Redhead in Russia

Just a day just an ordinary day...

2010-06-01T07:08:00.006+04:00

I would like to tell you a story about an ordinary Tuesday in Moscow that turned out to be not so ordinary. Not extraordinary. No, no. Just.... non-ordinary, but in a very typically Russian way. You follow? Uh huh. Good. It started out like this:

We were bored, as usual, and didn't know what to do so we went to our usual fall-back tourist site, Red Square, where we stand (since you can't sit in Russia) and look at the sites we've seen 15 times so we feel at least slightly touristy-productive until we can think of a new place to go. While there, we decide to take pictures in front of Lenin's Mausoleum/Tomb/Cage for kicks and giggles. I, being oh-so-clever and oh-so-gangsta, pose with my fingers shaped like the Russian "L" (for Lenin, get it?), instead of the go-to Japanese tourist peace sign thing (see? we're already branching into the non-ordinary, in a very typically Lisa-is-a-cool-dork way). Besides, I thought it waaaaaaay too ironic for that early in the morning to make a peace sign in front of Lenin.

After some more fooling around with pictures in front of the the homestead of our favourite mummy, we decide to hit up the Central Armed Forces Museum, aka the Red Army Museum which is, of course, a ways away.

It's still raining dogs and cats and the occasional 'possum on us as we trek our way from the distant metro stop to the extremely distant, very elusive museum. It takes us a good 40 minutes trudging through puddly ground, weaving our way around an unknown, and slightly sketchy, section of Moscow, to finally find the museum.

We scale the stairs leading up to it like it's Rocky and the Philadelphia Museum of Art and find out....

It's closed.

Wow. Great. That's just fantastic. No, seriously. We're soaked up to the knees of our jeans, just swam through the backstreets of Moscow for almost an hour, and are surrounded by nothing but a closed museum and... well, that's it, but yeah, we're great. No problemo, amigo.

What amazed me, though, is that it's closed. On Tuesday.

It's not a holiday. It's just a boring, regular weekday.

Since we had no source for answers, we shrug it off as just another quirky, obnoxious, Russian thing to close down a random museum on a random weekday, and yet again try to figure out something to do.

After much more deliberating and contemplation of how much our clothes weigh when they're soaking wet, we decide upon a new destination: the Museum of Cosmonauts (a place I'd been dying to go to since I knew of its existence - space nerd, I am).

We swam back across the ~~English Channel~~ Moscow ghetto to the metro and departed for the next museum, which is also a bit far (metro-wise). Of course. We need our exercise.

After much staring by Russians on the metro at the cluster of soaking wet Americans wearing too-bright clothing, we deMetro (you can "deplane", why not "deMetro"?) and shortly arrive at the wonderful Museum of Cosmonauts (next to my favorite park, VDNKh).

We walk up to the doors and see this godsend:

I don't need to translate since they've so kindly translated this blessed message already for y'all.

We came. We saw. I wept.

...aaaand maybe mumbled something akin to "Cuuuurseees" a la Mojo Jojo.

Through my tears and red vision I could read this sign in the window:

It says:

Museum of Cosmonauts

Work Schedule:

Monday & Tuesday : weekend

Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday : 11am-7pm

I think I missed the memo where Monday and Tuesday are the days that consist of the term "weekend". I feel like this is a common occurrence when I'm in Russia.

So I guess anything worth seeing in Moscow closes on their own special weekend of their choosing. Lucky us.

This experience caused me to have the beginning of the song "Ordinary Day" by Vanessa Carlton play repeatedly in my head:

"Just a day just an ordinary day, just trying to get by..."

After that it's a bit different since I didn't meet some great boy and fall in love. That only happens in movies.

Or in Provo. To people that aren't me.

The Dark Side of the Rynok

2009-12-14T08:58:00.006+03:00

Digging (scrolling?) through my bagillion Russia photos, I came across two pictures that I had forgotten I'd taken. They are, rather unfortunately, the only photos I have of this particular place.

This is the Ismailovskii Rynok. This is where I bought about 85% of the souvenirs for myself and family. I came here frequently. Well, like 4-6 times. It is open on the weekends, and we could only go on the Saturdays that we had enough time after our designated "field trip" to whatever random place they chose that week.

The arrow is pointing to the Kremlin at Ismailovo, which you may remember from my first weekend in Moscow, looking like a rundown Candyland. It is next door to the Rynok.

About 2-3 weeks into our study in Moscow, we were sent a message by the U.S. State Department and the American Consulate, telling us to not go to this market, because it had been receiving numerous bomb threats by Russian Nationalists and was on high terror alert. You see, the people who work at these 'markets' are usually illegal immigrants, and people from the Caucasus or Central Asia. They aren't very well liked here in Russia, to make the understatement of the century.

We gave the bombers about 2 weeks to have their fun, then just gave up and ignored the warning and went anyways. We are so rad.

The rynok is a little bit like the Swap Meet in Honolulu, except with mean people.

There are 2 parts to the Ismailovskii Rynok: the souvenir side, and the 99%-illegal side.

The souvenir ("nicer") side is only open on weekends. This is where to go to get all your matryoshka (Russian nesting) dolls. I wish I had gotten a picture of the doll displays so you could understand just how many dolls there are. Unfortunately, vendors do not like you taking pictures of their wares, so I only have this one picture, looking down one of the aisles, that I took very quickly and very sneakily. They also have army surplus stuff (much, I'm sure, is illegal as well), ushankas (the big furry hats), and all the other trinkets you can think of.

All Made in China.

Then there's what I call the 99%-illegal side. It's open, to my knowledge almost everyday in the afternoon. This is where they sell things that most likely "fell off" the back of a truck. There is a lot of clothing (all in English, mind you), sports memorabilia, luggage, and other random items. Also all Made in China. There is a reason why this part of the rynok gets the bomb threats: If you thought the vendors on the souvenir side were rude, try the vendors on the illegal side. These guys will grab you and drag you into the back of their shop, and try to force you to buy stuff. I had this happen to me a couple of times. They thought I was some dumb tourist who doesn't speak Russian or know any better. Only when I yell and (when occasion calls for it) cuss at them in Russian and forcefully push my way back out to the street do they know to think differently. A guy friend of mine taught me a one syllable word in Russian that pretty much means (nicely put) "Back the hell off, scumbag!" -- I love how concise Russian is! It is quite useful when used with a very pointed glare at a guy attempting to drag me into his shop.

There is a funny aspect to the illegal side as well. You know how people in other countries that don't speak English, learn one phrase in English, and that's all they use? Like Americans who don't speak Spanish, usually at least know how to say "Tengo un gato en mis pantalones"? (I have a cat in my pants). Ok, well maybe not. But my point is, the creepy vendor guys don't speak English, but they do all know one simple English phrase, usually used in conjunction with a single Spanish phrase. It goes like this:

- You are walking down the street between vendors.

- Vendor sees you.

- You ignore him.

- He won't have that, so he says, for reasons I have yet to fully understand: "Hola señorita." -- accompanied with a big, creepy smile.

- You continue on your way, trying to figure out why this Russian dude is speaking to you in Spanish of all languages, while still ignoring him.

- In a last ditch effort to get your attention, the vendor yells and confesses, in English: "I love you."

- The first time this happens to you, your attention is often-times caught, if even for a few seconds, in complete awe and confusion. Then you either laugh and walk away, or you decide to have a little fun with them and treat them as if they are fluent in English and just start going off, talking about random things in English (or even better, Spanish) as they pretend to understand for as long as they can.

Can you tell I've had my fair share of fun on the Dark Side of the Market?

The Return of the Redhead

2009-12-14T08:48:00.003+03:00

Hey! Remember me? Yeah, the chick who never updates? Yeah, I'm kinda back. I think.

Since it's been over four months since I left Russia, I kinda forget what I have and haven't written about. Luckily for me, I can just go through my photos and see where, chronologically-ish, I left off. Nice, huh?

I don't know if anyone will even read this. I suppose I'm mostly just doing this for myself, so that I don't forget everything -- which I'm already starting to... Ooops.

Hopefully I can finish the Russia-related updates before I go back to school.

Here's hopin'!

Academy of National Condemnation

2009-10-09T13:17:00.007+04:00

OH YEAH, so I was just thinking... you know, since it's like 5am and I think really well at this hour.... that I haven't updated my blog since like 2-3 weeks before I left Moscow which = about 2.5 months ago. Uhhhh yeah. Ooops. So, since sleep has managed to evade me yet again (love you too, Sleep!), I figure I'll slowly, but surely, update stuff. Should go by a bit faster since *gasp* I actually have internet and ... it WORKS!! Oh the glories of Los Estados Unidos.

So where were we...?

Ah. I've never introduced y'all to the glorious establishment where I spent the majority of my time while in Moscow: The Academy of National Economy Under the Governance (hello Big Brother) of the Russian Federation. Or.... "ANE", for short.

It's even more fun to say in Russian, lemme tell ya: Академия Народного Хозейство при Правительство Российского Федерации, or АНХ, for short.

It's fun to tell people you study at АНХ because the "X" in Russian sounds like the sound my dog makes when he's upchucking the toilet paper he just ate off the roll in the bathroom. And THAT'S why I study Russian.

You can just tell from the name that it is a building filled to the brim with bureaucracy and wrapped up in a tidy little bow made of red tape.

Am I bitter? Absolutely not.

The school (and almost everything labeled as being ANE) would have you think that this is what the university looks like:

How nice. Great, big, shiny, blue sky scrapers -- a sure sign of success, right?

Well, let's take a little stroll and get a closer view of this wondrous Academy...

"What are those black dots on the building, Lisa?", you ask.

Well, let's get a little closer and use our handy dandy optical zoom on our digital camera and find out:

"My, my. Are those windows? Broken, covered up with plywood, then painted blue so that no one will ever know?" Why, yes. Yes it is.

"Is that structurally sound?" Well, no. Probably not.

Zut alors! We have missed one!

(Yes, in case you didn't know, Russian 'repairmen' sound like the French chef Louis on the Little Mermaid).

I have to give Russian miscreants some credit here. They are able to knock out windows and write graffiti a good 8-10 stories high on a building, all while in a drunken stupor. Amazing.

Actually, I just had a thought (weird occurrence, given the hour). There is no way that drunken teens could have knocked out the windows near the top of the building -- a good 20+ stories high. So either someone jumped to their death by running through a 20 story window, or... someone dropped something off a helicopter, onto the building. Given the university, and the country, I'd go with option numero uno. Fantastic. My love for this school grows by the minute.

So, are you amazed yet that I managed to survive 3 months in that building without being cut to ribbons by shards of glass, being pushed out a window, being tempted to push myself through said window, or having the building collapse around me whilst being trapped inside, sitting on some very uncomfortable wooden chairs?

No?

Well that's probably because I was never in that building. Actually, those ANE buildings are condemned, just standing there looking sad and dilapidated without anyone caring enough about them to have the common courtesy to put them out of shame and misery and knock them down .... and the grand Academy of National Economy is now housed in two little old buildings lying in the wake of the blue monsters. So much for the successful university that garners enough money to build sky scrapers.... or even maintain them.

Nope. I went to school here:

(the 2 buildings in the background are apartment buildings, not a part of ANE)

And then, halfway through my time in Moscow, we got transferred to the other building, because they were doing "repairs" and "remodeling" in the first place we were located. When I went to visit our old place again a month later, I was not in the least surprised to find that not a single thing had been changed.

(it's 2 floors high, but because of the angle and the buildings behind it, it's hard to tell)

To enter into this wonderland, you must go through this gated checkpoint:

Upon our initial arrival at the university, we were given university ID cards... that don't have our pictures on them... and are made of cardstock. Obviously, the old Soviet mantra of Quantity over Quality is still in affect here. In a perfect world, we would walk through this checkpoint and the guard inside would check our credentials to make sure we were who we said we were and had access to the facilities. But.... this is Russia. Ignoring the fact that practically anyone could use our "ID" cards since they lacked a photo, the whole process is completely pointless because the guards are passed out drunk in their little office 90% of the time, and the other 10% of the time they're ignoring you and focused on their crossword whilst listening to the radio. How they can do crosswords with a hangover blows my mind.

...oh yeah. Russians don't have hangovers. They're born with livers of stainless steel.

Right next door to this highly secure facility is a godsend: a grocery store called Victoria.

I've noticed that Russia tends to use women's names for their grocery stores and I haven't got the darnedest clue why.

Everyday we all walk to this grocery store in search of lunch and putter around, checking out --and often being grossed out by-- Russian food. We find the foods that look close enough to something resembling food we've seen in America and buy them, and every once in a while one of us will be daring and buy something unknown for The Collective to try and judge for palatability and sustenance. Sadly, that is quite possibly the best part about my days at the university.

Cravings

2009-07-31T16:29:00.003+04:00

Since my return to the U.S. of A has been looming over me, I have experienced a strange increase in cravings. Particularly breakfast cereals. Don't get me wrong, they do have some "breakfast cereals" here (....kinda), but the big problem lies in the fact that the milk here tastes disgusting and is like 10% milk fat or something.

This lack of cereal and milk actually hasn't affected me hardly at all this whole summer, until one morning a couple of days ago when I rode on the metro. Usually the people on the metro smell like gym bags, sweaty socks, mold, beer, and vomit. But the Lord, or Satan, (depending on your view) was smiling upon me that day because I sat next to a man that smelled like Captain Crunch Berries. On the one hand I was so grateful to be able to breathe air that isn't loaded with particles of beer, smoke, and BO. But on the other hand, I was overcome with a horrible craving that I had no way of satiating. The entire day was spent salivating at just the thought of eating a bowl of Captain Cruch Berries. I'm even licking my lips as I write this. Hmm maybe it was a bad idea to write about this.

I've had my cravings for other things like Mexican food, but nothing quite so strong.

Luckily, last Sunday we had a dinner get-together at the apartment of one of the married couples in our group, AnnaMarie and Justin. They made burritos with homemade tortillas (since you can't really buy them here). There is no way to explain how amazing it is to eat a burrito after craving one for 3 months. Now I think I can manage my Mexican food craving for 10 more days when I can have Moe's!!!

But since my cereal craving has yet to be satiated, I think I am going to slowly lose my mind until I can finally eat a bowl of crunchy, processed, food dye and preservative filled Crunch Berries.

Chillin' with Yuri and Petey

2009-07-31T15:15:00.007+04:00

So, about a week ago I decided to spend my afternoon wandering around southern Moscow. My first goal was to find the huge statue of ~~Buzz Lightyear~~ Yuri Gagarin (the first man in space). I knew it was somewhere on Leningradskii Prospekt but I didn't know exactly where. In case you didn't know, Leningradskii Prospekt is like the biggest/longest/most famous highway in Moscow (funny, since it's called Leningradkii, as in Leningrad, as in Saint Petersburg's Soviet name...). Fortunately, I got out my handy dandy map and did some searching up and down Leningradskii and found a place called "Gagarin Square". It sounded promising so off I went.

Turns out that Gagarin Square, though small, is really kind of nice. And though it is located right next to Leningradskii Prospekt, it is fairly quiet. I chilled there for like an hour and a half.

After hangin' with Yuri, I headed off to find another huge monument: Peter the Great.

On this little island in the middle of the Moskva River is a ~~monstrosity~~ monument of Peter the Great. It's taller than the Statue of Liberty without her pedestal. Most Muscovites hate this statue because 1) it's huge and an eyesore, and 2) it's Peter the Great, the tsar/emperor that moved the capital to St. Petersburg because he hated Moscow. If anything, this behemoth should be in St. Pete.

Funny thing about this monument: The artist/sculptor/architect originally made a huge statue of Christopher Columbus and asked numerous American cities to buy it. No one wanted this huge thing, so the artist changed the head to look like Peter the Great and sold it to Russia. How do we know this is true? The clothing that the statue is wearing is the typical clothing of the time period of Christopher Columbus; Russians have never worn such clothing, ever, in history.

Fluffy Goodness

2009-07-29T19:07:00.004+04:00

Speaking of enjoyable events in Moscow summers, I failed to mention my friend "пух" or "pookh" ('kh' pronounced like the 'ch' in Loch Ness), meaning "fluff". You see, Stalin had another great idea: plant a bunch of trees throughout Moscow. Sounds good, right? But just like every other idea of Stalin's, it failed. Utterly. Don't get me wrong -- the trees were planted. But the majority of the trees they planted are the female form of this one type of tree: cottonwood. And so when it's blooming season, the trees... bloom. But it's not flowers. It's fluff. Tons, and TONS of fluff. It's everywhere. It literally looks like it's snowing in Moscow for about a month and a half. Luckily, pookh season has ended and I can breathe outside and not constantly have to pick fluffy crap out of my eyes and nose. But let me tell you, it is really hard to breathe outside during pookh season because you will invariably end up with fluff in every orifice of your face.

These pictures don't do it justice. These were taken very late in the season, so there is only 1/5 of what there usually is.

I am the Walrus

2009-07-29T18:33:00.003+04:00

I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned this or not. I don't think I have. So I'll now tell you about one of the highlights of my Russian summer.

In Moscow, this huge city of over 15 million people, there is a wonderful summer event that every Muscovite gets to participate in at some point in the summer. You see, for 2 weeks every summer, the hot water is shut off on a rotating schedule throughout the city. Apparently, this 'modern;' capital of this superpower nation that holds veto power in the UN, developed the world's largest H-bomb, and sent the first man into space, has to shut off the hot water for a whole 2 weeks in any given region of the city to 'work' on the pipes. I believe the explanation is they are "checking" the pipes to 1) make sure they didn't burst or get damaged from the previous winter, and 2) prepare them for the next brutal winter. How they can't already figure out that a pipe is burst is beyond me.

So all of my classmates (who are all scattered throughout Moscow) have each been going through their 2 weeks of fun at various points in the summer. My 2 weeks started 13 days ago. Tomorrow should be the blessed event in which my hot water returns to me in glory. Until that point, I have been showering in ICE cold water, for 2 weeks. When I say ice cold, I'm not exaggerating ... though I wish I was. It feels like I'm in the Titanic movie, and I'm Jack and I'm in the ice water, slowly losing all function of my heart and lungs, teeth chattering, while Rose promises to never let me go, and then 5 minutes later when I die she lets me go.

Most of my classmates lucked out because they live with people that are slightly more modernized and have this little mini water heater installed in their bathrooms just for this time period. So most of them got some form of hot water. My hosts have telephones that I'm pretty sure date back to the Purges of Stalin, so of course they wouldn't have something to make everything easier. What she does since she can't stand the cold, is bring in a huge pot into the bathtub, boils water in a teapot, then pours it into the pot with some of the cold water, to make warm water. She then uses a ladle and pot to take a shower.

After trying that route once, I grew so impatient that I just gave up on it all and decided to endure the ice shower. At least I can now say that I know what the Polar Bear men who jump into the Arctic on New Year's feel like (funny thing: the people who do that are called "Walruses" here. Hah hah).

Let's just say tomorrow can't come soon enough. And if it isn't back on by tomorrow, I might just cry.

Kolomenskoe Park

2009-07-29T18:20:00.005+04:00

The other weekend we went to Kolomenskoe Park. It's this big, beautiful park in southeast Moscow. Not much else I can tell you about it, actually. We just walked around until we were too bored to walk any further.

Russian work ethic:

Whoooops

2009-07-29T18:10:00.003+04:00

So as I was walking home yesterday, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. There was an abnormal number of trams on the street. After investigating further, I notice that there has been an accident with a car hitting a tram, and another car hitting that car (why am I not surprised?). Needless to say, with a tram out of commission on the tracks, none of the other trams could pass it. So there was this huge long line of trams (just in my 5 minutes of walking past it, there were 5 trams, with 5 more joining the queue in that time period). All of the riders were forced to evacuate their trams and walk home (thaaaaaat sucks), so there was this huge long line of people walking down the street and crossing the street.

The first tram (on the left) is the one that was hit.

Miscellaneous Istanbul

2009-07-29T17:41:00.007+04:00

We also went to a few other places....

The Basilica Cisterns

THetheThe cisterns were created for underground water storage. They're these HUGE underground rooms. This one was built forever ago, and many people forgot about it. It had always been a secret and when Istanbul (Byzantium... Constantinople....? I dunno, one of those) was under seige, their enemies thought for sure they'd give up from lack of water. But they didn't. Istanbul had its very own secret water storage. Through time it was forgotten until a man was traveling through and noticed that the locals were dipping buckets into a hole in the ground (which they thought was just a well). Wabam! There's a cistern!

The crazy thing is that in one of the corners are these 2 columns that are standing on top of Medusa heads which are upside down and sideways. No one knows how they got there, nor knows why they're there.... pretty cool though.

The Grand Bazaar and the Spice Bazaar

The Grand Bazaar is just that. A really really really grand bazaar. It's huge. I've heard that it'd take you like 3 weeks to walk through it all, it's that big. It's actually a really cool place. That is the place to buy your tourist stuff.

The Spice Bazaar is a lot like the Grand Bazaar but a bit smaller and a little more relaxed. You can get most of the same souveniry stuff, plus spices and Turkish Delight absolutely everywhere.

There is also this huge Egyptian Obelisk which is the oldest thing in Istanbul. Crazy!

We also went to the Bosphorous River/Caspian Sea edge and chilled one night, watching the sun set.

This is our street at night... with Worth ....jumping(?) in the middle. Yeah.

Topkapı Palace

2009-07-29T16:46:00.005+04:00

Topkapı Palace is where all the Sultans of the Ottoman Empire stayed. It is really old and really cool. It houses some of the most holy relics of Islam, such as: the Prophet Muhammed's swords, cloak, and turban, and other personal belongings, as well as relics of Abraham, David - such as the sword used to cut off Goliath's head, Moses' stick, the keys to the door of the Ka'aba (that big cube thing that Abraham built that is the center of Mecca {- and the universe - where all Muslims point to to pray), the original covering of the Black Stone (from the time of Adam and Eve), etc. Pretty cool, and very humbling to see when all the Muslims around you are in total and complete awe for being in the presence of such holy relics. I for one don't believe the turban they said belonged to Abraham belonged to him because, well, it'd have decayed by now. But it's still cool.

They also had royal jewels and things like that. The funniest thing I saw was a 96 karat diamond. Yes, ninety-six karats. It was found in a dump. Some beggar found it (when it was a rough stone) and sold it for "three spoons" -- not sure if that's literally three spoons or if that was some form of currency. When it was found out that it is actually a ginormous diamond, people fought over it until the Sultan found out about it and he took it from them. They made this tear shaped diamond out of it. They made it into a ring! There are 49 other diamonds (probably 5 karats each) surrounding its edges. Insane! There were some HUGE stones there that I never thought existed. I even saw a throne made of mother of pearl and abalone -- my 2 favorite shells/stones ever! I coveted indeed.

The grounds reminded me a lot of Hawai'i. It was kind of a weird, but good, feeling.

My very own palace:

Princes' Islands

2009-07-29T15:29:00.007+04:00

Our second day in Istanbul we spent on the Princes' Islands. Off the coast of Turkey are 4 islands that are absolutely gorgeous. We took a ferry out to them and my friends all went swimming. Unfortunately, I don't have a swimsuit here with me in Moscow (or.. at all) so I was charged with guarding everyone's stuff. It was still very enjoyable. Even just the trip on the ferry was cool, just looking out on the ocean, seeing the coast of Turkey, people watching.

There was a buoy off the coast of one of the islands and my friends all swam out to it and hung out on it.

I have to give props to Muslim women, because I saw tons of women swim fully clothed, meaning long pants, long sleeved shirt, and head covering! And it was like 100 degrees outside! That takes a lotta faith if you ask me.

The craziest thing I saw was this optical illusion:

From far away, Hagia Sophia and Sultan Ahmed Mosque look rather far apart. But in reality they are directly across from each other and there is just a little park with a fountain in the middle in between the two. It blows my mind that they can look so far apart when I can walk between them both in about 5 minutes max.

Funniest thing I saw:

Seagulls would fly alongside or behind the ferry, and people would throw bread to them and they'd dip, dive, swerve around to get that piece of bread, whilst trying to keep up with the ferry. I tried to get a video but it wouldn't work for some reason.

Sultan Ahmed Mosque

2009-07-29T13:02:00.009+04:00

The Sultan Ahmed Mosque (also known as the Blue Mosque) is one of the coolest places I've ever been to. Aside from Hagia Sophia (which used to be a mosque), I had never been inside of a mosque.

The place we stayed at while in Istanbul was literally a 5 minute walk from the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia (they're right across from each other). So whenever we went anywhere, we walked past them.

I think about 3 years ago the Pope (Benedict) came to this mosque. It's the 2nd time in all of history the pontiff has entered a Muslim place of worship. Pretty cool.

At the entrance to the mosque they have a group of people in charge there that have extra shawls and fabric coverings for you to wear in case you (if you're a woman) are not properly covered. My makeshift capris were below the knees, which was acceptable (otherwise I'd have to get a sheet and wrap it around my waist and cover my legs). I did have a short sleeved shirt though so I had to cover up my arms. Luckily I had brought a scarf with me to Istanbul (anticipating needing to cover up) that I had bought in Moscow so I could enter the active Orthodox churches. The guy that was handing me my extra coverings was incredibly kind and he appreciated my efforts at being respectful to their religion. Such friendly people! I also had to take off my shoes. No shoes in the mosque = fine with me. I LOVE being barefoot (in Russia you essentially can never be barefoot - even in the house)! It was so comfortable walking on the carpet in the mosque.

Inside the mosque is absolutely gorgeous. They have these huge chandelier type thingies (wooden circles hanging from the ceiling with lights hanging off of them. The decorations are incredible. Unfortunately, because of the low light, most of my pictures are pretty blurry because of the slower shutter speed. I tried though!

I love Islamic architecture. Mosques are the coolest things ever. I fell in love with the style when I had to do a presentation on mosques and holy sites in Islam a few years back. The Grand Mosque in Mecca is the coolest thing ever (who was the architect? Osama Bin Laden's daddy, of course -- what a crazy world). No other mosques in the world can be as big as the Grand Mosque, nor can the minarets be taller than the minarets at the Grand Mosque. Anyways, I digress.

Inside of mosques there is a separation of the men from the women. The men can enter all parts of the mosque. Women are to only pray in the very very back section. Since the Blue Mosque is such a tourist site, they expanded the women's section a bit to accommodate all the tourists. There is a fence dividing the mosque into 1/3 and 2/3. The women can only be in the first 1/3 of the mosque. So we girls stayed behind the fence while the guys went to the other side and grabbed a Quran and started reading it.

Me and Anna held an extensive conversation with the guard that was watching the fence making sure no women (usually foreigners who don't understand) don't pass it. A few times while we were talking to him, some women would walk past the fence and he'd just walk up to them and kindly ask them to walk back to the other side. In Russia they would've been yelled at, insulted, and kicked out. Our conversation with the guard was interesting because he didn't speak English very well, but he sure tried. It was so cute! Broken English conversations are sometimes the best! He loved that we were asking about the religion and the different parts of the mosque and what different things mean.

Another awesome thing: you are allowed to sit on the ground in Turkey! Definitely not allowed in Russia. Though you can't lay down on your back or anything in the mosque. You can only stand or sit or kneel. Still fine with me!

It was so peaceful just sitting in there where it is quiet and calm and friendly. I think if I wasn't LDS (and Christian), I'd be Muslim. It is such a cool religion and culture --- pure Islam, that is. Not the false form of Islam that so many sadistic radicals are teaching. It is such a shame that the media only covers the radical, terroristic form of "Islam" -- if you can even call it that still after it has been so badly perverted. It is such a beautiful and peaceful culture and religion.

Hagia Sophia

2009-07-27T19:25:00.006+04:00

Hagia Sophia is essentially the 8th Wonder of the (Ancient?) World. It defies all logic in its architecture. It's very, very old, and was originally a cathedral type building (back when Constantinople was converted to Christianity). When Constantinople was invaded by the Muslims, it became a mosque. Now it is considered a museum.

- The main dome is absolutely brilliant because it has 40 windows on its base -- which is where all the weight is usually focused. It's amazing that it can be supported by practically nothing, it seems!

- There are also no columns supporting any of the weight. There is one big dome and a bunch of little half domes.

- It's full of mosaics from the Christian time period, and then it also added 8 huge disc thingies hanging on the walls that have the names of Allah, Muhammad, the first 4 caliphs, and Muhammad's 2 grandsons.

- It's so weird seeing mosaics of Christ, Mary, Angel Gabriel, etc. juxtaposed with the symbols of Islam, all within one building.

- It is currently under renovations so there is this HUGE platform thingy for the workers to renovate the dome and ceiling. It's a long hike up those stairs, I tell ya! Unfortunately, because this behemoth platform thing is there, it obstructs the complete view of the dome.

If you put your thumb in this hole and twist your hand around the full 360 degrees, your wish will come true.

Note: I have a TON of pictures from Istanbul, St. Petersburg, and Moscow, on my Facebook. If you want to see more, just go there.

Istanbul, baby!

2009-07-27T16:59:00.008+04:00

Since my internet has been craptastic for the last few weeks, I am super-de-duper behind on my blogging. Sad day. So I think I will just list the highlights of my Istanbul trip.

Why Istanbul is the Best Place Ever:

- Turkey requires a visa. How do you acquire it? Do you have to send in exorbitant amounts of money and paperwork into the Turkish consulate near you and wait 3 months to get it back (like... cough, cough, Russia)? Nope. You just have to go to your port of entry (ie: airport), stand in line for uhh 30 seconds, look on the board, find your native country and see the corresponding price relating to your country (ie: United States of America = $20). Go up to the window, give them your passport and the corresponding amount of money, they put a sticker in your book and you're set to spend 90 days in Turkey, just like that. Takes 2 minutes top.

- Everyone is nice, happy, funny, and relaxed. Everyone. Russia = polar opposite.

- They LOVE foreigners. If you don't speak Turkish, it's okay, because 90% of the people speak at least some English, and many are nearly fluent. If they don't speak English, they'll point you in the direction of a friend or relative that does, with a smile. Many also speak Spanish, French, German, etc.

- In the Grand Bazaar and Spice Bazaar, you can haggle, and they'll work with you while joking around with you and being absolutely hilarious. In Russia they're more likely to insult you, spit on you, and then not understand why you're not buying their product.

- I was sitting in front of the Blue Mosque and a Turkish girl came up to me as asked if she could take a picture with me because I'm the first redhead she's ever seen in her life.

- Everything is really cheap. Well, 95% is cheap.

- The food is absolutely amazing, and many times, dirt cheap. Döners (kind of like gyros) are awesome.

- I ordered a Döner, and while waiting for my food, I talked to the guy working there, and he asked where I was from and I told him I'm from America. He thought that was the coolest thing ever, and when he gave me my food and I started to pay, he said it was free for me. Free dinner! That would NEVER in a million years happen in Russia!

- You have the option at many restaurants to eat at a table on the street. It is the coolest thing to do and if you are ever there, I recommend it. We did it like 3 times.

- The public transportation system (metro and trams) are AIR CONDITIONED!!! Holy glory!!! Oh it was amazing. How has Moscow not adopted this??? Oh yeah, it's Russia.

- Random people will come up to you just to talk to you, ask how you are, how you're liking Istanbul. Some just want to practice their English with you.

- Turkey is a dominantly Muslim country. But it's the most liberal of the Muslim countries. Burqas and facial coverings are technically legally banned, but it's not enforced. Because of this, you have all levels of Muslim dress: normal western dress, head scarves, head and mouth coverings, long sleeves and long pants or skirts, and even burqas.

- While sitting on the ferry on my way to the Princes' Islands, I sat across from 2 girls about my age, in burqas. They were laughing, joking around, smiling, and just absolutely happy people. That was one of the coolest sights ever, because all you ever see on the news are these repressed Muslim women in burqas, and you get the impression that all Muslim women hate them and are depressed and demoralized. I can't tell you how many women I saw in either burqas, hijabs, or other forms of coverings (be it head, arms, legs, face), holding hands with their boyfriend or husband, walking down the street laughing. Or playing with their children, just absolutely and totally happy. They chose the covering based on what they believe. Not because they are forced by law. That was a life changing and perspective changing moment for me.

- The hostel we stayed at had a roof where you can just sit and chill on floor pillows. We'd sit up there in the mornings for breakfast and at night just to hang out. I could sleep up there. Some people actually did.

- We walked by an ice cream stand that sells this really unique type of ice cream. I don't know what it's called, but it's different than anything I've ever seen, and these stands are all over the place. We asked the guy selling it what exactly it was, and one of the customers there (a complete stranger) buying the ice cream, turned to face us, with his ice cream, and offered us all bites of his ice cream so we could try it.

- Istanbul really and truly is East meets West, and Europe meets Middle East/Asia. It is the coolest mixture of culture and style I've ever experienced.

- Real Turkish Delight is amazing. Not the cheap imitation stuff you get in America.

- 5 times a day you can hear the Call to Prayer coming from the many minarets all over the city. It is the coolest sounding thing ever. It usually lasts for about 5-10 minutes.

This is call to prayer at about 1pm. I was sitting on a bench between Hagia Sophia and the Blue Mosque (which is why my video doesn't rotate 360 degrees.. I was too lazy to get up). Oh, and the head you see is Worth, one of the guys in the group.

- The water (meaning the sea) is blue. A glorious blue.

- Just as Moscow has a HUGE stray dog population (more on this later), Istanbul has a HUGE stray cat population. Maybe it's just me, but stray cats are a lot less scary. They're actually really cute.

- The Turkish flag is EVERYWHERE. They are really proud of their country.

- Istanbul is absolutely chock full of foreigners. Just the people staying at our hostel were from like 12 different countries, for example: Australia, Sweden, Denmark, England, Latvia, Ukraine, and Iran. I also ran into many people from Spain, Quebec, India, and Germany.

-In Turkey, they have this soft drink called Fruko. We were on one of the Princes' Islands and stopped to get drinks. Me and Worth investigated the drinks. He points to the Fruko and asks the lady there what it is. The lady doesn't speak any English except for a few words. It looked like soda water to me (very common in Russia) and since it said Gazoz on it, I figured it indeed was "gassed" water (as it's called in Russia). I asked the woman if it was water ("su"). She nodded and said, "Su (water), shugah (her pronunciation of sugar), and acid." We figured you can't go wrong with acidic sugar water. Turns out we were right. It's delicious!

- If you try to speak Turkish to the Turks, they think you are the coolest person ever. I'd try to use as much of the Turkish I had learned, as often as possible. This usually brought great results. At least a friendly smile and "good job".

- I could go on forever, but pretty much, Istanbul (and likely the entire country of Turkey) is the coolest, chillest, most happy and relaxed place ever.

from Hell to Paradise in twelve hours

2009-07-27T16:11:00.000+04:00

Apparently, you have to pass through Hell to enter Paradise.

Or, not quite so symbolic and dramatic: you have to survive the idiocies and irrationalities inherent in Russia in order to land in the Greatest and Most Chill Place on Earth: Istanbul, Turkey.

Let me explain (brace yourselves, it's a longie):

When we all signed up for our visas, we signed up for dual-entry visas, meaning that we can enter the Russian Federation twice: when we first arrive, and again if we decide to leave and return during our visa period of 90 days. That meant I had one chance to leave this country and travel around. Some people in our group had been throwing around ideas of places to go. Most of them were rather expensive for a long weekend trip. For example, I didn't feel like paying $600 to fly to Rome, be there 2 days and come back. Another idea was Tel Aviv. One of the people in charge of the International Study Abroad Programs back in Provo got word of this and sent us all an email chastising us for even considering Tel Aviv, 'cause, you know, we can't proselyte there (awww shucks, I so wanted to on my vacation) and of course we BYU students would be bringing a case of Books of Mormon on the plane with us and chucking them at every Jew and Muslim we saw there, and this would create problems for poor BYU. Idiots. What was left was Istanbul, Turkey. I debated for a long time about whether I'd go. I don't much like to spend money, so I was really torn because I really wanted to go. In the end I figured I could afford it and made plans with 5 other people (2 married couples and a guy) in my group to go for 4 days, 3 nights.

I was super excited to go. I'd always wanted to go to a Middle Eastern type country (without the whole being-kidnapped-and-beheaded problem). I looked up all the different sights to see, and even started teaching myself some Turkish. That is one cool language and I have added it to my list of languages I would love to formally learn at some point in my life. My best preparation was listening to Istanbul, Not Constantinople by They Might Be Giants on repeat before our departure.

Finally Thursday, departure day, comes and I barely make it through class. It becomes 100x more boring than it already is when you know that once it's over you get to begin one awesome adventure. I head home after class to pack and get a phone call from one of the guys in the group that organized the flights. He told me that our flight that is normally scheduled to leave at 10:30pm is delayed and won't be leaving until midnight, so we're gonna meet up at the metro stop 2 hours later. I kinda felt like we should only delay our departure for the airport for an hour but shrugged my shoulders and agreed. 20 minutes later I get another phone call and we've decided to leave just one hour later than planned, just to be safe. (thanks to Paige for speaking up)

Just before I am about to leave to head to the metro, my host, Inna, tells me she's cooking me dinner and I must eat it. I tell her I can't, I'll be late meeting my friends. Her resolution: stay and eat and she'll get her husband to drive me (what? he has a car??) to the metro stop where I was to meet my friends. (It's not far from where I live, but it's on a different line, so I'd have to take the metro south to the ring line around the city, transfer on to the ring line, go west 3 stops, get off and transfer to the grey line and go north another 2 stops (think down I-85, onto 285, back up north on I-75). About a 45 minute trip. Whereas he could take a direct route straight across and get me there in 8 minutes. Alrighty. I stay and eat dinner. He takes me in his car to the metro stop. Only when we arrive do I find out it's the very end of the line I need to be on, not the station I needed (and that they said they'd take me to). So I still had to ride the metro. Pyotr (Inna's husband) is very quiet and seems to be kind though I don't really know him well, he's not home a lot because of work. He gets out of his car, walks me to the metro station, goes in with me, and tells me which train to get on and how many stops to go (as if I can't read Russian and have no idea how the metro works after living here for over 2 months and riding it 2-8 times a day..). It was nice of him, but kind of humiliating. I really hope he doesn't think I'm that stupid!

Once I meet up with the other people in my group, we head out to the train station where we're supposed to take some train out towards the airport. We decided to save some money by not taking the express train which goes directly to the airport, but a different train which is much cheaper and after it stops we just have to take a bus to our terminal. Supposed to save us like $8 or something. We get on the train and arrive at the next stop on our way to the airport without much of a problem. Then the fun begins.

A little background story: About a month ago a group of guys from my study abroad took a trip to Helsinki, Finland. They had thought their flight left out of Sheremetyevo 1 (Sheremetyevo is the most major of the "3" main airports in Moscow - it has 2 terminals), so they get to Sheremetyevo 1 only to find out their flight leaves out of Sheremetyevo 2. They were running late for their flight so they had to take a taxi to the other terminal and they had to pay exhorbitant amounts of money to do so (because taxi drivers here are Satan's evil step children). They told us that Terminal 1 is for domestic flights and Terminal 2 is for international. So for us to learn from their mistakes we set out for Terminal 2 (we were only told on our tickets "Terminal C", which we assumed to be within Terminal 2). I was kind of worried because I had always been told that Terminal 1 is for former Soviet states and Terminal 2 is for all other countries, and we were flying through Kiev, Ukraine, a former Soviet state.

So we board a bus that is to take us to Terminal 2 -- only it drops us off at some random place neither near Terminal 1 or 2. So we get off and they tell us to walk down the street and get on another bus. We get on that bus, finally arrive at Sheremetyevo 2, walk in and start our search for Terminal C. Might I just say that I have to give a standing ovation to any person who is able to navigate that airport, especially those who don't read or speak Russian. I read and speak Russian and I hadn't a clue what the heck was going on in that place! We find multiple signs pointing to Terminal C. But.... they all point in different directions. So we ask the people in charge there. They all either don't know, or give us all different answers, or give us dirty looks (most common response here). Eventually, after talking to like 6 different people, we find out that our flight leaves out of Terminal 1. Awesome. So.. we go out to the lane where the buses are to pick people up in order to get on our third bus. As we wait for the bus, I notice another great thing I love about this airport. They have essentially one lane for cars and buses to travel through to departures and arrivals. If you know anything about Russian driving, you'll realize that this is the worst possible situation an architect could construct. So if a bus stops to pick up people, or a car stops to drop off or pick people up, it blocks the rest of the traffic. Our bus stops, and the driver gets out and yells at us that we must immediately get on the bus because he is running late and there are people waiting behind him. He's yelling at us for over a minute saying we must immediately get on the bus, the whole time while standing in the only entrance onto the bus. So we couldn't even get on. He blocked traffic and the bus driver behind him gets off his bus and walks over to our bus and starts banging his fists along the side and yelling at the guy. Cue bus driver fight scene. It was great.

Eventually the two men turn back into adults and we're on our way. Fifteen minutes later, we arrive at Terminal 1 and lo and behold, what's right next to it as a completely separate building? Terminal C. There is a separate building called Terminal C. So the Sheremetyevo International Airport layout is thus (starting closest to the city to furthest): Terminal C, Terminal 1, and a 15 minute bus ride further, Terminal 2. So their system is Terminals 1, 2 and C. How anyone is expected to understand this system is beyond me. It's even better since they have "Terminal C" and it is written Терминал С. But "С" in Russian is not our letter "c", but "s" to them. So it's actually 1, 2 and S. Ridiculous.

So we go through one of the most pointless security inspections ever and arrive at the ticket desk for our airline, AeroSvit. We get our tickets and find out that our flight is in fact on time. We'd received an email saying it was delayed 90 minutes, but according to the women checking us in, the flight had never been delayed and they didn't know why we'd received an email from AeroSvit telling us it was delayed. If it hadn't been for Paige wanting to leave an hour earlier than we thought, we would have missed our flight, because we arrived about 20 minutes before boarding time, instead of the planned 2 hours before boarding time back when the flight was "delayed".

When we board, we have to first go on a bus that takes us to our plane, where everyone squeezes in and stands with their luggage and tries to not fall over as the driver weaves around planes. Imagine squeezing all of the people and luggage that goes onto a plane, into one bus, and driving that bus on the road to Hana. That should give you an idea.

The plane takes off and we were still climbing when a drunk man across the aisle from me (who had already argued with some guys in our group because he was sitting in their seats and wouldn't move -- common occurrence here as well) gets up, with cigarette and lighter in hand and heads to the back toilet. He freakin' lights up a cigarette on an airplane. Only, in Russia, he is just reprimanded and told to sit with his friends who had just been charged with keeping him out of trouble. If this had happened in America it'd've been quite a different story!

We arrive in Kiev, Ukraine for our 8 hour overnight layover. We stake out a section of seats in the terminal and lay down to sleep. Only it is about 35 degrees Fahrenheit in the stupid building. It was unbelievably cold. For a country that doesn't use air-conditioning anywhere, they did a pretty good job. It was impossible to sleep. I had my jacket on, but my entire body was freezing. Try sleeping in a freezer, on a bench, and you'll understand. I even got out my scarf I'd brought to wear in the mosques, and tried to use it as some form of blanket. I ended up finding that the "warmest" position was sleeping on my stomach, with my arms curled under my chest, and my hood over my head. That way the only thing exposed to the cool air was my butt which has enough fat tissue it will never be cold, and my legs which were still cold but not as badly. And so I spent my evening.

Our flight to Turkey consisted of filling out a form about the swine flu. It asks for your name and passport info, as well as your temperature and if you feel sick or were exposed to swine flu. My favorite part about this questionnaire: it was offered in either English or Turkish, and 90% of the people on the flight were Russian. So no one could fill out this mandatory form. One of the guys in my group sat next to a woman that speaks Ukrainian and hadn't a clue what to write because she doesn't speak English or Turkish, and only understands some Russian. Most Russians just copied off of those who can read some English or Turkish, seeing which boxes people checked.

As we approach Istanbul (after flying over the Black see and Caspian Sea --- gorgeous!), I can see minarets dotting the skyline just as you can see the spires of temples and stake buildings as you fly into Salt Lake. One of the coolest sights ever!

Finally, we land (and defrost) in what is arguably the coolest place I have ever been in my life: Istanbul.

One-Legged Shawties at the Kremlin

2009-07-17T19:39:00.002+04:00

On July 4th, our study abroad group did what any Americans in Russia would do on our Day of Independence: spend the morning in the governmental center of the nation that was our stark enemy for half a century. In other words, we had an excursion to the ~~Gremlin~~ Kremlin. It's in the very center of the city and very old (because the city grew out away from it). It's where the President and Prime Minister work and live (when not in the White House -- yes, Russia has a 'White House' too). The day we went was excruciatingly cold (especially for July!!!). We were mostly outside with our tour guide. We went inside twice, into 2 cathedrals. I was kind of disappointed with the tour. I had thought we'd go inside some of the buildings which are amazingly beautiful and extravagant inside (I've seen many pictures of it). I at least thought we'd see the Armoury where the crown jewels, some Faberge eggs, and other really cool historical objects are located. Didn't even get to that. It was a pretty lame tour. The only cool part was when the Russian military did this performance/display of power thing in one of the huge courtyards.

There are some sections that we aren't allowed to walk through. They're guarded by military types with whistles and old cannons taken from Napoleon back when Russia whooped his ahem, behind. I'm pretty sure all they can do now is blow dust on you. Oooh scawwey! Whistles and dust blowers!

I probably shouldn't laugh.. I'm sure there's more security. Like.. snipers. Oh, and the group of army men randomly walking around the grounds.

"Hey guys!! Guys!!! Quick! Let's scare the crap outta those Japanese tourists!"

I'm pretty sure this is the building where ~~Puppet~~ President Medvedev and Prime ~~Master~~ Minister Putin work. And sleep.. if you can sleep once you've sold your soul to the devil... and oil executives. Is that redundant?

The Tsar Cannon. In good ol' Russian fashion, they make an enormous cannon to prove... they can. Never the mind it has never been able to shoot anything. It's huge, and that's what counts. The thing holding it up and the balls (that it can't shoot) are new (obviously, since they're not green..)

I must say I got some cool lookin' pics though. Good pictures happen when the sun shines in Moscow. Which is why most of my pictures suck.

I was super sneaky and snuck a picture of the interior of one of the cathedrals when we were not allowed. I felt pretty badass since I broke Russian law while in a Russian cathedral on the grounds of the Russian government headquarters. Heh heh, yeeeaaaah. You can even look up my nose! Do I have skill or what?

I snapped this one of one of the most important icons in Russian Orthodox history. This may or may not have been sacrilegious. I ... don't really care. Just kinda tilt your head to the right and use x-ray vision to look through the glare.

It was cold. Seriously, very, very cold. In July.

Another Russian monstrosity: The Tsar Bell. A ginormous cannon that doesn't function isn't enough. They had to make a bell that was so large it never worked and when they tried to make it work, it broke! Well done!

One of the palace thingies .. I dunno. I could never hear the tour guide so I kinda made things up on my own. I call it "Another Building I Can't Enter".

It looks like Russian soldiers do have hearts after all. For birds.

The Russian military, not to be one-upped by the Americans, had a military display in the Kremlin on American Independence Day. This did not surprise me one bit. They even had a band. They played military music for the soldiers to march and make formations to. Then at the end I'm pretty sure they played a hip-hop beat and the soldiers got down. At least, they tried to be as ghetto as Russian soldiers could possibly be. Hilaaaarious.

I see soldiers strike this pose often. I call this the " 'Sup, Shawty? " pose.

Optical illusion: Quick! Where're their other legs!?

Bow to the U. S. of A!!!!

To Infinity and Beyo-- oh, nevermind.

2009-07-15T15:37:00.006+04:00

Sorry I'm behind on my blogging. 1) my internet sucks like a Hoover and 2) I've been out of country for 4 days. Anyways, I'm finally on campus where the internet is so-so, so hopefully I can catch up a bit..?

2 Fridays ago (I know, I know, I'm really behind), we had another free day. No one had come up with anything to do so I suggested we go to the Memorial Museum of Cosmonauts. It's near the ВДНХ park which I have talked about numerous times. I'm a huge astronomy/space program enthusiast so I really wanted to go. We get a group of about 10 of us and head to the building. Inside we spot the queue to buy tickets. On the wall is a posting listing how much tickets cost for children, students, pensioners, etc. It says for "Students - Free". We were excited. We quickly queue up to get our tickets. The first 2 people in our line were a married couple (Paige and Worth - 2 of my most favorite people ever) in our group who both served Russian speaking missions together in Ukraine. It's usually best for the good Russian speakers to go first in these situations. And so it begins... They showed the ladies at the ticket office their student card from our Russian university. The ladies rejected it. They said they won't accept this identification. Worth told them we are students here in Russia, and this the identification we were given by our Russian university. The ladies still reject it. Another girl in our group goes up to the ladies and gives them her Russian university ID card, her BYU ID card, and her International Student card (all valid at pretty much any other location we've been to here). The ladies still reject them and say they will only give tickets to Russian students. Worth then starts arguing with them, saying the sign only says "Students" and that we are students and we have the right to go for free. The argument continues for a few more minutes. The ladies send us away. Not 30 seconds later one of the ladies comes out of the office with a newly printed out sign, with the word "RUSSIAN" written with a big Sharpie next to the word Students and then posts it over the old sign. We just laughed at them and Worth said to them in Russian, "Well done. This is progress." It was hilarious and very typical of how things go in Russia (@$$- backwards). Needless to say, we didn't go in. We'd pissed them off quite enough for the day, and we all were pissed at them too so we didn't want to give our money to these angry old babushki. I still plan to go back, I just hope it's not those bitter women there.

So instead we hung out outside since it was a lovely day and explored the park surrounding the museum.

There is a huge monument dedicated to the cosmonauts located at the museum. It's a 100m high titanium obelisk that has a rocket shooting off into space. It's pretty cool looking actually. And huge.

On the sides of it are these engraving things of Soviet.. propaganda I guess you can say. And just like ANYTHING that has to do with Sovietism, there is an image of Lenin there, even if he had absolutely nothing to do with it, just to give whatever it is some form of legitimacy.

Apparently Lenin wasn't a mummy on Red Square during the Space Race, but leading a man holding a ball and a woman holding a baby, to... outer space?

Also in the park they had this sculpture thing of all of the planets (they didn't remove Pluto! there's still hope for you yet, bud!). We decided these were acceptable places to sit, since the ground is not allowed to sit on in Russia. According to Worth (left), Saturn is a very comfortable planet.

I am.. here:

They had a sun dial in the middle of the planets, as the Sun.

Goin' for a ride on Mars.

Givin' the planets some love.

It's Istanbul, not Constantinople!

2009-07-09T15:38:00.005+04:00

I'm taking off for an extended weekend in Istanbul, Turkey. I leave tonight (Thursday) and the flight back to Moscow should arrive after midnight, which means that I get back to my apartment around 2am Tuesday morning. Then I have to go to class a few hours later. Should be interesting..

I am super excited for this trip!!! Istanbul is like, the coolest city. I mean, I haven't been there yet but from what I can tell, it's gonna be awesome. Our hostel is located right in the middle of all of the famous sights. I'm going with 5 other people. Gonna be an adventure! Anyways, I need to get back to packing. Pray we won't have any problems!!

I leave you with these parting songs:

Gotta love TMBG. In case you were wondering, Tarkan is essentially the most famous Turkish singer in the world. He's actually internationally famous (except in the US of course..).

When I get back I expect lots of comments on my blog. It took me forever to update St. Pete pics! =D

We be stormin'

2009-07-09T00:31:00.008+04:00

The last 2 places we went to were: Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral and Palace Square. Our Lady of Kazan Cathedral was modeled after St. Peter's Basilica in Rome (the Vatican). I find this hilarious because Eastern and Western Orthodoxy, well, hate each other, yet they both have almost the exact same cathedrals. There are either 92 or 96 columns in the collonade. The Soviets made this into a museum of religion and atheism. Crazy Commies and their ironies. It is dedicated to the Our Lady of Kazan icon which is the most popular icon in Russia. The original icon is in Moscow, at the blue and peach colored church of the same name on Red Square (see previous posts). Since it is an active church, we couldn't take pictures inside. Just imagine a really dark, depressing, Catholic-type looking cathedral inside and you've probably got the right image in mind. I much prefer Спас на Крови (previous post).

After we got out of the darkness that is the interior of Kazan Cathedral, we headed up to Palace Square near the Winter Palace (the green building). We decided to enter Palace Square through this tunnel-like entrance. Apparently in a lot of Russian/Soviet films that portray the 1917 revolution and the "storming" of the palace, they show the Bolsheviks running through this exact entrance. Though... of course, in real life, there was no "storming" and they didn't enter through this passage....

But that doesn't mean that WE couldn't still storm the Palace. And so we did...

I stormed...

We all stormed...

And so I was storming until my camera battery died after snatching this photo.

Fan-freakin'-tastic, my friends.

Therefore this photo I stole from Linsey's facebook album (hope you don't mind! =D) so you can see what Palace Square looks like... since my camera decided to fail just as the sun FINALLY shone for the first time since our arrival. Great timing, bud. In case you can't tell, it is very big. And open.

Remember the opening scene of Anastasia, where everyone is arriving by carriage to the Palace for the ball... before the family ...dies (though they never really say because it's a children's film)?... this is the place. (Sorry, almost all of my St. Petersburg experiences are related to that film in some way... and I also didn't mean to sound like Brigham Young)

After that we walked down Nevsky Prospekt (the main street of St. Petersburg) back to our hotel, taking us about 2 ish hours. Then the train ride home and arriving in Moscow to pass out on my bed for the next 8 hours.

My conclusion: I love St. Petersburg. It's amazing. It's beautiful. I want to live there. And I think that our program (which has been held in St. Petersburg for over 10 years but switched to Moscow for the first time this year) should have remained there. I plan to return again some day. I hope. ::fingers crossed::

Спас-на-Крови

2009-07-08T22:57:00.000+04:00

Our next stop was Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood (in Russian, the short, common name of it is 'Спас-На-Крови' [spas-na-krovy] - which means 'Savior on Blood'). This is a Cathedral built on the site of Alexander II's assassination. He was riding along in his bullet proof carriage that he got from Napoleon, and a terrorist group member threw a bomb under his carriage. He wasn't injured but his coachmen and some servants were killed. After he gets out of his carriage (2 legends of what he does: he gets out and tries to help the injured, or he gets out and confronts his would-be assassin) a second assassin throws another bomb and Alexander is hit and his legs are shattered. He died from blood loss not much later. I would like to thank Alexander II for being assassinated because his assassination site has now become my most favorite cathedral in Russia. It's modeled after St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow. But this one is better because 1) the colors on the domes MATCH, and 2) the the interior is 1000x more interesting than St. Basil's (granted, St. B's is like 450 years older). On the inside of the cathedral, every wall, every surface (except the floor) contains pictures from Bible stories. It is the most colorful, un-depressing interior I have ever seen and I am in love. My pictures don't give the vibrant colors justice. Maybe I'll steal Megan's. Her camera did a good job....

Not sure why this is so crooked, and why I am crooked in relation to the cathedral.... Optical illusion?

A color coordinated onion dome cathedral... go figure..

Many times in Russia, there are different prices for Russian citizens and students than there are for international people and students. The Russian student price is like 1/5 of the international student price. Kensie decided she'd try to pass off as a Russian student because we have these stupid little paper things saying we go to a Russian university. The ticket lady didn't believe her but thought it was so funny that she even tried that she let her in for 50 rubles - the Russian student price! (she's holding up a 50 ruble note and her ticket)

Do you feel enlightened?

One thing that kind of bothered me about the place... During WWII when there was the Seige of Leningrad (as I have previously mentioned), TONS of people died and they couldn't bury them fast enough, so they piled up the corpses in this cathedral (it had been closed since the Revolution since, you know, the Commies are atheist). Yucky. After WWII they decided to (hopefully clean it out and...) use it for storage. So it stored potatoes for a long time. It got pretty badly damaged after housing rotting corpses AND rotting potatoes for 70 years. It took them forever and a day to restore the cathedral. There is a marble stone in one of the corners of the cathedral, where they show what it looked like before and after the renovation, with a corner of the stone being left un-renovated.

One very cool floor

Oh yeah, and those bible stories covering the walls and, well, every surface? They're all mosaics. Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood holds the record for the most mosaics in a church in the world. See why this place is awesome?

Griboyedov Canal

Peterhof Palace

2009-07-08T05:45:00.005+04:00

Day 2 of our St. Petersburg trip was our "free" day to do what we wanted to in the city. We started out with a group of us going to Peterhof Palace. I really lucked out, because there were 4 places I really wanted to see on our free day: Peterhof Palace, Tsarskoe Selo and the Amber Room, Kazan Cathedral, and Church of the Savior on Spilt Blood. Some of the other people who came didn't really know what there was to see so they kind of acquiesced to going to the sights I most wanted to see. Unfortunately, we didn't have enough time to make it out to Tsarskoe Selo and the Amber Room in the Catherine Palace because we'd have to take a train out there. So I got to see 3 out of 4 things. Pretty good I think. Peterhof was by far my most favorite place in St. Petersburg. Although we didn't have enough time (or money) to go inside the Palace, just the grounds were enough for me!

Peterhof (also called Petrodvorets in Russian - meaning Peter's Palace) was built for Peter the Great (sick of hearing of him yet?). This is where Grand Duchess Anastasia was born. I wouldn't have minded growing up here!

We had some fun with the trees in the Upper Park..

Peek-a-boo

So I'm a tree hugger. Sue me.

The canal-thingy goes straight out to sea (near the top of the picture)

The Grand Cascades

My favorite picture. Goooorgeous!

We all enjoyed being by the sea (Gulf of Finland). This is by far one of my most favorite places in the world.

The grounds at Peterhof are just gorgeous.

There are trees everywhere and the sea is right there!

I'd be happy to just live in some little cottage on the land.

I don't need a palace, though of course it'd be nice. I'm not picky like Nicholas I's daughter!

While wandering around the grounds, I came across this memorial. I guessed what it was before I read it, because I had heard something about there being a marker somewhere in St. Petersburg, but I didn't know where. It says:

Здесь в ночь с 4 на 5 октября 1941 г. на оккупированной фашистами территории произошла высадка десанта Краснозчаменного Балтийского флота принявшего неравный бой с врагом. ВЕЧНАЯ СЛАВА ГЕРОЯМ.

Since you all don't speak Russian, I will loosely translate (the Russian phrasing is kind of hard to directly translate to English).

"Here on the night of the 4th of October (continuing on to the morning of the 5th), 1941, on territory occupied by Fascists, troops of the Baltic Fleet of the Red Army landed (disembarked) and accepted an unequal fight with the enemy. ETERNAL GLORY TO THE HEROES."

Essentially this marks the furthest point Hitler's army ever reached in Leningrad. Obviously it's right on the ocean. Way to go Reds!

As we were walking back to the palace, I noticed the Grand Cascades were turned off. I was so depressed! This was my one (possibly once in a lifetime) chance to get that one amazing, head-on shot of the cascades! I was sooooo bummed! Turns out they turned them off because they were having some reenactment, memorial type thing about some war that Russia won forever ago against Ukraine, Sweden and .. I don't know. This is second hand information so don't trust me.

Where I'm moving....

I think it's funny that the clouds create a halo over the Palace.

Mayo, Art, Horsemen and Regatas

2009-07-06T22:07:00.013+04:00

After St. Isaac's, we headed to lunch. We ate at a restaurant called Da Vinci's! I was really hoping we were getting Italian food. Oh how I miss Italian food. Instead we had a typical Russian meal. Go figure. A Russian meal in Russia. Pssshht.

This is the view on the way to the restaurant. The building in the middle is the Admiralty building. It is the central point of St. Petersburg. The 3 main streets of St. P all emanate from this one point. This is how you orient yourself in St. P.

First course: Oliv'ye salad. Basically mystery meat, egg, peas, other vegetables, garlic, and a lot of mayonnaise.

Second course: Borsch

Third course: Blini (Russian crepes)

Drink: Cranberry stuff that tasted like the worst form of medicine.

After lunch we headed over to the Bronze Horseman statue. On the way there we saw a bunch of flower designs in the garden. They were really cool!

The now-named "Bronze Horseman" is a statue made for Peter the Great, as a gift from Catherine the Great. She wanted people to think she was buddy buddy with him so they'd like her, so she gave him this (posthumously, of course). It says on the rock "To Peter I from Catherine". It's called the Bronze Horseman ('copper', in Russian) because of a very, very famous poem Pushkin wrote about it. During the flood of St. Petersburg, the water had risen to cover the base of the statue, so it looked like a horseman treading on water. This was some epic sight. So he wrote about it.

Not sure why it's called copper/bronze. If it was copper, wouldn't it be goldish in color.... or green?

Cathy and Sara as their own version of the Bronze Horsemen. I love the onlookers, looking at the crazy Americans. We're not proud!

This is the Constitutional Court building of the Russian Federation. Oh, and yeah that's a couple getting married by the Bronze Horseman. It seems to be the thing for Russians to get married by tourist locations.

After the Bronze Horseman, we went to the Hermitage. This is the equivalent of the Russian Louvre. It's partially housed in the Winter Palace, and then in other buildings now attached to it. They say that if you looked at each piece of art inside for 2 minutes, it would take you about 33 years to go through it. We had 2 hours. Right. Unfortunately, I don't have pictures of the inside yet. We had to pay to take pics again, so once again we got poor Linsey to take all the pictures and then we'll share. We're so bad to her! She's always the one having to take the pictures, but it's also good because she takes the best pictures too. Thanks Linsey for letting us corrupt you and always taking one for the team! :)

When we got out of the Hermitage we had to wait for our bus in the cold and rain. (this is why my above picture of me in front of the Winter Palace looks so wonderful). We were very, very cold. And very, very wet.

One good thing about waiting out in the cold: we got to see the lighthouses that I talked about in an earlier post, lit up. Apparently we were lucky enough to come to St. Petersburg the day that the 'Round the World Regata Race ended there. So they lit up the lighthouses - there're flames on top. They usually only light these on special occasions. Lucky us!

St. Isaac's Cathedral

2009-07-06T21:17:00.011+04:00

The next place we went to in St. Petersburg was St. Isaac's Cathedral.

In front of St. Isaac's is a statue of Tsar Alexander I.

Behind his statue is a palace he had built for his daughter.

She rejected it because she didn't want to look out her window everyday and see this view: the back of her father's statue. Spoiled brat.

St. Isaac's took 40 years to build. It's design, especially the dome, inspired the building of the U.S. States Capitol building. During communism, they used this building as a museum to atheism. Ironic?

You can go up on the top section to look out of St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, we didn't go. Our tour guide said it cost too much and we didn't have time. I get back to Moscow and some of the Russian girls here say that it's free and the tour guide lied. Sad day.

These columns are solid pieces of granite. They are HUGE! They took them out of the side of some quarry in Finland (across the Gulf from St. Petersburg) where granite is right on the surface. They then floated them down the river to St. Isaac's on some kind of boat and then had to have 200 horses pull each column to land.

This is what heaven looks like.

The dove in the middle of the dome symbolizes the Holy Spirit.

It's absolutely gorgeous and huge inside. The interior is covered in mosaics and different stones found throughout the region.

For example, these columns are made of solid pieces of this type of rock found commonly in Russia. It is literally that green. The other one is purple. Deep, deep purple. It's crazy! It looks fake! Like they're painted or something. I think the green is called malachite and the purple, lazurite.

The tour guide had said something about these being the biggest doors in the world or something the like. They are quite large, indeed!

The amazing thing is that almost all of the paintings you see in the cathedral aren't paintings. They're mosaics. It had all been fresco, but things started deteriorating, so it was ordered to replace the frescoes with mosaics. They didn't complete all of them, but they were close.

See? Crazy! To do that whole cathedral in mosaic must have taken decades!

Peter and Paul Fortress

2009-07-05T23:41:00.005+04:00

The next place we headed to was the Peter and Paul Fortress. It was also built by Peter the Great. And like St. Petersburg, it's not named after him but his patron saint Peter... and the other saint, Paul. It's located on an island in the mouth of the Neva River. He had built it to be the stronghold in case of an attack. Too bad it has never been needed.

The walls at their thickest point are I believe 20m. That's like 60-ish feet!

This is the place where political prisoners were kept. Including Peter's own son who disagreed with Peter's reforms and Peter had executed because of it. What a nice dad.

Inside the fortress is a cathedral. This is where all of the tsars and their wives are buried. Peter the Great's first wife (whom he sent to the Novodevichy Convent with his sister Sophia, because he thought she was a nag) and their son (whom he had executed) are buried under the stairs. Talk about demoted! Everyone else has a huge tomb marker thingy over the location of their burial place. But their actual bodies are buried very, very deep down (because of flooding in St. Petersburg). Also, their coffins are like matryoshka dolls (nesting dolls) in the sense that it's really coffins inside of coffins, and each layer is locked with a lock and key and only the Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch holds the keys.

Peter and Paul Cathedral

to get this picture, you have to...

....take this position. In Russia, you are not supposed to ever sit on the ground because they believe you'll become infertile. So this is how we compromised.

The tombs of Tsar Alexander III and Tsarina Maria Fyodorovna (aka Princess Dagmar of Denmark and grandma to Anastasia). She was not killed by the Bolsheviks but instead fled to France [just like in the movie Anastasia] and her native Denmark to live out the remainder of her life. She always wanted to be buried in Russia where she considered to be her true home but said she would only be buried there when the country was no longer ruled by or under threat of being ruled by Communists. They moved her coffin to this cathedral in 2006, roughly 75 years after her death. I guess there was a still a threat of communism 15 years after the fall, but now we're safe?

The graves of Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, and a few other Tsars...

Tombs of Alexander II who was assassinated. He got a special green marble tomb because of this. When his wife died, she got a red marble one to match.

In this room which is cordoned off, the last Romanov family rests. It was really important for me to see this room. I wish it hadn't been so busy and crowded so I could have stayed there for a little longer than a minute. I have been obsessed with this particular family since I was 9 years old. I could go on for hours about their story. Here's it in a nutshell: Tsar Nicholas II and his family were executed by the Bolsheviks in 1918. They had been shot, stabbed with bayonets, and then to make them unrecognizable, the executors poured acid on their bodies and threw them in a mine and blew it up. Their bodies were no where to be found for decades. The bones of all of the family but the son Alexei and one of the younger daughters, either Anastasia or Maria [hard to tell from bones because they were so close in age], were eventually discovered. First in 1979, but the men who found them feared the government would do something harmful to the bones so they covered them back up and waited until near the fall, during Perestroika, to tell the world their discovery. Because of the 2 missing bodies, many believed they survived the execution. Most didn't think Alexei would've lasted long because he had hemophilia, but others believed one of the daughters was still alive. The most common belief was that it was Anastasia who was missing and could have survived. But in 2008 the remaining 2 bodies (bones) were found not far from where the rest of the family had been found and have been DNA tested and found to be Alexei and Maria. Now, the Romanov family has been canonized by the Russian Orthodox Church as 'Saint Martyrs' (thus the icon below).

The 4 people on the corners are the family's physician, maid, footman, and chef, who also had been killed with the family in the execution.

Grave markers of the 2 youngest daughters, Maria and Anastasia

The family's bones are all kept together in this single tomb. The wreath is from the King and Queen of Thailand.

Good Morning, Leningrad

2009-07-05T22:32:00.002+04:00

Last Friday night we took a midnight train to ~~Georgia~~ Saint Petersburg. It was an 8 hour train ride. 10pm to 6am. On the train, in our cars, there is one long hall and on the right side, there are seats that turn into “beds”, going the length of the hall. There’s one on the bottom and another up above. Then on the left are the little “rooms”. I like to call them nooks. There are 4 “beds” there: 2 on the bottom and 2 up above. The beds are about 5 feet long and barely 2 feet wide, at max. Therefore, it was the most comfortable thing imaginable to sleep on for 8 hours on a train! Actually, it reminded me of my bed back at Natasha’s….

Unfortunately, I got stuck with the bottom bunk, on the right side of the hallway. Therefore there was someone walking past me every 5 minutes on their way to the bathroom, waking me up because they bump into me. Needless to say, it was a restless night. But it’s okay, because the music they played to wake us all up totally made me feel better. They played Bonnie Tyler’s Total Eclipse of the Heart. At 6am. Maximum volume. It completed my life. If it had been my alarm clock it would have been thrown across the room and had acid poured on it before she even reached the chorus. It was kind of funny though because the whole time I was forced to listen to it, I pictured this video in my mind and couldn’t stop laughing. Not always a good idea when you’re around a bunch of tired Russians who are anti-laughter.

We got off the bus and our tour guide was waiting for us. She was a nice lady; a little strange. She told us we had like 300 meters till the bus. We’d start walking and then suddenly stop in the middle of the train station platforms. She’d gather us all around together again (there are a lot of us – 20 people) and told us we only have 200m left, 100m left, etc.

When we get out of the train station, this is the first thing we see. This is Vosstaniye Square or “Insurrection [uprising] Square”. I believe this is where the 1905 revolution began. The building to the right has the words Город Герой – Ленинград written on top, meaning «Hero City Leningrad». Leningrad (Soviet name of St. Petersburg – surprise surprise) achieved Hero City status after the Seige on Leningrad which lasted 880 something days (they just say 900 to make it easier). The Nazi's had laid seige on Leningrad, and there were no food supplies or support coming in, except the little bit that could come over a frozen river on the east side. Thousands died, maybe even 1-2 million. I don't remember for sure. It got so bad cannibalism actually persisted. But so help them, not one Nazi soldier stepped foot on Leningrad land. They suffered and won, the Nazi's couldn't take it anymore. Thus, Leningrad, the Hero City.

We board our tour bus and make way to our hotel. It's called Отель Москва (Hotel Moscow). It's huge and has a metro station and grocery store underneath it! Faaaabulous. When the initial planning of this trip had gone down, we had been told we'd be in hostels to save money. Lucky for us, we had enough to get a hotel room for the night! It was 2 people to a room, which had normal (read: amazing) beds and hot showers where the showerhead is actually attached to the wall so you don't have to awkwardly hold it between your knees as you wash your hair.

The view outside of our window was fabulous. We were on the sixth floor and the view looks out over the Neva River and you can see 2 of the many bridges of St. Petersburg. Sorry about the lines down the middle, those are the different window panes.

After we dropped off all our stuff in the hotel room, we went down to eat breakfast at the hotel cafeteria type place. It was woooonderful. 'All you can eat' is not a known phrase in Russia, so we took advantage of this once in a Russian Lifetime event and binged. It wasn't your typical 'breakfast' foods but it worked.

Then we went on our bus to begin our 5+ hour tour. First stop was this location in St. Petersburg where the Neva River is at its widest and forks around us. We could look out and see the island that houses the Peter and Paul Fortress and we also saw the Winter Palace on the other side. The 2 lighthouses that are located at the place we were at mark the edges of the triangle area we were at where the river forks. They're kind of weird looking but they work.

The Peter and Paul Fortress

The Winter Palace

Jumping into the Neva

It was great being this close to the water. I never realized just how much I love the water, river, ocean, whatever, until I got off the bus and just stood right on the edge. Wonderful!

After this stop, we headed around to another side of the river, where a few famous boats are docked. The first one we saw was the Aurora. This was the ship that fired the shot that notified the Bolsheviks to "storm" their assigned locations for the 1917 revolution. Unfortunately, it's still owned by the Russian Navy so we can't go on it. I think if you pay a lot, you could probably get in. The second ship was a replica of Peter the Great's ship.

I think this is one of my most favorite pictures. Ashley and Kensie on the Titanic.

Why I love St. Pete

The Artist Formally Known as Petrograd

2009-07-05T22:06:00.004+04:00

Completely random thought of the day: St. Petersburg is like Prince.

How I came to this realization:

St. Petersburg has had many name changes. So has Prince.

St. Petersburg started out as "Sankt Peter Burgh" (as it is currently pronounced in Russian: Санкт-Петербург). This is not a Russian name/word though. It's Dutch. Just spoken with a Russian accent. "Burgh" is Dutch for "city", whereas "gorod" is Russian for "city". So, Saint Peter's City. And it's not named after Peter the Great who built the city (with the help of millions of serfs...). It's named after his patron saint, also named Peter. I think he just said that because he didn't want to seem stuck up. Anyways, thus was the name of the new capital: Sankt Peter Burgh (Saint Petersburg).

Then WWI happens and our favorite warmongers, Germany, step into the picture. Russia (who was fighting Germany) decided that Sankt Peter Burgh sounded too German (Dutch actually, but who's counting?) so, in a wave of patriotism, they change the name to Petrograd ("grad" is the short form of "gorod" meaning 'city' in Russian). So, Peter's City.

Then there's the 1918 revolution and Lenin's rise to power. The Germans are very close to Petrograd, so he moves the capital back to Moscow (where it had been before Peter the Great decided to change everything Russia) because Lenin is a scaredy cat. Once he dies, it is decided to name the city of his birth and his true "home", after him. So Petrograd becomes Leningrad. Lenin's City. How sweet.

Fast forward to the Fall of the USSR and in a wave of anti-Communism, everything that had had its name changed to something different during the reign of the USSR is immediately switched back to its original, non-Soviet name. Therefore Leningrad would go back to Petrograd, right? No. They go back to Sankt Peter Burgh. I find this interesting. I guess they don't care about the whole patriotism thing anymore. After calling the city Leningrad for roughly 70 years, it has been hard for people to change back to calling it Sankt Peter Burgh. Especially older people like my host, who always calls it Leningrad. When I mentioned going to Sankt Peter Burgh, she looked confused for a second, then the light of knowledge came to her eyes and she said, А, да, Ленинград. Понятно.(Oh, yes, Leningrad. Understandable [I understand].)

But all this doesn't matter, because the locals just call it Piter.

Then there's Prince.

First he goes by Prince. His given first name (weird, but .. it's Prince, it's a given). I just re-read that sentence. Pun-like phrasing not intended.

Then he gets in a fight with his record label and in an overly dramatic and pseudo-philosophical move, he decides to not go by another "name" because he already has one and it's been stolen, but instead will change his name to be a symbol. But not just any symbol. The Love Symbol, because that's what he represents. What a fruitcake.

Only problem with your name being a symbol.... no one can pronounce it. So how do radio hosts say that the song that was just played was performed by.... the love symbol? So they call him the Artist Formally Known As "Prince". Hilaaaarious.

Now... he's still as weird as ever, but has acquiesced to being called Prince again. Poor thing.

But all this doesn't matter because everyone just calls him Creeper.

Eggs, Fried Heaven, and Onion Domes

2009-07-01T16:03:00.008+04:00

On Friday we had a free day to do whatever we wanted. We decided to kill our time before taking off to St. Petersburg by going to the Faberge exhibit at the Museum of Personal Collections at the Pushkin Museum. I have been obsessed with the Romanov dynasty for years and naturally, with that, became fascinated with Faberge and his (their) creations. I couldn't WAIT to go! It was so worth it too! They had probably around 10 of the 42 remaining Faberge eggs (they made 54 for the royal family but 12 have been destroyed or lost). They even had the very first Faberge egg ever made. It was really fun being there with some of my friends. Because I am such a weird Russophile, I'd learned a lot about the Romanovs and the Faberge eggs so I acted as their tour guide. It makes me feel better that all this information in my head isn't completely useless! One day.... it will serve its purpose!

All of the eggs, as well as the other

Faberge creations the company did for the royal family that they displayed, were part of the personal collection of just ONE person. I forget his name. It didn't sound Russian. He must be a multi-billionaire to have all of those! Faberge creations are made from the finest materials, stones, gemstones, gold, silver, minerals, and the finest craftsmanship you've ever seen.

It was really cool seeing these eggs in real life that I have been reading about for so long. I hope a Faberge exhibit comes to the U.S. someday. I'm excited for the visit to the Kremlin this Saturday because in the Kremlin Armoury they house the Royal Jewels, including some of the Faberge eggs. So hopefully I can see some more before I leave Moscow!

I think my favorite egg there was the Lilies of the Valley egg. Every Faberge egg was made to have a surprise inside. Inside the Lilies of the Valley egg is mini pictures/paintings of Tsar Nicholas II and 2 of his daughters in mini jeweled picture frames that can be rotated so they stick out and fan out of the top on display. This egg plays a big part in one of my favorite books, The Romanov Prophecy by Steve Berry.

After the exhibit, we were hungry

so we decided to head over to the southeast part of central Moscow

to a Cheburechnaya. But not just any Cheburechnaya, this is apparently the best, and cheapest Cheburechnaya in Moscow. What is a Cheburechnaya? It is a place that sells Chebureki. Chebureki are these fried, half-circle doughy things with some kind of filling inside.

They sell meat, cheese, or potato filling. I of course got a cheese and a potato one. They were delicious! I am in love! And it was so cheap! I am definitely going back there!

After becoming pleasantly stuffed full of chebureki goodness, we still had a few more hours to kill so we decided to go inside of St. Basil's Cathedral.

I'd been to Red Square numerous times, but never inside St. Basil's.

We get to Red Square and find out that it's been closed, cordoned off to everyone. It's weird seeing the Square completely empty!

No one could tell us why it was closed. But the government does this ALL the time so we weren't surprised. You can never know when it'll be closed because they just do it whenever they feel like it, without letting anyone know in advance.

Luckily, St. Basil's, which is on the edge of the Square, was still open for tours, so we went inside. I had always been told St. Basil's looks cool on the outside, but the inside is nothing to brag about. They weren't far off.

It is a very, very old cathedral. We were only allowed to take pictures if we paid. Well, none of us felt like paying. Fortunately, as we are learning about such places where you pay to take pictures, no one checks to see if you have a picture pass, so one of the girls, Linsey, took pictures. Sneaky sneaky! We figured it best if just one person in the group took pictures because it may rouse suspicion if we all start taking pictures.

Unfortunately, I haven't had a chance to get the pictures from Linsey yet... so no pictures right now. Honestly though, you're not missing out on much. It was still cool to go and say that you've been inside that famous building!

Walking back to the metro from St. Basil's (the long way because Red Square was cordoned off), we kept seeing all of these people dressed in prom-type clothes (or nicer) walking around. We couldn't figure out what was going on. We decided to follow a group of fancily dressed people and found this HUGE hoard of people standing outside one of the buildings down the street from the Square. Amazingly enough, out of all of the people (who were also fenced in) who were dressed up, and all of us normal people looking at them in wonder from the other side of the fence, this one guy comes up to talk to us.

Lo and behold, he is a member of the Church and is in the branch that one of the people in our group that day goes to. Small world. He told us that it's this huge ball that is thrown every year for high school seniors who graduate with honors. Wow. Wish they did that where I'm from. Can you imagine? So all the "A+" students (read: students who could afford to bribe their teachers - since that is a very common practice here) dressed up (some, as slutty as they could) and went to this dance.

Borsch and... Autobots?

2009-07-01T14:55:00.015+04:00

Thursday we had another lab day with Vladimir. This time our topic was food. We had decided we would go to his apartment and cook Russian food. I will take that over those horrible wooden chairs in our classroom any day!

We decided to make borsch and pelmeni. What are those, you ask?

Борщ – Borsch (I will never understand why people add a ‘t’ to the end because it’s not a part of the Russian word…) is a vegetable-style soup. It is famous for it’s reddish-pink color because of the beets in it.

I’ve made borsch numerous times back when I was Vice President of the Russian club and just with my Russian friends. It usually has beets, carrots, onions, parsnip, cabbage, potatoes, dill, garlic, and other vegetables and spices depending on who’s making it.

Once it’s cooked you serve it into everyone’s bowls and drop in a dollop of smetana (Russian version of sour cream). The white of the smetana mixed with the red/pink borsch makes a really really pink soup, usually.

Пельмени - Pelmeni is a Russian dish whose closest equivalent would probably have to be tortelloni or ravioli, but not quite. It’s usually some type of meat wrapped up in dough and boiled. Until Vladimir’s place, I had only tried store bought “pelmeni” my 2 hosts have had me try. I really didn’t like it. Very poor quality. So I assumed I didn’t like pelmeni. But the ones we made from scratch were amazing! Vladimir had told us girls to make the dough because “Girls make dough better than boys”. It is a really simple dough. We started to have fun with it. Well, 2 of the guys did. They started tossing it around like pizza dough. It was rather comical.

The meat we had inside was a mixture of pork and beef, which we ground ourselves. Definitely a homemade dish!

Unfortunately, we were making so many and just piling them on top of each other that we didn’t think about the fact that some would stick together.

So underneath our pile of raw pelmeni was this blob of dough and meat that we had to try to separate and make into pelmeni again. They didn’t look pretty but still tasted good. We ended up eating them with smetana (sour cream) though sometimes Russians eat pelmeni in a broth (which is how it was always given to me before). I personally like it more with the smetana, though that may just be because the only time I had good pelmeni was with smetana.

Also on the table we had a pot of компот (‘kom-pote’). This is a drink made essentially of fruit, boiled in water, with sugar added. Vladimir had made us kompot from apricots It was okay, but I’m not a huge apricot/peach fan and it was a little too sweet for me. I think if it was with a different fruit I’d be all over it.

Vladimir also had us try квас (kvas). Kvas is a drink made from fermented bread. Usually black bread. They sell it on the streets here everywhere. I had never tried it because it sounds disgusting. I figured though that while I am in Russia I have to at least try it even though I know I’ll likely hate it. I took a sniff and decided it smelled like soy sauce. Took one sip and decided it tasted like carbonated soy sauce. It was horrible. One sip was enough for me. At least I can say I’ve tried it!

We Americans were supposed to make an “American” dish. We decided to make fruit salad because it’s so ‘American’. Cop-out dish, I know, but we needed more fruit in the Land of Vegetables.

After we all ate, one of the girls in my group, Sara, brought out a bag of… marshmallows. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It turns out that she bought them at some store in the American Embassy (her family is a bunch of expats that have been living in Moscow for 2 years now). I must go to this store! So we ate some big, poofy, slightly stale, marshmallowy goodness. We had Vladimir try one for the first time. He then proceeded to read the ingredients, laughing at every complex ingredient, exclaiming that we are only eating chemicals and that American food is all chemical. Okay, so he was right this time. So what? It was a billowy pillow of heaven in my mouth; I didn’t care!

After we were at Vladimir’s place, we contemplated where to go for the rest of the day. Unfortunately, it was pouring rain and freezing cold outside, so our options were limited. Me, Ashley, and Linsey decided to go to the Children’s Theatre where they show cheap plays and stuff. Only after walking 30 minutes in the rain and cold and wind did we find out that the Children’s Theatre is now shut down until September. So then we went to my favorite place, the Ashan mall place thingy.

Apparently there is a movie theatre inside, so we decided to go see a movie. We had thought UP! but we arrived too late for its final showing of the day. Therefore we went for Transformers 2.

Watching a film you have never seen before, in Russian, without subtitles or anything, can be pretty tough. I speak Russian okay, but not fluently, and the autobots or whatever they’re called have these weird dubbed Russian robot voices that were hard to understand. What I did understand: the 2 females of the film must always look like Playboy bunnies, wearing the least amount of clothing possible for a PG-13 rating, and always looking perfect - perfect hair, perfect make-up, spotless clothes – even when in the middle of the desert fighting and getting blown up. Oh and they have to always pucker their lips like they’re Angelina Jolie. Ridiculous. Unfortunately, I didn’t understand like 1/3 of the plot. Like, what the heck the bad guys were actually after. I just got the gist of good guys vs. bad guys. Apparently, according to reviews, you get the same kind of treatment in English so I don’t feel so bad. The movie is good effects-wise but a little weird, and more immature. I’d still like to see it in English just to see what all I missed.

Off I go!

2009-06-26T18:39:00.005+04:00

Hey y'all. Sorry I haven't updated in a few days. I've been busy, tired and my internet sucks like a vacuum. I'll update when I get back. From where, you say? Oh, well I'm about to leave on my train to Saint Petersburg, Russia. I will be there this weekend. 2 full days in St. Pete. Not much time to see everything but I'll try. Hope to have lots of pictures and fun stories to show you. No internet or computer for a few days. In the mean time, don't miss me too much. I will leave you with this gem of a song:

I am following the path of Anastasia! Well, backwards, but still. I'll let you know if I find a Dimitri. Or slightly more likely: a cute dog named Pooka. Or most likely: a creepy old man wanting to kill me.

I have seen Zion!!!

2009-06-23T16:49:00.008+04:00

Sunday we all went to the dacha of the director of the program here at ANE. He wanted us to experience a dacha.

Muscovites (people from Moscow) all live in small apartments. They're crammed, there's no space for anything, etc. Therefore in the summer they escape to their dachas. These are small little cabins outside of the city, where there is space to actually BUILD "houses".

When I told my host where I would be going, she told me I needed to prepare myself because I would be entering "nature". She made it sound like I was entering a tropical jungle and I would surely be eaten alive by some giant animal. I assured her I could handle myself and I am a fast runner.

We had a fun time getting to Sasha's dacha. We had to take an elektrichka up to his little village. He had given us (poor) directions on how to get to the train station. We wandered around to various stations in the area, none of them correct. Finally we get the right one just in time to miss the train. So we had to wait another hour or so. The train ride was about an hour and a half.

This sign says Кафе Лиза - Cafe Lisa

I think it's hilarious that his village is called Новоиерусалимская or New Jerusalem.

Guys! Guys! I've been to Zion!

His dacha was really nice. According to the RMs, this is the nicest dacha they have all been to. The area was nice. We took a walk around the place, but I forgot to bring my camera with me, so I'm bummed.

His wife was there. She doesn't speak English so we had to be sure to speak in Russian. Go figure. Speak Russian in rural Russia? Hmm. She was super nice. She cooked us all a huge meal of sausages, potatoes, salad, and chips. The chips were amazing. They were like Pringles (in a can) but thicker. Oh man. They also had PEANUT BUTTER. This is a fairly nonexistent thing in Russia. Russians don't know what it is. Sasha had managed to find some at this random store near where he lives. We were all begging him to know where he got it. It was funny watching him and his wife try it. It was the first time in their lives they had ever eaten peanut butter. When they had bought the peanut butter, they asked the store clerk what you usually do with it. The clerk said they didn't know, they'd never had it but thought it was sweet. They bought a loaf of bread and hoped that would work. They didn't like it. They had hoped it was sweet and were not pleasantly surprised. We Americans chowed down on it, of course.

They also had 2 dogs there. One was a Black Russian Terrier, the other some other kind of terrier. I've decided I want a Black Russian Terrier. They're so soft and friendly! And HUGE. The one they had was smaller than the usual. They can get to be bigger than Great Danes I think.

On the trip back we had to ride the Elektrichka again, only this time we were really dreading it. This was my 4th 1.5 hour elektrichka ride in 2 days. And this time, everyone was heading back to Moscow from their dachas to go to work. Therefore the train was crammed. There was no place for us to sit anywhere, so we all crammed into this little room that's in between the train cars. We stood on the train for 1.5 hours! The best part was when this guy came into the compartment and started smoking even though the signs said No Smoking. He got the evil eye from all of us.

I tried getting a picture of us but since we were on a moving train it was kind of hard, and the pictures all turned out blurry.

Anger = Success!

2009-06-23T16:24:00.004+04:00

Since I have been here I have discovered one very interesting and somewhat funny/ironic thing about myself. I speak Russian the best when I am pissed off. And not so great when I am tired. Since these are 2 of my most frequent emotions, my Russian is more up and down than Brittney Spears' career.

In class, my Russian usually sucks because I'm tired, bored, I've been sitting in the same chair for 3 hours, and it is a very, very uncomfortable wooden chair, and I have no leg room. But sometimes these conditions, when combined with a teacher that tends to make me angry, will suddenly improve my Russian . For example, Vladimir likes to waste our entire class time going off on political rants about goodness knows what. My favorite was when he was telling us that there are no terrorists. We're not fighting terrorists in the middle east. It's all made up, and that the CIA blew up the WTC Towers. He spent all class period explaining his theories - no, no, "FACTS" - that the CIA managed to sneak past security and plant bombs in the structure of each building, every 10 floors, all around. That's the only explanation for them collapsing as they did. Nothing to do with the PLANES that hit them and the resulting fuel, fire, and burning objects. I was getting so pissed off in that class I couldn't see straight. Whenever he does these rants, I start getting pissed off, and when I start copping an attitude with him, I speak excellently.

I think a great example of this was the other night, when me, Holly and Linsey were leaving IKEA. We get on our metro train and lucky us, a drunk man decides to make our metro car his home. He is completely hammered and has very obviously peed himself. I was sitting in between Linsey and Holly. He comes over to us and leans in really close to Linsey and starts asking her something. Probably wondering where he is because he hasn't a clue. She can't hear him because the metro is loud. He just keeps pestering her and I start to get really pissed off. Here is this man who is dumb enough to get so pissed drunk he can't see straight, know where he is, or control his bowels. And he is pestering my friend. I get very protective of people, very quickly, and I wasn't gonna handle this smelly creep bothering her. I just started yelling at him. I don't remember all I said. It was spur of the moment, I didn't even think about what I was saying, just let it spew forth. It was something like, "Go away. Leave us alone. You're drunk, you don't even know where you are. You've peed your pants. We can't hear you. We don't understand you. We don't speak Russian. Just go away and leave us alone." I tried to speak simply to him so he would better understand. I hoped he didn't notice that I had said we don't speak Russian while I was speaking to him in flawless Russian. He just looked at me, blinked, and bumbled over to the next group of people.

Awesome. I have found my secret weapon to speaking well: anger. Lots and lots of anger.

I-K-K-K-KEA!

2009-06-23T15:29:00.004+04:00

After Tretyakov, a few of us decided to grab lunch somewhere. There is this place just down the street that makes and sells the best [and cheapest - imagine that conundrum!] чебуреки (best way to explain this is fried dough with stuff inside) in Moscow, apparently. We approach the restaurant type place at 1pm - lunch time, right? The guy standing outside takes one look at us and holds up the pointer fingers of each hand in an X shape, as if we are vampires or demons. Apparently he believes this to be the universal sign of "no". He tells us to come back in an hour.

It is times like these when I am reminded of how dumb store owners and such here can be. The place is open, and we are a group of Americans that can bring them in a bunch of money, and they turn us away for whatever idiotic reason. I've been told that there was some store that sold these delicious American style cookies (such things don't exist in Russian cuisine). It was near one of the church buildings and missionaries would go there all the time to buy them. Then the store stops carrying them. When asked why they don't carry them anymore, the store owner replied, "Because every time I get them in, you buy them all!" ::head slap::

Anyways, back to the story. We're starving and don't feel like waiting. So we end up going to this Russian restaurant called Yolki Palki. It was okay, but you get schooled on the Russian take on portion sizes real fast. Needless to say, after eating there we were still a bit hungry so we went next door to a McDonald's where an ice cream cone is 10 rubles. How much is 10 rubles, you ask? About 33 cents! In case you were wondering where HEAVEN is located, it's inside the silver ice cream machine, found in all Russian McDonald's locations.

Another observation, then I'll finish my story: In Russia, for some reason, it is believed that for any place to function properly, you have to have a THOUSAND people doing the same thing. Example: You can walk into a cell phone store and find 8 people working in this teeny "store" of about 15'x20' dimensions. Okay, not eight people working. More like 1 working, 4 talking on their cell phones, and 3 on cigarette break -- all while still being behind the counter. McDonald's is no different. It is absolutely hilarious to enter a McDonald's just to watch the workers. There are like 10 people just behind the counter. It's usually 3 people per cash register. Then you have like 8 more people making food, and 3 people standing around looking stressed or lost, and 2 more people on the other side of the counter with a handheld order thing, taking your order (in an attempt to make the extremely long lines move faster), printing out a sheet of paper, and you have to give it to the people at the cash registers and pay there. So you still have to wait in line, give your order, and pay. Only now you have to deal with two Russian teenagers. Completely pointless but this is Russia.

Ok back to the story. We get our icecream, feel the paradisical glory fill our bodies, and sit and chat for a while.

Then we go to this amazing, magical place called ИКЕА. What does that look like? You know this! C'mon! ....IKEA! There are like 3 IKEA's in Moscow. They are all located next to МЕГА (MEGA) - which essentially means a mall 4 times larger than you've ever seen.

When our director Grant had been here, we would meet at his huge, fancy, rented apartment every other Saturday because that was the only large, covered meeting place we could find where 20 loud Americans could be themselves. Well, Grant and his beloved apartment left a couple weeks ago = no place to hang.

Enter IKEA. One of the guys in the group got the great idea that we could chill at IKEA, because in America, apparently you can do whatever the heck you want in the IKEA show rooms. Sleep in the beds, lay on the couches, etc. So we brought some decks of cards and decided to play cards in IKEA showrooms. Might I just say that IKEA is amazing, the cafeteria is awesome, and I wish the IKEA in Georgia was closer to my house. How have I never been to this place yet??!?!

So we played cards in various show rooms and it was rather fun, living on the edge, waiting for some IKEA person to spoil our fun. Mostly we just got weird looks from all the Russians walking around. "Stupid Americans"

To get to this magical land, we took a bus from the metro station. Great thing: the bus was free. Not so great thing: everyone and their mother knows this and takes advantage of this. Really crappy thing: nothing is ever "free", you always end up paying for it somehow.

If you've ever wondered how many people fit into one bus, the answer is somewhere between 60 and 75. And it is NOT a pretty site. But it is SO fun trying to balance on a bus that has no open windows, drives like crazy, goes around loops and roundabouts, and is full of 60 smelly, angry people. We were trampling people trying to get off that thing!

Me and 2 of my friends, Holly and Linsey, decided to leave early because it was getting late and we were tired. Luckily, heading back home wasn't as bad on the bus. But... the bus took us to a different metro stop. It was on the grey line. I'd never been on the grey line before and had always wondered if I ever would. It seems nothing interesting is ever on it. And I think it's aptly named the grey line because all of the metro stations we passed were... grey. Really industrial and boring.

Tretyakov

2009-06-23T14:45:00.010+04:00

Saturday morning we went to the Tretyakov Art Gallery. I had been told this is an amazing museum gallery thing. I don't think I realized that ALL of the art inside would have been done by Russian artists. I guess I had thought there was a mixture, like most other art/museum type places I've been to.

It was still cool though. It was nice that we had a tour guide to tell us stories about the artists or their subjects. Unfortunately, since this is all Russian art, every single story she told us was depressing, frightening, and always had an unpleasant ending.

Example 1:

We approach this HUGE painting. It gets its own room because it is so huge. It is of Christ's coming to some people that were getting baptized. He had pairs of people depicted, such as young boy and old man, slave and master (the slave has a disgustingly green face), as well as other 'famous' people, and of course himself painted in there. Well she tells us the story of the artist. He had painted this while in Italy, taking him 30 years, and when he brought it back to St. Petersburg (the capital at the time) to his art showing where he expected a great review, it was rejected and no one liked it. He was completely downtrodden and died a couple months later of a broken heart. Irony: now it is one of the most famous paintings at Tretyakov and gets its own room for display.

Example 2:

We see a painting of a beautiful woman in a dark room, standing on a bed, and looking like she is in total despair. Story: this painting is based upon the legend that there was an heir to the Russian throne that had decided to move to Italy to live her life. So, she was a princess. Catherine, the tsarina at the time, finds out about her and in fear of one day losing the throne to this long-lost princess who could possibly return, she sends someone to Italy to go get her. The man who is sent to get her wins over the Princess and she falls in love with him and they go on a boat to get married. Only the "priest" was just a sailor, and the marriage was fake. They throw her in a cell in the bottom of the boat and travel back to St. Petersburg. They then put her in a cell in the Peter and Paul Fortress. It's this tiny little room with a cot. Enter the painting. She is in this room, standing on the bed, looking in total despair because, well, she's been totally screwed over big time, and now the flood of St. Petersburg is happening and the water is pouring into her window. Story says she drowns in her cell, never to escape. Bummer, man.

Example 3:

First glance: It is a wheat-type field, with 2-3 men on horses, looking Cossack-y.

The story: These men are blessing the field, and this is ironic because tons of people were just killed on it.

Second glance: there are dead bodies all over the field, only they are naked so they blend in with the grain-type plants, and their heads had looked like rocks the first time.

Lovely.

Example 4:

In the same series of paintings about the wars in Central Asia (Uzbekistan and such), there is a painting called "Trophies". There are a bunch of men celebrating around a big pile of... human heads. Yes. A huge pile of human heads.

Yum.

Example 5:

There is a very famous painting of Ivan the Terrible that depicts the scene of the murder of his son, also named Ivan. He and his son had been arguing because Ivan the Older had beat Ivan the Younger's wife, and Ivan the Younger was pissed. Ivan the Older then beats his son with some sharp object (I forget what) and fatally wounds him. Ivan then realized what he did and loses his mind. Take a snapshot of the image in your mind and you're probably not that far off the mark.

Were you close?

Creeeeeepppyyyyy....

Example 6:

You all have probably seen this painting before because I put it on my blog when first talking about Novodevichy. Yes. It is the painting of Sophia, Peter the Great's older half-sister. The crazy unibrow lady. She's locked up in the Novodevichy Convent and there are Streltsy (which means "shooters" in Russian) hanging out her window. They had already been hanged on Red Square by Peter for trying to overthrow him, on Sophia's command, but he wanted to stick it in Sophia's face. Literally. So he had the dead bodies hung out her window. Gotta love those familial relationships.

This picture is even scarier in person. Most of the people in my group had never seen the picture and literally squealed or jumped when they saw it. I'd already been desensitized by seeing it a few times already, and after having seen a pile of heads and dead bodies in a field, a crazy lady with a unibrow was nothing. Still a little creepy in person though.

Sergiev Posad

2009-06-23T14:14:00.004+04:00

Fridays are our free days to go do whatever the heck we want. This week we went to Sergiev Posad. It is located an hour and a half train ride north of Moscow. The Trinity Monastery there is the spiritual center of the Russian Orthodox church. It has beautiful 'temples' there, as they are called in Russian. Most famous is the one with the blue domes on top. Many of the Church's patriarchs are buried here. The bell tower once had 42 bells on it (until, of course, the Commies destroyed them). Inside the complex is a spring where they have the water come out of a cross. They believe this is holy water because the spring... sprung(?) during the blockade/siege and there was no fresh water or food. Now you can buy bottles there and fill them up with the holy/blessed water.

Look at all the birdies!

Unfortunately, as is EVERYWHERE in Russia it seems, it is Nilzya to take pictures on the premises. At least here you have the option to pay to take pictures, but only one person in our group did. Hopefully he will share his pictures...?

Also we couldn't go inside the big, famous cathedral, or well, any of the buildings, except like 2. I went in the bell tower and all that was there is an expensive shop.

It was raining off and on the whole time we were there. It always rains when we go do something!

In order to get up to Sergiev Posad, we have to ride an Elektrichka, which is an electrically powered train. We were on there for 1.5 hours each way, and it was totally fun because we were crammed on there with a bunch of really smelly, drunk Russians, all on their way to their dachas in "nature" as they call it.

On my way home that evening, I discovered that the Russians who had been blowing up my street a few days ago (see 2 posts down), had been at it again and essentially I had no way to get to my apartment building. I had to walk around all over the place trying to find an alternate route... in the rain. So fun!

ВДНХ: Pepto Bismol and Skaters

2009-06-23T13:33:00.006+04:00

Thursday some of the people in my group decided to go roller skating in ВДНХ park. I thought it sounded fun until the smart part of my brain (which is unusually silent most of the time) decided to kindly remind me that I have no sense of coordination when trying to balance atop linear wheels (or blades) and my center of gravity is, of course, higher than the average person so I am cursed to always fall on my boohunkus when I try to have fun. Therefore, I went with 2 other girls who also didn't want to skate, to watch everyone else fall down.

Upon entering the park, I saw this bright pink car (I know I am getting the evil eye from every single male reading this because I don't know the technical make and model - I just call it Fast and Ostentatious). The car alone is hilarious because it is the color of Pepto Bismol. But oh no, that's not the end of it. The driver gets out of the car and his shirt freaking matches his car!! What a flamer!! I had to try really hard to hold the camera still enough to take a picture because I was laughing so hard.

The three guys and three Russian girls all went skating...

... and us three American girls did what any American girls would do in this situation and went to the popcorn stand and bought colorful "sweet" popcorn. I am not ashamed. Though I am kinda bummed. I'd been craving this stuff since I saw it at the Zoo, but there it is rainbow! Here they just had pink. Like the car. I see a theme coming on here.

Since the park is ginormous and covers the space of a small country (no, seriously), there are these "children's" trains driving around. They are annoying as heck because they are everywhere and no matter where you are there is one riding your a**, and you turn around and see this huge smiling Thomas the Engine of the Collective giving you a Commie glare. Two Russian punks decided to take advantage of these stupid little trains full of children and 80 year old cranky women, and held onto them while skateboarding. I give them 2 points for creativity and 3 points each for enduring the glare of the pissed off babushka watching them through the back window. One point deduction each for being teenage, Russian punks.

Guys, I am so proud of the park attendants right now. Remember in my last post about this park there was a mud swirly in the huge lawn that looked like a bulldozer joy ride? Well they've started to add flowers to it. Let's give them a round of applause! It took them until end of June but they are starting those flowers and that's what counts!

Popcorn popping?

2009-06-17T23:21:00.005+04:00

I look out the window and what do I see?

Russians blowing up my very own street!

Summer has brought me such a nice surprise,

Asphalt blowing up before my eyes!

They all take an armful of my own street

and throw it in a truck sitting there for weeks

There really was no point..

For dynamite to be...

Blowing up my only pathway to the street.

Novodevichy Convent

2009-06-15T19:49:00.004+04:00

Remember in an earlier post (my bus trip) I have some pictures by a convent... near a lake? Maybe? It's called Novodevichy Convent. Well I went back, with some friends, on Saturday. First we went to the rynok (market) at Ismailovskii Park (and hoped we didn't get blown up in the process since there have been threats by Nationalists and the US Embassy told us not to go..). I mostly went to "window" shop, figure out what there was, and gauge prices for my subsequent return trips. It is essentially a Russian version of the Swap Meets I went to in Hawai'i. But the layout is more confusing and every stand sells matryoshka dolls (nesting dolls).

At Novodevichy we attended a Russian Orthodox service in one of their churches on the premises. It was very interesting. A lot of head bowing and crossing yourself. And icons. The music that the choir and priests (?) sang was beautiful. They have great voices. The incense thing the priest brought around smelled really good. In Russian Orthodox churches the women have to wear a head covering, so I bought a scarf at the rynok earlier in the day so I can now freely enter the R.O. churches!

The main church on the premises requires you to pay, and we were too tired and lazy and poor to pay the 2 bucks to get in. Sophia (Peter the Great's crazy sister [see earlier post about Novodevichy]) is buried in the church. Well her tomb is there. As well as Peter's first wife whom he sent to live in the convent because he considered her a nag. When we went to the door, you could feel the cool air coming out of it. Almost like it was air conditioned or something! I think it's because Sophia is in there, like this dementor presence, sucking the warmth and joy out of the air. Hah.

I didn't get a chance to hit the cemetery. I will in the future. Some very famous people are buried there. Pretty much, the Party leaders who didn't make the cut for the Kremlin cemetery. People like Nikita Khrushchev, Raisa Gorbachev (wife of Gorbachev -- every young girl in the USSR wanted to be like her when they grew up - or so said one of my Russian teachers), Nadezhda - wife of Stalin; the irony of her story is her name means "Hope" in Russian, yet she committed suicide (many believe this is what sent Stalin over the edge - he really had a hard time coping with it). The marker on her grave is surrounded by bullet proof glass so that it can't be vandalized. Anton Chekhov, the famous playwright is also there. Prokofiev, the composer as well. Hopefully I can get back there soon.

It is legend that this lake is what inspired Tchaikovsky to write "Swan Lake". Unfortunately, the swans are long gone...

"Photography" class

2009-06-15T19:07:00.008+04:00

On Thursdays, due to a conflict of schedules with one of our teachers, we have one teacher all day. Therefore the 2 Intermediate classes combine with one teacher, Vladimir, for 3 hours. This is our lab day. The first week we talked about store stuff, such as suppliers, supply and demand, shelf layout, products, etc. Then we had a field trip to the nearby grocery store to "use" our new words. Meaning, we bought our lunch for the day.

Well our last Thursday class was photography class. We learned the terms for shutter speed, cropping, flash, etc. Then we headed out to the Center on a walking tour led by Vladimir. We got to see some interesting sites, lastly ending up at Red Square (as most trips do).

Tretyakov Art Gallery

Fountains on the Moskva River

Apparently there is a Russian/Muscovite tradition that when you get married (or maybe live together since that's what Russians do now instead of getting married..) you get a padlock and write both of your names on it and attach it on one of the lock trees on this bridge.

This tree is a newer one that hasn't had much added to it yet.

This one is definitely full.

Famous painter

This is an artwork/sculpture called "Children are the Victims of Adults' Vices"

There are sculptures of different vices, such as Drug Addiction, Thievery, etc.

Many of the sculptures look like creatures that you'd find in the bar scene in Star Wars.

The picture below is of a square that we were at (same place as the Vices sculpture). The building in the background used to house high-level Communist Party members. Almost everyone who lived in that building was eventually executed by Stalin during the Purges. He feared those closest to him the most. Lovely, huh?

I think this might be called Execution Square (though I think Red Square could also be called it since thousands have been executed there as well...)

Bridge to the Kremlin. The red, white and blue colors are for Russia Day, aka Constitution Day (June 12) - the day the Constitution of the Russian Federation was signed.

On the bridge. That is the back of Vladimir's head...

What's the black monstrosity right next to St. Basil's? It's the back of a stage being set up for the huge concert they have on Red Square every year for Russia Day.

That's Vlad in the middle. He's funny, a little crazy, but funny.

I thought this truck was so funny. Apparently this is how Russians go about watering their grass. No such thing as a sprinkler system apparently. Funny thing: most of the water ended up on the street.

Because they were setting up for the concert, Red Square was cordoned off. This is the best angle of the stage I could get.

One of the churches on Red Square

National History Museum

A little trip to Georgia...

2009-06-15T19:00:00.004+04:00

..nope, not that Georgia. The country Georgia. On Wednesday we went to a Georgian restaurant. They had 2 very long tables set up (perpendicular) for us, with platters set up for us to eat from. The food was interesting. Not my favorite. I don't know why I thought Georgian food would be like Turkish (which I love). I guess I thought they were closer than then really are. I dunno. Some of the food was really weird looking. At least now I can say I've had Georgian food!

From darkness to light

2009-06-15T18:42:00.004+04:00

My old apartment with Natasha was very dark.

My new apartment with Inna is very light. Glorious.

Who knew light could be such a glorious thing?