1 square, 2 square, Red Square, blue square,

Moscow is doing this new thing called the Circle of Light (Круг Света) where they hold a light show at different parts of the city, and it's going on this weekend. The big show was Friday night, and while I'd planned on going, I got held up by some of my Russian friends (they kept offering me tea and I didn't know how to leave without being rude!). But I went last night, to make up for it! The Friday show was easily the better one (they had live bands and it was a full concert) while mine was just a light show, but I got some good pictures. So here they are!

The Kremlin Clock tower, all lit up.

Red Square was turned all blue! You can see St. Basil's behind this guy.

It was pretty chilly, and this guy made a hat out of newspaper to keep the heat in. It had been a really warm day, so I had warn my lighter coat and my tennis-shoes (instead of my heavy coat and boots and wool socks, etc.). When I'd set out for the day, I hadn't planned on being gone all day, and I paid for it that night. My face was fine (what with my beard and all), but my hands were freezing.

State Historical Museum.
State Historical Museum again, but all polka-dotted.
A Russian couple being a couple. This is by far the most tame PDA that Russians believe in. While they are very reserved in public, if you have them with their spouse / boyfriend / girlfriend, it frequently turns into a flat-out make-out session. I have another photo of such behavior (that I'm not posting). I thought this couple was cute, though.

Prettyyyyyy!

But, speaking of the Russians that I was hanging out with, they're a couple of students who go to the university I'm studying at. I met them at lunch, and then they invited me to a club meeting on campus, and it was that meeting that kept me from the light show on Friday.

They've also offered to act as tour guides outside of Moscow, which is awesome. Once I'm back from Petersburg (which is where I'll this week!!!!) I'm going to talk to them about getting a trip out to see some Russian countryside. So that should be fun. Also, they want get a game of soccer in, which will be fun.

Then, some other American students met a Russian who is a stage actor at the Pushkin Theater, and he's been able to get us some free tickets. I wasn't able to see the first show (there were a limited number of tickets and such), but then this past Tuesday there was another show that I was invited to. It was Много шума из ничего, or, as you might know better, Much Ado About Nothing (the Russian title literally translates to Much Noise From Nothing). I haven't seen the English version, nor have I read it, and the Russian language that they use was either more archaic or at least elevate and literary, and so I wasn't able to get much of the dialogue, but I was able to keep up with what the main plot was. From what I could gather, the play is about two couples. One starts off very much in love and is tricked into not loving each other, and the other starts off less enthusiastic, and is tricked into marriage. But both couples get married at the end, and it's happy. I think.

But it was a lot of fun. The theater itself is fairly small, but is REALLY nice. It's right across from the Chekov Theater, which is one of the more famous theater's in moscow (besides the Bolshoi and Malie). I hope to be able to go again.

And then, because I went to the theater after having been at the Tretyakov Gallery earlier, I was up much of the night finishing homework. Again, it's like they want me to study while I'm here or something.

I TOOK SOME PHOTOS!

Ok, I'm a lazy blogger. Whatever.

But today I took my camera and took some pictures, so here are those. I might catch you up on the past soon. But I might not. But here's today.

We were trying to find Sculpture Park, but did a really good job of going the wrong direction from the metro station (even though it's a really easy place to find). Anyway, we went to Gorky Park instead, which is literally just across the street from Sculpture Park. Anyway, here's the entrance of Gorky Park.

This is still the entrance of Gorky Park.

Then we realized our mistake, and crossed the street. This isn't actually in Sculpture Park, but it's part of an open area that has lots of statues and things in it that looks a lot like Sculpture Park. But the park costs 20 rubles to get into, and this part was still free. But still, there was some pretty stuff.

This is now actually in Sculpture Park. This is part of the monument to Dzerzhersky, with the graffiti on it evident. To help explain a little about why there's graffiti (although I'm not entirely sure this is related), the park was formed when the USSR fell and many of the statues of Soviet leaders (and other statues of workers and peasants) were taken to where the park is now and left without being put back together. Because of this, the park is often called Fallen Monument Park in English. The statues were later put back together, and then other, more modern, sculptures were added. Anyway, the first photo is of graffiti.

One of the more modern monuments.

While Stalin's grave continues to have flowers put on it, I'm happy that at least the nose of his statue here has been broken off.

This is a close up of the monument that you can see better in the next photo. It's a series of stone heads, and then each head has a name and a year etched into it.

While this Stalin may have his nose, if you look closely you can see they've had to replace this one's nose.
And this is just a picture of a cute kid that was at the park collecting leaves.

Predictions

Things I'm going to miss:

• The open air market right near where I live. I've had a blog post on it, but it is still wonderful. Fresh food for cheap, friendly people, local. I like.
• The campus and the surrounding park/woods. Okay, seriously I will take pictures one day, but for now you'll have to take my word for it that it's supa pretty. This is the nicest campus I've ever been on, and I think that's saying something (NW MO St. has a beautiful campus, but MosGu puts it to shame). Also, I'm trying to make it a habit to go running in them because 1) it's good exercise and 2) it'll give me something to be nostalgic about once I'm gone.
• The lazy mornings. Class doesn't start until 10, and so I can wake up slowly and finish my homework or read some or checking the news, and then head to breakfast around 9.
• The people. Cheesy, I know, and I'm not going to elaborate a lot, but the other people in the program are pretty awesome, and I'm jealous that so many of them are staying for a full year.
• The Metro. Public transportation that works and is convenient and is relatively inexpensive. I haven't ever lived in huge American cities like NYC, LA, Houston, etc., so I don't really have anything to compare it to. However, this is one thing that communism did right. Even if it blew up some churches and stole all the marble and gold to decorate the subway stations (okay, I'm not going to say I agree with this part of it... but at least the thing they built with it is still running and working effectively).
• Small classes. I have three other people in my class. I'm learning. Coincidence?

Honorable mention:

• Tea. I don't think it's something that I will miss, because I plan on drinking it in the states too, but I will probably miss the brand that I've become rather attached to (Russian Empire Tea). It's wonderful.

Things I'm not going to miss:

• Breakfast. Nearly every morning we eat a porridge-like dish called Kasha. I like it, but I'm not on the bandwagon like the other Americans here seem to be. I like it, but eeeevery morning is a bit much. And then the "pizza" that they give us about once a week. I will probably actually miss Kasha now and again, but I don't think I'll miss having it every morning.
• A SERIOUS lack of water fountains. About three times a week I feel dehydrated because it seems to be a constant challenge to get enough water here. You're not supposed to drink the water out of the tap (although some people do, I'm not risking it), and this is why I have been drinking so much tea here. If you're downtown and you want water, though, you either have to just put up with it, or find a place that will sell you a small bottle for three bucks. It's frustrating.
• Not having dryers. This actually isn't a huge thing, but having dryers isn't super common, and so everything air dries. It hasn't been the end of the world, but I will greatly appreciate having a dryer again back in the states. Some of the necks of my sweatshirts always look stretched out though, which is unfortunate. My clothes also fit bigger, which is unfortunate.
• Being "in the closet." This really only applies to when I'm in class (because I'm out to the other Americans here), but it is a bit awkward when I'm in class and my professor jokingly calling me a lady's man because I've just told about how I went to the market with one girl in my class, and how I walked the other girl home from the metro one night. I actually did tell her once that I was gay, but she just kind of looked at me funny and then changed the subject. I'm back to writing short papers about my "ideal woman." In general, though, this is probably the biggest thing that would keep me from wanting to ever actually live in Moscow. I certainly wouldn't feel comfortable trying to raise a family here now, and I don't know that the city is necessarily on the path to becoming more accepting, and this isn't something that I'd want to live with for the long term. I might blog about this in greater detail later, too.
• Not having my books. Obviously I didn't bring them with me, and I'm not thinking it was a mistake (I barely made the luggage limits as it was), but I do miss having them to read through. Also, libraries with books in my language. Or even fast shipping from amazon so I could buy a book. Basically, this entire point is that there's one book I want to have to help me write my application essays for Graduate Programs (Art of Recklessness by Dean Young) and I have no access to it.

I might do another one of these lists later, but I think that this is it for now.

Also, I'll try and get back into blogging again. I was really good for like 4 days two weeks ago... and then two weeks went by without a single post. I've been doing stuff, I promise. I'll try and catch you up, and also keep you more up-to-date about what I do this week. AND NEXT WEEK I GO TO ST. PETERSBURG!!!!!!

Tongue Twisters

Just for fun, here are the two tongue twisters I have to have memorized for tomorrow:

Два щенка щека к щеке щиплют щётку в угалке.

Dva schenka scheka kschekye schiplyut schyotku vugalkye.

Two puppies cheek to cheek gnaw a broom in the corner.

And the more difficult one:

Чешуя у щучки, щетина у чушки

Cheshuya u schuchki, schetina u chushki.

And I don't actually know what it means.

The first person to memorize the russian versions (with decent pronunciation) gets a prize! Just make a youtube video of yourself, and post a link as a comment! (other study abroad people don't count.)

Russian Food

I think that, in general, it's a bit unfair for me to talk about the Russian food I've had, just because the things that stick out in my mind are the bad things, when the majority of the food I've had here has been pretty good. However, there is a line that I think was crossed this morning, when alongside the usual bowl of kasha that we get each morning (which is a lot like cream-of-wheat, and comes in 4 varieties: corn, rice, and two other kinds of kasha I can't identify) was a breakfast "pizza." They take some sort of sausage (that is very similar to a hot dog; most of the sausage here is really, really great, but this one was very much like a hot dog) and slice it up, put it on top of a ketchup and mayonaise "sauce," and melt cheese on top. Mmmmmm.

In all fairness, it isn't gross. It tastes like a bologna sandwich in some ways, but the fact that they're passing it off for pizza is what I find wrong. It was brought up in my class about a week ago (we've had this pizza multiple times), and my professor said that the way they make home-made pizzas is to just mix ketchup and mayo to make a pizza sauce. We were a bit offended, and our professor was left to defend how tasty the combination is.

OH! While on this topic of food, though, I should mention what's been super tasty here. It's still not technically "Russian" cuisine, but they have a lot of it in the area of Moscow I live in, and I've never had it in the states, and so it's Russian to me. Having google-searched it, I guess the English spelling of it is Shawarma (but the Russian is closer to Shaurma). It is pretty close to a Greek gyro, but it's a bit different. It's lamb, cabbage, tomato, onion, tsatsiki sauce, red pepper, and some red sauce that I don't know what is. And it's wonderful.

This is not a picture of mine, but this is what it looks like when I've gotten a shawarma.

And they only cost 80 rubles, which is about $2.50, which is a really cheap meal here. I've talked to the guy selling them, and he's from Tajikistan, so maybe it's Tajiki, instead of Russian. Either way, it's tasty.

Walking in the Woods at Night

Hey, this post is just going to be some photos.

It got really foggy tonight and was kind of pretty, so I went out walking around the woods that are really close to the campus I'm studying at (the campus at which I'm studying, if you care about grammar).

This is the view from the fire escape in the dorm. I really love this campus. I can't wait for it to snow.

This is a man-made lake in front of some estate in Vykhino, which is the area I live in.

Night tiiiiime in the woods. I'm going to go back in the day, because it was really pretty, but photographs are kind of dependent upon light.

Andrew! Lighting a cigarette. A dirty, dirty cigarette.

Izmailova Shopping

Two posts in one day, hope you guys don't get spoiled!

Okay, today I ran around this part of Moscow called Izmailova. Izmailova is supposed to be the where you get the best prices on the super touristy items (like Cheburashka dolls, or Matryoshka dolls (aka Russian Nesting Dolls), or furry Russian Hats (Шапки), or whatever you think of when you think of Russian souvenirs (there were giant, ornately painted glass eggs, pins from the soviet era, soviet money, old postcards, and lots of other stuff)). They sell all of these things in lots of other places, but everywhere else it's suuuper expensive. Izmailova is just moderately expensive.

And so I bought some different cool stuff. First (and probably most importantly), I got myself a Russian fur hat. They had fake, synthetic ones for as cheap as 250 ru. (or about $8), but I got myself a rabbit fur hat. It's soooo soft and huge and furry.

And then I finally bought a passport cover, because my passport has started to get a little beat up from needing to have it with me at all times. Plus, now my passport doesn't let everybody around me know that I'm an American whenever I get it out to get any of my documents out, which is always a nice thing.

And then I bought some old postcards, some of which have already been written on, and some of which haven't. So, maybe if I'm feeling generous (and find myself with more free time that doesn't go into taking a nap), I might write out some postcards and get some of these in the mail... that is, if I can bring myself to part with them.

Anyway, that was my Sunday. Now to homework. Because people keep saying I'm here to take classes and learn stuff, or something like that.

Kicked Out of My Home-Stay

So, I'm officially writing this from the dorms. This is now actually old news for me, as I knew as of last Thursday that I'd have to leave, but I guess it's been a long time since I've written on the blog (time passes both really quickly and also really slowly for me here). Anyway, I wasn't "kicked out" of my home stay (but it makes for a more scintillating title), but I was told that I'd either have to move to a new home-stay, or move into the dorms, soooo basically I was kicked out.

The full story is that my roommate didn't feel comfortable in the home-stay that we were in. He has numerous tattoos, piercings, and a mohawk, and, while this would make him stand out even in America, it seems far more tabboo here in Russia. I still remember how our babushka's face dropped when he first arrived, and that she thought he was odd was made very clear. While she would occasionally become short with me, too (lecturing me for half an hour about how I "don't love myself" because I had an omelette for dinner, which is unhealthy), she seemed to have less patience for my roommate. She was even fairly rude to him on a couple of occasions. Between this rudeness (which she didn't ever really have towards me) and her growing list of items in the house which were off limits (from the entire kitchen to the washing machine), he no longer wanted to live in the apartment. So he talked to GRINT (the program I'm studying at, which coordinates our home-stays and the planned excursions) about moving into the dorm.

After this, I'm not sure exactly what happened, because the information that I got didn't match up. I got home two Thursdays ago and my babushka told me that my roommate was planning on moving out, and that I would have a talk with GRINT the next day about whether or not I wanted to also moved out. When I told her then that I'd like to keep leaving there, she said she thought I'd be happier in the dorms, but that it would be my decision in the end. Then, the next day, I'm talking to the student coordinator, and she's telling me that my babushka has told them that her "situation has changed" recently, and that I either need to move to a new home-stay, or to the dorms. Now, I think I got pretty lucky with my homestay, for the most part. There are certain things that were a hassle (the 45 minute walk to campus, not being allowed to cook or do my own laundry (and having to pay her to do my laundry)), however, we also would watch TV most every night and talk about what I'd done that day (always in Russian, since she doesn't know English). I was comfortable in the house, and thought she was mostly pretty nice. So, all-in-all, I think I was really pretty lucky with my home-stay, especially in comparison to some of the other home-stays. I don't think I would get lucky twice, and so instead of doing another home-stay, I opted to come to the dorms.

They've been fine. I mean, they're dorms. I've living with Americans, which is convenient, but also not why I came to Russian. But I'm probably having more fun, because I'm around more people more often, without the hassle of having to walk home through an "at-risk" neighborhood at night by myself (oops, Mom). Anyway, I've been here a week now, and all is still well.

In other news, we went to see Evgeny Onegin (Eugene Onegin is the more common English spelling), an opera. I had a loose understanding of the story going in, but when Tchaikovsky was writing it, he only included the really important scenes (it's an adaptation of a Pushkin поема, or novel in verse) because the story is so well known in Russian. So it was confusing, but I really enjoyed parts of it. Here's a link of my favorite part of the opera, but I'd skip to about the 4:50 mark in the video.

Then, yesterday morning we went to Lenin's Mausoleum, where the body of Lenin is literally on display (he is taken out every 6 months to have his preserving fluids changed). It's a very eery thing to see, especially since he is on display against his request. He had wanted to be buried alongside his mother, but instead he has been set up as an idol as the creator of the soviet communist party. I find it interesting as Russia continues to hold up so many Soviet symbols with such high regard (Putin himself recently said in a speech that the fall of the Soviet Empire was one of the worst tragedies of the 20th Century, and yet it's because of that tragedy that he now holds so much power (and can run for President (and he WILL win the election, one of my professors said))). Outside of Lenin's Mausoleum they have the graves of many (maybe all?) of the Communist leaders, including Stalin. All of them had roses placed on the graves, including Stalin. Again, I find it interesting (to say the least) the extent to which Russia holds on to its Soviet-ness still. Even the worst part of it.

Sorry for no pictures. I'll post some photos here soon.