Russian manners

So we Americans have this perception of Russians being evil, rude, everyone gets pick-pocketed, etc. I just wanted to make a few remarks to oppose that concept (granted I may be jinxing myself and will probably get mugged tomorrow). I was inspired by this YouTube video I stumbled upon on Buzzfeed of the infamous Russian dash cams showing random acts of kindness. Maybe mute the music if it's a little too corny for you...it was for me. But I did love this video.

Random acts of kindness I've seen that I probably wouldn't see too often in America:

• Every guy here holds the door open for you. If a guy sees me coming through a door while he is, he always steps out of the way and holds it for me (and women in general).
• Younger people almost always give up their seats for older people on the metro.
• Personal experience...our group was on the metro during rush hour, and the doors on the metro don't stay open very long. I was the last to get off because I was stuck in the crowd and my whole group was already off. In complete panic I saw the doors were closing (this was my first time using the metro so I would've had no idea what to do had I been stuck on there alone. Also, the doors slam shut; they do not re-open like elevator doors do when you stick your hand between them). A group of guys saw and literally kept the doors pried open for me so I could squeeze through.
• They go out of there way to help give directions. Obviously I'm not completely fluent in Russian, and don't understand everything. Well, I don't understand directions in English half the time either. Last week, one woman went out of her way to walk a few of us to a restaurant we were trying to find. Yesterday, a nice gentleman in a Starbucks got on his phone to use google translate to help my roommate and I figure out which metro stop we wanted to get off at and pulled up a map of the metro to make sure we understood.

My point is, they aren't all Bond villains (again, probably jinxing myself).

Bus excursion

Today we went on a bus excursion to the center of Moscow. We had a tour guide who spoke Russian, so Tatiana translated into English for the beginners during the first part of the excursion, and I helped translate for the second. Moscow State University is unbelievable. Think somewhere along the lines of Hogwarts. Stalin built the 7 Sisters (7 skyscrapers) because he thought there needed to be more tall buildings. He originally wanted what is now Moscow State University to be a hotel, but after the war they needed to boost the amount of educated individuals so it became a university instead (pictures below). Down the street from Moscow State University, there is a panoramic view of all Moscow. Gorgeous.

We saw where Medvedev works, the US Embassy (which is really pretty, but I didn't get to take a picture. Maybe tomorrow), Bolshoi theatre, and a few other landmarks on the way to the Red Square. Words can't describe Red Square/the Kremlin, and my pictures just can't convey how astounding the area really is in person. There's also a gigantic mall called ГУМ (pronounced goom) by the Red Square. Imagine Rodeo Drive x1000 and put in a castle. And behind Goom is, of course, St. Basil's Cathedral.

Russian encounter of the day: Two Russian guys around our age kept looking at me, smiling. They said, through giggling: Privet.... ochen krasivaya....ti pahozha na Rihanna. They thought I looked like Rihanna. Well, no skinhead/racist encounters yet...so I'll definitely take it. We talked for a little bit, they asked where we're from, what we're doing here, and we parted ways.

Too tired to really think of anything else to say...getting up at 8am tomorrow to go back to the center and actually go in St. Basil's.

Russian ice cream>American ice cream.

Here is a small portion of the inside of Goom.

Obviously this picture needs no caption....



Here lies Stalin...and Lenin.



The square was blocked off by fences; there was a concert last night because it was the last day for all the schools.



Impressive, da?



The outside of Goom...a mall. I wasn't exaggerating.



Entrance to the Square.



Bolshoi Theatre. We'll see a ballet there later in the trip.








The above three pictures are from the outside of a war museum. We didn't go in...but the monuments were great.



View of Moscow. The round building is where the Olympics took place.



The center section of Moscow State University.



This was this morning, our first totally sunny day (blue building)



The view from our floor again--sunny version. It's a little prettier this way.


Спокойной ночи (Spokoyni nochi, goodnight).

В Кладбище (At the cemetery)

Yesterday we went to a famous cemetery a few metro stops from our university. Novodevichy Cemetery. The cemetery used to be a convent for the wives of Czars. Long story short, when Czars would get tired of their wives, they would announce that she has honorably decided to "devote herself for the rest of her days to God" and then send her to this convent. So happy it's the 21st century.

Stalin decided that all the famous people of Russia should be buried in the same place in order for people to visit them, so he turned the convent into a cemetery, dug up all the bodies of the most famous Russian artists, writers, composers, generals, etc. and buried them in Novodevichy. I can't remember who it was now, but one famous person and his wife were buried next to each other in another cemetery. When workers went to remove him, they saw that their skeletons had been intertwined in a tree's roots. One tree was growing out of their graves, connecting them for years to come. How sweet is that? 

So, naturally, the workers uprooted the tree and took as much of his skeleton as they could and left his wife there. Stalin...great guy. I'll hand it to him, though, the cemetery is beautiful. So here are some pictures! I accidentally uploaded them in reverse, so the pictures start at the end of the day.

My roommate and I decided we had enough Russian experience for the day, so we went to the market by the Academy and bought some "wine tasting foods" and The Laughing Magpie Shiraz. (heard of it, dad?) Good stuff. Potato stuffed bread gets tiring after a while...

Boris Yeltsin's gravesite.



Gorbachev's wife's gravesite. Apparently he visits her every week (Trent, you could pitch a tent and wait for him??)



You can't really tell, but there's a bird's nest! It was feeding time.



Khrushchev's gravesite.



Just looked cool with the hands holding a 'heart'. He was a doctor.



Famous bassist. Apparently he was quite the diva.



Stalin's wife.








Outside of the convent. Couldn't exactly escape.

Our glorious dorm!

Our spacious room.

My comfortable bed.

Our colorful window view.

Our beautiful bathroom.

It calls to me.

So here is my favorite building on the trip so far (not saying much since it's only been a few days, but still). I feel like there's just so much to this building. It was built to be modern and fantastic, but now it's deserted. I'll take more pictures from different views later, but you get the idea. If you hadn't noticed based on my pictures, it has been extremely foggy and grey here. This morning we couldn't see out our window due to the fog.

In other news... yesterday I had my first class (my class goes from 9-10:50, and it's just me and the professor). It was intimidating of course at first, and I left feeling a little discouraged even though the professor is extremely nice. Fortunately, to boost my confidence, later that day I went out and about with a beginner and successfully helped her with several transactions. We came back and met up with some of the others and attempted to watch the latest Die Hard (which takes place in Moscow). It was AWFUL. I love corny action movies (Expendables), but Die Hard was just unbearable. So inaccurate! Well, except the horrendous driving and traffic. LA traffic is a dream. But isn't that part of the charm of going to other countries? They help you appreciate things you normally wouldn't in your own.

So halfway through the movie I decided time would be better spent studying. So I studied for a little bit and fell asleep. Exhausted. I have never felt so completely dead mentally and physically.

So far today is going well. Class was a lot better. Fluency is improving...comprehension is getting there. Not sure what is in store for me this afternoon, but this evening at 6:30pm I'll be attending a political science lecture with my professor. She just wants me to get used to hearing the language more.

I'm still not used to all the staring.

Пока!

View from my floor

Orientation

So I made it through my first day! Not sick anymore, but I'm extremely tired. We met with Tatiana (head of the USC Russian Dept) at 10am this morning. There's a Старбакс Кофе (Starbucks) on campus...so that was a miracle. She showed us where our classes take place and we met our professors. Mine seems very nice...her name is Elya.

There's this blue building across from campus. It's one of the "ghost" buildings. Basically it was funded by the government to be built as an addition to the campus, but when perestroika happened, the government couldn't afford to fund it so it is deserted now. It looks really cool/creepy. As soon as I get a camera I'll take a picture of it. It looks like its made entirely of glass and parts of the glass on the roof are broken and caved in. (Chaterra, reminds me of the first episode of American Horror Story...definitely a creepy building, who knows what lives in there hehe...) There is a guard outside to stop people from going in, but apparently you can pay him off to go in/live in there. The other students here are very intrigued by us. As soon as they realize we are speaking English they whisper and giggle to each other. One guy held up his fingers in the 'peace' sign and yelled peace at us. In the elevator one student asked where we were from and we said California. He said "Oohhh land of chickens!" Obviously no idea what he was talking about until he explained, and we realized he meant duck face pictures. (for those of you reading my blog who don't know what duck face pictures are, just look it up in google).

After orientation, we walked to a bank down the street to get rubles. Then we took the metro to go to a mall. Metro is really easy to take, although I don't know how anyone who can't read Russian would do it. The mall seemed very American, aside from all the Russian speakers. Johnny Rockets, Victoria's Secret, Calvin Klein, etc. There are a lot more McDonalds/fast food here than I would think. Bought a throwaway phone to contact professors/other students while here and some groceries. Helped the beginners order things in Russian and translated for them. Tatiana had to leave us at the mall to go home so I helped get us back through the Metro and what not.

As for the Russians. I don't know if they really don't speak English or if they just really don't want to. It's not in a rude way at all, they just like seeing us try to speak/encourage us to try. My roommate and I ran into a maid on the way down to the lobby this morning, and I explained (in Russian, because she doesn't speak English) that my roommate speaks absolutely no Russian at all, but she kept trying to talk to her anyway...amusing for me. I'll buy a camera soon!

More later...

Made it!

Well that had to be the most miserable traveling experience...stomach flu+12 hour flight couldn't be a worse combination. So far I have not been able to keep down food or liquid since Saturday. Fortunately, there's a медицинская клиника downstairs (medical clinic). Also, my phone somehow just turned off even though it was fully charged. Tried the button combo thing, but nothing is turning it on. There's also a very loud thunderstorm outside!! What is all this?! Staying optimistic, though. It will be a funny story at some point...

Not there yet...

Здравствуйте! (Zdravstvootye/Hello)

Less than a week before I venture to Mother Russia. Just thought I'd make my blog now to get in the mindset of journaling daily and to procrastinate more important things like studying for my last two finals. So welcome to my blog! In a week it will have much more interesting content. Hopefully it will feel like you are in Russia with me.

-Катя (Katya/Kate)