Being Artsy in Mosow

Today we all got up and got out butts on the metro at 10am for a group excursion meeting at the Novokuznetskaya metro station platform. At the time of our walk, it was already 80 degrees. Combined with the concrete jungle that is Moscow, this was brutally hot. But we pressed on! At 11:30, we arrived at the State Tretchikoff Gallery in the center of Moscow. The gallery is known for it's wide collection of masterpieces. In fact, it is said that the Tretchikoff has more masterpieces per a square meter than any other gallery in the world! The paintings were stunning, in both their size and craft! We ditched the guided tour and hit up the Last 19th and 20th Century painting exhibits. My favorite piece was one called "Roses in a Blue Vase," which I have so far failed at finding a copy of online. Oh the irony of beautiful but forgotten Russian art! (P.S. I took pictures of the gallery from the outside, but my camera is arguing with that theory and seems to have deleted them...)

After the Tretchikoff Gallery, Hannah and I headed around town to find the Fallen Monument Park, which houses hundreds of fallen/displaced statues from the Soviet Union. Ice cream in hand, we walked past the Red Square and the Kremlin (which are prepping for a Formula 1 race tomorrow) and down the banks of a small river. The garden itself is very unassuming and free! We wandered around taking in the mix of modern and classical sculpture. Some pieces had been pulled from the city, others were comments on parts of society such as the Gulag period. The park is also a really good excuse for you to take stupid pictures with the 8 billion Lenin busts around every other corner. As one would expect, hilarity and amazement ensued.

The only dignified picture of the day, we're classy ladies!

Soviet Union, anyone?

USSR provokes serious ponderings...

Chillin' with Lenin and Stalin

Lenin brings all the girls to the yard

Me and Dzerzhinsky, founder of Secret Police

On the way home, dripping in Moscow scented sweat (never a pleasant experience), we saw a few cool things like.......

Hey guys, look another cathedral!

Delegation to the European Union!

Anddd the French Embassy!

All in all, it was an epic if not insanely hot day. Considering the fact that we had ice cream twice and drained a two liter bottle of water on the way home, I'd say it was a great success. And now that we've had our daily it's-too-hot-to-move nap, it's time to party! Hey, it's Saturday night in Moscow!

Love and hugs to all! xoxo

(States Countdown: 3 weeks)

Slow Days & Harry Potter

Today was slowwwwww. We had lecture and woke up at 11am to make it to lunch at noon and lecture at 1pm. The sleep we got was desperately needed and gladly welcomed! Tomorrow I'm going back into the city to see something new (I don't know what yet), but I figured I would leave you all with a few random pictures from Moscow. Below is the view from Hannah's and my dorm room window as well as a doodle from class today that essentially describes our slow/rainy day procedure. Let the hilarity ensue!

On another note, Harry Potter 7 Pt. II screens tonight in theaters in the U.S.. If I was home, I'd have midnight tickets in my hands right now. But, alas, I am in Russia! So everyone go see it for me, bask in the glory, cry over the end, and tell me all about it! That's one thing I can't wait to see upon my return home! Till the very end!

 

 Love and hugs to all! Goodnight!

Podmoskovnii Vechera

Yesterday I had my individual lesson with my professor so I had class from 10am to 4pm, and damn was that rough! My brain felt like a puddle of mush by the time I was done, but I got to do some cool stuff. I told her I wanted to improve my reading, conversation, and vocabulary, so I read part of a report on how tourism affects the world GDP (11%). So. Intense. I promptly proceeded to head back to my room and pass out for a while, only to get up later and do more homework. It never ends! The week has been pretty labor intensive so far, if I do say so myself.

Last night we had an excursion of sorts: the program purchased tickets for us to go see Swan Lake (Лебединое Oзеро) at a small theater next to the Bolshoi Theater in the Teatralnaya area. The ballet was fantastic and the dancers performed beautifully! I truly felt for them though, it was deathly hot in the theater! I love ballet, so this was a nice treat. 

After the ballet, we decided to go to the Red Square at night again. A group of people turned into just Austin and I, so we hit up a store to grab some snacks before heading over. We got there at about 10:30 and the sun was still setting. We walked around a bit then parked it on the curb where we watched the sun set and ate chocolate. The buildings in the Red Square light up at the night and the Spasskaya Tower bells chime ever 15 minutes. The overall effect is very ethereal. I love the Red Square at night, and I could sit there very happily for hours if the metro didn't close at 1am. So, below are some of the Red Square by night shots I took. Enjoy! 

L to R: tower, History Museum, GUM

Spaskaya Tower

Austin taking a picture of St. Basils: PICCEPTION

GUM lights

Spaskaya and the Kremlin Walls

Oh hey there, militsia!

Lenin's Mausoleum and The Armory Building

St. Basil's by night

GUM Window -- Red Square

We were also in the Red Square for a specific reason: yesterday was the 450th Anniversary of St. Basil's Cathedral! Commissioned by Tsar Ivan the Terrible and finished in 1561, St. Basil's popular name comes from a homeless miracle worker, Basil, who lived and performed miracles in the space where the cathedral sits today. Legend says that Ivan the Terrible blinded the architects after they constructed St. Basil's so they would never be able to create something so beautiful ever again. And beautiful it is! Ура for 450 years of Russia's most beautiful cathedral!

Yesterday's Google logo for 450th Anniversary of St. Basils!

The rest of this week promises to be rainy and hot, so who knows how much we'll get out. Moscow is proving harder to get around in than St. Petersburg. There's just something off putting about the hour long metro ride into the city...

ALSO, it's the week of Harry Potter in the States right now, and you guys have no idea how much I want to be there right now! So everyone go see the movie for me, cry and laugh for me, and then go see it again with me when I come home! I'm wicked jealous! Here's to a happy conclusion to my childhood!

And now it's time for (more) homework, goodnight/good morning to all! xoxo

A Taste of Home

Over the past few days I've been having a bit of a hard time with Moscow. I can't quite put my finger on it but I believe it's a combination of missing home, missing Saint Petersburg, and being all the way out in the city suburbs here in Moscow. In addition, some of the people in the other dorm have been behaving in a less than desirable manner this weekend. So since it's Sunday, Hannah and I decided to put in a load of laundry and go out into the city. Someone had told us about the Hard Rock Cafe in Moscow, so we decided to go check it out. We had to take the metro across the city to Smolenskaya and then walk down the Starii Arbat Ulitsa. We've been feeling a little off, so imagine our absolute and total delight when we encountered the holy grail of American-ness: STARBUCKS. I paid 211 rubles ($7-8) for a caramel frappuccino and it was the best damn thing I have ever tasted. The taste of home was just the thing to pull us out of our Moscow induced funk!

Following our epic Starbucks adventure, we hunted down the Hard Rock Cafe where I ordered what was probably the best cheeseburger I've ever had in my whole life. A real cheeseburger with lettuce, tomatoes, ketchup, and fries was just what I needed today. There's nothing like some good old American food to perk you up in a foreign country. See below my extremely satisfied face...

And on the way home, after purchasing a Hard Rock Cafe Moscow t-shirt (hell yes I did), we encountered another one of the Seven Gothic Sisters built during the Soviet Union. It pretty much dominates the skyline of the Old Arbat, and with good cause, it's ridiculous! This particular sister currently houses the Russian Federation Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

At the end of it all, today was a good day. I got out of my "I hate you Moscow" funk (mostly) and I'm feeling less homesick. Funny how the cure for that is food... So now it's one week in Moscow down, four to go! Wish me luck!

Love and hugs to all! xoxo

Kremlinology

Last night Hannah and I had an epic adventure to the Rus Market down the street in search of goodies for the night's festivities. This resulted in the most college student-esque shopping basket ever. Sushki (round, crunch bread things), cookies, a tomato, a bottle of red wine, and a bottle of vodka. We actually got a crazy deal on the vodka: we paid 170 rubles ($6.50) for a half liter of vodka on sale, where it was originally 280 ($10). Being crafty, even in Russia! And to top it all off, I got carded. In Russia. I got carded in Russia. I turned 21 two weeks before I left for Russia. International drinking age fail. So, I had to whip out my U.S. passport in the grocery store to prove I was over 18. I hate pulling my American documents out in public, I prefer to blend in. Oh well! All in the name of a good party! (Which it was!)

Vodka!

This morning we had an excursion to the Kremlin, which was really cool although mostly another tour of another billion churches. The saborii here are beautiful, but they all start to look the same after a while. (So awful of me to say...) The Kemlin acts the political center of Moscow. Originally built as a citadel (kremel) at the highest point of the city, the Kremlin today is where the President of Russia works. Seeing as how today was Saturday, Medvedev wasn't present, but it's my goal to see Putin before I leave! The Kremlin is impressive, if in scale and architecture if nothing else. It's hard enough to describe things in Russia, even harder to get across the significance and elegance of the Kremlin. So! I have pictures for you all! Let the viewing ensue!

Entrance to the Kremlin

Kremlin Walls

The Arsenal

State Kremlin Palace

One of the churches (I forgot which one...)

Senate Building (Medvedev's offices)

Soldiers on march in the Kremlin

Cathedral of the Assumption

Another nameless church

Me in the Kremlin Garden

View of the City from the Kremlin

Annunciation Cathedral

Cathedral of the Assumption

After the Kremlin, Austin and I made a mad dash for some very necessary food at 2pm. We found a good Russian place in a food court outside of the Kremlin walls and inhaled everything we bought. The food here is good, but thank god we walk 5-6 miles a day otherwise I'd be so fat! Our next mission was to find Moscow State University (MGU), which is a landmark in Moscow. One of the buildings on campus (picture below!) is one of the Seven Gothic Sisters built throughout Moscow by Stalin. The campus is just like other college campuses all over the world, but it's dominated by the administration building, which is so beautiful! On the way home, we dozed on the metro and then got caught in a monsoon on the walk back from the metro station to campus. (We go to the Moscow University for the Humanities, by the way.) I returned to my dorm room soaked to the bone, but I felt very accomplished with my escapades for the day!

Moscow State University

And now it's 11:30 at night, we just finished eating dinner and enjoying a good peach, a luxury here in Russia where fruit and veggies don't really exist. Well they do, but they're awful. So now I'm full, happy, and I have my (5th) cup of tea in my hand. I'm now going to enjoy sleeping in tomorrow and then beginning my sixth week in Russia, second week in Moscow!

Love and hugs to all! And to any of my former or current teachers reading this, please pass no judgment, I swear I'm learning lots! :)

xoxo

P.S. Foreign Policy magazine is running a good series of articles in response to 20 years after the fall of the Soviet Union (1991-2011), go check them out! Revolution Road (Foreign Policy) 

Red Stars at Night

Life here in Moscow is much slower than life in St. Petersburg, which may come as a surprise to many of you. It was like that at first for me as well. However, here we live an hour to an hour and a half outside of the city center by metro, and we get out of class/lunch around 2:30 every day. So, it's hard for us to get into the city in time to hit up museums and the like before they close. Also, once a week following regular classes, we have an hour of individual instruction with our professor. All of this will lead to an invaluable education, if not at the expense of seeing Moscow to the extent that I saw St, Petersburg.


Yesterday is POURED all afternoon, so we elected to spend the day in the dorms instead of making the trek into the city in the rain. However, we did end up making the trip into the city center in the evening to go to the opera. That's right, the opera. How cultured does that make me sound? Ha! What we saw is called the "Queen of Spades" (Пи́ковая Дама), a story by A. Pushkin put to orchestra and transformed into an opera by Tchaikovsky.  The music was beautiful, the singers were extremely, talented, and the final number deserved the standing ovation it got! 


Following the opera, still clad in our dresses and suits, a few of us decided to find something to eat and to take a brisk stroll through the Red Square at night. Of course, since I'm ridiculous and only had a clutch, I didn't have my camera on me. But we will return and I will provide you with pictures! 


During the week it's hard to do things because of the long school day and the hour long trek into the city. More to come later this week! I'm liking Moscow, I can say that much as of now.

xoxo

An Affair in the Red Square

Greetings all! I hope everyone back home in the States had a wonderful 4th of July and got drunk and blew something up for me! The weather here in Moscow has been most disagreeable for the past few days, but today we finally got some sunshine! Also, since on Wednesdays we only have lecture starting at 1pm, we decided to grab breakfast and then head out to the Red Square. Our intention was to go to the Lenin Mausoleum and see Lenin's embalmed body. BUT the line was 4 bajillion people long and we only had 45 minutes, so we walked around the Red Square and took pictures before heading back to campus. 

Kazan Cathedral

Parts of the Kremlin

Hanging with St. Basil's

St. Basil's Cathedral

History Museum

G.U.M. Soviet State Department Store

Arsenal Government Building

Resurrection Gate

Lenin's Mausoleum

Spasskaya Tower

The Red Square is so beautiful and the buildings are stunning! It was cloudy today, so I can't wait to go back when the sun is out. We also want to go back at night to see the square all lit up. It will be so beautiful! Since we journeyed to the Red Square today, it was also my first time on the Moscow metro, which is insanely large/complicated. And way more Soviet than the Petersburg metro. We went through the Lubyanka Station which led to Hannah and I dissolving into fits of giggles and singing "KGB" to the tune of the Batman song. I offer no explanation for this other than the Lubyanka Station is directly below the old KGB headquaters and you just have to know me! Hehe.

After 3 straight hours of lecture, we're now back here relaxing in our cozy dorm room with the window open, enjoying the breeze! Since I'm 8 hours ahead, at it's 5 pm here, maybe it's time to start thinking about dinner! (No more wine left though, so sad.)

More to come as we venture deeper into the heart of Moscow!

Love and Hugs to all! xoxo