Finally got to see Pushkin's statue!

Class was great today. I love having to constantly speak Russian. However, my English is getting even worse. Most sentences I say in English I try to find a way to say them in Russian as well. I am still at the stage where this is all very unreal to me.
Today the assistant director of the school took us on another tour of Moscow. She showed us some of the places that we probably would not have found. There was this really expensive looking grocery store that giant chandeliers in it and just didn't look like they would be selling groceries there. It has a pretty interesting history to it.
Oh I got to see Pushkin's statue! He is one of my favorite Russian writers. We are going to go back and actually explore that area a little more, because we also saw the 1st Tsar's house before he became Tsar. We want to go inside there. Just walking around all of these places made history come alive. It was amazing. I love being able to discuss these things that I am passionate about with other people who are just as passionate about these topics.
Tonight's blog will be short. It is 1 a.m. here and I am going to try to go to sleep so I can go running in the morning.

the day started with a bang!

So at midnight I jumped out of bed ready to prepare for some attack to hit the campus, because I was rudely awoken by fireworks that were set off right in front of my dorm complex. Because of last summer's experience for some reason I thought we were being attacked. I have realized that Russians just like to have fun whenever. 

Well when the day actually started I got to go to my first class for the summer. It was 3 hours long. I learned so much in those 3 hours. I don't why, but a light bulb just went off in my head. The class was basically taught in pure Russian. The teacher maybe said 10 words in English the whole 3 hours. I loved it! Oh by the way, I got placed in the second highest level class. I was pretty happy about that. 

After class we could go do whatever we wanted. So, of course we did what every person our age would do...we went to the mall. Which was very pretty in some parts, but also really expensive. But this of course was still an experience because we are learning how to speak to Russians when we encounter them. We are really good at asking where the bathroom is and how much things cost. But our most interesting encounter with Russians today was when two of the people got stopped because there bag set off the alarm when they left the grocery store. The guard went through all of the stuff they bought and made sure it was on their receipt. Then they searched the students' backpacks and came to realize that it was one of the books from school. While all of this was happening myself and the older hispanic woman who had joined our group were standing outside the door watching. Then I realized that our friends, one is asian, and the other fillipino, were probably having some issues with the guards. So I tried to go help them, we thankfully got it all figured out.

Last night at midnight they shut off the hot water until 7 June. I attempted to shower this morning, but I found that Russian water seems so much colder then water back home when the water heater isn't working. It was soooo cold. I don't know how we are going to survive taking showers in freezing cold water. At least the Aggies left for a week, it is now a little quieter around here :D. 

Well it is 1 am here and I need to get some sleep before class tomorrow. Hopefully tomorrow I will have time to tell you about the various colored toilet paper they have here...very interesting. 

до завтра!

Things you need to carry in your bag

Here is a list of things that my friends and I are coming up with that come in handy around Moscow

Umbrella - you never know when it will start raining on you
Jacket - the temperature changes constantly
cigarette & lighter - you can become friends with the locals by sharing, if you don't smoke
germX - to clean your hands after going through the metro

Day 2 of Exploring

Today was the placement exam. That was painful. I will find out tomorrow how I did. Either way I am excited about starting classes...yes that is nerdy, but that is normal for me. After the test and lunch a group of 5 of us decided to go check out some things. We really wanted to go to Gorky Park. However, it was raining when we got there, so we didn't get to see too much. But it was still pretty awesome. For some random reason there is a mock up space shuttle in the park with the U.S.S.R written on.  Still not sure why that is there, but it looked cool. Oh, and there was a little house in the park. I believe it was for Baba Yar ( a character from a Russian folktale). It is crazy to final see everything that I have heard so much about.

We added a person to our group of explorers today. Her mother is Russian and father is Serbian, but she doesn't know a lot of Russian. However, she has an accent, this came in handy. The rest of us would figure out what we needed to say and then we would have her ask a Russian our question. She also knows a good amount of the history of some of the areas. Our group of 5 actually works well together, because we each know certain things about Russian culture, history and language that we then can teach each other about. I have learned so much by just going out and exploring the city. I love the independence we have here. After we have class or do whatever is on our schedule we are all free to do whatever. This is when we have begun to split into 2 groups: The explorers (my group) and the drinkers (the other group). However, we are about to become the coffee addicts. One of the girls accidently 2 double shots of espresso, thus having 4 shots of espresso. We have to have coffee at least once a day to survive, because of all the walking we do.

Food: the food is much fresher and less processed here. I believe it has a lot more calories and carbs in it then American food, but, we need all of those calories to survive the 10 or miles of walking each day. I had  chicken for breakfast this morning, it was good, but I definitely prefer my cereal. Lunch was a sausage pasta, which was really good.  Then for dinner I had bought this bag of seafood with noodles. I am pretty sure I at octopus and squid and snails. It was interesting, I will see how my stomach feels about it tomorrow.

Our Russian faces while battling the rain. 

Day 1 of Exploring

Ok, I don't know how to start this. There is so much to say. First off, how do all of these Russian women wear high heels all day? My feet hurt and I wore tennis shoes. Also, that has to be difficult to balance on the metro in heels.
So the metro is intense. Don't stop or you will get pushed. Like one of the professors said "don't be too nice". Apparently Russians like to walk really fast, I believe it is because they are always running late.  Which is completely different from how they eat out at restaurants. They usually eat slow and make a big deal of the whole event. Also, this whole walking everywhere explains why the elevators are so tiny. The first thing I thought when I had to fit into this elevator with 2 other people and my luggage was that "these are not american elevators". The Russians are so skinny because all of the walking they do. I was thinking of running while I was here, but I am not sure if that will be necessary because of how much we walk and how fast we walk.
It was interesting to try to get around town without anyone Russian. I was apart of a group of 4 people who decided to go explore downtown for a little bit. In our adventures we had to figure out how to buy a cigarette lighter. The lady laughed a little on how we were pronouncing it but she was very nice (unlike the cafeteria lady, who yelled at my friend for not putting his plate in the right spot and then corrected his grammar when he tried to talk to her in Russian.) Then we attempted to order coffee...thankfully between the 4 of us and our 2 dictionaries we were able to get through this without anything terrible happening. Oh btw try not to have to go to the bathroom while you are out, you have to pay to use it. Then we got to go explore red square! This is when it felt real that I was actually in Russia, actually standing in front of St. Basil's Cathedral ( the cathedral that has giant domes on top that possibly look like ice cream). Then we got to check out the street stores. My classmate and I were so happy on how well we could carry on a conversation with them. The vendor's love to bargain. We were really happy that we made it back to the dorms with no one getting seriously harmed.

Well it is midnight here and I need to study for my placement exam. I will write again tomorrow.

Arrival Day

So I have been in Russia for less then 5 hours and it already seems like so much is going on.
At the customs check the lady was trying to speak to me in Russian. I caught bits and pieces thankfully and didn't get myself into any trouble. We then met with our program director. He seemed like a really nice guy, very helpful.
The drive to the dorms was crazy. I definitely want to live in Russia, but I never want to drive in Russia. People were not even driving in the lanes, some started off-roading. It was insane. I then attempted to read all of the road signs (there were a lot of ads) I would finally Understand one sign by the time we passed five others.The director then asked if I could at least read this giant sign as we entered the city. It said Moscow ( in Russian) I understood that sign for sure. :)

OOO for those of you who know me really well you will be happy to hear that I put all of my clothes away neatly. Now to see how long that lasts. I am sharing a room with an Aggie...this shall be interesting. However, all of the Aggies are going through another program so they will be leaving in a few days to go to St. Petersburg.

So sleepy, the jet lag is going to be a pain. Nap time before we go to the store to get some food.

I will keep you all updated on how everything is going.

Things I will miss about the U.S.

Country music
Country dancing
Wearing my boots
(I think there is a theme here so far)
Peanut Butter!!! ( I am bringing a small jar :) )
Driving my truck
Oh ya...speaking English
My family and friends
Karate ...definitely going to have to find a gym for a few weeks while I am there.

Introduction

Hey Everyone,

I am about to head off to Russia for 6 weeks. I will be studying at Grint University. I am very excited about going. I can't wait to experience the culture that I have been studying for the past 3 years. I am nervous about only being able to speak Russian for 6 weeks, but I am more worried about not being able to speak English when I come back to the states. I can't wait to see the ins and outs of Moscow.
This will be where I will post pictures and things that go on during the day. I will do my best to make most things in English.
Hope you enjoy.
-Meter