хзппи мил!

Clearly a comprehensive update is never going to happen... so here's a snapshot.

Since my last real update, I've been traveling a bit:

Besides Kiev, we took a weekend trip to Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan; it's largely Muslim, so we saw some amazing mosques in addition to other fascinating ancient buildings and artifacts. We also met some American students studying at the University of Kazan (which is where Lenin studied for a few months before being expelled) and hung out with them all weekend. Also, I got an EXCELLENT hat, which was described by my professor as a Lenin hat and by our Russian friend Nastya as a Britney Spears hat. Not sure what to think about that except that it is EXCELLENT.



This combines the EXCELLENCE of the hat with a huge huge nasty fish that was caught in 1902 and which has been preserved since that time.



The famous mosque in Kazan--this is kind of the symbol of Kazan, inexplicably built in 2003.



Last stop in Kazan. Yes, that is what you think it is. Please examine this picture closely as it is worth it.

Helen Bing is the main sponsor of Stanford's overseas program, and one of the many nice things she does for us is organize one really cool trip to some other part of the country, and it's totally free for us. For us, that meant St. Petersburg! They put us up in a nice hotel and got us a bus and a tour guide and delicious food. All in all a fantastic trip. And since we had a few extra days after the Bing trip to spend as we pleased, a few of us decided to do a whirlwind tour through the Baltics, which turned into a day in Helsinki and a day in Tallinn, Estonia. Everything about this trip was awesome. Petersburg is gorgeous and so many interesting things happened there! Helsinki and Tallinn were worlds unto themselves. I can't even begin to summarize so I'll probably do that later with a photo album.

Life in Russia, contrary to everything everyone else has ever said about it, is fabulous. I really do love it here; there is just an incomprehensibly large amount of things to do and places to go and people to meet. I've been spending a lot of time with a Russian friend of ours named Nastya; we are at her house at least once a week, if not more. She is the sweetest person, and her English is ridiculously good so we can communicate and also learn some Russian. Here she is:



We baked cookies :) She said it was the thing she missed the most about America.

Other things I've done: been to see creepy creepy dead Lenin (seriously, disturbing); been to a Russian bath house, called a banya, which is a wet sauna and a swimming pool, and you beat each other with branches to increase circulation; watched election results (still can't get over how awesome this is!) at a diner with dozens of cheering expats; read some fascinating books on the Soviets, who, I can now confirm, were totally insane; and generally had a WONDERFUL TIME.

Today it snowed for the first time here. I foresee snowball fights and tea by my window. I'll be home in just over a month, so I'm going to try my best to squeeze every last bit of fun out of this country. I know, I know, it's not supposed to be fun in Russia. But it is.

This morning I was on a train from St. Petersburg to Moscow. I was awoken by the news that Barack Obama will be the next President of the United States.

When I got off the train, a French man from the next car over approached us. This is what he said:

"I never thought I would say this, but congratulations, America."

Welcome to a new world.

извените!

I have finally started uploading Russia pictures to Facebook and I've just completed the album of the first three weeks. If you are not on Facebook and you'd like to see my pictures, you can still do it by clicking on this link:

Click me! Click me!

Enjoy!

в киеве!

Well.

I've been a bit busy but that's really no excuse. Right now I'm going to write about my trip to Kiev from September 19-21; tomorrow (or maybe sometime later this week) I'll write up a quick update about the last two weeks.

___


When I am old and gray and losing my memory, I will at least be able to remember which pictures came from Kiev, as they all feature one of two things:


My orange balloon (orange is the national color of Ukraine) OR


My babushka outfit.

More on that later.

Seven of us took an overnight train from Moscow to Kiev; it left from metro station Kievskaya (sensibly enough) at 11 at night and arrived at 11 in the morning. We stocked up on cookies and tea bags and hopped on the train, where it turned out that none of us were assigned bunks that were close together. However, we managed to trade with some nice people (in our very mangled Russian, too!), so Carolyn and I spent the evening playing cards and talking and avoiding starting our Russian dictionaries. We decided to try to catch a few hours' sleep before getting in the next morning, so we hit the sack around 2 thinking we'd get plenty of sleep--but of course, the passport control people woke us up at 4:30 and the customs people at 7, so that didn't really work out. Nevertheless, I really enjoyed my first overnight train (!)--it's kind of soothing to know that you're on the road and you can relax and enjoy, and trains are fun. Plus you always meet fun people--Elena was in a section with four old men who taught her some Russian proverbs of sorts.

Kiev arrived all too soon, but we were ready to jump in. We figured out the Metro (a little different from Moscow, but not too much; plus Ukrainian uses basically the same Cyrillic alphabet as Russian and many words have similar roots, so we managed to find our way) and trooped off to the hostel to drop off our stuff. It was a huge business hostel, but it was very nice, and there were five people per room and five girls, so it worked out perfectly. After getting everything squared away, we began our blitz through Kiev!

We started out at Independence Square, which is right in the middle of Kiev. Liz told us all about the history of the square, which was great because I didn't really know anything about it--hundreds of thousands of people pitched tents there during the Orange Revolution in 2004 in the middle of the ice and snow for weeks to protest election fraud. Plus, there's a McDonald's.

Don't worry though, we didn't give in to our American friends. Instead we ate at a fabulously delicious and cheap Tartar place across the street. Mmmm. Refreshed and rested, I acquired my orange balloon which then accompanied me so faithfully and we set out to find some churches. We walked past St. Michael's and St. Andrew's (below) before dilly-dallying for a while on the main souvenir street in Kiev, where I picked up some fun Christmas presents. By that point some of us were losing a little steam, so the boys stopped in a cafe for some warm coffee while the girls struck out for the Chernobyl Museum. We made a plan to meet there later.


St. Andrew's Church--GORGEOUS

Let me tell you something, folks--this was an epic quest. You can actually visit Chernobyl now; it's not that far from Kiev, but it's definitely a day trip (and takes quite a bit of nerve). We chose the tamer option; the Lonely Planet guide said it was open until six, so we decided we'd walk up one of Kiev's most picturesque streets on the way. Little did we know that we were in fact walking the wrong direction; half an hour later, our fearless leader began to express doubts and we hopped back on the Metro to find it. We did--at 5:45--find the museum, but it had closed at 5, contrary to the the guidebook's information. Also, the boys weren't there, and of course, none of our phones worked in Kiev because we're all on Moscow plans. We figured we'd lost them for good, and as the exhaustion really began to set in, we figured the best plan was to take some ridiculous pictures:


So, so sad. Also the tank in the picture at the beginning of this post was parked outside the museum and was probably contaminated, come to think of it.

...and then leave the boys a note on an already-used post-it stuck to the "Closed" sign on the museum door to come meet us at the Hoegaarden, a bar/restaurant around the corner (we even drew them a map). Clearly, this was a good plan. We figured we'd probably see them again on the train to Moscow. However, they actually got our note and met us about five minutes! It was a miracle. We hung out there for a while and then decided to try to find this highly recommended Ukrainian restaurant down by Independence Square. On the way, Roxanne fell face-first in a puddle, we took a picture in a fairy-tale princess carriage, and a small child made a sad face at me when I would not give him my orange balloon. When we arrived, at about 9:30, the restaurant was full until 2 in the morning. Please note that this was the second thing we wanted to do that we could not because it was closed--and there's more to come! So we went next door to this weird lounge/restaurant thing and ate spaghetti carbonara and decided we'd head back to the hostel to get some sleep so we could wake up early the next morning.

We awoke at 7:45 (!) to head over to Kiev's big monastery, which is famous for the caves that monks have carved out over the centuries. The whole complex was gigantic and beautiful--domed churches everywhere, and arches and cobblestone streets. After running around and seeing the mummified monks in the small section of caves that are open to the public, we walked around and saw the sights, and attempted to go to the Miniature Museum, wherein lies a whole bunch of insanely small things. For example, a flea with golden horseshoes. Kitschy, sure, but pretty fun. BUT OF COURSE:


...it was closed.

This picture, I feel, deserves explanation on several points. First, please read that sign, because it is amazing. It's trying to say that the museum is closed when it's raining (which it was, by the way, in buckets), which doesn't make any sense because it's all indoors. Second, we had to wear longs skirts and headscarves to enter the monastery in accordance with Orthodox tradition, so I figured I might as well go for the full babushka look. Third, the gesture I'm making is a very rude way of saying "You can't have this!" We discovered it when a crazy old babushka in Red Square turned to us and shook this gesture at us while cursing at us in Russian for attempting to feed "her" pigeons in her Red Square. Maybe that doesn't explain it... but I still like it.

The rest of the day we spent in more churches; we saw part of traditional wedding in St. Andrew's, the beautiful church above, and also squeezed in a way-too-short visit to St. Sophia's, which was INCREDIBLE. It has mosaics and frescoes FROM THE 11TH CENTURY, and they were AMAZING. Out of control. No pictures were allowed, but I managed to sneak one when the extremely vigilant docents weren't looking.



Easily one of the most beautiful places I've ever been. Then we grabbed some super-cheap and super-tasty cheese, salami and bread and jumped back on the train to Moscow at 5 in the evening and called it a trip. Little did we know that our adventures had not yet come to an end!

We arrived in Moscow at 6:20 in the morning--just enough time to head home for a little nap before our first meeting with our professors and all the students who were just arriving that day at 12. But when we pulled into the station, I noticed the barest hint of pink in the sky, and Elena said, "Let's go to Moscow State and watch the sun rise over Moscow!"

So we did.

Keep in mind that I'm still channeling babushka, it's absurdly early and we haven't slept or showered since Friday. Lunacy, but totally worth it. Elena, Carolyn and I raced to the Metro--the good ol' Moscow Metro--and got to the top of Sparrow Hill just in time:


The pictures don't do it justice, but eating bread and cheese for breakfast while watching the sun come up over Moscow made me as happy as I've ever been.

The rest of the morning we ran around Moscow deliriously and as a result had funny things happen to us. First we were recruited as extras for a Chinese movie about students at Moscow State in the 1950s, but we couldn't do it because they needed us all day and we had to get to class. Then we went to Red Square in an attempt to see Lenin, but OF COURSE it was closed. Instead we met a crazy Australian travel blogger and took pictures in Red Square, all of which are fabulous, but this is definitely my favorite, and possibly my favorite picture of all time:



A perfect end to a perfect trip. Finally, we showed up at school, exhausted and smelly but perfectly content. I already want to go back.

I promise, I'll get some pictures up soon!

For now, just words. Sorry.

The last week has been exhilarating, hilarious, depressing and exhausting by turns. More good than bad, certainly. I feel like I'm starting to get settled into life in Moscow, which is nice because there are occasional moments when I feel like this is normal. At the same time, it means that I've settled into a sort of routine and there are moments where I feel like this is normal. It's... confusing.

ANYWAY the point is that overall, I like being in Moscow. Last Friday all of us went to see the Russian National Dance Show, which sounds like it'd be very serious and ballet-filled when in fact it was a complete farce of a show that grew increasingly bizarre as it went on. I mean it was great--the dancers were excellent and it was a lot of fun. The first half of the show was an approximate history of Moscow, starting with some Vikings landing on the shore and drinking and strutting about with swords. They skipped through the whole centuries-of-serfdom part rather quickly, though there were some charming peasant-ish dancers who seemed to be pretty happy about their lot in life. Lots of vaguely Russian Orthodox costumes as well as plenty of royalty. PLUS there was this one dance in a tea house where this random dancer in a horse costume came in and joined the fun. The history lesson ended with a group of dancers marching in red overalls with various agricultural and industrial tools in their hands with a huge Soviet flag waving in the background, interrupted by a group of ladies in white dresses with umbrellas, interrupted by Yuri Gagarin and a ballerina en pointe, interrupted by all of the above for a rousing finale. The second half, to be honest, was a little long--it was just a bunch of random dances, some old, some new, some downright weird. I'm fairly certain the music was all composed on a computer--none of the instruments sounded real. Plus this random guy would come out in a magician's outfit every once in a while and sing us a song and kind of jiggle around the stage for a bit. Highlights of the half included some dancers in big sparkly fur coats and a pair of dancers in HUGE duck costumes who were chased through a company of other dancers by a guy with a gun that spewed fireworks. It was an experience.

Saturday we went to a market where you had to bargain--scary, considering that I don't really know any Russian yet, particularly numbers. As a result, I only ended up getting a wallet, but I did really need it and it was cheap, so I knew the numbers he was using. After that we went to Red Square and Liz tried to catch a pigeon, but due to various uncooperative Russians, she was unsuccessful. Next time. Lots of pictures of St. Basil's and the outside of Lenin's tomb, wherein lies his mummified corpse (it was closed, but I'm definitely going back). The rest of the weekend I spent sleeping and hanging out and doing a little work.

A note: I promise not to get too political on this blog, but I just want to say that Sarah Palin is truly a national embarrassment. It's come up more than once. Anyway. I'm really enjoying being with all of these International Relations majors, because they're very informed and interesting people. I'm reading a book I borrowed from Elena called Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, which is an autobiography of a man who was involved in very high-level deception in negotiations between US engineering and construction firms and countries whose natural resources were potentially useful to the US (particularly oil in Latin America and the Middle East, but others too). I realized as I was reading this book that I know pretty much nothing about what's happened in the world between WWII and about two years ago; I would say I'm fairly well informed about the current state of things, at least in US politics, but I was frankly shocked at how much of the information in this book was new to me. I'm really looking forward to taking history and PoliSci classes while I'm here and learning more about all of this.

As for Russian, this week has been kind of rough so far. Yesterday was the first time I felt like I really should have just gone to France. It's becoming more and more difficult to keep up in my Russian class; it's supposed to be intensive, but we're moving so fast I can barely keep up. I'm not the only one who's struggling and we only have three more days of intensive (so we'll be going from 5 hours a day to 8 hours a week), so I'll survive, but I'm beginning to realize why Russian is considered a difficult language to learn; all these cases and genders and numbers and groups and other little differentiations that make all the difference. Today was definitely better, though, and the more I study the better I do, so it's only a matter of time.

Also today we went to a bookstore with a big English-language section, which was fun fun fun. Not only did the three of us geek out and peruse books and talk about books and just hold books for a while, but I got to buy school supplies and they are freaking awesome. I still get a little excited about school supplies, guys, not gonna lie. I'm making myself a dictionary of all the words I know in Russian as we go along (basically an organized vocabulary list), an idea I stole from Liz, so I got a notebook just for that and tabs with all the Russian letters on them. This notebook was intended for Russian students taking English, because it says аиглийский язык (English language) on one side and словарь (dictionary) on the other, and it has a little English grammar summary on the inside cover (irregular plurals like "feet", irregular verbs like "to be"), and I like it. It appeals to me that I'm an English(-speaking) student taking Russian and using this book for its purpose, except backwards. I also have those little tabs with sticky backs so I can flag things in my texts. HOORAY I love having the potential to be organized. ALSO I bought a portable tea mug that looks like a Matroyshka doll because Russians drink practically nothing but tea and it'll be awesome to have tea on the Metro when it gets really cold. Plus, it looks like a Matryoshka doll. As if it weren't already obvious that I'm not Russian...

Anyway, I'm heading to Kiev this weekend, which should be great! We're taking an overnight train on Friday, so we'll be in Ukraine from Saturday morning to Sunday afternoon, at which point we get on another overnight train that will get us into Moscow at 6:30 AM on Monday, at which point we'll basically go directly to school. It should be interesting.

пака!

Surprise surprise--another crazy week.

On Saturday we went on a bus tour and learned all about all this fantastic city. I've got a bunch of pictures which I will post soon along with probably a very long but very interesting history lesson of sorts. The rest of this week has basically been sleeping, eating, and studying, but I'm still really liking it here.

Yesterday Roxy, Liz and I went to Shokolodnitsa, which is basically the Russian version of Starbucks. I ordered what I thought was hot chocolate but turned out to be a lump of ice cream in a cup of chocolate syrup, which all things considered was a pretty excellent mistake to make. It's nice just to get out of the apartment and do something once in a while, and it's actually more productive to study with a few people because then I don't get so antsy and start to procrastinate.

I'm trying to find an English-language library here because I'm going crazy not having anything to read. I'm told they have one at the British Consulate, so I'll have to check that out, but otherwise the pickings are slim. The English-language bookstore carries Sense and Sensibility and trashy romance novels for wives of diplomats--not exactly what I had in mind. Most of the other students brought at least one book with them, so there are a few options, but I'm feeling a craving for War and Peace or Anna Karenina or something. It's kind of silly, I know, but I'm hankering for a long, depressing Russian novel that I can read at my window when it's snowing and dark at 4:00 in the afternoon in a few months. The weather was absolutely gorgeous through Monday, but now it's started to rain and the forecast is gloomy (that's for the next six months). It's not super cold yet, but definitely sweater weather, which I actually love--right now I'm wearing the ridiculously cozy sweater that my grandma knitted for my dad when he was a kid. The Russian girls, as I think I've mentioned before, dress like they stepped out of Vogue, but I've decided that since there's no chance I'm passing for a Russian anyway, I'm just going to wear what I want.

On Friday we're going to see the Russian National Dance Company do this show that I think is about the history of Moscow, but I can't read the posters so I guess it'll just be a surprise. I really like the other students who are here so far, and we've been doing a lot of things together, so my fears that I'd just spend three months alone in my room can be safely put to rest. Also! We're probably going to take the train to Kiev next weekend before the other students arrive, which is so exciting I can't stand it. A lot of people have big travel plans for the rest of the quarter--Serbia, Istanbul, and Oktoberfest in Munich among them--so I think I'm just going to hop on to whatever plans seem reasonable. Aeroflot has a monopoly on flights out of Russia, so they're super expensive, so I'm thinking I'll mostly just travel within Russia, which is probably the better thing to do anyway. There's so much to do here!

Okay, off to the honey festival. Today our conversation teacher told us that if we have a cold, we're supposed to drink a cup of warm milk with a spoonful of honey and a spoonful of butter in it, which doesn't sound half bad. We're also supposed to mix equal parts cheap vodka ("because it doesn't matter if you aren't drinking it"), vinegar and water and rub it on our calves and feet if we have a fever. She told us it works. I can't say I'm a believer but I guess I'll give it a shot if that happens! Anyway, the honey festival is to encourage independent beekeepers to produce more honey--they account for 95% of Russia's honey production, which is good news considering what's happening to the honey industry in the States. It's supposed to be in some cool old building/museum, so free honey samples + history = good in my book.

Paka!

очии хорошо!

I survived my first week of Russian!

Seriously. I survived!

It was a tough tough week--they've crammed a TON of information into our heads this week. I've been studying my little brains out. The upside is that I can actually have something resembling a real conversation now without too much trouble. The downside is that I'm EXHAUSTED, which I can live with.

We also got our passports back with papers all finished, so now we don't have to be so afraid of the police. Consequently, I've been going around Moscow with a few other students seeing some awesome things. Roxanne and I can see a ferris wheel out our window, so we decided to check it out--turns out it's this exhibition center from the thirties that was a pretty big deal in Soviet times. So a few of us wandered through that on Wednesday. It's this weird juxtaposition of these grand buildings and ornate fountains and statues of triumphant peasants and factory workers against sketchy carnival rides; these days the space is available to whoever wants to rent it, so there are all sorts of trade expos as well as rides like the Condor, which I went on with Roxanne and Carolyn. A little scary--safety regulations here aren't, shall we say, strictly enforced--but it was cool to see that area of Moscow stretched out in front of me. There are just lots of bizarre little things, like the kiddy ride that had a teepee and a little plastic log for the kid to sit in and paddle underneath and the game where you shoot a fake rifle at a target that was themed with cowboys and Indians. They were pumping American music through the speakers throughout the grounds, so we had some Rihanna and Elton John to keep us company. There were also old Soviet planes and rockets and stuff in another area of the grounds, plus we had some мароженое--ice cream--which was weird but tasty.

Yesterday Nastya took us on a little walk up a hill so we could really see all of Moscow before us, which was great. She pointed out the Kremlin and a few other landmarks, and there were all these great little tourist-trap stands selling Matryoshka dolls and fur hats and old military gear. Haven't succumbed yet, but I'm sure I will eventually. I want a fur hat, yo. Anyway, we turned around and right there was Moscow State University! It's an unnecessarily large and imposing building, but very beautiful. Apparently it has the largest campus in the world, but only because it owns a bunch of land in Siberia. (Stanford's second, whoohoo!) It was neat to see, but the best part was just being out in Moscow, somewhere other than my apartment, and talking to Nastya. She's really cool, and apparently her job is to take us where we want to go and hang out with us, including on weekends, which will be awesome because she'll know what's worth seeing. This weekend we're going on a bus tour of Moscow, and while I'm not usually a huge fan of bus tours I'm looking forward to this because we'll finally get to see the Kremlin, and Nastya says the guide is "fun, not boring at all." Plus, this weekend is the celebration of "the birth of Moscow" so there's all sorts of stuff going on, and Nastya's going to wander around with us in the afternoon. Plus it's warm right now--probably 75-80 degrees. We're told that won't last long, so we're going to take advantage of it while we can.

Other random things:

This random Russian student at the Academy came up to us the other day at lunch and wants to be friends, so we're going to meet up this weekend sometime with her and her sister. She loves Americans, which is a rarity these days. We stick out like sore thumbs at the Acadamy though, so I guess there's not much we can do about it--all the girls there are impeccably coiffed and dress like they walked straight out of a magazine, so we look pretty grungy by comparison.

Roxanne and I have decided to make our own бутерброд, or Russian sandwiches (the only difference is that they're open-faced and smaller), for lunch so we don't have to buy them at 40R a pop, so we went to the supermarket this afternoon and got some stuff, managing to complete the transaction without anyone getting severely confused. We're going to save up and have extravagant meals on the weekends. The food we've had so far has been surprisingly tasty; everything I'd heard said that Russian food was terrible as a rule, but Svetlana and the school cafeteria seem to have it down pretty well. However...

On Wednesday, we waited for Svetlana to come home and feed us until 8:30, but then we gave up and went to макдоналдс--McDonald's. It's right up the block and I have to say, it's pretty swanky. They have free wifi and something translated roughly as a McCafe, which has coffee and pastries and stuff--very weird. My cheeseburger had sour cream on it. I love Russians. We also passed a fancy little Sbarro on the way back, looking quite a bit more cleaned up than it does in your average American mall food court.

I'm able to steal wireless from someone in our apartment building on a fairly consistent basis, and it seems to be more reliable than the internet I'd have to pay for, so I'm going to work off that unless it becomes ridiculous. I have to sit right at my window, which is kind of a pain but it's a nice view. Most Russians turn off their routers when they're not using them (if they have them at all, which most don't) to save electricity, but we seem to have found one who doesn't. It's a lucky break. Also, my phone unlock code arrived today so I finally have a Russian number and less outrageous international rates! It's free for me to receive calls and 30 cents/minute to call the US, so I won't be spending hours on the phone but it is an option.

Off to take a nap before dinner--borscht again, hooray!