-sister, Wynna. She goes by "Winnie" which is so funny- isn't that a bear cartoon?! But I try not to laugh at her. 

My sister was very interested in the contents of my carry-on bag that arrived with me today. (The rest of my luggage is coming late- what can you expect from Lufthansa airlines?) Anyway, she thought it would be a good first blog post to show my treasures. My backpack has a keychain with my name on it- if it looks hard to read that's because it's in Cyrillic, the Russian alphabet. 

This pouch holds my phone and paintbrush- my two essentials. I love to paint and I love to talk! I realise only now I'll have to change the address in my bookbag- it's no longer going to say Nastavnikov St. House 4 Apartment 12, Kazan! Hello, USA!

My last two treasures are my icon and my doll. Aren't they pretty? I'm Russian Orthodox Christian and we pray before icons as a form of veneration to the saints. My icon depicts the Virgin Mary, and Jesus. My doll's name is Sveta. She was a present from my father before he passed away earlier this year..

I look forward to getting to know you! 

Kisses from, Dezhi

(P.S.- Mama is helping me with my English, I am still learning!)