Все хорошее когда-нибудь конец

In four days we will be on a plane from Sheremetyevo airport heading back to good old America.  I don't think I've ever experienced anything more bittersweet than what I'm feeling right now.  While I am looking forward to certain amenities of the US (such as drinkable water, no longer sharing a room with mosquitoes, being able to order food without having a slight panic attack), I cannot express how much I will miss Russia and our host city of Moscow.  Before I continue to whine about missing Russia, I will write a quick recap of how our last two weeks have gone here and I do hope we crammed enough in to give Moscow some justice. 

On Tuesday the 16th, a group of us went to an ice museum in Сокольники park (pronounced Sokolniki).  For only 7 dollars, we were able to have a bit of winter fun in August.  Dressing up in heavy robes, coats, and boots, we played around with the ice sculptures and got a nice break from the heat.  We later went back to Сокольники on Friday for a group date involving board games, soccer (played with a basketball), and a stick throwing competition.  Anything goes in Russia.

On Thursday the 18th, we had our last group excursion to Christ the Saviour Orthodox Church.  We've seen this church many times since we've been here, and it is one of Moscow's largest landmarks, but this was the first time we went inside and learned about its history.  The church itself was built after Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, and the city built it to thank Christ for protecting them from the French.  It took about 70 years for the Church to be built and opened for use.  However, Stalin decided to keep his promise about the Soviet Union abstaining from religion by dynamiting the church in 1931.  In 1990, it was decided that the church would be rebuilt and it opened back up in 2000.  We were fortunate enough to get to go to the top of the church and see all of Moscow from another fantastic vantage point.  Some of our group also witnessed a bishop being ordained by the Patriarch of Russia in a small ceremony in the basement.  I was bummed that I missed out.

Before Сокольники park on Friday, we had our group meal at a Uzbekistan restaurant close to our university.  Having now been fortunate enough to try Georgian, Ukranian, Russian, and Uzbek food, I can finally say that they are all amazing and cannot pick which one is best.  The restaurant had extremely good palov (fried rice and meat), bread, lamb, and something called Yakhni, which is meat and boiled vegetables together with a bit of salad.  I cannot thank our director enough for always finding the best and most hospitable restaurants to have us.  However, having eaten all this delicious food, I decided to meet our group at Сокольники by running there from our dorm instead of taking the metro.  My run to the park led me through the five grittiest miles I've ever experienced, and, although it was really neat to dodge homeless man after homeless man and navigate my way through the slums of Moscow, I am really looking forward to running back home in Cincinnati and Columbus.  

On Saturday, the 20th, we got a real treat.  Moscow is home to the one and only, world famous (debatable) cat theater, Мои любимые кошки (my favorite cats).  I forget how we even discovered this, but it turns out there a few people in my group who are more obsessed with cats than I am with my cat and dog.  Anyway, a few of us bought tickets for the 2pm showing and were treated to an hour of cats running all over the stage, balancing on miscellaneous items, and entertaining all the дети, бабушки, and дедушки in attendance (children, grandmas, and grandpas).  It was a lot of fun, and we all enjoyed ourselves immensely.  

Yesterday, since many of us have a lot of souvenir shopping left to do, we went to старый Арбат (old Arbat) street on Moscow's west side.  Even though it is a very touristy, and thus a very pricey, area, I found a few things for friends and family back home that weren't too expensive.  Luckily, we are going to a large flea market type of place on Thursday to wrap up our shopping here and I plan to get everything else there.  On our way to one of the huge Seven Sister buildings, we found a unique, "cultural" activity going on outside of Alexander Pushkin's house (Russia's most famous writer and poet).  A gang of Russian teenagers was having a fascinating dance off right in front of the house and these kids were way too funny and "talented" to ignore.  We stayed for about an hour or so watching each dancer go and trying to figure out how the winner was decided (the large crowd gathered around never clapped, so we just didn't know how voting worked).  They danced to a lot of American songs and it was extremely entertaining to hear their high pitched Russian voices singing lyrics to Nikki Minaj, Jay-Z, Lil' Wayne, and other singers that have spread to Russia.  I posted a few of the videos I recorded of them on Facebook but I don't think they accurately conveyed how ridiculous these kids were.  I also believe Pushkin must have rolled over in his grave due to this street show outside his house.    

Tomorrow is our last day of classes and I am pretty sure (fingers crossed as I don't have a complete guarantee yet) that I got my A's for the credits I'm taking here and will have a nice little GPA boost settling back in to OSU in a month.  I am very excited to be home but I will miss Russia a lot.  I'm not sure if I'll be back again for a while, and I definitely won't be back again with so much freedom and time to do whatever I please in Russia's two biggest cities.  I really want to express how helpful and amazing study abroad is to all the present and future college students reading this.  You won't get an opportunity like this ever again in your life, so you really need to look into what type of programs and scholarships your school offers so you can have a life-changing experience (at a reduced price).  Some of my friends on this trip are already looking at coming back here next year and some are even planning a study abroad trip for this winter!  If reading about these adventures in Russia didn't excite you, go off and make your own in even cooler countries!  I can promise you you won't regret anything.  

Thank you to everyone who decided to use their time to read this blog (I know it got lengthy at some parts, but I really do hope it stayed interesting throughout), and an even bigger thank you to the people who sent me great feedback about it.  Hopefully I'll be able to use it for something similar to this in the future.  I can't wait to see everyone again and I hope your summer was as amazing as mine was!  Спасибо! 

~Алекс Поливки

Moscow Nights

It has been about two weeks since our return from St. Petersburg and I haven't done an adequate enough job writing about how Moscow has been since our return.  With only 16 days left until we are back home in America, our time here is coming to a close extremely quickly with so much to do in so little time.  Here we go.

When we returned to Moscow, the city had undergone a change in temperature from the warm 80's we were used to enjoying to a rather chilling 50's range.  There has been much more rain here and only a few days of decent sunshine.  Today is a rainy day so unfortunately all I feel obliged to do is sit here and study Russian grammar cases until I'm tired enough to sleep.  I won't complain about the temperatures, though, since I am aware that most of America and Ohio is melting and would kill for a day of 50's, or even 80's, weather. 

On Wednesday the 3rd, we went on a group tour to Коло́менское, which was the royal estate to Ivan the Terrible and other Russian rulers up until the capital was moved to St. Petersburg.  While basically all of the wooden palace was long gone, the grounds were very quaint and pretty and there was a magnificent view from the Church grounds of the Moskva river and the surrounding Moscow lands.  We were also treated to a dinner/show with these three women singing Russian songs while presenting us with pancakes and tea.  It was very amusing and seemed like something that could have been from a movie.  Afterwards, my friend Katie and I took a run to Red Square to work off the pancakes and see the Moscow sunset, which we haven't really experienced yet from the center of Moscow.  

On Friday night, a few of us went back to Park Pobedy to explore the area at night.  That is the area where the Great Patriotic War Memorial Museum is.  We had heard it is amazing at night and it truly is.  The main obelisk is lit up and it seems to be the place to be on a weekend night.  We also found other weird war memorials in the back woods of the memorial and I honestly wouldn't have minded staying the night exploring there.  

On Sunday the 6th, two group members and myself had to present a cultural project to our group over a Moscow landmark of our choosing.  This is a main component of our three credit cultural grade while we are here and I was extremely nervous about having to talk for more than 20 seconds in Russian.  We chose to do our project over the Peter the Great statue on the Moskva river that no Muscovites seem to like.  Although a statue doesn't seem like a very interesting topic to talk for ten minutes about, this statue actually has a really deep background with historical significance and controversy to Moscow and Russia itself, so it was easy to research.  I ended up getting a great grade and I am relieved to have gotten that off my back for the last three weeks here. 

Monday was my friend Kyle's birthday, so we decided to have a fun day as the classy Americans we are.  After class, four of us went back to Park Pobedy and decided to play in the fountains and have a bit of water fun (Moscow has no beach so I kinda wanted to compete with all the fun going on back in America).  We then decided to take our director's advice and go to the Ritz-Carlton Moscow hotel in order to get an amazing view of Red Square and Moscow from one of the city's highest points.  Dressing up for the occasion rather nicely, we sat in the O2 Lounge on the top of the building and paid about thirty dollars for expensive drinks and a great view.  There was billowing smoke coming from somewhere in the south part of Moscow, and while my initial first fear was terrorism, it turns out that a meat factory had caught on fire and was ruining Moscow's skyline.  

With only 9 class days and 16 overall days to go, I really don't want to leave here.  However, I am excited for several of the luxuries that will come with being home in America (such as knowing for sure that I will successfully eat something healthy each day).  I cannot believe it is almost over and I hope I will make good use of the rest of my time here to entertain you all and add more memories to an already fantastic summer.  Thanks for reading!  Have a great week.