so right now, it's about 6:30 and i have about 6 hours until my train leaves for st. petersburg. i'll be there until the end of the week and then i'll return back to moscow. but anyway, it's been a while since i last updated, so let's see...
it's been a lot colder lately, snow weather, you would think, unfortunately luzhkov seems bent on preventing it if at all possible, so who knows whether it'll actually fall or not. but it's definitely been close to freezing this whole past week, and the gloves and scarf and starting to feel like they're not enough haha. cloudy days are pretty much expected, i've only seen the sun maybe once or twice in the past 7 days.
last week we were pretty busy, we had an excursion to tolstoy's childhood home in the middle of moscow, and it was remarkably well preserved and definitely a lot nicer than what i would have expected. i didn't really know a lot about him and his family, but our tour guide spoke english extremely well and it turns out his whole family was very talented. so we got our tour and saw a lot of the antique furniture that was preserved. it was a nice change of pace to see something historical for a change since we had been seeing a lot of live performances lately.
that night, tuesday, me and a couple of my friends had heard about a restaurant at a metro stop close to us that offered unlimited house beer for a set (cheap) price on tuesday nights. we decided to check it out and the area turned out to be extremely sketchy. classic russia, the restaurant was right in front of 2 nuclear power plant cooling towers. we did find it though, and we had a pretty good time. the food was good as well.
the next day, we had our first test in our lecture class. needless to say, i don't think i aced it, but i certainly knew enough just from prior exposure to russian history that it didn't really matter that aleksandr's lectures are terrible. but yeah, all i need is a C, so i'm not really worried about it at all.
on thursday, i went out to a cafe to do some homework and get a small dinner with 2 of the other girls, and our waitress was really nice, and we found out she spoke english, russian, french, italian, german, and spanish. she was only 18, but she saw us doing our russian homework and basically ended up doing it for us haha. so that was a lot of fun and i would love to go back and see her again.
friday, kathryn and i went on an excursion with the kids from the school we had visited previously that i had spoken about. they were happy to see us, but the visit was bizarre again as i had expected, haha. we were originally going to take an [old, soviet, scary] bus, but since our group wasn't big enough, we packed into a marshrutka type van and off we went. we were going to the kuzminki estate, which is basically an old estate house with large, expansive grounds and an apparently long history. it was pretty close to the school so it only took a little while to get there. when we got there, we had a tour inside before we went to visit the horse stables. kathryn and i mainly ended up talking to nina and leviza, two girls who we hadn't met before at the school the first time. neither of them spoke english very well, so it was a great chance to practice our russian. they were both really nice and eager to talk to us. neither of them were ethnically russian, nina was from georgia, and leviza was from uzbekistan, but they both spoke russian as well. we ended up exchanging emails and phone numbers so hopefully we can keep in touch. the horse stables were pretty cool, the horses were beautiful and obviously well cared for. i'm not much of an animal person myself so i kept a distance but the girls all loved them. after that, we headed off and i went back home for the night.
on saturday, we FINALLY had our excursion to lenin's tomb and the kremlin wall necropolis, which was easily one of the excursion i was most looking forward to. we waited in line for a while on red square before we finally got to go in. basically, you go through the intense metal detector entrance, and then follow the paths through the garden towards lenin's tomb. the paths are lined with the gravestones of famous russians, most of whom i didn't know. halfway through, you reach the tomb, enter, and walk down a couple flights of stairs. it's pretty dark inside, entirely made of marble, and just creepy in general. there are militsiya lining the stairs all the way down, so that just adds to the creepiness. when you reach the bottom, you turn the corner into the room with lenin's body. his body is set up in an extremely ornate casket with a glass viewing box on top. guards are all around and you have about 30 second to walk around 3 sides of the casket before exiting. let's just say that those 30 seconds aren't enough for anyone to ever decide whether it's really all of his body there or not. it doesn't even sink in what you've actually just seen until later, though. after exiting, you continue past the really elaborate headstones of some of the soviet premiers and other important figures: brezhnev, kalinin, andropov, and of course stalin. after that, you follow the path out which is lined with carnations, yuri gagarin's grave is also located there. and that's it, all in about 10 minutes of walking. but the tomb is free so anyone can go back and see it again whenever. but i'm satisfied with one visit, i think haha.
on sunday, i spent the whole day out. i went to another CSKA soccer match, which was basically a massive loss for them against FK moskva, so that wasn't too exciting. afterwards i headed to the mall with a couple other people because we all needed some clothes for st. petersburg. it took me forever but i finally found a pair of [expensive] jeans that i liked so i got those. then we headed out to мир пиццы for some drinks and snacks. i was exhausted by the end of the day, so i just headed home and went to bed.
so that leaves me at...today. i didn't really do much, i packed earlier this afternoon, and i went to the store down the street to get some snacks for the train. i'll leave svetlana's around 10:30 or so and make my way to the metro. we're meeting at midnight. we're due to arrive in petersburg tomorrow early, and then we have a bus tour around the city, and then the rest of the day is free time. i'm kind of disappointed we don't have a very long time there, but i'm going to try and make the most of it and see and do what i want to do as opposed to what the group wants. i just like to explore by myself and i feel like i get more satisfaction out of that and get more done when i'm by myself. but either way i'm definitely pumped for the trip and can't wait to see everything! i think that's it for now, but i will make a huge effort to update this when i return (on halloween) so all of the petersburg stuff is fresh in my mind. hope everyone is still doing well and that everyone's halloween festivities are fun!
dima
Monday, October 26, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
парк победы is so big, so russia is probably hiding something in it
hey everyone. it's me again. let's see, where should i start.. last weekend i didn't
do a whole lot. on friday night we went out to the ballet to see what i believe was originally
a french ballet. it was pretty interesting but by the time it was over i was definitely ready to
leave. the story just wasn't that great, but the dancing was amazing, obviously. afterwards
i went with kelly and amanda to mu-mu, the cow themed restaurant chain in moscow. we met
two russian guys there who spoke english, and they invited us to come to a dance club
where they played old, retro american songs. we ended up going and meeting some of their friends, all of whom were extremely nice.
saturday and sunday i was pretty tired and i didn't really do all that much. it has been raining
a lot lately and the weather has definitely gotten a lot cooler. i have been saying i needed to buy
a heavier coat for a while now, but the expensive prices and the effort involved in shopping here
has made me procrastinate for a while. i originally had decided to go on monday and seriously look until i found one, but it rained all day and so i had to forego the trip and wait until tuesday.
on tuesday i left right after class by myself (because i never get anything done when i am with
other people haha) to a supposedly giant mall i had never been to before but had heard about
through several other russians. it was right by the kievskaya railway station, one of the largest
if not the largest railway station in moscow. i exited randomly from the metro and lo and behold
i picked the right exit and found myself right at the entrance of the mall.
now, i originally had thought the underground mall was huge that i had previously visited outside
red square, but this mall was gigantic. it was at least 5 floors, i think a parking garage on the 6th,
and had hundreds of stores. in the middle was an atrium and a fountain with exposed elevators,
and in the fountain was a gigantic clock that lit up and told time by the second with really
creative lights that lit up in a circle all the way around the rim of it. it was probably
the coolest mall i've ever been to. sorry, king of prussia. so anyway, i walked around for a while
but it's so difficult to shop in russia because i always feel like i am being watched. although
i suppose it doesn't help that i have shopping anxiety in america anyway haha, so i always
get nervous and just walk out of the stores. i ended up finding a not crazy expensive store
(aka the coats were only $100 as opposed to $300+) and i found a coat i actually really liked.
i wanted to try it on. now, as is the problem in many places in russia, nothing makes sense,
which includes dressing rooms. there was a large line, all with women, even though the store had men's clothing. i got in line and was told "no" by the lady in charge. i had no idea what she said to me after that, but i thought she meant it was only the lady's dressing room, but there wasn't a men's, so i have no idea what the problem was. i ended up trying it on outside and just bought it because it fit well enough, was a good price, and looked nice.
i also found a long scarf that i liked at another store and then i decided to go up to the food
court and eat something, which i did (pizza and mashed potatoes mmm). i walked around a little more but didn't really feel like staying any longer so i left.
my plan for tuesday night was to visit park pobedy, which is a famous park just outside the center of the city which is dedicated to WW2 veterans, and just WW2 in general. i didn't really
know what to expect because i had only read basic things about it. however, it was a huge surprise because the park was amazing. you exit the metro onto a giant cobblestone promenade, and in the distance is the main park pobedy memorial, an enormous obelisk and a semi circle white stone building surrounding one side of it. it was a HUGE memorial and the area it was in was really lively and seemed clean and more modern. i walked around for a while and found a small church before i made my way to the actual obelisk. it's even taller up close, almost like the washington monument except with a bunch of enscriptions and engravings all the way up the sides of it. what i was disappointed by although were the fountains around the monument, which are supposed to be on, and they are also supposed to glow red at night to commemorate the blood of the killed soldiers. they weren't even turned on, let alone red haha. i think they were doing work on them, but i am afraid they are already off for the winter for good, which would really suck since i wanted to see them. either way, it was still fun. i walked further into the park and it was so nice to have a nice relaxing walk in fresh air by myself for a change, and to get out of the dirty city/metro/freaking vykhino. it was a huge expanse of trees and woods, with paths through all of it, and there were also a bunch of monuments and small chapels and building scattered throughout the park. i eventually found a really neat artificial harbor which had replicas of old WW2 boats and artillery. they even had fake mines floating in the water. and the best part was that there was hardly anyone in the park, so i didn't feel crowded at all. it was starting to get dark, so i headed back out of the park towards the main monument. it was all lit up at that point so it looked even more imposing that it did during the evening. park pobedy metro stop also has great views of moscow in general, you can see the new moscow business center, also, straight down a huge main highway off to one side, you can see a ton of highrises, and it's all lit up at night of course. and of course i was all warm and toasty in my new coat haha. but i had a really great time and i think the park was my favorite place i've been to in moscow yet, maybe besides red square. it was nice to just explore myself and do what i wanted to do. i am definitely going to go back sometime soon.
so yeah, i think i'm almost at the halfway point of my trip, and i feel like we've had a lot of
excursions and we see a lot, but moscow is such a huge city, there's still a lot more to see.
some of us were talking about possibly taking a day trip one weekend to see one of the golden
ring towns, which i really want to see while i'm here, since they're so historically important.
some of the other upcoming excursions i know about are lenin's tomb, the tretyakov gallery, which is this weekend, tolstoi's house, and then also i believe a famous monastery somewhere on
the outskirts of the city. st. petersburg is also in less than 2 weeks and i'm really excited
to see the city and the hermitage, winter palace, and everything else. in general, you learn a lot
more about st. petersburg cultural sites/churches etc in russian culture classes back in america
because there tends to be a larger spread of architectural styles (baroque/rococo/classical etc)
there than in moscow, i believe. so i'm super excited and will probably take a ton of pictures just there haha. my camera has been getting a work out is for sure.
tonight, we're going to the circus, and we haven't really been told anything, so i'm not sure
what to expect, since i haven't been to the circus since jeez, i was probably younger than ten.
it will be fun though i'm sure and i hope the food is good, haha.
other than that, everything is going well, my cold is gone (woohoo!) and my foot is nearly 100%
so that's also good. this next week and a half before stpete i am going to try and do a little
more exploring myself since i always enjoy when i do that, and once we get back, it will
feel like the home stretch and i don't want to feel like i've missed out on seeing anything.
so yeah, i think that's it, and maybe i will try and post sooner again this weekend. i know i always say that but internet says otherwise. also, postcards still in the works (aka stamps are hard to get here and i don't know french). hope all is well at home. out!
dmitrii
do a whole lot. on friday night we went out to the ballet to see what i believe was originally
a french ballet. it was pretty interesting but by the time it was over i was definitely ready to
leave. the story just wasn't that great, but the dancing was amazing, obviously. afterwards
i went with kelly and amanda to mu-mu, the cow themed restaurant chain in moscow. we met
two russian guys there who spoke english, and they invited us to come to a dance club
where they played old, retro american songs. we ended up going and meeting some of their friends, all of whom were extremely nice.
saturday and sunday i was pretty tired and i didn't really do all that much. it has been raining
a lot lately and the weather has definitely gotten a lot cooler. i have been saying i needed to buy
a heavier coat for a while now, but the expensive prices and the effort involved in shopping here
has made me procrastinate for a while. i originally had decided to go on monday and seriously look until i found one, but it rained all day and so i had to forego the trip and wait until tuesday.
on tuesday i left right after class by myself (because i never get anything done when i am with
other people haha) to a supposedly giant mall i had never been to before but had heard about
through several other russians. it was right by the kievskaya railway station, one of the largest
if not the largest railway station in moscow. i exited randomly from the metro and lo and behold
i picked the right exit and found myself right at the entrance of the mall.
now, i originally had thought the underground mall was huge that i had previously visited outside
red square, but this mall was gigantic. it was at least 5 floors, i think a parking garage on the 6th,
and had hundreds of stores. in the middle was an atrium and a fountain with exposed elevators,
and in the fountain was a gigantic clock that lit up and told time by the second with really
creative lights that lit up in a circle all the way around the rim of it. it was probably
the coolest mall i've ever been to. sorry, king of prussia. so anyway, i walked around for a while
but it's so difficult to shop in russia because i always feel like i am being watched. although
i suppose it doesn't help that i have shopping anxiety in america anyway haha, so i always
get nervous and just walk out of the stores. i ended up finding a not crazy expensive store
(aka the coats were only $100 as opposed to $300+) and i found a coat i actually really liked.
i wanted to try it on. now, as is the problem in many places in russia, nothing makes sense,
which includes dressing rooms. there was a large line, all with women, even though the store had men's clothing. i got in line and was told "no" by the lady in charge. i had no idea what she said to me after that, but i thought she meant it was only the lady's dressing room, but there wasn't a men's, so i have no idea what the problem was. i ended up trying it on outside and just bought it because it fit well enough, was a good price, and looked nice.
i also found a long scarf that i liked at another store and then i decided to go up to the food
court and eat something, which i did (pizza and mashed potatoes mmm). i walked around a little more but didn't really feel like staying any longer so i left.
my plan for tuesday night was to visit park pobedy, which is a famous park just outside the center of the city which is dedicated to WW2 veterans, and just WW2 in general. i didn't really
know what to expect because i had only read basic things about it. however, it was a huge surprise because the park was amazing. you exit the metro onto a giant cobblestone promenade, and in the distance is the main park pobedy memorial, an enormous obelisk and a semi circle white stone building surrounding one side of it. it was a HUGE memorial and the area it was in was really lively and seemed clean and more modern. i walked around for a while and found a small church before i made my way to the actual obelisk. it's even taller up close, almost like the washington monument except with a bunch of enscriptions and engravings all the way up the sides of it. what i was disappointed by although were the fountains around the monument, which are supposed to be on, and they are also supposed to glow red at night to commemorate the blood of the killed soldiers. they weren't even turned on, let alone red haha. i think they were doing work on them, but i am afraid they are already off for the winter for good, which would really suck since i wanted to see them. either way, it was still fun. i walked further into the park and it was so nice to have a nice relaxing walk in fresh air by myself for a change, and to get out of the dirty city/metro/freaking vykhino. it was a huge expanse of trees and woods, with paths through all of it, and there were also a bunch of monuments and small chapels and building scattered throughout the park. i eventually found a really neat artificial harbor which had replicas of old WW2 boats and artillery. they even had fake mines floating in the water. and the best part was that there was hardly anyone in the park, so i didn't feel crowded at all. it was starting to get dark, so i headed back out of the park towards the main monument. it was all lit up at that point so it looked even more imposing that it did during the evening. park pobedy metro stop also has great views of moscow in general, you can see the new moscow business center, also, straight down a huge main highway off to one side, you can see a ton of highrises, and it's all lit up at night of course. and of course i was all warm and toasty in my new coat haha. but i had a really great time and i think the park was my favorite place i've been to in moscow yet, maybe besides red square. it was nice to just explore myself and do what i wanted to do. i am definitely going to go back sometime soon.
so yeah, i think i'm almost at the halfway point of my trip, and i feel like we've had a lot of
excursions and we see a lot, but moscow is such a huge city, there's still a lot more to see.
some of us were talking about possibly taking a day trip one weekend to see one of the golden
ring towns, which i really want to see while i'm here, since they're so historically important.
some of the other upcoming excursions i know about are lenin's tomb, the tretyakov gallery, which is this weekend, tolstoi's house, and then also i believe a famous monastery somewhere on
the outskirts of the city. st. petersburg is also in less than 2 weeks and i'm really excited
to see the city and the hermitage, winter palace, and everything else. in general, you learn a lot
more about st. petersburg cultural sites/churches etc in russian culture classes back in america
because there tends to be a larger spread of architectural styles (baroque/rococo/classical etc)
there than in moscow, i believe. so i'm super excited and will probably take a ton of pictures just there haha. my camera has been getting a work out is for sure.
tonight, we're going to the circus, and we haven't really been told anything, so i'm not sure
what to expect, since i haven't been to the circus since jeez, i was probably younger than ten.
it will be fun though i'm sure and i hope the food is good, haha.
other than that, everything is going well, my cold is gone (woohoo!) and my foot is nearly 100%
so that's also good. this next week and a half before stpete i am going to try and do a little
more exploring myself since i always enjoy when i do that, and once we get back, it will
feel like the home stretch and i don't want to feel like i've missed out on seeing anything.
so yeah, i think that's it, and maybe i will try and post sooner again this weekend. i know i always say that but internet says otherwise. also, postcards still in the works (aka stamps are hard to get here and i don't know french). hope all is well at home. out!
dmitrii
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
the metro stop is called electric factory; what did you expect the area to look like?
so this past weekend i ended up doing a lot of museum stuff. on friday we went to the mayakovsky museum, which actually turned out to be pretty interesting. it was a lot of installation type art and the ladies that worked in the museum were really nice and helpful, putting up with our bad russian haha. that night we ended up at a nice irish pub type bar called mollie's. they had really good nachos and we stayed there for a while, and then we went to mcdonalds because some people wanted milkshakes before we headed back home.
on saturday we had planned to visit the gulag museum and when we got there it was actually a lot smaller than i thought it would be. there were a bunch of babyshkas that worked there as well and they were extremely excited to take us around and show us everything. they only spoke a little english but they spoke slowly enough in russian so we could understand the tour for the most part. when we had finished looking around they set up a dvd movie for us and we watched an incredibly depressing documentary about various russians who had survived stays in a gulag. i never really knew extensive details about the camps, so it was definitely informative, but we left halfway through because you could only really watch so much.
i was really excited for sunday because we got to go to a soccer match between a moscow team and another russian team who were visiting from the crimea. the fans were crazy for the moscow team, i had never seen so many organized chants at any other sporting event. i bought a scarf which were really cheap, and also since i kind of collect them because i got one for a team in the czech republic when i was there. CSKA, the team from moscow, ended up winning 4-0, so the game wasn't too exciting, but it was still a lot of fun and i was glad i went. when we were leaving, there were literally hundreds of militsiya lined up outside the metro for crowd control, and they followed everyone down into the metro too. the fans were insane on the metro after the game so we got off as soon as we could.
this week so far i haven't done a ton because i have had a cold for the past week, and my foot has
also been hurting for some reason. yesterday, on tuesday, me and a couple of friends went to a part of the city we hadn't been to before to try and find a cemetery that was supposedly pretty well known because it was really old and had a lot of graves of foreigners in german, french, dutch, etc. we got to the area and took a tram to where we thought it was. unfortunately it started to rain and then we realized we had no idea where we were. we asked someone on the street who turned out to be really helpful and he took us to where the cemetery was. and of course, like everything always is in moscow, it was closed. so we were pretty pissed but it was also kind of funny. we decided to take a bus back to the metro, so we found one and got on. i guess we didn't pay enough attention because it started to take us into what looked like a kind of sketchy area of town. it never bodes well when you start seeing massive rusting soviet factory complexes. so we got off at the end of the line and just kept walking, and we eventually found a metro stop. so it was kind of an adventure in the end, haha.
but yeah, other than that i've been kind of taking it easy lately so my foot can get better. i am
going to the american center tomorrow to see if i can start volunteering soon. i am also having
a minor class registration crisis because i have to register online while i am in st. petersburg
(the trip is in less than 3 weeks! wooo) in a hostel, and i don't even know if i will have internet.
but i will find a way somehow, i guess. and then this friday night we are going to the legit ballet,
so that will be fun. saturday is a museum excursion to the museum of decorative and applied arts, which sounds like it will be either really boring or possibly kind of exciting. and then i think
the weekend before st. petersburg is our excursion to the inside of lenin's tomb which i am really,
really excited for.
but yeah, sorry that this has turned into only a weekly thing, i usually have no time/internet so
it seems to always only be posted once a week. also, the postcard situation is still pending
because i never get a chance to go to the post office. eventually, though. but yeah, that's pretty
much all that's interesting for now, so maybe if i get the chance i will try and make an extra effort to update this again before the weekend is over. we'll see how it goes. hope everyone is well!
dima
on saturday we had planned to visit the gulag museum and when we got there it was actually a lot smaller than i thought it would be. there were a bunch of babyshkas that worked there as well and they were extremely excited to take us around and show us everything. they only spoke a little english but they spoke slowly enough in russian so we could understand the tour for the most part. when we had finished looking around they set up a dvd movie for us and we watched an incredibly depressing documentary about various russians who had survived stays in a gulag. i never really knew extensive details about the camps, so it was definitely informative, but we left halfway through because you could only really watch so much.
i was really excited for sunday because we got to go to a soccer match between a moscow team and another russian team who were visiting from the crimea. the fans were crazy for the moscow team, i had never seen so many organized chants at any other sporting event. i bought a scarf which were really cheap, and also since i kind of collect them because i got one for a team in the czech republic when i was there. CSKA, the team from moscow, ended up winning 4-0, so the game wasn't too exciting, but it was still a lot of fun and i was glad i went. when we were leaving, there were literally hundreds of militsiya lined up outside the metro for crowd control, and they followed everyone down into the metro too. the fans were insane on the metro after the game so we got off as soon as we could.
this week so far i haven't done a ton because i have had a cold for the past week, and my foot has
also been hurting for some reason. yesterday, on tuesday, me and a couple of friends went to a part of the city we hadn't been to before to try and find a cemetery that was supposedly pretty well known because it was really old and had a lot of graves of foreigners in german, french, dutch, etc. we got to the area and took a tram to where we thought it was. unfortunately it started to rain and then we realized we had no idea where we were. we asked someone on the street who turned out to be really helpful and he took us to where the cemetery was. and of course, like everything always is in moscow, it was closed. so we were pretty pissed but it was also kind of funny. we decided to take a bus back to the metro, so we found one and got on. i guess we didn't pay enough attention because it started to take us into what looked like a kind of sketchy area of town. it never bodes well when you start seeing massive rusting soviet factory complexes. so we got off at the end of the line and just kept walking, and we eventually found a metro stop. so it was kind of an adventure in the end, haha.
but yeah, other than that i've been kind of taking it easy lately so my foot can get better. i am
going to the american center tomorrow to see if i can start volunteering soon. i am also having
a minor class registration crisis because i have to register online while i am in st. petersburg
(the trip is in less than 3 weeks! wooo) in a hostel, and i don't even know if i will have internet.
but i will find a way somehow, i guess. and then this friday night we are going to the legit ballet,
so that will be fun. saturday is a museum excursion to the museum of decorative and applied arts, which sounds like it will be either really boring or possibly kind of exciting. and then i think
the weekend before st. petersburg is our excursion to the inside of lenin's tomb which i am really,
really excited for.
but yeah, sorry that this has turned into only a weekly thing, i usually have no time/internet so
it seems to always only be posted once a week. also, the postcard situation is still pending
because i never get a chance to go to the post office. eventually, though. but yeah, that's pretty
much all that's interesting for now, so maybe if i get the chance i will try and make an extra effort to update this again before the weekend is over. we'll see how it goes. hope everyone is well!
dima
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
honey, devils, and some soviet propaganda
hey all. hope everyone is doing well. i always feel like it's been forever since my last post.
last week, like i had said, i didn't really do much until saturday. on friday night i went out
with kerri, erin, joey, kate, and jenny to try and find patriarch's pond. i'd never been to
this part of the city and it was actually in a really nice area. it was still really close to
the center of downtown but it didn't feel like that at all. it kind of reminded me of when i
was in prague because the streets were really small and the buildings were old but still
preserved beautifully. i got the impression it was a fairly affluent area judging from the
amount of mercedes parked on the streets. but anyway, we found patriarch's pond (the pond
from bulgakov's master and margarita novel) and it was nice. it wasn't a touristy area at all
and there were some cool statues and monuments around the pond. unfortunately the weather was pretty cold and cloudy but that's pretty much the norm now though. so afterwards we were going to try and get some dinner at the margarita cafe but you had to have a reservation, so we had to look somewhere else. there were a few restaurants and we ended up going to this bar with a fat man on the sign haha. i got a really good pasta dish and garlic bread and also a french
beer which was surprisingly good. afterwards we went across the street to another cafe for
dessert and i had the best dessert i've eaten in a long time. it was this apple pastry thing
and it was amazing. i will definitely go back there haha. after that we just headed home.
on saturday we had our group excursion to tsaritsyno estate and the honey fair. now, since i
am a homestay person, i usually just make my way to the metro stop where we are meeting by
myself since it's easier than meeting everyone somewhere. so we were supposed to meet at the stop by 12. i woke up around 10 and showered, changed etc. i am not used to eating breakfast at home so i just have a bad habit of not factoring in the 30 min. breakfast eating time that i need
to here. i also severely underestimated how long it would take me to get to this stop since i had
never actually been on this specific metro line before. so it took me forever basically, and
i ended up being 20 minutes late, so i felt kind of bad about that.
but the estate itself was beautiful, it was on a huge plot of land and there were a ton of
buildings, ponds, and bridges. there was also a huge singing fountain that played tchaikovsky
and a couple other songs. the story goes that there was a contest to choose an architect to
build this woman's estate, and after the first architect was chosen, she hated the design and
had it mostly destroyed. it was rebuilt and restored and so now there are the new buildings
and some of the old ruins from the old estate.
we walked around for a while and took photos and then we eventually headed across the street to where the honey fair was going on. the honey fair was crazy. it was hundreds of little stands selling homemade honey. all of the honey sellers were so aggressive about you trying and buying
their honey. i figured all of the honey was good so i eventually just bought a couple containers
of one that i liked. there were so many kinds though, i never knew that honey was so umm..
complicated? but it was fun and we had a good time. we lost a few people because the maze of
honey stands was impossible to escape from. after we were done we took the metro downtown and kind of were indecisive for a while until we ended up just going to get lunch.
saturday night, people had been talking about going out to a club, and so once the dust settled,
me, amanda, kelly, and sam ended up going out. we looked up directions for propaganda, which
is supposed to be a popular club downtown with no cover charge or face control (bleh). so we
took the metro to our stop and started looking. it's amazing how simple google maps makes directions and streets look, and then you get there, and the streets look nothing like how they did on the computer. we wandered and eventually stopped two extremely well dressed guys. they actually spoke some english so they told us where to go, and they also recommended another club called fabrique, because according to them, propaganda is "old". we decided to go to propaganda first anyway, though. we got there fine and the place was pretty small. it was really dark and they really only played techno house music ALL night. literally the beat never changed. this was a lot different from the clubs i had been to in prague where they actually played legit songs. so i was kind of disappointed, but the drinks were really cheap and it was still fun, so we stayed for a while.
after about an hour or so we decided we decided to try fabrique since the guys had recommended it. we left and got a taxi there. the driver was really nice and we attempted conversation, haha. anyway, we got there and it was pretty obvious that fabrique was a lot nicer since A) there were a lot more people hanging out outside and B) there was a hefty cover (like 500 roubles). we got in and checked our coats (note this for later haha) and looked for seats somewhere. fabrique was a LOT bigger than propaganda, probably 5 times at least. i liked the atmosphere better and they kind of played real songs (aka techno mixes of radio edits). so we hung out for a while and it was starting to get late. the metro didn't open until around 5 so we had to stay until at least 4:30 or so. we danced a few times and amanda actually got up on stage with one of the dancers haha. after a while she started to feel sick so a bouncer took her to a bathroom and we kind of sat around, danced, waited etc. when it was time to go, we all went up to get our coats and amanda couldn't find her ticket. unfortunately the charge for a lost ticket was 500 roubles, roughly 15 dollars, which the four of us combined didn't have. eventually one of the club employees offered to walk amanda to the nearest atm (which in moscow is not near at all) to get money. i walked with her and it took about at least 30 minutes to get there and back. we were both extremely tired and when we finally got back to the club and met sam and kelly, we realized the money amanda had just withdrawn was missing. so yeah, needless to say it was kind of a disaster. apparently, while we were gone, the club's manager, aleksei, talked with sam and kelly, and he offered to go get her coat for her. no questions asked, he just walked in and grabbed it. THEN he offered to take us to breakfast, in his escalade haha. so we went with and we went to a pretty upscale restaurant with him and one of his um..lady friends. at this point i was ready to pass out and we literally sat and ate and drank tea for 3 hours at least. quite possibly the most bizarre night of my life, he told us about how he cheats on his wife but it's ok if you don't get caught haha. he was hilarious. when we FINALLY left, he drove us to the metro, i went home, slept, did my homework and that was basically my sunday.
so the weekend really killed me, and lucky me, we had an excursion on monday to what i would describe as a ballroom/russian folk/satanic dance concert. it was basically three parts. the first was an amazing exhibition of different types of ballroom dance from all over the world. puts dancing with the stars to shame. the second was traditional russian folk dancing in the infamous ridiculously brightly colored costumes. and then finally, apparently based on a folk story set in ukraine, there was a probably 20-30 minute long dance with witches, demons, the devil etc. the choreography was amazing and it just blew my mind. it was probably my favorite excursion so far.
today, tuesday, i had signed up to visit and russian high school to speak with kids about life in
america, in general, things like that. they didn't really give us much information but
i wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary. ele, amanda, kathryn, kate, anya, and me went
with lena and andrei, a director from the school, took two freaking marshrutkas to get there.
we got to the school and, this is so ridiculous, as we walked through the front doors, we could see
a fairly sizeable group of kids waiting anxiously inside, holding up cameras, taking a million
pictures, and surrounded by balloons. they were SO excited to see us. i couldn't even believe it.
one of the kids spoke english fairly well and so he gave us the grand tour of the school. and for
russia, it was pretty decent. after we had our tour, they led us to a classroom with a long table
set out, and they sat us every other chair so we could have russian students between everyone. they started bringing out pastries, tea, chocolates, and blini. i was in awe the entire time because
i hadn't expected anything like this at all. i mean, from what i can remember, whenever guest speakers came to my high school it practically took threats from the teacher to get us to do more than stand up and say hi.
so after andrei gave a little introduction, we started to eat and it was basically just an open
forum to talk with whoever we wanted. a good majority of the russian students spoke english fairly well, and i think all of them understood it at leat a little. some were definitely better than others though. i sat next to a kid named yura and i didn't think he spoke english at first since he only asked me questions in russian, but he did speak english eventually, and well enough for me to understand. i talked with him in russian for a fairly good amount of time though about volleyball (he asked, no idea why this is so popular in russia) and other things. his friend joined us halfway through and they wanted me to explain to them how baseball works. it took a good mix of my english and russian to get them to the point where i *think* they understood. afterwards, andrei helped the kids set up a game where we had to match important russian events with the years in which they occurred. we did that, chatted a little more, and then left. before we left, andrei asked us if we'd be interested in coming back and working on some sort of group project with the students (such blatant desperation for english practice haha, but it's fun so w/e) and we told him we would. but the students were beyond friendly and really enthusiastic which is always a plus, so we'll probably be back soon.
so yeah i guess i didn't realize how busy i have been since the end of last week, and i still managed to catch up with survivor somewhere in there, of course. nothing is really planned now until sunday, we're going to a soccer match at luzhniki stadium, which is the huge golden domed stadium on the moskva river. i'm super excited for this because i love to watch soccer. i'll be glued to the field the entire time. also, there's a possibility of aleksei inviting kelly, me, etc to a barbecue at his dacha or something haha, but we're not really sure what's going on with that. so we'll see. our petersburg trip was moved (boo) back a week so that's not til the week before and leading up to halloween. will keep everyone updated. hoping everyone is well!
mitya
last week, like i had said, i didn't really do much until saturday. on friday night i went out
with kerri, erin, joey, kate, and jenny to try and find patriarch's pond. i'd never been to
this part of the city and it was actually in a really nice area. it was still really close to
the center of downtown but it didn't feel like that at all. it kind of reminded me of when i
was in prague because the streets were really small and the buildings were old but still
preserved beautifully. i got the impression it was a fairly affluent area judging from the
amount of mercedes parked on the streets. but anyway, we found patriarch's pond (the pond
from bulgakov's master and margarita novel) and it was nice. it wasn't a touristy area at all
and there were some cool statues and monuments around the pond. unfortunately the weather was pretty cold and cloudy but that's pretty much the norm now though. so afterwards we were going to try and get some dinner at the margarita cafe but you had to have a reservation, so we had to look somewhere else. there were a few restaurants and we ended up going to this bar with a fat man on the sign haha. i got a really good pasta dish and garlic bread and also a french
beer which was surprisingly good. afterwards we went across the street to another cafe for
dessert and i had the best dessert i've eaten in a long time. it was this apple pastry thing
and it was amazing. i will definitely go back there haha. after that we just headed home.
on saturday we had our group excursion to tsaritsyno estate and the honey fair. now, since i
am a homestay person, i usually just make my way to the metro stop where we are meeting by
myself since it's easier than meeting everyone somewhere. so we were supposed to meet at the stop by 12. i woke up around 10 and showered, changed etc. i am not used to eating breakfast at home so i just have a bad habit of not factoring in the 30 min. breakfast eating time that i need
to here. i also severely underestimated how long it would take me to get to this stop since i had
never actually been on this specific metro line before. so it took me forever basically, and
i ended up being 20 minutes late, so i felt kind of bad about that.
but the estate itself was beautiful, it was on a huge plot of land and there were a ton of
buildings, ponds, and bridges. there was also a huge singing fountain that played tchaikovsky
and a couple other songs. the story goes that there was a contest to choose an architect to
build this woman's estate, and after the first architect was chosen, she hated the design and
had it mostly destroyed. it was rebuilt and restored and so now there are the new buildings
and some of the old ruins from the old estate.
we walked around for a while and took photos and then we eventually headed across the street to where the honey fair was going on. the honey fair was crazy. it was hundreds of little stands selling homemade honey. all of the honey sellers were so aggressive about you trying and buying
their honey. i figured all of the honey was good so i eventually just bought a couple containers
of one that i liked. there were so many kinds though, i never knew that honey was so umm..
complicated? but it was fun and we had a good time. we lost a few people because the maze of
honey stands was impossible to escape from. after we were done we took the metro downtown and kind of were indecisive for a while until we ended up just going to get lunch.
saturday night, people had been talking about going out to a club, and so once the dust settled,
me, amanda, kelly, and sam ended up going out. we looked up directions for propaganda, which
is supposed to be a popular club downtown with no cover charge or face control (bleh). so we
took the metro to our stop and started looking. it's amazing how simple google maps makes directions and streets look, and then you get there, and the streets look nothing like how they did on the computer. we wandered and eventually stopped two extremely well dressed guys. they actually spoke some english so they told us where to go, and they also recommended another club called fabrique, because according to them, propaganda is "old". we decided to go to propaganda first anyway, though. we got there fine and the place was pretty small. it was really dark and they really only played techno house music ALL night. literally the beat never changed. this was a lot different from the clubs i had been to in prague where they actually played legit songs. so i was kind of disappointed, but the drinks were really cheap and it was still fun, so we stayed for a while.
after about an hour or so we decided we decided to try fabrique since the guys had recommended it. we left and got a taxi there. the driver was really nice and we attempted conversation, haha. anyway, we got there and it was pretty obvious that fabrique was a lot nicer since A) there were a lot more people hanging out outside and B) there was a hefty cover (like 500 roubles). we got in and checked our coats (note this for later haha) and looked for seats somewhere. fabrique was a LOT bigger than propaganda, probably 5 times at least. i liked the atmosphere better and they kind of played real songs (aka techno mixes of radio edits). so we hung out for a while and it was starting to get late. the metro didn't open until around 5 so we had to stay until at least 4:30 or so. we danced a few times and amanda actually got up on stage with one of the dancers haha. after a while she started to feel sick so a bouncer took her to a bathroom and we kind of sat around, danced, waited etc. when it was time to go, we all went up to get our coats and amanda couldn't find her ticket. unfortunately the charge for a lost ticket was 500 roubles, roughly 15 dollars, which the four of us combined didn't have. eventually one of the club employees offered to walk amanda to the nearest atm (which in moscow is not near at all) to get money. i walked with her and it took about at least 30 minutes to get there and back. we were both extremely tired and when we finally got back to the club and met sam and kelly, we realized the money amanda had just withdrawn was missing. so yeah, needless to say it was kind of a disaster. apparently, while we were gone, the club's manager, aleksei, talked with sam and kelly, and he offered to go get her coat for her. no questions asked, he just walked in and grabbed it. THEN he offered to take us to breakfast, in his escalade haha. so we went with and we went to a pretty upscale restaurant with him and one of his um..lady friends. at this point i was ready to pass out and we literally sat and ate and drank tea for 3 hours at least. quite possibly the most bizarre night of my life, he told us about how he cheats on his wife but it's ok if you don't get caught haha. he was hilarious. when we FINALLY left, he drove us to the metro, i went home, slept, did my homework and that was basically my sunday.
so the weekend really killed me, and lucky me, we had an excursion on monday to what i would describe as a ballroom/russian folk/satanic dance concert. it was basically three parts. the first was an amazing exhibition of different types of ballroom dance from all over the world. puts dancing with the stars to shame. the second was traditional russian folk dancing in the infamous ridiculously brightly colored costumes. and then finally, apparently based on a folk story set in ukraine, there was a probably 20-30 minute long dance with witches, demons, the devil etc. the choreography was amazing and it just blew my mind. it was probably my favorite excursion so far.
today, tuesday, i had signed up to visit and russian high school to speak with kids about life in
america, in general, things like that. they didn't really give us much information but
i wasn't expecting anything out of the ordinary. ele, amanda, kathryn, kate, anya, and me went
with lena and andrei, a director from the school, took two freaking marshrutkas to get there.
we got to the school and, this is so ridiculous, as we walked through the front doors, we could see
a fairly sizeable group of kids waiting anxiously inside, holding up cameras, taking a million
pictures, and surrounded by balloons. they were SO excited to see us. i couldn't even believe it.
one of the kids spoke english fairly well and so he gave us the grand tour of the school. and for
russia, it was pretty decent. after we had our tour, they led us to a classroom with a long table
set out, and they sat us every other chair so we could have russian students between everyone. they started bringing out pastries, tea, chocolates, and blini. i was in awe the entire time because
i hadn't expected anything like this at all. i mean, from what i can remember, whenever guest speakers came to my high school it practically took threats from the teacher to get us to do more than stand up and say hi.
so after andrei gave a little introduction, we started to eat and it was basically just an open
forum to talk with whoever we wanted. a good majority of the russian students spoke english fairly well, and i think all of them understood it at leat a little. some were definitely better than others though. i sat next to a kid named yura and i didn't think he spoke english at first since he only asked me questions in russian, but he did speak english eventually, and well enough for me to understand. i talked with him in russian for a fairly good amount of time though about volleyball (he asked, no idea why this is so popular in russia) and other things. his friend joined us halfway through and they wanted me to explain to them how baseball works. it took a good mix of my english and russian to get them to the point where i *think* they understood. afterwards, andrei helped the kids set up a game where we had to match important russian events with the years in which they occurred. we did that, chatted a little more, and then left. before we left, andrei asked us if we'd be interested in coming back and working on some sort of group project with the students (such blatant desperation for english practice haha, but it's fun so w/e) and we told him we would. but the students were beyond friendly and really enthusiastic which is always a plus, so we'll probably be back soon.
so yeah i guess i didn't realize how busy i have been since the end of last week, and i still managed to catch up with survivor somewhere in there, of course. nothing is really planned now until sunday, we're going to a soccer match at luzhniki stadium, which is the huge golden domed stadium on the moskva river. i'm super excited for this because i love to watch soccer. i'll be glued to the field the entire time. also, there's a possibility of aleksei inviting kelly, me, etc to a barbecue at his dacha or something haha, but we're not really sure what's going on with that. so we'll see. our petersburg trip was moved (boo) back a week so that's not til the week before and leading up to halloween. will keep everyone updated. hoping everyone is well!
mitya
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
sorry sir, i don't carry change
sorry for not updating in a while, last week was kind of busy since all the new students arrived, and i've been getting a lot of russian homework. but anyway, i think i left off around a week ago. we went to the opera last tuesday night which was interesting. i didn't really understand anything at all, but it was done in the more modern style as opposed to the classic style, so the costumes and sets were really colorful and abstract. not really sure what my opinion of it is, but it was an experience nonetheless.
this past weekend we had our excursion to the kremlin, which was on saturday. we had to wake up really early since our tour was at 10:30, so we met outside the kremlin and got some breakfast before heading in. our tour guide lady was so nice, she was sweet, very russian, and had a kind of odd sense of humor. inside the kremlin was not what i was expecting at all. it literally looks like a small town with streets, parks, and churches. if nobody told
you, you really wouldn't realize it was a government area. well, i guess the militsiya give it away, but still haha. so yeah, we walked around and got a short but thorough tour of the grounds. since it was a saturday it was empty aside from tour groups. we saw some of the more prominent goverment buildings, a huge cannon, and the tsar's bell, which was saved from a fire and now has a huge crack in it. it's a GIGANTIC bell. after that, we visited some of the churches and went inside to see all of the icons. this was my favorite part because i've
taken a couple classes on russian icons and it was amazing to actually see some of the icons i had studied in person. the restoration work done on some of the churches is incredible, though. in one of the churches, we were lucky to catch a small choir of about 5 people who sang in russian for a couple minutes. the tour was short but we definitely got to see a lot.
after the kremlin, i stayed out the rest of the day with a bunch of people. we went to get some lunch and then mostly wandered around for a while. i bought a book of skazki (fairy tales) which i will attempt to read and it will probably take me all semester to read one story, haha. more for vocab practice though. we also went to tsum, which is the [supposed] baby version of gum, the dept. store on red square. this was without a shadow of a doubt the most expensive store i have been in in my entire life. i honestly don't even know who shops here. even if i was rich i wouldn't shop there. i saw a tshirt for 200 dollars, and that's all it was...a tshirt. everything
else was upwards of 1000+ dollars. so yeah, we weren't there for very long. we also went to a vegan restaurant since one of the girls in our group is vegan. it was actually pretty cool and i probably would've eaten something if i had been hungry. we met a few guys who spoke english there too so we sat with them and talked for a while. afterwards, we met up with some of the other kids from our group and tried to find a bar to go to for the night. we were aiming for karaoke but never actually found it, so we ended up at a live jazz club, which actually
turned out to be a lot of fun. although we really need to find somewhere for cheap drinks here because so far nowhere has been. so that was my entire saturday, basically.
sunday i didn't really do anything at all, except homework. on monday i had class again and i'm really enjoying my language class here. i feel like i'm progressing a ton and i learn new words all the time and our teacher does a realy good job of enforcing the use of new words repetitively, which is good, since i learn best that way. after class, ele, kelly, both amandas and i decided to try and get dinner in a part of the city we'd never been to before, so we picked out a georgian restaurant which claimed to have a great view of novodevichy monastery. we met up and took the metro to where we needed to transfer, and only then did we realize the guidebook said the
restaurant required suit and tie type dress haha. so we decided to just get off where we were (park kultury) and find somewhere there. it was actually a pretty nice area of the city, right near the river, and we found this outdoor restaurant. we were starving and the food took forever, but it was decent. although my chicken was um..dark, i think, not so sure i will be ordering meat so soon here again. but everything else was good, and i even spotted a SUBWAY!!! right near the restaurant, which i didn't even know existed here in russia, so i will
definitely be making a trip back there soon. on the way back home we were waiting for our train in the metro when this drunk man came up to us and just started talking. he claimed to have been born in moldova, and spoke russian, greek, and "1000% english". which was just absolutely not true at all. it was pretty funny until he followed us onto the train and started bothering kelly, so we just got off at the next stop and caught the next train. but seriously, this happens on a MONDAY night???!!? so yeah i was exhausted again and had not done any of my homework, and i didn't get home until like, 11:30, so i was up forever.
oh and so good news, i actually was able to download some tv here so i am actually going to go watch survivor when i am done typing this up. but yeah, forgot to mention that. woohoo.
hmmm and then yeah, yesterday, tuesday, grint had their moskva boat tour excursion, so this was my second boat tour. it was a little colder than the first but still nice and yeah, ya know, the same thing. we hung around for the rest of the night and got dinner at coffee house (i hate this chain so much they are literally on every block in moscow) and the service was pretty terrible. more about dining in general in a bit. but yeah and then we just walked around a little bit, went back to gum where i saw some really cheap cds of russian singers i like that i will probably go back and buy at some point. and then i headed back to svetlana's.
as far as this week goes, i don't really have anything planned until saturday. on saturday we're heading out to the tsaritsyno estate, which is just basically a big national park area with historic sites, and there's also a honey fair going on (YESSS) which is sure to enable my procurement of many cheap and delicious jars of honey goodness to bring back home and share with all. maybe i will actually go to a legit nightclub this weekend, who knows. i noticed this crazy looking bar or something on top of a building right outside red square the other night and i had never noticed it before. i want to look into it and see if i can figure out what it is.
but anyway, a couple more pieces of russian craziness. first of all, i need to talk about the dining out situation here. rule number one: service sucks. sometimes you have a nice ofitsiant(ka) but most of the time, no, and you have to hail them everytime you want to order/get more whatever/pay. otherwise they would let you sit there all night long. it's ridiculous. and then the one thing that drives me crazy, in the states and anywhere else. separate checks. alright, i understand that not all restaurants can do it, but really russia, since 99% of your stores will bitch me to hell if i try and pay with a 1000 rouble note ($30 people) i NEVER have small bills (also almost ALL atms give out massive size bills) so it's hell to try and split a bill in a restaurant. this leads to confusion/angry staff/loss of money etc etc. even when the bill is like, thousands
of roubles, they will still proceed to present you with a check a mile long including everyone's orders and then huff and puff when you take too long to work out your money situation. most of the time one person just ends up paying for it all with their credit card and getting money from everyone else later. but really, i don't understand the contempt for giving change here. which leads me to...
SMALL CHANGE. ahhh this drives me INSANE. ok, at home, i never, ever do this. i know some people (aka old women and people who like to hold up lines at stores) enjoy doing this, but i never give extra coins to a cashier in order to avoid them having to give me change with coins. i just don't care and especially since i don't have a purse like girls do, my change is never organized and i would just hold up the line. well, here, almost all cashiers in stores EXPECT you to give them that extra 30/40/50 whatever kopecks. and when i tell them i don't have it
i get the ugliest glare and they proceed to throw my change at me without so much as a thanks. now i know customer service is not alive and well here but oh jeez i sure am tired of seeming like the only person who doesn't carry around and use spare change.
lastly, this is something i noticed from the first couple days but never really realized how amusing it was. the metro here is seriously a place of business for so many people. first, there are just hordes of babushkas outside the entrance selling everything from fruits to clothes, and then the biggest ticket item, flowers. the flower business here in russia, for whatever strange reason, is huge. wherever you go there are people carrying/selling/buying flowers. i don't know for what or for whom but it's all over. so these old babushkas are so industrious, even at midnight they are still on the metro trying to pawn off their last few bouquets. i will probably
eventually buy one for svetlana, but it's just so funny how flowers are so popular here. also on the metro, there are ordinary people who i assume, for extra income, agree to purchase and then attempt to resell crappy things that nobody wants to the commuters on the train. so you can just be sitting there and someone will get up and start talking about and demonstrating how to use a head rest, or a flashlight, or whatever other piece of crap they have that day. i have never seen anyone buy anything, because frankly it's super sketchy and creepy, and i can't imagine how it could be profitable.
but anyway sorry for taking forever to update, i'll try to update again before the weekend comes around, or maybe right after the honey fair. hope everyone is well!
dima
this past weekend we had our excursion to the kremlin, which was on saturday. we had to wake up really early since our tour was at 10:30, so we met outside the kremlin and got some breakfast before heading in. our tour guide lady was so nice, she was sweet, very russian, and had a kind of odd sense of humor. inside the kremlin was not what i was expecting at all. it literally looks like a small town with streets, parks, and churches. if nobody told
you, you really wouldn't realize it was a government area. well, i guess the militsiya give it away, but still haha. so yeah, we walked around and got a short but thorough tour of the grounds. since it was a saturday it was empty aside from tour groups. we saw some of the more prominent goverment buildings, a huge cannon, and the tsar's bell, which was saved from a fire and now has a huge crack in it. it's a GIGANTIC bell. after that, we visited some of the churches and went inside to see all of the icons. this was my favorite part because i've
taken a couple classes on russian icons and it was amazing to actually see some of the icons i had studied in person. the restoration work done on some of the churches is incredible, though. in one of the churches, we were lucky to catch a small choir of about 5 people who sang in russian for a couple minutes. the tour was short but we definitely got to see a lot.
after the kremlin, i stayed out the rest of the day with a bunch of people. we went to get some lunch and then mostly wandered around for a while. i bought a book of skazki (fairy tales) which i will attempt to read and it will probably take me all semester to read one story, haha. more for vocab practice though. we also went to tsum, which is the [supposed] baby version of gum, the dept. store on red square. this was without a shadow of a doubt the most expensive store i have been in in my entire life. i honestly don't even know who shops here. even if i was rich i wouldn't shop there. i saw a tshirt for 200 dollars, and that's all it was...a tshirt. everything
else was upwards of 1000+ dollars. so yeah, we weren't there for very long. we also went to a vegan restaurant since one of the girls in our group is vegan. it was actually pretty cool and i probably would've eaten something if i had been hungry. we met a few guys who spoke english there too so we sat with them and talked for a while. afterwards, we met up with some of the other kids from our group and tried to find a bar to go to for the night. we were aiming for karaoke but never actually found it, so we ended up at a live jazz club, which actually
turned out to be a lot of fun. although we really need to find somewhere for cheap drinks here because so far nowhere has been. so that was my entire saturday, basically.
sunday i didn't really do anything at all, except homework. on monday i had class again and i'm really enjoying my language class here. i feel like i'm progressing a ton and i learn new words all the time and our teacher does a realy good job of enforcing the use of new words repetitively, which is good, since i learn best that way. after class, ele, kelly, both amandas and i decided to try and get dinner in a part of the city we'd never been to before, so we picked out a georgian restaurant which claimed to have a great view of novodevichy monastery. we met up and took the metro to where we needed to transfer, and only then did we realize the guidebook said the
restaurant required suit and tie type dress haha. so we decided to just get off where we were (park kultury) and find somewhere there. it was actually a pretty nice area of the city, right near the river, and we found this outdoor restaurant. we were starving and the food took forever, but it was decent. although my chicken was um..dark, i think, not so sure i will be ordering meat so soon here again. but everything else was good, and i even spotted a SUBWAY!!! right near the restaurant, which i didn't even know existed here in russia, so i will
definitely be making a trip back there soon. on the way back home we were waiting for our train in the metro when this drunk man came up to us and just started talking. he claimed to have been born in moldova, and spoke russian, greek, and "1000% english". which was just absolutely not true at all. it was pretty funny until he followed us onto the train and started bothering kelly, so we just got off at the next stop and caught the next train. but seriously, this happens on a MONDAY night???!!? so yeah i was exhausted again and had not done any of my homework, and i didn't get home until like, 11:30, so i was up forever.
oh and so good news, i actually was able to download some tv here so i am actually going to go watch survivor when i am done typing this up. but yeah, forgot to mention that. woohoo.
hmmm and then yeah, yesterday, tuesday, grint had their moskva boat tour excursion, so this was my second boat tour. it was a little colder than the first but still nice and yeah, ya know, the same thing. we hung around for the rest of the night and got dinner at coffee house (i hate this chain so much they are literally on every block in moscow) and the service was pretty terrible. more about dining in general in a bit. but yeah and then we just walked around a little bit, went back to gum where i saw some really cheap cds of russian singers i like that i will probably go back and buy at some point. and then i headed back to svetlana's.
as far as this week goes, i don't really have anything planned until saturday. on saturday we're heading out to the tsaritsyno estate, which is just basically a big national park area with historic sites, and there's also a honey fair going on (YESSS) which is sure to enable my procurement of many cheap and delicious jars of honey goodness to bring back home and share with all. maybe i will actually go to a legit nightclub this weekend, who knows. i noticed this crazy looking bar or something on top of a building right outside red square the other night and i had never noticed it before. i want to look into it and see if i can figure out what it is.
but anyway, a couple more pieces of russian craziness. first of all, i need to talk about the dining out situation here. rule number one: service sucks. sometimes you have a nice ofitsiant(ka) but most of the time, no, and you have to hail them everytime you want to order/get more whatever/pay. otherwise they would let you sit there all night long. it's ridiculous. and then the one thing that drives me crazy, in the states and anywhere else. separate checks. alright, i understand that not all restaurants can do it, but really russia, since 99% of your stores will bitch me to hell if i try and pay with a 1000 rouble note ($30 people) i NEVER have small bills (also almost ALL atms give out massive size bills) so it's hell to try and split a bill in a restaurant. this leads to confusion/angry staff/loss of money etc etc. even when the bill is like, thousands
of roubles, they will still proceed to present you with a check a mile long including everyone's orders and then huff and puff when you take too long to work out your money situation. most of the time one person just ends up paying for it all with their credit card and getting money from everyone else later. but really, i don't understand the contempt for giving change here. which leads me to...
SMALL CHANGE. ahhh this drives me INSANE. ok, at home, i never, ever do this. i know some people (aka old women and people who like to hold up lines at stores) enjoy doing this, but i never give extra coins to a cashier in order to avoid them having to give me change with coins. i just don't care and especially since i don't have a purse like girls do, my change is never organized and i would just hold up the line. well, here, almost all cashiers in stores EXPECT you to give them that extra 30/40/50 whatever kopecks. and when i tell them i don't have it
i get the ugliest glare and they proceed to throw my change at me without so much as a thanks. now i know customer service is not alive and well here but oh jeez i sure am tired of seeming like the only person who doesn't carry around and use spare change.
lastly, this is something i noticed from the first couple days but never really realized how amusing it was. the metro here is seriously a place of business for so many people. first, there are just hordes of babushkas outside the entrance selling everything from fruits to clothes, and then the biggest ticket item, flowers. the flower business here in russia, for whatever strange reason, is huge. wherever you go there are people carrying/selling/buying flowers. i don't know for what or for whom but it's all over. so these old babushkas are so industrious, even at midnight they are still on the metro trying to pawn off their last few bouquets. i will probably
eventually buy one for svetlana, but it's just so funny how flowers are so popular here. also on the metro, there are ordinary people who i assume, for extra income, agree to purchase and then attempt to resell crappy things that nobody wants to the commuters on the train. so you can just be sitting there and someone will get up and start talking about and demonstrating how to use a head rest, or a flashlight, or whatever other piece of crap they have that day. i have never seen anyone buy anything, because frankly it's super sketchy and creepy, and i can't imagine how it could be profitable.
but anyway sorry for taking forever to update, i'll try to update again before the weekend comes around, or maybe right after the honey fair. hope everyone is well!
dima
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
the weekends here always go so quickly, or at least they seem to haha. i had class on friday again and we took a while to decide what we wanted to do on friday night. we decided to walk arbat (the tourist-y pedestrian street) and then find a bar or something like that. we were originally going to go a jazz bar, but we couldn't find the one we were looking for, so we ended up going to a pub we found. it was called john bull, who is apparently england's equivalent of uncle sam. john bull was umm...unique, haha. it was themed kind of like an early 1900s
bar/saloon/tavern, take your pick. the waitresses were dressed in little plaid dresses, and the entire restaurant was covered in a hazy smoke. but it was really nice, and the food and drinks weren't too expensive. i think our waitress liked how hard we tried to speak to her in russian. but it took us a while to get her to understand that we wanted to keep one menu so we could order more, haha. they had a bunch of irish and english beers, so i got a few of those, and we shared some garlic breads and things like that. but yeah, thanks john bull for a thoroughly
entertaining night!
i felt like being really lazy on saturday so i slept late and then svetlana made me breakfast. i know, do i even need to say it anymore? um, yogurt, salad, and empty omelette. although, i will say that among all of these breakfast disasters i think i am slowly becoming extremely friendly with kefir, which is..um, spoiled milk. it's an entirely russian invention, although i believe it has made it's way to the states in various forms. but in russia, and especially on russian tv, it's advertised as an extremely healthy digestive product, kind of like metamucil or something. technically, it's even called "bio-kefir". but yeah, i put it in my yogurt every morning and it's actually really tasty. i don't know if i'm at the point where i will drink it straight from a cup like svetlana though, haha. maybe someday...
but yeah, svetlana left for the day so i had the apartment to myself so i decided to do some exploring and to my surprise i found a super secret room off of her bedroom. actually it's really just a window balcony, but the mystery as to where she dries my clothes has been solved. showered and headed to the dorms to try and get homework done (did not happen). oh and one of the new students arrived the other night. her name's anya. so we hung out for a little bit and then i went home.
then on sunday we had the organ concert downtown. it was ok, it was basically just a recital open to the public and the woman played for about 90 minutes. i had a lot of homework though so i just went back to svetlana's afterwards and did that for the rest of the night.
then monday, all of the new students (about 10) from the arizona program finally got here, so they were doing their orientation while we were in morning classes. i met some of them but not for very long. we're supposed to get one new person in our class even though zoya apparently would prefer nobody, haha. but yeah, that was my weekend. and then tuesday night we went to the opera. it was called ruslan and lyudmila and was about a princess who got
kidnapped and the prince who tried to save her. i understood nothing but it was fun to watch. afterwards we went out for pizza and then went back.
oh, so a few more things i have noticed about russians, since i have been told many a person enjoyed the last installment. i know i have mentioned this kind of already, but russians will drive and park their cars ANYWHERE. i am not even honestly sure if it's possible to be issued a parking ticket in russia. i have seen cars parked in the middle of major roads, backs sticking out into traffic (accident waiting to happen), and just about anywhere in general. also, so many of the roads here are too small for two lane traffic, so people will regularly drive up onto curbs and sidewalks to let each other pass. also, i was watching tv with svetlana the other day, and i can now rest easy knowing that trashy american tv has found its way to russia. it was, generally speaking, judge judy, except instead of the judge screaming, the plaintiff and defendant would just go at it for like, 10 minutes straight. i'm not even sure if i saw either of them pause to take a breath. there was no way i was ever going to understand what they were arguing about because they were being so belligerent and obnoxious, but it was fun to watch. i have also been told there is a show similar to jerry springer, but i haven't actually seen it so i will have to keep an eye out for that.
alright so that's it for now because my internet sucks. we are having an excursion to the kremlin on sat. though so that will be fun. also, expect postcards semi-soonish.
mitya
bar/saloon/tavern, take your pick. the waitresses were dressed in little plaid dresses, and the entire restaurant was covered in a hazy smoke. but it was really nice, and the food and drinks weren't too expensive. i think our waitress liked how hard we tried to speak to her in russian. but it took us a while to get her to understand that we wanted to keep one menu so we could order more, haha. they had a bunch of irish and english beers, so i got a few of those, and we shared some garlic breads and things like that. but yeah, thanks john bull for a thoroughly
entertaining night!
i felt like being really lazy on saturday so i slept late and then svetlana made me breakfast. i know, do i even need to say it anymore? um, yogurt, salad, and empty omelette. although, i will say that among all of these breakfast disasters i think i am slowly becoming extremely friendly with kefir, which is..um, spoiled milk. it's an entirely russian invention, although i believe it has made it's way to the states in various forms. but in russia, and especially on russian tv, it's advertised as an extremely healthy digestive product, kind of like metamucil or something. technically, it's even called "bio-kefir". but yeah, i put it in my yogurt every morning and it's actually really tasty. i don't know if i'm at the point where i will drink it straight from a cup like svetlana though, haha. maybe someday...
but yeah, svetlana left for the day so i had the apartment to myself so i decided to do some exploring and to my surprise i found a super secret room off of her bedroom. actually it's really just a window balcony, but the mystery as to where she dries my clothes has been solved. showered and headed to the dorms to try and get homework done (did not happen). oh and one of the new students arrived the other night. her name's anya. so we hung out for a little bit and then i went home.
then on sunday we had the organ concert downtown. it was ok, it was basically just a recital open to the public and the woman played for about 90 minutes. i had a lot of homework though so i just went back to svetlana's afterwards and did that for the rest of the night.
then monday, all of the new students (about 10) from the arizona program finally got here, so they were doing their orientation while we were in morning classes. i met some of them but not for very long. we're supposed to get one new person in our class even though zoya apparently would prefer nobody, haha. but yeah, that was my weekend. and then tuesday night we went to the opera. it was called ruslan and lyudmila and was about a princess who got
kidnapped and the prince who tried to save her. i understood nothing but it was fun to watch. afterwards we went out for pizza and then went back.
oh, so a few more things i have noticed about russians, since i have been told many a person enjoyed the last installment. i know i have mentioned this kind of already, but russians will drive and park their cars ANYWHERE. i am not even honestly sure if it's possible to be issued a parking ticket in russia. i have seen cars parked in the middle of major roads, backs sticking out into traffic (accident waiting to happen), and just about anywhere in general. also, so many of the roads here are too small for two lane traffic, so people will regularly drive up onto curbs and sidewalks to let each other pass. also, i was watching tv with svetlana the other day, and i can now rest easy knowing that trashy american tv has found its way to russia. it was, generally speaking, judge judy, except instead of the judge screaming, the plaintiff and defendant would just go at it for like, 10 minutes straight. i'm not even sure if i saw either of them pause to take a breath. there was no way i was ever going to understand what they were arguing about because they were being so belligerent and obnoxious, but it was fun to watch. i have also been told there is a show similar to jerry springer, but i haven't actually seen it so i will have to keep an eye out for that.
alright so that's it for now because my internet sucks. we are having an excursion to the kremlin on sat. though so that will be fun. also, expect postcards semi-soonish.
mitya
Friday, September 11, 2009
останкино и мы плаваем по москве
so even though i didn't have class on wednesday i've been keeping pretty busy. zoya gave us a ton of HW on tues. night so that took forever to do. on wednesday, since aleksandr is on vacation..somewhere, we went to ostankino tv tower instead of our normal lecture. it was nice because i got to sleep in for a couple more hours, and then we met at VDNKh, which is a neighborhood on the outskirts of the northeastern end of moscow. it's a really nice
area, a lot nicer than vykhino sadly. the walk to the tower was far but it was nice seeing a different suburban neighborhood for a change, as opposed to downtown. VDNKh had its own monorail, which is unfortunately lacking in vykhino, and it was just nicer in general. we got to the tower and were a little early so we walked around a bit. and ok let me just say that the security at this thing was ridiculous. compared to prague's tv tower, i had to give them my passport, student id, and then they had to make us actual plastic id cards just for a tour. i also
had to check my backpack and was mostly stripped of all my worldly possessions. and then finally we had to go through 2 separate security checkpoints and metal detectors. but overall it was worth it, the views from the tower were pretty incredible, you could see the kremlin, arbat, the new moscow financial center, and um, lots of nuclear power plants. it was funny because the tour was in russian, and they made us watch a video beforehand about what to do in case of an emergency. obviously we didn't understand it, but they used hilarious photos and examples
which included people in gas masks. and that's all i'll say about that. but Lena was with us and she eventually got the lady tourguide to give us a private tour from the observation deck and lena translated. so yeah we were there for about 3 hours or so. it was fun though. afterwards kathryn, katya, alyssa and i found a park and walked around, got ice cream, etc etc. we found a small children's amusement park that was kind of decrepit but apparently still in use. pity the children.
oh and i forgot, svetlana's daughter Lyena was over the apartment the other night when i got home, and she speaks some english, so i was thrilled because she translated some semi-pressing issues to svetlana for me, such as laundry. turned out i was correct in what i had thought svetlana told me, but i just wanted to make sure. we watched the end of a movie which, from what i gathered, had something to do with a man who could see the future and um, yeah. that's it. lyena is nice though so i hope she comes over again. she said she likes to practice her english so who knows.
hmm let's see. thursday i had class again and it was zoya's birthday so we got her flowers and chocolates. she was happy, i think haha. it's also a russian tradition to give other people candy or small crap on your birthday so she bought some french truffles for us. mmmmm. lunch was gross as usual (lately they have been serving terrible things such as kicel' which is a drink that has a consistency halfway between juice and jello).
anyway the boat tour of downtown was after lunch so i went with katya and alyssa. it was pretty cool, we passed by the kremlin, sparrow hills, red oktober chocolate factory, gorkii park and stuff like that. i bought a czech beer on the boat which i had had when i was in prague, but the bottle turned out to be huge (i had no idea i swear) so by the end of the ride i was a little blehh. it was fun though.
i don't really have plans for this weekend yet, besides sunday we're going to the moscow conservatory for some kind of organ concert. nobody really ever gives us information prior to excursions so they always seem to be somewhat of a surprise, haha. russians don't really like to plan too far ahead. some of us also might be going out on friday night with someone we met on the boat tour, not sure about that yet though. we haven't really done much nightlife stuff yet because we've still been figuring out how everything will work and stuff.
but yeah i think i have been getting more confident in ordering things in russian and just making small conversation with people wherever. the other day i went into the elevator with someone and they asked me which floor and i understood and [promptly] responded haha, so i was proud of myself. but yeah umm i guess that's it for now, but hopefully next time i will probably talk about the conservatory trip and any possible nightclub trips from this upcoming weekend. which i am highly looking forward to haha.
дима
area, a lot nicer than vykhino sadly. the walk to the tower was far but it was nice seeing a different suburban neighborhood for a change, as opposed to downtown. VDNKh had its own monorail, which is unfortunately lacking in vykhino, and it was just nicer in general. we got to the tower and were a little early so we walked around a bit. and ok let me just say that the security at this thing was ridiculous. compared to prague's tv tower, i had to give them my passport, student id, and then they had to make us actual plastic id cards just for a tour. i also
had to check my backpack and was mostly stripped of all my worldly possessions. and then finally we had to go through 2 separate security checkpoints and metal detectors. but overall it was worth it, the views from the tower were pretty incredible, you could see the kremlin, arbat, the new moscow financial center, and um, lots of nuclear power plants. it was funny because the tour was in russian, and they made us watch a video beforehand about what to do in case of an emergency. obviously we didn't understand it, but they used hilarious photos and examples
which included people in gas masks. and that's all i'll say about that. but Lena was with us and she eventually got the lady tourguide to give us a private tour from the observation deck and lena translated. so yeah we were there for about 3 hours or so. it was fun though. afterwards kathryn, katya, alyssa and i found a park and walked around, got ice cream, etc etc. we found a small children's amusement park that was kind of decrepit but apparently still in use. pity the children.
oh and i forgot, svetlana's daughter Lyena was over the apartment the other night when i got home, and she speaks some english, so i was thrilled because she translated some semi-pressing issues to svetlana for me, such as laundry. turned out i was correct in what i had thought svetlana told me, but i just wanted to make sure. we watched the end of a movie which, from what i gathered, had something to do with a man who could see the future and um, yeah. that's it. lyena is nice though so i hope she comes over again. she said she likes to practice her english so who knows.
hmm let's see. thursday i had class again and it was zoya's birthday so we got her flowers and chocolates. she was happy, i think haha. it's also a russian tradition to give other people candy or small crap on your birthday so she bought some french truffles for us. mmmmm. lunch was gross as usual (lately they have been serving terrible things such as kicel' which is a drink that has a consistency halfway between juice and jello).
anyway the boat tour of downtown was after lunch so i went with katya and alyssa. it was pretty cool, we passed by the kremlin, sparrow hills, red oktober chocolate factory, gorkii park and stuff like that. i bought a czech beer on the boat which i had had when i was in prague, but the bottle turned out to be huge (i had no idea i swear) so by the end of the ride i was a little blehh. it was fun though.
i don't really have plans for this weekend yet, besides sunday we're going to the moscow conservatory for some kind of organ concert. nobody really ever gives us information prior to excursions so they always seem to be somewhat of a surprise, haha. russians don't really like to plan too far ahead. some of us also might be going out on friday night with someone we met on the boat tour, not sure about that yet though. we haven't really done much nightlife stuff yet because we've still been figuring out how everything will work and stuff.
but yeah i think i have been getting more confident in ordering things in russian and just making small conversation with people wherever. the other day i went into the elevator with someone and they asked me which floor and i understood and [promptly] responded haha, so i was proud of myself. but yeah umm i guess that's it for now, but hopefully next time i will probably talk about the conservatory trip and any possible nightclub trips from this upcoming weekend. which i am highly looking forward to haha.
дима
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