White Nights Festival

Life is an adventure, dare it

I can't believe it's my last week in Russia! I haven't had a chance to write about my trip to St. Petersburg yet because this week has been pretty busy... this might be my last post, because I still have my paper to write and my study abroad workbook to finish up! It's crazy how quickly this month as gone by. This has been a great experience but i'm more than ready to go home. I'm sick of living off or ramen noodles, cosmostars (captain crunch), raisins, and bread. And yes that is what my diet as primarily consisted of. Well St. Petersburg was the trip of a LIFETIME! Moscow has been a great experience, one that I will never forget, but it's not somewhere i'm dying to return to.. St. Petersburg on the other-hand is a whole different story! 

It started out Friday when we boarded the Hogwart's Express (the nickname I gave our train) at 12am. It's an 8 hour train ride, but I slept the entire time so it didn't phase me. When I woke up I was under the impression that we were going to go straight to our hotel and change, so I kept my sweats on. But of course, we had a 5 hour city tour first! Yay great start to my morning... I was burning up and getting all types of looks from everyone. Overall though the tour was really cool. We went to the graves of the last Imperial family, toured a prison, when to St. Isaac's Cathedral, and went to the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood which was built on the place where Alexander II was killed. While we were at St. Isaac's we got to climb to the dome on the top and take pictures of all of St. Petersburg... it was beautiful! 

We eventually made it to the hotel and it was AWESOME! We have been living in the crappiest place in Moscow and this hotel was so nice! We all took a 4 hour nap and then got up and decided to explore. A small group of us ended up in a brewery to get some food, I got chicken tenders because I was missing American food and they were terrible, it was so disappointing. BUT the night was not over! It dosen't get dark in St. Petersburg until like 2 in the morning. We explored and explored and ended up on the Neva River right in front of the Winter Palace. The White Nights festival was the next night so they were preparing for everything. Apparently there is a tradition where a big ship with red sails sails down the Neva on the night of the festival and they were giving it a test run while we were there.. it was gorgeous!!! Apparently we look super American because this younger guy approached us and said in very broken English you're American... no if ands or buts ... he knew. We started laughing and were like how did you know? Apparently is was extremely obvious by the way we dressed and the way we carried ourselves... whatever that means. But he was really nice and we ended up talking to him for about an hour just enjoying the scenery by the river. After that we headed back to the hotel and passed out!

We got up pretty early the next morning for a tour of Catherine's Palace. Apparently one winter palace isn't good enough for the Imperial family so we drove an hour into a little town called Pushkin (named after the writer) and got a tour of the biggest palace i've ever seen! It was gorgeous and HUUUUGE! It started raining when we were getting a tour of the grounds but it was so beautiful it didn't even matter. As corny as this sounds the place looked like where Mr. Darcy lives in Pride and Prejudice just much much bigger! After our tour we headed back into St. Petersburg and took a nap. If you haven't guessed yet taking naps is one of our favorite things to do here! When we got up we headed out for some food and the White Nights festivities were starting to begin. If you can imagine a celebration like Apple Blossom in a city ten times bigger and ten times crazier.. that's what we experienced. People were dressed in all white carrying Russian flags singing the national anthem at the top of there lungs, just having a blast. We met some kids from Princeton and hung out with them a little bit, just walking around taking it all in. There was a huge concert and Sting preformed but it was a little expensive so we kept wondering around. Eventually we parted ways with our Princeton friends and headed back to the street our hotel was on (it was the main street). We met an American student a little bit earlier and he invited us to this Pub where his friends band was playing and it was literally like 3 doors down from our hotel so we decided to check it out. It was sooooo much fuuuuun! Everyone there was an American student or someone who spoke English.. the music was great.. the band was doing covers of Kings of Leon and Oasis and we just hung out with everyone for the next couple hours. We talked to this guy who is in the Peace Corps. and he was really nice... and at 1 the fireworks started going off and we all ran out into the street to watch them. It seriously was the coolest experience ever! After that we headed back to the hotel because we had to get up early for a boat tour in the morning! 

Well this brings me to Sunday our last day in St. Petersburg. We started out the day with an hour boat tour throughout the cities canals (it's referred to as the Venice of the North). After that we had a tour of the Hermitage. I enjoyed it buttt i've come to the realization i'm not an art person. I can't stand and look at art for more than like 5 min. So that was a little long for me, but I enjoyed walking around looking at everything! We then had 8 hours to waste till our train home so we went and got some food at an Italian restaurant, and then walked around a bit. We were like what the heck are we going to do for 4 more hours (we had already checked out of the hotel) we then decided to go to the movies! It was an experience! we went and saw the green lantern.. and it was in Russian and there were no subtitles... so I can't tell you what happened haha. Overall though St. Petersburg was soooo amazing and I really can't wait to visit again!!!

P.S I tried to upload photos but for some reason it won't let me so just check out my facebook!!

Life is a promise, fulfill it

I decided to write another quick blog since I won't really be able to update you guys until i get back form St. Petersburg on Monday. Yesterday we had a really busy day! My favorite teacher, the one we have three days a week, was sick so we had a sub :(. We had class until 12:20 (we got out 40 min early) and headed over to the Kremlin for a tour of the armory! On our way over there we passed through a movie set... we'll thats what we think it was... there were trailors everywhere men dressed up in old soviet uniforms, everything was blocked off.. it was really cool! Unfortunately they weren't interested in having any American extras.. oh well we tried! The Armory was amazing! It's also the national treasury or something... we have so much information thrown at us all the time its hard to remember what everyone tells me. We got to see the Impress's coronation gowns, 17 royal carriages, battle armor, the earliest throne's used to the throne used by Nicholas II. They also had all of the crown's used and they were amazing. We saw the biggest in the diamond exhibit, but these were just as impressive. Most of them had fur wrapped around the bottom which i thought was kind of funny because its so stereotypical. After we finished up our tour of the armory we headed back to get ready for... SWAN LAKE! We went to the Russian ballet and saw their performance of Swan Lake... it was phenomenal! I wish you all could have seen it, it was seriously one of the coolest things i've seen! Unfortunately, i wore five inch heels to the ballet, and we walked, so i now have a ton of blisters :(. But all of the Russian girls wear heels so I figured I would too! 


Today we still had a sub, but it was a different one. I'm pretty sure today was my favorite class so far. I speak more Russian than my sub spoke English... aka she didn't understand anything! My normal teachers and my other sub all speak English, they just choose not to, but if we have a question they can answer it. She couldn't answer our questions because she didn't know what we were saying. So my class consisted of charades, pictionary, and some help from the dictionary. It was so much fun! My teacher would act our these crazy scenarios  and immediately we would understand. She corrected our pronunciation... all of us need a lot of help... but it was hysterical. She would make these crazy sounds and make us repeat her, but it really helped. I'm about to start packing for Petersburg! I'm so excited, everyone says its beautiful! We leave tonight at 9 on an overnight train for an 8 hour train ride, and we come back Sunday night! I'll take lots of pictures and blog as soon as I get back!! Miss and love you guys! 

Life is bliss, taste it

Sunday was Russian Independence Day! The Red Square was jam packed with people (we didn't go down there) but they told us last year you couldn't move. The set up looked like Times Square on New Years... so it was a really big deal! So with nothing to do, we enlisted the help of our professor and decided to make borcht or in Russian борщ! A few of us left for the farmer's market early Sunday morning and gathered the ingredients which consisted of : beets, cabbage, onions, tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, garlic, and bread (of course). We decided to make vegetarian borscht because the meat here is expensive and not very trustworthy. One of Dr. M&M's childhood friends came with her son and she brought blini (Блины), which are really really thin( like ten times thinner than crepes)... pancakes. You eat these with either sour cream, butter and salmon, or икра (caviar). Russian's eat икра like butter... it comes on everything!  When in Russia do as the Russians do, so the first weekend I was here I decided I would try it.  NEVER AGAIN! I've never had caviar in the States so I don't know if there is any difference, but here they are like little balls of jelly that taste like salt, fish, and fish guts (or at least what i would assume they taste like) so naturally I had my blini with sour cream. 

Well all of the girls decided to make the borscht, and we left the cleaning for the guys. It was relatively simple. We cut, chopped, and shredded vegetables threw them all into one big pot and let them to simmer away. Dr. M&M then gave us a brief lecture on Russian peasant food and how its influenced Russian cuisine today. Everything from cow tongue to vodka served a purpose. She then showed us how Russians eat garlic bread. You get a big thick piece of Russian black bread and a clove of garlic and you bite the garlic every time you take a bite of bread... soooo stronggggg. We then all sat down ate borscht like one big happy family!  I'm still not sold on borscht, I don't think I like it, but I don't hate it. Idk its weird. After we were done I got to interview Dimitry (the friend's son) he is ethnic Russian but look like he's from the Caucus region. So it was really interesting, my paper is starting to take off. I just haven't started the writing process yet :(

Yesterday, Monday, we had the day off from school because of the holiday. They give people a day off to recover i suppose. I slept all day and did homework. It was amazing!!! I haven't had a day like that in a really long time. Today we had music class again and learned two new songs. We leave for St. Petersburg on Thursday and I'm sooo excited!!! Miss you guys! 

Life is a duty, complete it

Well Today is our 8th day in Moscow... CRAZYYY! I can't believe the time is flying by so quickly. We have a three day weekend this week because Russia Day is tomorrow (Sunday 12). We have Monday off due to the celebration (the Red Square is crazyy, they have huge stages being put up for artists). Annnnd then we leave Thursday night for St. Petersburg so we don't have school on Friday!!! Yayyy three day week! So we have a lot to look forward to in the upcoming week. 

So yesterday we went through our usual routine, we got up, went to class for three hours, and then had an excursion. We went to see the imperial diamond collection... it was AMAZING! They wouldn't let us take pictures inside of it though which stinks... After seeing all of those amazing diadems and crowns I just know i'm meant to be a princess :) After we were done with that we walked around the Red Square again, this is probably the 100th time we've been there but it never seems to lose its splendor! It was one of the guys birthday yesterday so we decided to go out to eat to celebrate! We went to this restaurant called Yolki Palki ... and its supposedly like a Russian fast food chain, but it's not fast food like we think. It's definitely sit down, and it was amazzzzzing! We haven't been able to find good ethnic Russian food (this is Moscow... its an international city... and the food is definitely international). But this was definitely what we were looking for! And it was relatively cheap... let me warn you, if you ever plan on visiting Moscow.. bring lots of money... its EXTREMELY expensive! I got chicken kabobs and a plate of vegetables for 285 rubles about 10 bucks... and it was really good! 

After that we went back to the dorm and FINALLY met some Russian students! We met a bunch of girls who just graduated and they were celebrating right outside of our window. We all went down and ended up talking to them all for a few hours. Two of them spoke english really well, a few of them could make broken conversation, and one of them not at all. And for some reason she targeted me as her conversation partner. We (the girl and I) pretty much had a conversation with ourselves I spoke english.. she spoke Russian... we laughed a lot.. i had no idea what she was saying... she had no idea what i was saying, but it worked. The two things we did understand were: "Ya ne paneemayeww po- angleeskee" ( I don't understand English) and i would respond "Ya ne paneemayeww po-ruskee" ( I don't understand Russian), but it was a pretty good time overall. 

Today we had to get up kind of early because we were meeting with people for our Independent Study project. My topic is ethnic tension in Moscow. As many of you know the Soviet Union was made up of many republics, and know that it collapsed there's kind of any identity crisis going on over here. People say things like "Russia for Russian's" and "Moscow for Muscovites" and I'm interested in finding out how it affects the people who aren't ethnically Russian. So today my professor set up a meeting for me to interview an actor who is ethnically Polish and Ossetian. His name was Yan he's 21, he's an actor in Moscow, he's extremely intelligent, and he's GORGEOUS! Unfortunately, he doesn't speak English hahaha oh well. My teacher had to translate for us. She warned me ahead of time that he was good looking, but I didn't believe her because I have yet to see an attractive Russian guy since i've been here, but Yan made up for it :) Well I got some really useful and interesting information from him and it makes me really excited to continue my research. I'm going to be interviewing a professor who is Georgian, a professor who is an ethnic Russian, and some other people. After I was done with that my roomate and I took a much needed four hour long nap! It was amazzzing! We are making borscht tomorrow... so i'll let you guys know how that goes! Miss you and Love you!

                                                                            Yan <3

Life is a dream, realize it

Well today has been very eventful... I'm probably not going to post this frequently.. i hope.. but once I start my research paper things are going to get a lot more busy! We had class this morning which was really awesome.. we had the same teacher as yesterday.. and we had a quiz.. i didn't do so well, but she was nice and corrected us without taking off points. After that we headed to the Cosmonaut Museum. Cosmonaut is the russian word for astronaut... and it was phenomenal! Our guide was on the design team for a space shuttle so she was extremely knowledgeable. We even met a Russian Cosmonaut who went to space in the 80's... it was just a really good trip. After that we took a walk to a park (where is started raining) to see the fountain of friendship. It was so beautiful... the fountain has statues of people and each person is supposed to represent a soviet republic (because everyone is equal in the soviet union... only some are more equal than others). Anyways i'm going to post some pictures from inside the Kremlin yesterday and some of today! I've got to go do homework... I have a quiz on numbers 1-1000 tomorrow.. and i need to start researching my paper.. goodnight and miss you guys! 

Life is a challenge, meet it

O.K so this blog is going to be a bit shorter than the last, but I figured since I'm so far behind I'll do another one tonight. It's currently 9:45 p.m here and it's 1:45 in the states so that makes me 8 hours ahead of you guys! I'm still suffering from jetlag, or maybe it's just because our days are so packed and we walk EVERYWHERE! Not that i'm complaining... I've now realized why Russians are so skinny, they eat borscht and walk 5oo miles a day. Unfortunately, as Americans we have been eating Italian food so we are kind of balancing our the walking haha. Anyways I would like to give a big shout out to my little sis CHELSEA FOR GRADUATING!!!!! I really wish I could be there tonight!

Well on Monday we started classes! We have class Monday-Friday for 3 hours a day. Monday wasn't too hard, our teacher was really quiet and really easy on us. Tuesday we had a Russian music class. We learned Russian words for melody, rythm, verse, and that kind of thing and then we sang. I wish I was kidding. My teacher sat at the piano and made us sing a Russian song, and if we didn't sing loud enough she would call us out! The song is called Kalinka, and i'll put a youtube link at the end of this if you want to check it out. There are only three people in my class so it really wasn't bad and it mad the day go by so quickly! We then went to an Italian ballet that night... which was interesting. Very different from the Russian ballet apparently, but were going to see Swan Lake next Wed. and i'm pumped!!!!!

Well today is wednesday and my Russian professor from Tech told me that today we were going to have a very strict teacher. Eeeeeeeeeek! Well she wouldn't let us speak English unless we said "shto ____ and then the word in English) Which means "what ___" and we don't know how to say does this mean, but she got the drift. At first I was like what the heck?! we're only first years... how do you expect us to speak nothing but Russian, but then I LOVED it! I was making so many terrible mistakes but she always kindly corrected me in Russian, and I feel like in that one class alone I learned more than I would have in a couple weeks! It was really awesome. 

Well this afternoon after class we got to tour inside the Kremlin. For those of you who don't know the Kremlin is a huge fortress in which a bunch of famous cathedrals and the president's cabinet reside. Kremlin literally translates "fortress". We went into the Cathedral where the Czars were married, baptized, went to church, and buried... and yes they have a separate one for all. We then got to see the Faberge eggs.. which were incredible! If you don't know what that is google it, because i'm tired and going to bed soon! Miss you guys! Dobre Vecher... aka goodnighthttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=09Rf2KqA7a4

First couple days in Moscow

Ok so it’s my fifth day in Russia and I have some ground to make up. I decided to start a blog because it’s much easier for family and friends and whoever else cares to keep up with what i’m doing here. Writing to 500 people a day about the same thing gets a little monotonous!  So here we go:

Day 1: Well Friday seemed like it was the length of three days, but it was only Friday! We are 8 hours ahead of the states so we all tried not to go to bed so we could try to beat jetlag ASAP. Well we spent a ridiculously long time in the airport waiting for our flight, so we all went and just sat and got to know each other. The flight was possibly one of the longest 10 hours of my life. I was so uncomftorable, my lower back was aching so bad, and I couldn’t fall asleep. On the plus side i got to talk to a Russian grandma in half russian/half english and she kept feeding me goldfish like they were a delicacy. It took a quick catnap and i woke up just in time to see the most amazing sight ever. I look down right as we were flying over New York City! The Chrysler building was lit up and it was just so beautiful. Then i look up and the sky was a rainbow! It wasn’t a rainbow in the sky, but the way night was falling across the east coast created the most beautiful rainbow sky. Well hours upon hours and 2 gross airplane meals later, we landed in Moscow (pronounced Moskva). Well we went to our dorms and checked in. There is only one shower for all 10 of us to share and no AC :( … but i’m in Russia and that’s all that matters! Our teacher took us to a pizza place because none of us were feeling adventurous after that long trip. It was really good and surprisingly our waiter was really nice and patient with us as we tried to order. I think he actually thought it was cool.. which is opposite of EVERYONE else. People just give you dirty looks if you speak English too loud. After that we went to a supermarket and got some groceries. For all of you who were warning me not to get “taken” there is a 29 year old marine here who is amazing and is always making sure we’re ok. I feel safter around him than i do in the gritty! We decided to take a night trip to the red square… crazzzzzy! We hopped on the Moscow Metro.. I was terrified.. we couldn’t understand the signs, we had no idea where we were going, and the subways are huuuuuge, but sometimes you just have to dive in head first. I asked for directions in Russian twice.. I was so excited… even though one time the guy replied “In English please”… anyways it was TOTALLY worth it. Not only is the red square gorgeous, but at night it is breath taking! 

Day 2: Basically we just explored the city. We walked around not knowing what we were looking at but had a blast exploring!

Day 3: We went on a long tour 5 hour tour of Moscow and we got to see a bunch of sites we already found ourselves, but it was nice to know what they actually were. We saw the KGB headquarters, a bunch on monuments, we went to a famous cememtary where gobachev's wife, stalin's wife, chexov, and a bunch of other famous people were buried. We ran into some Machester United players in the red square and got a picture with them which was really cool!  We then went to a monastery called Novodevichy... actually it might be a convent.. i'm not sure haha.. our guide spoke really fast and she was Russian so she had an accent! But it sits atop a hill over looking a lake that inspired Swan Lake! It was gorgeous!

Well thats about it for now! Miss all of you!