Russia…a month and some in.

Oct. 18

So my bad, it’s been awhile, but I’m back to a never-getting-on-the-internet streak. Although I think I’ve been convinced to buy a flash drive thingy that gives you internet wherever you are, so that will change things drastically. Alright so… where do I begin?

Re-reading the last entry, I guess I left off at the ballet. That was very beautiful and and very interesting, and made me feel like a little girl who wanted to be a ballerina. It was about a daughter who is in love with this poor guy and the mom wants her to marry this rich guy who pretty much acts special needs. It was funny though, and I just loved the costumes and what I really love about all these performances we go to is that there is an orchestra playing the music, not just recorded sound. It’s so beautiful.

So after the ballet we split up into groups based on what we wanted to do, and I was in the group that wanted to get some food and then go home and hang out with the students that didn’t go to the ballet (they said one was enough) and their Russian friends from a different floor of the dorm that I have yet to meet. So Kelly, Brandon, and I go to Moo Moo yet again and while we are there, a pair of Russians (who excitedly approached us after overhearing Brandon’s particularly loud voice practically shouting to us in English) said that when they drink they like to speak English, and proceeded to invite us to a 90’s dance club with them. Literally any time I hang out with Kelly something strange happens to us, and we promised each other that we would always go if we come across random adventure, so we went. And it ended up being hilarious (we were dancing to songs like YMCA and It’s Raining Men, best part being that we were with a ton of Russians who somewhat knew the songs too) and very cheap seeing as the guys ended up being gentlemen/too drunk to care and paid for everything all night. We met some of their friends also, one being a girl I really liked who spoke English VERY well. But Brandon and I had decided on the way there that we would only speak Russian the whole night so it didn’t really matter anyway haha. So afterwards we went to Subway (yup, Subway) and the dude paid for my sub even, and bought me a rose on the way home. It was pretty funny. The other guy was doing the same for Kelly, and Brandon was just. Idk hah he got free stuff too. But not a rose. . . anyway so then me and Brandon had a few issues finding the metro after that but eventually I got back and everything was fine.

So then the next week on I think Wednesday we went to the Circus, which of course was fun. I didn’t get too many pictures, but it’s not like I can ever upload any anyway. Maybe once I get internet… anyway the Circus in Russia is a bit more racy than I remember circus’s normally being, but it was very interesting and Kary, Brandon, Ele and I had our own stupid commentary to add to everything and enjoyed laughing at some of the costumes and actions of the dancers. It was very amazing though, but I just forget how they treat animals in the circus and I was getting a little upset when they were doing the tiger part. I’m by no means a PETA person, but it did piss me off a bit. Afterwards we yet AGAIN ate at Il Patio (the pizza is so cheap and good, and if you know me at all you know I’m obsessed with pizza), and then went home.

Wow unless I’m leaving stuff out I am almost caught up! I’m sure I forgot stuff. But anyway so Friday after class pretty much everyone went to Gorky Park, which is a gigantic part/amusement park that was EXTREMELY run down and seemed kind of deserted. Like 3/4ths of the rides were closed, but the park itself was very pretty and we walked along the Moscow river and took tons of pictures. Some of us did bumper cars too ( I wasn’t going to, but once I was asked ‘how many times will you get the chance to do bumper cars in Russia?’ I was convinced) and it was ridiculously fun. My car randomly went only backwards for about 5 minutes too, so of course I was practically in tears because I was laughing so hard. There actually were a few Russians on them too so that made it funnier. After that we met up with a few other students and went to a RIDICULOUSLY expensive Chinese restaurant ( we didn’t realize how expensive it was, although it was pretty obvious the moment we walked in the door). It was an interesting experience anyway, and we all left pretty hungry still from ordering practically nothing yet still spending about 20 dollars. The bathrooms were really cool though :D. So then we went to this place which translated means ‘John Bull’s Pub’ and is infamous among the first set of students that were here. What originally made it hilarious was that the ‘uh’ sound in pub doesn’t exist in Russian, so in Cyrillic it’s spelled like pab. Idk we all found it hilarious. So we stayed there awhile but Kelly kept texting me to join her and a few of the other students. So Ele, other Amanda, Brandon and I left to go join them but ended up just meeting them at the Metro and going back to the dorm since they couldn’t find the place they were looking for. That’s when it started getting ridiculous. I swear, every time me and Kelly join up.

So on the metro I was talking to Ele and Brandon when suddenly Ele interrupts saying ‘There’s gonna be a fight!!’ and dodges with Brandon to the left. I was facing them, so I didn’t see what was behind me, and next thing I know I’m being shoved against the wall of the metro (we were inside the actual metro… car thingy traveling). So I quickly wiggle out of there and go to the other side of the car, and we watch a guy with a bloody lip and ridiculously greasy hair try to kill a smaller blonde dude who was protecting his gf. I guess the other guy was not letting her get on the metro for some reason? I didn’t see but that’s what I was told. So they fought for a bit but while Russian’s seem very rude and not helpful, they are there when you really need it and there were quite a few guys pulling the greasy guy off the blonde guy. So a few stops later they had calmed down and got off, but as soon as we started to leave we watched through the window that they had started fighting in the middle of the station. But we were just glad they were off. And then found it funny. So we sit down and I notice a guy staring at me in the next car over (there are huge glass panels so you can see into the other cars) and he winks at me. So I waved because I thought it was funny, and then realized that there was only one stop left so we were definitely getting off together. We get off and he immediately comes over (very drunk) and tries to talk to me, and Kelly, and Adriana. And he will NOT stop trying to give me his coat, he kept saying I was going to get sick and that I needed an umbrella (it was pouring). Anya was talking to him in Russian, and Kelly was yelling at her to stop because it was just encouraging him to follow us. I was literally running laps around our group of people while he chased me holding his coat out. And he kept yelling at Kelly to share her umbrella with me. He followed us all the way to this store, asking us things like if we were American spies since we knew Russian too, and then he took out his phone and was blasting music that he sang along to, and I relaxed a lot because we realized he was harmless and actually pretty funny. But he still was walking and talking with Anya and Adriana, and occasionally me. In the store he bought another bottle of vodka, and me and Adriana were picking out a bottle of wine and he took it from us and wouldn’t let us pay, and he bought it for us. We tried to ditch him while he was peeing on a car but he ran and caught up to us, and I handed him his vodka and he started ranting about how I will make a good wife to someone and that I better stay under that umbrella or I won’t be able to have 2 kids. It was actually pretty funny. When we got to the security check of our school he said goodbye to us and went wandering off with his bottle. When we got back to the dorm I finally met some of the infamous Russian’s and we all just hung out and talked and I just stayed the night in the dorms. It was fun.

So then last night Adriana had a date with this guy she met in a coffee shop but she was too afraid to go by herself so a few of us went as a group and they ended up being pretty cool. I ate sushi again but I felt really sick afterwards so I may lay off the sushi from now on. Everyone else wanted to go home afterward (including me) but her guy wanted her to come with him and his friend that was at dinner with us and just show her around. Adriana didn’t want to go alone so I went too, even though I didn’t feel good and was really tired from the night before. It was pretty fun though, although I think his friend is interested in me now and that is not something I feel like dealing with, but they were really nice. I would like to be FRIENDS with them, just because it’s nice having people who know everything about the city and can communicate and help you out. At one point I seriously thought I was going to throw up (oh they have cars too, which is like unheard of) because of the combo of sushi and the guy’s driving, and the friend bought me this weird paste at the pharmacy that makes your stomach calm down from food poisoning and it really worked! So that was nice. But they are reallllllly into cars and racing and whatever so his driving was terrible. At least for when your stomach is upset. So we went around to the river and to Moscow University (which is one of the seven sister buildings so it’s freakin HUGE and has ridiculous architecture, it’s awesome) and to a coffee shop that was actually pretty nice. Best part: having a ride home and not having to take the metro and walk ten years by myself to my house in the dark (that’s a plus to knowing them as well).

So FINALLY today was the Tretyakov gallery, which isn’t even possible to describe in words. I was in there for 5 and a half hours, literally (I only left when I did because I was unbearably hungry and thought I was going to pee my pants) all the other students were going way to fast for me so I just ditched them and was by myself most of the time, Ele was with me for awhile but she had to leave early to meet someone so I spent most of my time there by myself. It was soooooo amazing though. Ele is gonna want to go back since she missed most of it, and in my opinion the best parts, so I think I’m gonna go with her. And I bought a few little posters of some of the paintings I really liked, but they were out of the ones I was seriously in awe of so I want to go back for those too. Ele has an entire book on the gallery since it’s freakin huge and has so many artists and so many different types of paintings, and when she left she let me take it. I’ve discovered I really like Symbolism and I already knew I liked Impressionism. Konstantin Korovin had some very interesting Impressionism paintings that were towards the end of the gallery. Oh and I don’t even consider myself to be religious, but there was one painting by Ivan Kramskoy (who I also liked by the way) that just makes you stop and stare. It’s called Christ in the Wilderness. It’s different than all the other pictures of Jesus in that instead of being welcomed and greeted and shown as super holy and everything, it’s just him alone on a rock looking exasperated and just the emotion on his face. I’m not very interested in portraits at all, but Kramskoy did portraits so that the faces had such real emotion, I really liked it. Also this one guy Isaac Levitan does ‘Emotional Landscape’ and it’s landscape art but that is meant to evoke strong human emotion, and I liked pretty much all his stuff. Arkhip Kuinji also had some really amazing landscape pictures, but he is more interested in playing up the light and darkness of the pictures. But the room I was like breathless in was Mikhail Vrubel. Just look him up. There were drawings and sculptures, but then there were paintings also AND these absolutely gorgeous panels that were ridiculously huge that took up entire walls and were made for specific people for their houses. If you look up La Princesse Lointaine maybe online it will tell you how big the panel is, because it literally took up an entire ginormous wall. I really liked the smaller panel paintings though, but his most famous paintings are The Demon Seated and The Swan Princess, both of which were of course amazing. Then towards the end there were a ton of Impressionism type paintings and then a giant room of drawings which I thought were much more beautiful than many of the paintings, and then a long hall of icons which was just so amazing. Sorry I’m like rambling but I did spend 5 and a half hours in there. But now I really need to do my homework so at least you are all caught up! SO Tuesday we are going to Tolstoy’s estate museum and then Saturday we go to Lenin’s Mausoleum and the Kremlin Wall Necropolis, which then we will have only seen the outside! I’m so excited! Then Tuesday after that…St. Pete!!!!