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!
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