last post in russia

I think, friends, that this is my last post I will write in Russia!

I wrote some last night when I came home after our dinner party with the teachers. I was mildly drunk at this point:

It’s funny how surreal everything is, especially time. One month I’m suffering from heat stroke, lying on my bed in shorts and guzzling water, wanting nothing more than to be home in Florida in the air conditioning. The next, I’m running across the outdoor “perehod” in my little ankle boots sobbing at the thought of leaving Moscow.
Here it is, folks, despite the moaning, the groaning, the bitching, the lamenting, I have come to the realization that I love Russia. I love Russia with all of my aching, breaking heart. Goddamn if Ryan and my family and friends could just all move here things would be perfect. I love this place and it literally breaks my heart the more I think of it.
Also heightened by the amount of “sovietskoe” champagne I drank at our farewell dinner.
And our farewell dinner oh my goodddd what a dinner. Between John slipping around the table, sneakily pouring champagne, Anton’s recitation of Парус, (Белеет парус, одинокий, в тумане моря голубом…), Annabell's 2 minute long, completely crazy/courageous rap (in Russian!!), the multitude of toasts (the mulititude of champagne drank in honor of those toasts), Suptik BREAKING his wine glass (after proclaiming- «I don't drink! Well, only wine!»*smash*) ,the increasingly drunk and rowdy Mikel, Alexsander Dimitrievich's sharing of the whiskey, and, koneshno, Lubov Andreevna's ummmm SUPER AWKWARD little speech to us dear dorogie girls at the beginning…. Oh dear god help us. What a freakin night, what a crazy night to end all nights. And then I pattered home, kind of drunk, ok really drunk, and Jackie, the most anti-alcoholic never imbibing girl in our group chatted me up on the way home. I felt bad for being so drunk on one of our rare conversational moments but it can't be helped- plus I'm probably more friendly when I'm a little inebriated anyways. I wanted to buy my Marina a bottle of champagne to wish her a happy new year and as I was stumbling into the store, who do I see BUT HER and she didn't notice me thank god and I raced top the sovietskoe champagne and grabbed a bottle and peaced out so she wouldn't see me buying her champagne. All the same I could see her in the other check out line (though she couldn't see me ha ha ah haha) and she had ought herself ohhh maybe 5 bottles of the same champagne. Whatevs.
Guys, well, um. I saw lenin again yesterday. It was fantastic and went I was leaving I took one last glance and said «goodbye, little Lenin» in my head and that was that. God grant I can see him again someday… ohhh Leni-doodles.
Also… I bought a watch yesterday. It is a «slava» and it is soooo bling it makes your eyes hurt. Not really… but it's beautiful! It's blue and mother of pearl and diamondy and bling. And it's a really, not plastic watch and I love it. It makes a little ticking sound and I actually have to tell the time so it's great. I love this watch.
And I bought tights yesterday and they're crazzzzzyyyy. They have weird things on the side, like weird gray bubbles. Russians are weird and they love weird tights. Oh russia. :'( I love russia.
Guys! I can't leave! I love all of you and I'm psyched to see everyone but dear god it hurts my heart. It hurts so bad to leave. And I hate the traveling part- the packing airport exhaustion part. And it hurts and I don't want to leave. And how can life pass so quickly without even your realization? I can't even recollect where half of my days went… they were just normal days that I guess I didn't bother to categorize in my mind and just passed like wisps of smoke. How can it be possible to love a place this much and leave?
I guess what I'm also feeling is love for the other americans I spent this time with, most of whom where the nicest, sweetest, most intelligent, funniest people you've ever met. And there's just something about being in Russia that bonds you to people.

end of post by "few too many glasses of sovietskoe champagne" Emma
and then I cried on the phone to ryan, then the phone died, then I took some aspirin and went to bed.
And now it's my last day! I will be heading to the airport at 3 am tomorrow. Today I will be finishing packing and maybe seeing some ice sculptures. See you all very, very soon :) And despite what I wrote last night when I felt incredibly sad, the other emotion I feel is incredible happiness that I get to come home to a place where I know people love me, and where I understand everything and people understand me and there are ice cubes and marshmallows, and that's worth crying for too.

Ivan the Terrible

Read the wikipedia article about Ivan the Terrible:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ivan_IV_of_Russia

what a crazy guy! Although, according to this article, he really should have been called "Ivan the Awesome" in English. I agree that "terrible" gives us a different connotation, but I don't think awesome works because of its use in modern lingo. I don't think it's very "awesome" to depopulate your entire country for a crippling, draining war, kill your advisers because you're a paranoid schizophrenic, beat your pregnant daughter in law to the point of causing a miscarriage, kill your competent son, and leave your kingdom in the hands of the crazy, retarded son. But that's just me.

Yesterday Marina took me on a tour of MGU, because she works there as a biology teacher. It was AWESOME. I wish I could study at MGU. The whole campus is huge and sprawling, and the main building is incredible. We ate at the cafeteria in there (well, one of the many many cafeterias) and the food was actually pretty good. Except for the jellied ham and cheese. Yep. I thought I'd make it out of russia without being forced to eat jellied meat but I was very wrong. 

Because it was a saturday the place was quieter than usual, and a bunch of the lights were turned off. She took me upstairs to show me the "reception hall" where they hold big events. It was completely dark, with only a little light shining from downstairs. The ceilings where high, everything was marble, it was incredible. It felt like an abandoned ballroom, then we tripped over some students who were lying in the middle on a blanket and marina started yelling about how people "sit in the way, no respect for other people...etcetcetc."

christmas-y

Yelsilev grocery, taken through the window. I was afraid to take a picture inside
The Olympic store cafe?
soooooo beautifulllllll

Dracula

I only have 4 days left in Moscow… can you believe this?! I absolutely cannot. How does time work? Where does it go, and why so fast? Anyone know?
This last week has been really hectic- we’ve had school exams basically everyday and then today we had to come in to school to fill out teacher evaluations and take 2 hours of testing to determine if we’ve progressed in Russia. It. Sucked. But I definitely did better on the tests than I did in August so at least I have that.
I took my conversation class exam on Thursday which I was really fearing, because I hate that teacher and we had to talk to her for 10 minutes about a topic we pick at the beginning of class. I got lucky with the topic “Travel”- there were lots of verbs I knew relating to that and you can just go on and on with examples, “When you travel you need to avoid certain things. Like, in Mexico avoid the water. In India avoid the tigers. In Russia avoid dark streets, drunk people, men, dogs, the police, bad vodka, cars… well, just avoid everything.” I think I gave examples of things to avoid in Moscow for about 4 minutes. Then she asked where I wanted to travel in the world. I immediately responded “Romania.” She was surprised and said she thought I would say Japan or China or something like that, and asked why I chose Romania, because it’s a poor country and there’s nothing to do there. So I started “Well, um, you know, I heard it’s pretty there, and there’s mountains and… rivers and…. Ok, the truth is I want to see Dracula’s castle and do the Dracula tour.”
I don’t know if any of you know this because it’s one of those things I’m borderline ashamed of, but I LOVE DRACULA. I love Dracula and all vampires. I have been obsessed with vampires since I was 8 years old and read a book of Russian folklore. I have seen tons of vampire/Dracula movies, and I’ve read Dracula several times, as well as “The Historian”. I know the Wikipedia article about Vlad the Impaler and the Blood Countess Elizaveta like the back of my hand. I have seen “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” by Coppola at least 5 times. I’ve taken the New Orleans vampire tour, I’ve been to vampire bars in New Orleans, and when I was a kid I thought vampires lived in my guest room and this was the least of my worries. I draw the line at that Twilight crap and even Anne Rice, though I have also seen “Interview with a Vampire” at least 5 times (mostly because of Brad Pitt and if you don’t mind me saying so he makes a fiiiiiiiiine vampire). I’m more of a traditionalist vampire connosieur, I’m not looking to fall in love with a vampire and live a crazy passionate nocturnal life, I just LOVE VAMPIRES.

Anyways… so I touched on this subject and she thought it was the funniest thing she had ever heard. She was like “What?!?! Dracula?!? Is he real??” I schooled her on vampire lore and we talked for like 20 minutes. At the end of it she said, “We’ve been talking for 20 minutes! I actually had a good time!” and she was completely surprised by this…. I mean, I was too. She then said she thought I had improved a lot and that she could see that when I speak I try to always be grammatically correct and that she really appreciated that.
Today after testing I got lunch with Julia and Erika and we had a super intense conversation about life and discovering ourselves, then I went to Red Square (I can’t get enough of that place) and bought 5 pounds worth of honey cake, then popped into GUM to get my holiday happiness fix, then walked along tverskaya and bought some soviet propaganda post cards. Then I went to Yelsilev Grocery, the most beautiful grocery store in the world (more beautiful than gastronom odin in GUM). It’s baroque style with big, beautiful chandeliers, marble floors, ornate gold details; it’s breathtaking. And I bought my first/last/only bottle of vodka. I read in my guidebook that “Yuri soandso” vodka is good to buy, that it’s smooth and has a cool bottle. I’m glad I had a suggestion, because I would have had NO idea what to buy besides that. I probably in the end would’ve picked the prettiest bottle, or one with the words “FROM SIBERIA” on it. Siberia is just one of those words, like Yukon, that gives you this crazy image of a vast, lonely, beautiful, snowy place. I would probably buy anything with SIBERIA on it. The vodka wasn’t too expensive, around 30 bucks for a liter. You can get vodka here for 5 dollars but you just might be dead the next day, so I’ll take my chances.
Anyways, tomorrow I’m going to Izmaylova again to get myself a Cheburashka matryoshka and some other odds and ends, then going to MGU with Marina! I’m excited to see the inside. Monday is my last day of school! Very soon I will be saying “da svedanya” to Russia and “privet!” to America.
And my computer is making a terrible, terrible noise ☹

lenin's Mausoleum... again!

ok I wrote this whole long post yesterday about how I went to see Lenin again and I ate a "sugar milk" honey cake and watched the changing of the guard and it was pure poetry... and then my internet crapped out and it was lost forever and I'm devastatteedddd... not really. 

So in short, yes, I went to see Lenin again, and it only took 30 minutes. And I was a model American tourist and tried to use my very best Russian with the guards letting you into the Kremlin Burial Wall area. "No, officer, I do not have a camera. Here, let me open this for you. That is a telephone, but only that. It is not a camera. Thank you so very much." That is exactly how I sound in Russian, but maybe more like "I am not having a camera at this moment. You like me open bag for you? OK This I do. Phone? Yes it phone but only as such, no camera there." Ahhh my lifeeee... in Russian. 

So anyways I saw Lenin again, and seeing him alone is very, very different than seeing him with someone. Even though you would be forbidden to talk with that someone, there's just something about having them there that comforts you. Like seeing a movie to someone... even though you don't really talk to someone, there'll still there and you can look at them meaningfully and it makes the whole experience better. Or sometimes you go to a movie that's so ridiculous, you and your boyfriend talk through the whole thing, making sarcastic comments and predicting whether or not the killer will actually kill someone using tinsel (I'm referring to one movie in particular, that being Black Christmas). Also, when you see a movie alone, or, in the same vein, see Lenin's mummy alone, you begin to feel sort of pathetic. Like, I couldn't get someone to go with me to see Lenin's 80 year old waxy body in his creepy, creepy super soviet dark tomb... what's wrong with me? Not that I have anything against doing things alone, I'm all for it and I have seen movies alone without incidence. But just take this advise from me: if you can help it, don't see Lenin alone. That said I might go again next weekend and probably no one will go with me   !!!!!!!

So then I bought a honey cake and watched the changing of the guard. Honey cakes are so delicious, I am planning on lining my suitcase with them and trying to start a honey cake revolution in the states. Soooooo good! And so many different flavors to choose from! And so many different shapes! The changing of the guard was, eh, run of the mill. Except they kick their feet REALLY high. Like humorless cheerleaders.

And today began my last week of school. I'm torn between being deliriously happy and kind of sad. I think about Sutik, the video teacher, Galina Mikhailovna asking us questions about the best type of cat, or Levon sadly shaking his head and smiling saying "Mistakes! Mistakes!" and I feel that I will so miss these people. Then I think of Tamara Evgenevna saying "you guys are so boring. Repeat after me: I am lazy, I am a shame upon all students" or the geography teacher and I feel very, very ready to leave. It's like everything else in life, it's so beautiful but then certain people just come along and make you want to rip your hair out. What is the answer?

10 days till I set foot in Florida... :)

this is a honey cake:

Pictures- red square in daylight, GUM, Lenin day

Moscow State University, where my tutor Masha studies!

Lenin's masoleum

Hi Lenin! I took this picture really sketchily because I wasn't sure if I'd have to pay or not. But then he waved! And I was so excited. Like, butterflies in my stomach. I love Lenin
State History Museum
Christmas Cosmonaut Dog... of course

Babies and Christmas trees!
christmasy ГУМ
ahhh so beautiful
I walked around eating creme brulee ice cream and wanting to live here forever. Except I'm barely good looking enough to shop here, and definitely 3 plastic surgeries away from working here. Such is life
Outside of guuum
Belltower
need I say more? Except why were so many people here? Anyone know? Is it because alexei the second died?
Lenin, me and.... someoneee.... I had to pay for this privilege, because I'm a week and a half away from home and I figured I haven't been touristy enough during my stay here. In fact I've spent most of my time ashamedly taking pictures and hoping no one realizes I'm from America and subsequently beats me to a pulp and steals my money. Also, I look like a bald reanimated zombie in the picture... WTF. I feel like the photographer should have been like  "zombie girl! let's make this a little less dead corpse and liven it up." Oh well, Vladimir Ilyich steals the picture anyway with his little newspaper. Doesn't he look just like Lenin? I've seen what's left of Lenin... and believe me, this guy looks the part. Maybe this is really a double zombie picture. Ok, enough.

Beer Factory

So the other day my host mom brought her neighbor and friend over unexpectedly. I was sitting in the kitchen, drinking a cup of tea and reading a book. As soon as the friend came in Marina began her introductions, "Emma, this is Olga Dimitrievna, Olya this is Emma." She then begins what she always does when introducing me to Swedish, which is describe some of what she considers to be my finer attributes, and it sort of sounds like she's trying to sell me, or rather, the animal version of me. She says things like "Look how beautiful she is, she's Swedish." "The lines on her mother and father's side are both Swedish." "Look how BIG she is." "Emma, show your hands, look at her hands!" I then expect her to have me get up and walk around the room so the friend may examine my stride, or pat my flank with a little "that'll do, that'll do." This friend, however, was completely not interested in me. She was an older lady, maybe 70, and she had cut her finger and so all her attention was concentrated on the finger. She kind of nodded at me and started out with "Marina, do you have iodine?" Marina still tried to recapture the interest, like any good horse breeder, "she's improved soooo much since she's lived here with me..." "you should have heard her when she first came, god help us." They then began to discuss how Marina redid her kitchen a few years back.

Yesterday was our last excursion, to the beer factory! It ended, of course, with a beer sampling that lasted around 40 minutes. As much beer and kvass as you can possibly drink in that amount of time. Needless to say, we all left at least a little buzzed or, in the case of a few select people, completely trashed. The beer, in my opinion, was marginally good at it's very best so I didn't care to drink too much of it. They did have an interesting little creation, that being children's kvass. Kvass is

"sometimes translated into English as bread drink, is a fermented mildly alcoholic beverage made from black or rye bread. It is popular in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and other Eastern and Central European countries as well as in all ex-Soviet states, like Uzbekistan, where one can see many kvass vendors in the streets. Its origins go back 5,000 years to the beginnings of beer production. The alcohol content is so low (0.05-1.44%) that it is considered acceptable for consumption by children. It is often flavored with fruits or herbs such as strawberries or mint." (from Wikipedia)

So we tried children's apple kvass, which was sweeter than regular kvass and tasted a little like cider. There was also horseradish kid's kvass available, but after allison tried it and said "ugh. it tastes like saline. or brine. Or boullion beer" I figured I'd pass.

Later last night we all met up to try to keep the good times going and celebrate our final excursion in a bar, but it was 9 on a friday night and there were 11 of us. No such luck. We ended up at the "coffee bean" drinking coffee, eating pie (well, me and jan ate pie), looking at Matt and Anton's drivers licenses and school id's (matt's school id features him with a beard and a huge 'fro, Anton's looks like his prison application for the Aryan Brotherhood), and listening to Ben do impressions of everyone in the group (his Carlos is fantastic). I then came home and Marina complimented me on how pretty I can look when I put on makeup, which always seems like a backhanded compliment to me. Oh well.

and here's a great video Ryan sent me

Photo Contest

Hey everyone I won 3rd place in the ACTR Fall 08 photo contest! It's here on this page:

http://acrussiaabroad.org/pgDetail.php?id=320

It was the picture I took on the tour bus in Petersburg, with the Church of Spilled Blood through the window. I don't think I win anything special, I'm just happy.

Especially since yesterday was a really crazy day for me. I went from a really happy place to a really bad place in just a matter of two hours. I had a fine day at school, I actually like the classes I take Monday, and then after school allison and I got coffee and she found a kitten in her stairwell and we went and played with the kitten, which was adorable and kind of pathetically sad, because someone just plopped it in a box in the stairs. We talked for a long time and had a really nice conversation.

Then I was riding the bus home and thinking about how much I like Moscow and I want to come back here and maybe work or live here for awhile. I was thinking about all the progress I've made so far and just feeling really happy and good.

Then I go home and ask Marina to proofread my paper about war communism for history class. It's like our final exam for this class so I wanted it to be with as little errors as possible. And I was actually really proud of this paper because, even though I just read up on the internet to find my "Research," I wrote it pretty quickly on Saturday and it wasn't really a problem. I've never had such ease writing in Russian before. I knew it wasn't perfect but I didn't think it was shitty either.

And then Marina read it.

I don't know, she just got really intense and was like "wow your grammar sucks" which, granted it isn't the best, I don't think it SUCKS. Also, I think if I were proofreading someone's, say a foreigner's, paper, I wouldn't shake my head, sigh dramatically and go "this is soooooo NOTTTT english." Which is basically what she did. "This doesn't sound Russian." Well it's obvious that it doesn't have all the nuances a Russian writer might have granted to it- because I'm not Russian! It took me 4 years of studying French 5 days a week to understand the nuances of French- I'm definitely not at that point yet. And also, I didn't really learn the vocabulary in school to go along with the theme of "implementing collectivization policies in Soviet Russian during 1918 and 1921 and the production and seizure of grain from peasant farms leading to the introduction of the New Economic Policy." I had to look up a lot of words, and I don't know the nuances of said words. It was just... a nightmare. I felt completely awful. I think she saw crestfallen I was because towards the end she was like "it was a hard topic, you had the right ideas." 

Then she tried to make me change my plans with Masha today to go to the conservatory with her a her friend. She always makes me do stuff so last minute, like 3 hours before.

"Emma- come to the conservatory tomorrow with me and Natasha."

" I have plans with Masha we're going to the Darwin Museum."

"The Darwin Museum will always be there- come to the conservatory."

"I'm not going to cancel plans with Masha."

"Bring her along."

"She might not like it." 

"Yes she will- call her right now."

I had absolutely no will or energy to call masha and completely change plans so I didn't. I'll tell her Masha had a meeting to go to at 7:30 and we couldn't go to the conservatory.

Then I went to bed and cried and had a mini panic attack. What if my grammar really does SUCK? What if I haven't improved enough? What if every time I zoned out during lecture or read a book in English instead of reading the dictionary, I slipped a little bit more? What if my testing shows that I'm nothing but a dud?

Well friends, I guess all these questions and more will soon be answered. I just try to keep in mind that I know I improved, I met a lot of goals, and I can give someone directions in Russian on the street, and I'll have to be happy with that.

What do you think of your experience in Russia?

Thanksgiving Dinner, picture stolen from Jen 
Mongolian contortionists, picture taken illegally by me
The group of us on Thanksgiving, taken by Nastia.I have no idea why Carlos and I are making terrible faces
Dessert, also stolen from Jen. Mmm it was good
Circus, another illegal picture. Please don't tell the circus authorities on me

The title today is a question my tutor Masha asked me earlier. We met and took a walk in a park near Moscow State University. When I started asking questions about the university, where Masha studies, she led me up a steep incline to get a better view of it. I've seen it before but I just love the building, it's beautiful. Stalin had it built in 1953. It's ENORMOUS, in a 1930's new york skyscraper style. It's got tons of statues and marble with a giant, red soviet star on top that I've heard weighs a few tons. So we hiked up this little hill to get a better look. The hill was steep but not crazy steep, and much of it had stairs. I was embarrassed by how much I was huffing and puffing, but then I looked over and Masha had the same look on her face, and she said "this is a lot of stairs." We reached the best look out point in Moscow, a panorama of the city in front of you, and Moscow State behind. Masha pointed out all the steeples and domes of the churches, and pointed to the Moscow Radio Tower, on the north side of town to show how far away everything was. 

We walked around the university and then went and got some coffee and dessert. We talk in a mix of  English and Russian, she's a linguistics major and has been speaking English for 12 years or something, so she's really good. She got a scholarship to go to Moscow State, the most prestigious university in Moscow, by winning an English language "contest," which basically sounded like a really grueling series of tests. The girl is really smart, and so nice. She then asked me "So... what do you think of your experience in Russia?" This is a hard question to answer, especially when a Russian is asking you. I mean, all the students gripe to each other about it a lot, some have legit reasons, others (like me) don't really. It's just a form of bonding, I suppose, because life here isn't exactly easy, especially when compared to life in the States. And that's what I said, that things were so hard here, a lot of it for me is language, but other things are also hard, but I like it. I can't exactly say that I had fun here like I had fun when I studied abroad in France, but at the same time I have had fun here. It's such a different place that it's almost impossible to explain how I feel. The history of the people and the people themselves are so compelling, their attitudes towards their country and their past.  There's almost a sheepishness to everything, but I don't mean that to be insulting. I like it. And when bad things happened here, it wasn't that we exactly expected it but it wasn't as shocking as it maybe should have been. Like, they took our passports away, said they would give them back in a few weeks, and then we almost didn't get them back for more than a month. Of course, it's Russia. Like, the heating doesn't work in our school and we wear our coats and scarves and have been doing this for more than a month. Well, it's Russia. Like bread costs less than 2 dollars but jeans cost upwards of a hundred.  I don't know, I forget where I was going with this.

All I could say to Masha was that things have been very, very hard here, but I love it. She smiled and said "That's how Russians feel too."

Happy White Thanksgiving!

Pictures taken on a particularly snowy night in Red Square:
                                         This is a fountain in Alexsandrovsky Garden
                                              State History Museum, entrance to the Kremlin
                                    The tomb of the unknown soldier
                                            Lenin's masoleum
                                                   ГУМ
                                               Another fountain, with a bear and a wolf

                                                         St. Basil's Cathedral

Well I know I'm a day late, but happy thanksgiving! I couldn't write yesterday because I was busy making the cranberry sauce! We all went to our assistant Resident Director's house, Vika, and had a little Thanksgiving celebration. Some of the girls came early to cook the turkey and gravy. The slaved away all day and if Hilary, Allison, Paige,Kat, Jenna, or Jen are reading this, thank you so much guys! It was awesome. The rest of us made other things and brought it to Vika's house. We started to watch "2 Days in the Valley," a really funny and very, very strange movie to watch, especially on Thanksgiving. Some people thought that we should watch a Christmas movie and so those of us who preferred to watch a less traditional movie were overruled and we were forced to watch "A Christmas Story." Some of us prefer to watch "A Christmas Story" on Christmas Eve, and we watch it enough times to get a year's worth of watching in. Oh well. It was a really fun Thanksgiving. And everyone loved my cranberry sauce.
The other day I went to ГУМ, the old State Department Store. It's in red square and now it's a really, really posh shopping mall. They have a grocery store in there with chandeliers and marble floors, and 100$ hello kitty champagne (believe me.... I want it). The have signs in English reading "the sturgeon and beluga caviar can be purchased in the center hall."
Anyways, I'm off to my excursion. Today we're going to the metro museum and tonight the circus!

Cranberry madness

For everyone who's reading this, feeling homesick, and wanting it to be christmas immediately, try this:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipes/Holidays-and-Events/Christmas/Main.aspx
Maybe it makes you feel worse, but it makes me feel better to read cookie recipes. I don't know why, maybe because I love cookies and Christmas. Or, if you don't like cookies because you're freak:
http://www.allthingschristmas.com/
Or how about the California Raisins being their creepy selves, brightening your holiday:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oXzriJ2LDpI

I'm making the cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving so I had to go to the market today and buy cranberries. I was kind of scared to do it, because sometimes vendors aren't always nice to you here. You would think that, because they're selling things to you, and that they would in theory want your return business, that they would be nice to you. This is false. Anyways... I was kind of scared, because you have to put cranberries in kilograms, not pounds or ounces. But they were so nice to me! I got cranberries, and oranges and apples, and the lady was really patient and made sure I was getting the right type of apples. Then, when I was paying, she asked if I was Swedish or English. !!!! Isn't that great? Those were the two things that passed through her head first. Since she was so nice to me, I leaned close and mumbled "I'm American." I waited for her to cringe or get that "Oh... American..." look on her face, but she didn't do it. Or she hid it well. I was so excited... and that basically made my whole day. Also I wore my fur hat and got weird looks on the bus. Loooove it.
I forgot to mention that yesterday I INTENDED on going to the Pushkin Fine Arts museum with some girls from school. They forgot I was coming so I got to the metro and they had already left. In this one area of town, there are three museums in very, very close proximity. The Pushkin main art museum, the 19th Century Pushkin art museum, and the Ilya Glazunov Artist of the USSR Gallery. Both Ilya Glazunov Gallery AND Pushkin 19th century are green buildings. So when Jenna told me to meet her "At the green building across from the big Pushkin museum" I went to, of course, the wrong one. So I got to spend an hour in the Ilya Glazunov museum which, not gonna lie, is kind of a weird gallery. He painted a lot of naked women. I found his paintings to be tacky, but I loved his crazy, gothic sketches:

This was one of my favorites, his site in English is
http://www.glazunov.ru/EN/
so check it out if you want.
Anywayssss, stay warm everyone.

Great Bounty

Friday we had an excursion to a Russian school, a mandatory excursion. Most of us were NOT looking forward to this; we had to meet at 8:50 in the morning, it took an hour on the metro (for me) to get there. Plus, all of us imagined our worst possible high school moments and feared being brought back to that. But, I am pleased to say, I'm fairly certain all of us were pleasantly surprised. It was more like being taken back to elementary school, since all of the classes I shadowed were either with 8 year olds or 10 year olds. We shadowed three classes, I went to English 5, Russian 5, and Conversation 3. They "5" means the 10 and 11 year olds, the "3" was the 7 and 8 year olds. The English class was really interesting, the way they described everything in Russian to the kids. They were learning to ask "tail" questions, like "It's a nice day, isn't it?" or "Dima has a cold, doesn't he?" They all had trouble between "do" and "does." The teacher also made them turn around and introduce themselves to us in English, which was precious. And they were all SO EXCITED. They practically fell out of their chairs raising their hands, and some were so anxious to answer the question that they made little noises to demonstrate that they knew the answer. I don't EVER remember being that excited to answer questions... but who knows. That was a long time ago for me.

The Russian 5 class was depressing, since I could barely understand what was going on. That's right, 11 year old Russian was too ADVANCED for me. Eventually I understood that they were breaking down sentences into their parts and analyzing them. They did it SO fast... I was impressed. The Convo 3 class was interesting too. They had to read a little story on the board and then write it down from memory. At one point one of the kids, who had been turning around occasionally to give us a look, raised his hand and asked "Are the Americans going to be reading our stories?" The teacher said "No, of course not, I'm sure they don't want to." After that we got free rolls and tea and coffee. So, all in all, a fun excursion... though this coming friday we're going to the circus, so that might take the 1st place for "best excursion."

Then yesterday we went shopping at Izmaylova market, the HUGE souvenir market on the outskirts of town. Seeing as the day was pretty cold and people don't want to go shopping outside when their hands are likely to freeze into blocks of ice, and also as the dollar has been ROCKING the exchange rate lately, we got tons of really great deals. I generally was able to bargain around 100-500 rubles off the price, which is pretty exciting. The last time I went, the vendors were unwilling to bargain much at all and everything was at least a couple hundred rubles more expensive. I don't want to say everything I bought, since most of it I'm going to give away as a present, possibly to someone reading this. I will share one of my proudest purchases, which is mine:

Oh yes, that is a real fur hat. I bargained him down 500 rubles and got it for 1,100 rubles. That's 40 bucks. Usually they're 1500-2000 rubles. It's really warm. And please, if you will, notice the random balls of fur that hang for no reason from the ear flaps. I love this hat.

SNOW!

The Neva!
Representing how man battled nature...
The Hermitage
Church of the Spilled Blood, through the bus
Catherine and Peter
In the Hermitage
Белый медведь!
It's snowing!! It looks just like Christmas (should be)!! I AM SO EXCITED!
That said, I will probably fall down and this time BREAK my ankle... it's sooo slippery. Luckily around where I live it isn't so bad, I only almost fell once. And it's freezing. Luckily I just got a package from mom with Marina's thank you gift, and a pair of really warm gifts. I gave Marina her gift that my mom made, a purse and coin bag, and she loved it. We had a little love fest where she told me that I was so nice and really easy to host and so on. I realized then that the one thing I'll actually miss about Russia is her. Despite nagging me about not wearing enough long sleeved shirts, forcing an abundance of food on me, warning me not to let the wind blow on my neck, and "healing" my sprained foot by wrapping it in ace bandage so tight that my foot turns purple, she is just so honestly concerned with my well being that I can't help but love her. She does her best to give me all types of Russian food, encourages me to try new things, and actually calls me pretty a lot. When we went to the dacha, she was like "Emma, did you see all the men on the metro ogling you?" No, I didn't. "How could you not?! You're so beautiful, you better be careful. They love your hair." She pretty much IS my mom. She bought me lotion for my hands, because I told her I have skin problems. She's the nicest person in the world and I'll really miss her when I leave.
I won't miss the bus, though. I missed my first class yesterday because the bus I take EVERY MORNING decided to take a random turn 2 miles away from school. I got off, went to the nearest bus stop and awaited my bus. Turns out it was the WRONG bus stop, and so I had to jog to another one. I then waited 20 minutes in the snow for a bus. By the time I got to school, it was 9:30. I didn't feel like ambling in class that late, so I just read in a classroom until it was time to go to literature. The bus is horrible.
I'm starting to become afraid of my tolerance (and sanity), which has dipped to an all time low since being in Russia. I'm a pretty passive person usually, and generally don't mind letting others do whatever they want to. I'm pretty much a doormat, honestly, but it doesn't really bother me, that's how passive I am. However, if you do this in Russia, you would literally get nothing done. They cut in line like it's their job, and if you don't get cut back you're going to spend 20 minutes a day waiting around. They're bossy and vocal, and heart breakingly honest. So to say the least, I've had to change a lot of things about my personality here. Like defending myself to people. Like cutting in line. Like pushing people. Like knocking down babushki to get where I need to go. Anyways, people piss me off all the time now, and I really feel like screaming all the time. Maybe it's just city living...

48 hours in Petersburg on a sprained ankle

Well it's been a full school week and a weekend since I last wrote. I was trying to think of what I would write about the school week.... hmm... well, I was incredibly depressed, if that's note worthy. I think a lot of us are at a point now where we're tired, sick a lot, frustrated, and ready to go home. I think our teachers have also hit a low point, and are much less patient and tolerant than usual. On Wednesday me, Hilary and Allison all went to Кофе Хаус to try to kick back, drink coffee, and talk about everything that was upsetting us in general. We had a great time, then the waitress charged us 18% service charge... pretty much because we're americans. This is especially bad because in Russia tipping is a new concept and people hardly tip over 10% unless they're rich. So this just took us all back down to a really low place. How can someone decide to try to pull the wool over our eyes because we're foreign? How can someone think we're so stupid and unimportant that we have nothing better to do with our money? If I did that to someone in the US I'd be fired. This happens a lot here and it's so upsetting and disheartening; we never feel like we're wanted or appreciated at all. Ever. So that was definitely a low point of the week.

On Tuesday I saw a movie with my tutor. Well, it was supposed to be with my tutor but she wanted to study so I ended up going with two other tutors. It was a french movie called "comedie de l'innocence" and was completely in French. So I watched a French movie in French in Russia with Russian students who speak English and French. Weird. And the movie, following the rules of French cinema, was really, really weird. And the sad part was that I understood most of what was going on. It's sad because I've seen Russian movies in Russian and only understand about 1/3 of what was going on, simply from context. My life...

Ok so Thursday night, or rather Friday morning at 1 a.m. I caught a train with all my friends to go to St. Petersburg. Yay! I was so excited. We got in around 9 am and were wowed by how beautiful and clean it was. We walked to our hostel, checked in a relaxed a little bit, then we started leaving to start our tour of the city. At the bottom of the stairs, I promptly fell down a few steps and landed on my right foot, which twisted under me as I fell. This was embarassing enough and THEN I realized I had actually hurt myself and was limping. From then on I knew I was down for the count and probably wouldn't see much of Peter at all. I took a bus tour with my friends, so I actually got to see most of the historical parts of the city and learned a lot through a really, really funny commentary we got to listen to, but I didn't get to visit things up close and personal. Like I really wanted to go to St. Isaac's Cathedral and climb the spiral staircase to the top and see the incredible with of St. Petersburg. 40 flights of stairs on a sprained foot? Nope. I did get to go to the Hermitage, The Church of the Spilled Blood, and the Russian Museum. I did not, however, get to go to the Erotic Museum and see Rasputin's penis in a jar. Damn my foot.

I also had to buy a cane and hobble around on it, which was hella embarrassing. And I moved really slowly and found it hard and really painful trying to keep up with everyone. Friday night we went to a Georgian restaurant, which was delicious, but the pain was excruciating and my foot began to swell in my shoe at dinner. The 20 block walk home, let's just say, was not fun. But my friends were so nice about it, and waited for me and let me tag along at the Hermitage, which was another trying event. We saw lots of really, really incredible art, including Rubins, Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Picasso, Van Gogh, Michelangelo, and so on.

The train ride back was actually alright, I spent most the time talking to Grey and Carlos, two people I rarely talk to. Carlos if from Barbados so I spent a lot of time teasing him and asking silly questions(do they grow bananas in Barbados? What about pineapples? Do they practice voodoo? Do you love Americans? Do you have outdoor showers?) but he told us a lot of really cool things about his family history and dynamic. He also told us all about sugar cane production. So, all in all, a very educational train ride.

Anyways, I'm back in Moscow, spent the whole day walking around school WITHOUT the cane, and I'm glad to be back. Petersburg was fun, and way friendlier. Someone asked us on the metro if we needed help. Just some random, young guy. That NEVER happens in Moscow. Another drunk guy followed us a few blocks, heard us speaking english, and began pestering me about where we were from. I finally said "canada" (the safe answer) and as we crossed the street he screamed "I LOVE CANADA! YOU ARE WELCOME HERE ANYTIME!" this ALSO never ever happens in Moscow. If some drunk guy was following you in Moscow, it would be to assault you or try to get you to come to his car, never to compliment your country and welcome you to Russia. I then experienced true Moscow hospitality as I was leaving the metro to walk home and someone kicked my cane out from under me. Oh, Moscow.

But Moscow is definitely more authentically Russian because it hates and does not welcome tourists, and we heard a lot of English being spoken in St. Pete. Gotta love Moscow with it's cynical, evil cashiers and it's hatred towards all other nations in general.

Next time I'll post some pics of st. pete, mostly taken from the bus. Stay safe everyone!

зоопарк

so for the elections, I went to the Starlite Cafe, an american style diner that's open 24 hours. Some of my friends stayed from midnight until school the next morning, but I slept at home and joined them around 6 am. It was so exciting- there were tons of Americans sitting around, heckling, cheering when Obama won another state. There was a group of American students sitting next to us, apparently they were studying at drama school. When Obama won and the restaurant erupted into cheers, one of the drama girls burst into tears and began sobbing. That was a little weird... and she kept sobbing during his acceptance speech. A photographer came around and was taking pictures of all of us. Then we headed off to school, and everyone was exhausted but happy.

Let's see... we took an excursion Friday to the revolutionary museum. High point- there were kittens outside. Low point- super boring, and two hours long. Also really intense and hard to listen to for more then 10 minutes at a time. Then we went to the White House, stood far away and just looked at it, which is about all you can do with the white house. Then I went to the zoo. Somehow, the fact that it was 30 degrees outside wasn't too appealing to everyone else, because no one wanted to go to the zoo with me. So I went alone and had a fine, cold time. I got to see an exhibit on "american cockroaches" which was gross. Why would they ever be in the zoo? I will include a picture of what an american cockroach's natural habitat, or apparently what every american house looks like.

And then yesterday Paige and I went to the Tretyakov Gallery, one of the most popular museums in Moscow. It was pretty cool, but exhausting.

Anyways. Pictures!

                                                    The main stairway

                                                One of my favorite paintings
                                                   Sup White House?

                                       The natural habitat of an American cockroach. A pirate ship?

                                     There's the little shit. In a zoo. I mean...why?

                                                Don't feed the animals!
 
                                              Monkey cages? No idea, but it's cool.

More Pictures

here's some pictures. And also, yes, finally, a new president in the near future. I'll talk about how I spent the moment of victory later.
the best gravestone I'VE ever seen

barbara's bushes golden ducks. except they aren't gold, and they're two times the size of a normal, non-mutant duck

...see?

novodevichy monastery

a view on the moscow river

an amusement park?

in the novodevichy graveyard