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. 

A Grand Week in St. Pete

As of this Wednesday, our group has successfully passed the overall halfway mark of our trip!  While it is weird to think that we are about a month away from going home, I’m sure it will only make us more anxious to see what Moscow has to offer.  That, and cramming the city of St. Petersburg in in only a week, will help refresh our interest in exploring and learning all about Russia.  As I sit in a St. Petersburg bread shop typing this, I want to talk about what St. Petersburg offered us this week, and what a unique, vibrant city it turned out to be.

 

On Saturday, July 23, we arrived in Peter’s city by way of express train.  We were introduced to Nievsky Prospect, the main, historic road that is the heart of the city, and settled down at our hostel.  I’ll use this day to talk about our hostel, since it ended up being a very frustrating place.  I knew before we got here that St. Petersburg was built on a swamp (around the Neva river at least) and I guess I should have known that with swamps and stagnant areas come mosquitoes and heat.  But I didn’t expect our hostel to be unequipped to deal with these annoyances.  Anyways, all of us were eaten alive over this trip.  Having killed 30 some mosquitoes in our room alone and wrapped up in a hot, itchy blanket at night, I got off with only a few bites, but some of us looked like we redeveloped the chicken pox or heavy acne and provided a grand feast for the bugs at night.  Living in fear, our hostel quickly became an unhappy place to stay and it was in our best interests to stay out in the city until we were absolutely ready to go to sleep.  I don’t mean to complain so long, but it was a pretty terrible experience.

On Sunday, we were given a boat tour of the main part of the city in order to get our bearings before we really started to explore.  Getting to ride along in these canals made me realize how similar Pete is to Venice in Italy.  While Venice is, of course, immense in all of its islands and canals, the few main rivers that flow through St. Petersburg help to give off the same vibe and I enjoyed seeing all the buildings from the water.  After the tour, we were let off the leash to go explore this new city.  After viewing St. Isaac’s Cathedral, the Winter Palace, and Alexander’s Column, a few of us went off on my hunt for the Yusupov Palace where Rasputin died.  I declined to talk about Rasputin’s death in detail in the other blogs, but I wanted to give the background in this one for anyone who doesn’t know or remember the fun facts.  

Before the Russian Revolution kicked off in 1917, the Romanov family was still the Czars of Russia.  The heir to the Czar dynasty and son to the Czar Nicholas and Empress Alexandra, Alexei, was a hemophiliac, meaning that if his blood clotted, he would be in serious danger of dying.  The Grand Duchess put her faith in a “mystic healer”, Gregori Rasputin, to heal her son and keep him healthy.  Because of this, Rasputin gained the trust and ear of the Empress who, of course, had the trust and ear of her husband, Czar Nicholi.  A group of royal princes, led by Felix Yusupov, decided that Rasputin’s advice was corrupting the Czar family and, in order to protect Russia, Rasputin had to die.  They lured him to the Yusupov Palace, located on the Moika River Canal, in December of 1916 and fed him cakes laced with enough poison to kill ten men.  When this failed to kill him (researchers think that the poison was accidentally rendered useless by the heat of the oven used to make the cakes), Yusupov shot Rasputin straight in the back of the head.  Deciding to go celebrate, the men left the body and were about to leave the palace when Felix decided to check Rasputin one more time.  Rasputin came awake and attacked the Prince and started to flee out into the courtyard of the palace until the other conspirators returned and shot him and clubbed his body.  They chained up his body, wrapped it in a rug, and threw it into the icy Moika river.  When his body was discovered, he had not died from being poisoned, shot multiple times, beaten, and wrapped in a rug…. He had escaped his bonds under water and had been unable to break out of the ice, so the cause of death was hypothermia and drowning.  He was definitely a stubborn one.

Anyways, we made our way to the Yusupov palace where the courtyard where Rasputin was caught again had been turned into an apartment complex and playground.  As I said previously, I definitely was going to play on this playground (see picture above), so that’s what we did.  When we took turns riding the see-saw, our friend Huang accidentally bounced Kelly was too high and she took a face plant on the see saw.  While her nose was thankfully not broken and her face was intact, she did suffer a heavy bruise to her eye and temporary swelling on her cheek.  We blamed Huang’s actions on the spirit of Rasputin possessing him.

 

On Monday, we went to St. Peter and Paul Fortress, which is the founding building of St. Petersburg and the jewel of the city.  The restorers there did a very good job keeping the complex up to its original state and there was a lot to see.  While I did not go into the Cathedral where the Czar family was buried after their murder in 1918 and discovery of their bodies in 1998, my friends said it was a very beautiful resting spot for a family that went through so much.  The prison, which housed many famous prisoners such as Peter the Great’s son and Leon Trostky, was very dark, small, and dismal and I can only imagine how terrible it must have been a few hundred years ago.  There was also this very awkward, ugly statue of Peter the Great (see above again) that was supposed to show that even amazing rulers are only human, or something like that. 

On Tuesday, we were given tickets to go to the Hermitage museum within the Winter Palace.  I’m not going to lie, trying to take in every piece of art I saw and appreciate it was one of the most tiring things I’ve ever done.  According to a tour guide, if you stood in front of every single piece of art the museum has to offer for only a few seconds, it would take you 8 years to see everything.  I believe it.  We couldn’t even find the stairs to the third floor because of how vast the building is.  The art pieces were absolutely incredible and the rooms that they were housed in were equally awesome.  We saw pieces from Egypt, France, Italy, Greece, China, England, and Russia, of course, and they all had their own unique pride from each country.  It was a fantastic experience, even though I was so tired from walking around this building.

We got our first free day on Wednesday, which I used to finally get a few souvenirs for people back home.  I also got to go running for the third time that I’ve been in Russia, and I ran to the Neva River and got to appreciate the landscape of the outer city from its banks.  Some of the girls in our group also got tickets to the Swan Lake at the Alexander Theater, which I think would have been cooler to say that I saw Swan Lake in Russia than actually seeing the ballet itself… We also saw the bridges across the Neva River rise at 1am and then made our way back down Nievsky late at night.  One little opinion of mine I want to put out there is that whenever you are in any type of city or town, be sure to experience them during the day and during the night.  The experience is much better than what you would have gotten from only spending part of a day there. 

Yesterday we took a bus to the Peterhof Palace, which was Peter the Great’s estate located on the Bay of Finland.  Known as the Versailles of Russia, its gardens and landscape was absolutely incredible.  We took a tour of the house, which we couldn’t take pictures in unfortunately, but it was very beautiful and each room was completely different and separately decorated from any other room in the house.  However, after the tour, we were only given 45 minutes to wander the vast area that surrounds the Palace so we were put in a mad rush to appreciate the numerous fountains, forests, water, and gardens that are scattered around.  I don’t think we even got to half of what we could have, if we had been given more time.  It was such a pretty area to visit.  Afterwards, we got dropped off back on Nievsky Prospect and had our group meal at кэт, which is a Georgian restaurant.  Even though I had never eaten 90% of what we were given at dinner, it was all amazing food and I enjoyed every single thing that was put in front of us.  There was lamb, Georgian lemonade, beans, salad, and this delicious cheese bread that I think may have been called Khachapuri.  I wish I knew all the names for all these amazing dishes.  One thing that Russia has taught me is that I did not know what good bread tasted like before I got here.  All the bread (хлеб in Russian) I’ve had here, whether they be pastries or just regular loaves, is so delicious and filling.  The Georgian bread we had was so superb that I think it was the reason Russia invaded Georgia in 2008.  Too good.  

Today is our last day in St. Petersburg and I am going to miss it.  I am glad, however, that we are studying in Moscow, where the metro goes absolutely everywhere and there isn’t much walking.  The St. Petersburg metro misses out on a few random parts of the city and seems to be more complicated to use.  I hope I have a legitimate reason to come back here one day so I can tour Pete again and explore more of Russia’s second largest city.  Thanks for reading all of this, have a great week everybody!

Halfway Done; Preparing for Saint Petersburg

Hey everyone!  With half of our class time done in Moscow, we are in need of a week-long break without classes.  Therefore, tomorrow morning we shall find ourselves on our way to Saint Petersburg for a full week of exploring and sight seeing.  Like I said before, our program director has many exciting things planned for us this week (scavenger hunts, cultural tours, and group activities for a start) and the two days that we get to ourselves will also be jam-packed full of adventures around St. Petersburg.  I wanted to give a quick summary of what we did this week and also what I myself know about St. Petersburg.  I'm also going to attempt to add pictures into this to help make Russia more appealing than my descriptions can. 

On Thursday, we took our group excursion to Park Pobedy, where the Museum of the Great Patriotic War is located.  All I can say about this museum is that it is simply beautiful.  In World War II, Russia lost more than 27 million people (soldiers and civilians) in order to survive the Nazi invasion and help the Allies win the war.  To honor their dead, they created this amazing memorial on the 50th anniversary of ending the war so that the spirit of what they died for lives on.  The US lost about 650,000, if I'm correct, which is 40x less than what Russia lost.  So in all fairness, Russia's mourning shines through 40x more than our WWII memorials in Washington.  I really can't describe it, it was absolutely stunning. 

Inside the museum, you go downstairs to the Hall of Remembrance and Sorrow.  Along the walls are record books which attempt to record the names of every single life lost from 1941-1945.  On the ceiling are 2.6 million chains adorned with little, shining crystals which is meant to represent the tears Russia wept for their dead.  At the end of the hall is a statue of Mother Russia cradling her dead son.  It is a truly beautiful place, with such a solemn, yet peaceful, aura around it that it creates the most perfect environment to remember such a terrible tragedy.  The emotions and feelings of what it is like to be here cannot be described adequately through photo or words.

Once you go upstairs and pass through the Hall of Commanders (where most of the museum's artifacts and war remnants are kept), you enter the Hall of Glory.  In this hall, the names of the 11,800 people who were the recipients of the Hero of the Soviet Union distinction are featured on the wall.  This was the highest award one could be given, and they were awarded it for their actions in war-time and their efforts to protect their country.  In the center of the hall stands the Soldier of Victory, and on the walls are the Russian cities who were attacked during the war and still survive today.  The room is a very imposing and tremendous memorial, and you can't help but be silent and respect the heroes of the Soviet era. The same also goes for the entire museum, which is one of the most fantastic mixes of art and emotion that you can ever hope to see.

What we saw today was a bit less dramatic than the War Museum, but it was still pretty neat anyways.  We went to the Moscow City Mall (built underneath the new, modern economic skyscrapers that the city is constructing on its west side) and saw giant Matriochka pieces, which I have no clue as to how they got them in the building.  We then got to explore around this neat, modernized mall with a cool color fountain as its centerpiece.  While I did not buy any of the expensive clothes or souvenirs this place had to offer, three hours of walking around looking at things made me the most tired I've been on this trip.  Good thing we have our train ride tomorrow.  

Now, finally, I get to talk about St. Petersburg real quick and then prepare to start my week there.  Founded by Tsar Peter the Great in 1703, the city was, and is considered today, to be Russia's most Westernized city.  Peter the Great himself actually took a lot of heat for designing the city as he temporarily moved Russia's capital to there and the older, powerful Russians didn't like that.  So after assassination attempts and treason charges, Peter still got his city, but even today Russians don't seem to like him for it anyways.  We were told that a statue of Peter the Great in Moscow (pictured here) that sits on the Moskva river is looked down upon by Muscovites and we were more than welcome to take it back to America with us if we wanted.  Anyways, St. Petersburg grew regardless and today is a cultural icon in the world.  Home to the Hermitage (which is the largest art museum in the world), it has over 220 museums for us to be overwhelmed by and throws about 100 city wide cultural festivals each year.  Hopefully we came on a good week.  I'm particularly excited to see the  magnificent Church of the Savior on Blood which was built on the spot where Alexander the II was assassinated in 1881.  Also, like I said last time, I'm excited to go to the Moika Palace where Rasputin was killed, even though the Wikipedia page says that a playground has been built on the square where he was tossed into the Moika river.  Whatever, I'll play on it regardless.  I cannot wait to see everything and take a ton of photos to share with everyone.  We're all looking forward to what will surely be one of the best weeks of our lives.  Hope everyone enjoyed this!  Have a great week!

Living and Learning

In the past week, I would say our study abroad group has hit the point where, on a daily basis, we can't manage to sit in class for four hours and then go off explore the beautiful areas Moscow has to offer.  While classes are still manageable, I would say that a slight culture shock has set in for most people.  Luckily for us, after we finish with the first half of our program this Friday, we get to go to St. Petersburg for a week long excursion.  After hearing from our director about all the fantastic places we get to visit next week, I'm excited and ready to get through this week.  The one place I want to go to that isn't already on our list is to the Moika Palace where I believe Gregori Rasputin was killed in 1916.  He has fascinated me for years, starting back in 1998 when I first saw the rather historically inaccurate cartoon movie, Anastasia.  It should be an amazing trip and I can't wait to write about it.

This week, we went to the Tretyakov Gallery, which is the foremost collection of Russian art in the world.  It was a incredible place and our tour guide was extremely knowledgeable about every painting and artist we viewed.  I've never found art museums to be all that interesting, but Russian art in the 19th century was astounding and I was extremely thankful we had the opportunity to visit. 


At the end of each week, we turn in personal journals to our director so we can all keep track of our growth during this trip.  We are supposed to write a cultural success and  failure that happen each day (IE a success being that we successfully ordered food without getting stared at awkwardly and a failure being that the waitress asked you a question and you just stare blankly in response).  On Thursday, I actually wrote down two success instead of a failure since I felt Thursday was one of the best days I had had here yet.  It was our first "Speak-Only-In-Russian" day so from 12:01am to midnight we were only allowed to speak in Russian.  While I dreaded it all week, when the day started, I actually felt I didn't do a wholly terrible job at communicating all day.  Sure, it took a lot out of me and I was on edge at all times, but I honestly felt that I was grasping this difficult language.  My other success for the day was that I ran by myself to Red Square from our University (about a 5 mile round trip) and I really enjoyed getting to take in Red Square and all the people on a regular day.  Such an awesome place.

Also, like I mentioned before, Harry Potter premiered for the final time on Wednesday here and I was fortunate enough to see it in Russian and English.  There may have been many changes from the book to the movie, but I thought it was a great close to all the years the world spent enjoying Harry.  I will definitely be seeing it again in the States but I hope everyone enjoyed the movie immensely. 

In a final note, I've been keeping up with the local news here in Moscow and the national news going on back home in the US.  It was reported today that a militant attack being planned to strike in Moscow was foiled and that explains the heightened tension I witnessed on the Metro earlier this afternoon.  While events and stories like these are what intrigue me, I can only hope that nothing happens this summer while we are here.  The same goes for America, as well, as there are continuous reports about Al-Qaeda wanting to strike on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in a few months.  With any luck, the world won't have to experience anything like Mumbai experienced last week and we all can remain safe. 

I hope that our visit to the Armed Forces museum on Thursday is interesting and I will try to add in a few more excursions this week so Moscow can remain interesting for everyone!  Have a great week! 

Inside the Kremlin

Of all the past experiences that took place this week, our group excursion to Kremlin on Wednesday was by far the most interesting thing I've done here yet.  Being allowed to be led through the Kremlin is like being allowed to tour a Washington D.C. that is guarded by impregnable walls.  Surrounded by twenty Kremlin towers, the connecting walls were built between 1485 and 1495 and five of the tallest towers have the Russian ruby star at their peak.  The Kremlin itself was neglected until 1773 when Catherine the Great decided to make the official residence of Russian rulers.  Napoleon also took the Kremlin for his own when he unwisely invaded in 1812.  Since then, Moscow has done many repairs and renovations to the fortress and, although there is still some going on now, it is a fantastic mix of modern and historic architecture.

Once inside the Kremlin, you automatically see the modern-looking Grand Kremlin Palace to your right and the Arsenal to your left.  The Arsenal has 900 or so cannons surrounding its base which were taken from Napoleon's Grand Army during his retreat from the city.  Nearby stand two huge medieval wonders:  the Tsar Bell, the world's largest bell and the pride of Russia, and the Tsar Cannon, a 39 ton cannon that fires 1 ton cannon balls.  While the bell was never rung, as it cracked during its making, the cannon was fired at least once and I would hate to see who was on the receiving end of the blast.

Once past all the military equipment, there are many amazing churches in Cathedral Square.  Having been fortunate enough to have seen the Vatican last year, I would say that these churches all together are as remarkable, if not more so, than Rome's churches.  The architecture is beautiful and most were actually built by Italian architects, which explains why they could surpass the churches in Italy.  The golden domes on top of Cathedrals also brighten the Square and cast a peaceful light on the area.  The fresco inside the Church of the Deposition of the Robe was actually much more impressive to me than the Sistine Chapel within the Vatican.  The entire inside of the Church is covered in detailed drawings of Church stories.  One such story our tour guide pointed out was Judas's descension into Hell.  It was a very interesting place.

We also got to tour the Armory which now holds all of Moscow's prized possessions, such as royal robes, carriages, embassy gifts, and jewels.  It was overwhelming how many diamonds and gold were used to create Russian thrones or crowns.  After our tour of the Kremlin, our group split up and a few of us blindly made our way to Old Arbat, which is a famous pedestrian street that was made in the 15th century.  Many famous Russians, such as Alexander Pushkin, lived on this street at one point in time.  After we finally broke down and ate Wendy's... we made our way up to another one of Moscow's remarkable Seven Sister buildings and tried to find a metro.  Having no idea where to go, we made our way up a different street and wandered through an embassy row, where we saw the Canadian, Jamaican, Dutch, and Finnish embassies.  After finally utilizing our Russian and asking an old couple for directions, we were back on the Metro and on our way home.   

Another interesting excursion that a few of us decided to take was to the Novodevichy Cemetery.  Buried there are world famous Russians such as Chekhov, Gogol, Petrovsky, Ulanova, Krushchev, and Yeltsin.  It was extremely fascinating to see how large and magnificent their tombstones were.  Most army generals, it seems, wanted to be buried under a full statue of themselves with their military decorations present.  At Chekhov's grave, many people had left pens there which I thought was neat.  I actually haven't seen many famous American graves in my life (Ben Franklin and Arlington Cemetery are the only ones which comes to mind) and it was just neat that so many important Russians are buried here.

One more rather interesting experience I will share is that several of us decided to go to Patriarch Ponds in the Presnensky District of Moscow.  It is an upper class residential area that has a large pond near its center, and we went to go check it out.  By the pond is a statue of Ivan Krylov, and my friend Kelly and I decided to pose on the statue for a picture.  While I was on top of it, this drunk, rambling Russian man came up to us and started directing Kelly to get on top of the statue.  All we knew how to say between laughs was "Net, spiceba" (No thank you) and could not understand what all he was saying.  He then started to shove Kelly up there awkwardly so, once we were in his desired place, we took another photo.  The man then started to follow us around the pond so we hurried to a different section of the park.  It was definitely one of the more awkward/funny things that has happened to me in a while.

This upcoming week holds a big moment for me.  On Wednesday night at midnight here, the final Harry Potter movie will premiere, effectively ending my childhood.  In all seriousness, I have to see that movie (preferably in English, but I'll take what I can get).  After the movie, with thirteen years of Harry Potter finally aside, I can focus on my adult life which currently entails learning the Russian language.  I hope everyone back home enjoys the movie as much as I will, and I hope Harry stays in your hearts forever.  I wish I could say I am kidding, but I'm not.  I'll write again on here sometime next week!  Thanks for reading!

Both Sides of the Coin

In the past week, we've come to realize that Moscow can't make up its mind when it comes to being a Westernized city or an Eastern city like the rest of Russia.  The city has done a great job of making itself unique, since no city I've ever seen or read about has such a mix of well-kept (and not so well-kept) historical buildings in addition to the budding growth of skyscrapers and economic centers that are sprinkled throughout the land.  In the US we are used to concentrations of large buildings in our cities' center, but in Moscow, there are more and more towers that pop up randomly in the outskirts of the city.  This helps to show that Russia is trying to keep up with the rest of the world, but in its own way.

Our excursions since Wednesday have also shown us that Moscow has class.  On Wednesday, we had the pleasure to meet with Russian students who speak English and ask them questions about life in Moscow and Russia.  The Russian I talked to gave us her opinion on Putin and Medvedev, which I found interesting since their political relationship is represented in America as, well, Medvedev's Robin to Putin's Batman.  She said that when Putin became President in 2000, Russia was very excited for him.  Similar to Obama's election, they thought he could do no wrong and everything in Russia would be fixed soon.  By 2004, they had realized that he wasn't the god they saw him to be, but he had still done a lot of good for the country.  In my own interest, I looked up the gains the Russian economy made throughout Putin's time in office, and it made an average of 7% gains each year from 2000-2008 and Russia's GDP (Gross Domestic Product) went from 22nd in the world to 10th.  Regardless of America's relationship with Russia and how our media portrays him, he has helped Russia a lot and the people here are grateful for that.  The woman also said that Russians do think Putin will run for President again in 2012 and keep a firm hold on his power for years to come.  To get a domestic opinion of this world-famous political situation absolutely fascinated me.

On Thursday, we got to go to the famous Большой театр (Bolshoi Theater) to see the opera The Queen of Spades.  Like I said previously, I read the Wikipedia page to prepare myself for it and I went into the theater thinking I'd know enough to survive the all Russian play, but there were televisions in the theater set aside for English subtitles, so I didn't need to focus on picking out Russian words I knew.  The voices of the opera singers were amazing, and I was impressed by how loud and long they could pronounce their notes.  Afterward, we walked over to Red Square to see the Square at night and it was beautiful yet again.  Our director said she wants us to go to Red Square a thousand times while we're here, and I really don't think I could ever get bored of it.  One thing we realized about Moscow is that the only way we won't get glaring looks here is if we wear our fancy Bolshoi clothes everywhere we go.  While a shirt with English on it will get you attention here, a group of 22 dressed up students taking the metro won't get a second glance.


On Friday, four of us decided to go to Moscow's Memorial Museum of Cosmonautics (or space museum) which was a thirty minute Metro ride to get to.  The museum was fascinating and was very comparable to the Air and Space museum in DC.  It also lies underneath a huge steel monument to space aviation and it's just a cool place to visit.  It was also located next to a Disney-esqe/King's Island theme park which was free to get into, but cost about ten dollars for all the shoddy rides and food.  It was still fun to see tons of Russians out and enjoying their weekend.


On Saturday, we took a bus around Moscow and our tour guide told us about the history of buildings such as St. Basil's, the Kremlin, and all the other famous buildings around Red Square.  It was neat to finally get the stories behind all these landmarks and I hope I can relay them to anyone who asks.  After finishing our first week of walking around everywhere and studying, we finally got a night to ourselves to just hang out and relax, which I will continue to look forward to each week we are here. 


Yesterday night, we got to take a boat up the Moskva river twice while getting to eat in the (air-conditioned) dinner cabin.  Two things I've realized about Russian food is that I don't know how Russians are adequately hydrated, given the small servings of beverage we are given at each meal, and I really like Bortsch (Russian beet stew).  It was really nice to get to see Red Square and all of Moscow's famous buildings from the river at night, and also just to relax with our group.  Hopefully all of our group outings are as interesting and fun as these first few have been.

Today is the Fourth of July!!! which is not celebrated here so our recognition of it has extended to wearing red, white, and blue.  Later tonight we are going to try and find an American restaurant or bar to try and celebrate American style and not miss out on the best holiday of the year.  I'm going to go take a nap now, but I hope everyone has a great Fourth and I'll write one of these in the next week!  Enjoy!

Russian in Russia 101

We've officially made it through the first half of our first week here!  I wanted to share a few stories I've had while trying to survive here and also explain how our classes are set up.

Each day we have four 50 minute periods from 10am to 2pm.  We are being taught four different subjects and there is block scheduling for each day.  We are learning song/video, grammar, Russian texts, and how to understand Russian media (such as newspapers, internet, magazines, etc).  The schedule makes it so we don't have homework in every class due every day, which is very welcome.  Even though I'm in the first, or beginner, level of the three OSU levels, I'm thankful for the sympathetic way we are given homework.  Our teachers are all great.  They are all very patient with us and willing to repeat things until we understand what the heck we are being asked and two of the four teachers even speak English to help us understand fully.  Our reading teacher only speaks Russian and speaks it very fast, but I'm able to just grasp what is being said so I can nod enthusiastically and say "Da!".

Now there is one story I can share that is one of the typical "Sucks to not speak the language" learning curves.  On Monday, I decided to make a preemptive strike and get a buzz cut here before the heat and the greasy Russian water turned my hair into my worst enemy as I try to focus in class.  After finding out where the nearest haircut salon was in the vicinity of our university, I headed over to the Loreal (?) salon right across the street.  When I entered, I asked for a buzz cut (streezkuh bobrik in Russian) and they nodded and seemed to understand what I wanted.  The women then called out from the backroom a flamboyant hairdresser to take care of me.  While the women gave him the razor, he instead started to cut around the sides and not shave off anything.  My limited vocabulary (Net! at my very best) prevented me from stopping him to get the buzz cut I wanted.  Instead, I ended up with a shorter haircut which will probably grow back in the next two or three weeks.  This little failure in communication also led to me paying for the most expensive haircut of my life (1350 rubles which is about 46-54 dollars depending on the exchange rate).  I was furious but also very unable to do anything about it, haha.  I am considering just finding a cheap Russian razor from a supermarket and shaving it off myself when it will inevitably start to bug me next week.

I also wanted to talk about the Moscow Metro, which is how we get to Red Square and also allows us to explore around the city.  I've been on Metros in DC and Chicago and all I can say is that Moscow really has its transportation down to a science.  It is the world's second most heavily used transit system after Tokyo's, and its 182 stations allow for easy, quick access to anywhere in the city.  We have five stops between us and Red Square and the process is so easy.  Even if our instructor had just told us on the first day to go by ourselves to Red Square and make it back by dinnertime, the flow of the stations and the people rushing from place to place would have easily taught us how to use the system.  As I mentioned previously, there were two bombings in March of 2010 on the Red Line of the system and I am actually surprised to say that it doesn't seem like many security precautions were added after the attack.  Between 6-8 million people use the system daily and I believe that Russians think, "Hey, terrorists must use the metro too so why would they attack it again?"  It's completely astounding how smoothly the system runs here but I do hope that they are a bit more protected than from what I can tell.

Tomorrow night we are going to the world famous Bolshoi Theater to see the Russian play, Queen of Spades.  Simply reading the Wikipedia page was enough to get me excited for this play, so I can't wait to see how nice the theater is and attempt to understand a significant Russian play.  We still have class on Thursday and Friday but I figured it was a good idea to write this now before my mind becomes too numb to type this on the weekend.  Hopefully I'll write this weekend and I think I'll start doing two of these each week just to keep this up!  Have a great rest of the week everybody!

A Day in Moscow

After 13 hours of uninterrupted slumber, our group got to take the Metro into Moscow.  I immediately realized I had made a huge mistake in my preparation for Moscow:  I had not bothered to look up any information whatsoever on any of Moscow's remarkable, beautiful landmarks.  Therefore most of my day was spent staring at these amazing works of architecture and art and having no idea the importance or history of any of them.  Next time I go into Moscow, things will be different. 

St. Basil's Cathedral is easily one of the most fantastic buildings you can ever see in your life.  How the Russians were able to make such a colorful, interesting building is beyond me.  It is the first thing you see as you pass underneath the Voskresensky (Resurrection) Gate, and keeps your eye the entire time you are on Red Square.  Lenin's Tomb closed right as we arrived, but it is my goal to see the body of Russia's historic leader. 

Leaving Red Square, we passed by Russia's version of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and JFK's Eternal Flame together.  A goofy, newly wed Asian couple was allowed to pass the gate line and place flowers in front of it, which surprised me because I have never heard of anyone being allowed to do that in America.  Another surprising detail about what Russians allow is that we were allowed to climb all over a water fountain sculpture of four horses.  It was a lot of fun and made me sort of wish that America wasn't as concerned with our well being. 

After a few miles of walking around the southern side of Moscow, we looped back to Red Square, did some souvenir shopping, and made our way back to the University.  It was a fantastic way to start off our Moscow stay.  Classes start tomorrow which will finally show me if I do belong here or not, and I can only hope for the best!  Talk later, пока!

Arriving in Moscow

Alright, after fourteen hours and 6,000 miles of travel we finally arrived in the Sheremetyevo Airport in Moscow.  While it was a relatively painless trip, airplane food and service was extremely unsatisfying and is most likely detrimental to my health.  I feel I must apologize for any type of incoherent speech that appears in this post, as I am waiting until it is night time here in Russia to sleep in order to get used to the time zone (we are eight hours ahead of Eastern Time Zone).  


I would like to give my first impression of the city, even though I haven't seen any of Moscow's center yet. The outer areas of Moscow from the airport to our university are fascinating, yet very worn down.  Many large buildings in the city lay uninhabited and abandoned, and there seems to be a pattern of buildings being either thriving car dealerships or small little stores.  One type of store that is surprisingly abundant here is the flower shops, or цветы shops, that are on every street corner.  Our university lies 2.5 miles from Red Square, and I'm hoping there will be a few of us who are brave enough to try and jog to Red Square and navigate our way back.  

I also want to give a few thoughts to how I currently feel about security in Russia, IE how terrorism affects everyday life and how much they actually care about it.  In the past year, there have been three major strikes in Moscow that have gained the attention of the worldwide media.  The train service that my group will take to St. Petersburg at the end of July was bombed in November of 2009 by Chechen rebels.  In March of 2010, suicide bombers struck the Metro underneath Moscow's main government buildings and then, this past January, the Domededovo airport was bombed.  The terrorism Russia faces comes from domestic rebels, not international fighters like Al-Qaeda and thus they are left somewhat alone in their struggle here.  Attacks happen here much more often than we are accustomed to back home, so these attacks barely make critical changes in every day life.  While I hope Russia does not experience an attack while we are here, it would be interesting to see first-hand how the country reacts to tragedy just as we experienced on 9/11.

Even though it is one in the afternoon here, I will post this now and try to give a better update on Moscow once we actually get to go into the city.  Classes start Monday so that will also be exciting and terrifying for me.  Have a great weekend! 

The First Blog

Hi everyone,

For the next nine weeks I will be attempting to maintain this blog as I study abroad in Russia this summer.  I hope to use this website as a place for my friends, family, and any interested watchers to keep an eye on how I am doing at the Russian State University for the Humanities (RSUH) in Moscow.  I am sure that I will have many interesting experiences, whether they be positive or negative, and I hope to share them with as many of you as possible.  

As a bit of background for anyone who hasn't checked in with my life in a while, I am at The Ohio State University attempting to double major in International Studies (specialization in Intelligence and Security) and Russian.  Having taken a full years worth of Russian at OSU already, this program will give me another full years worth of Russian credit with only nine weeks of study.  I plan to use this adventure to gage how far in Russian I should attempt to go and I hope to develop a bond with Russia's fascinating culture. 

With only one year's worth of Russian at my disposal, I admit that I view surviving in Moscow as a challenge at this point in time.  Learning how to enhance my communication with Russian natives and focusing intently on my studies are my main goals while at RSUH, and I am sure that many stories will come of it.

I do hope that my blog will encourage any readers to study abroad at least once in their life.  Even if I should have challenges while trying to learn the language, there is no doubt in my mind that study abroad will be one of the best things I've ever chosen to do.  Whether you read this from Cincinnati, Columbus, or elsewhere, I hope this encourages you to try and immerse yourself in a different culture one day and reap the benefits that are bound to come from it.

While I cannot promise constant updates, I will do my best to report everything exciting that happens to me.  Phone calls and texts are expensive so please send me an email at polivka.8@buckeyemail.osu.edu or find me on Facebook if you have any thoughts for me and this blog!  

I hope everybody has a great summer and I can't wait to come back to the US at the end of August!