Sorry for the wait!

I have been so busy lately that I haven't had time to write much. That in addition to me blowing my macbook charger, but no need to worry, I found the blackmarket in moscow and bought a new charger! I'm going to begin by talking about Monday night. My friends and I thought it would be a great idea to go to a little club on Monday evening. We danced, met new people and had a great time. We took a "gypsy" cab home, which is just a random person who will drive you home. I know that doesn't sound that safe, but it is a normal thing here. The next morning, after an hour of sleep we had an excursion to the museum of the revolution. There we walked through the history of Russia seeing things from Russia's grim past to it's promising future. Our tour guide was amazing, not to mention his snazzy snake skin shoes :). The sun was shining that day, so I couldn't help but smile. The marshooka door opener said I was his girlfriend. I guess a smiling woman is a rare oddity here. The rest of the week has just been filled with homework, homework and more homework. My Russian is dramatically improving though. 
Today after class I decided to do laundry. The laundry room is the place for social activity because I met a Russian guy and he helped me with my homework. I'm done with all my homework so the weekend can officially begin. :D

Я понимаю! I understand!

The past two days the sun has finally decided to come out in Moscow. It's a beautiful and mood lifting sight! The more the sun shines, the more the temperature drops and I really do not understand how. My room is always so cold! I bought a poster today to add a little bit of decoration to my very depressing room. It's amazing how much you want to do when the sun finally shines!
I had a breakthrough in class today! The teacher kept talking and asking questions in Russian and I realized that I was translating everything in my head at a reasonable pace and basically perfectly. This was an ah ha moment for me because I can finally see some drastic improvement. There are rarely ever times in my life where I sit back and think, "Good job, Kallie," but today I realized that I am so proud of myself. Listening and understanding is extremely difficult for me and I am on my way to mastering it with Russian. I never imagined that I would come this far with Russian language and even though it is a little difficult and overwhelming at times, the reward of progress is well worth it all. 
It's finally the weekend and much needed at that. The thing is, since I'm in Moscow, even though its the weekend and I have no language classes, the lessons continue in real life situations. For example, in class I would never learn the word "таракан" which means "cockroach," but since there are allegedly some in the kitchen on our floor, I learned the word. :) The adventures never end here.
I also went to a political seminar on Thursday night. I was going to make a post about Russian politics in general but I didn't think everyone wanted to read about politics.
Well, I can mark this off as another successful week in Moscow!

Nothing much here.

I had three Russian classes today in a row-reading, phonetics and then grammar. That's 5 hours of intensive Russian language. Needless to say I was so tired after because there is nothing like learning a foreign language to put stress on your brain. Nothing too exciting has really been happening in the past couple of days. The highlight of my day yesterday was when a 1 and a half year old little Russian boy waved at me.
I read an awesome page about some of the issues that I have been going through so far while being abroad. So far I've gone through 8/10 listed. The hard/soft water thing is a serious issue here.
 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/01/17/beauty-problems-study-abroad_n_4612765.html

I dropped the Russian political economic system class that required the 20 page paper. Yes, I'm being a little lazy but I'm  here to explore, have fun and learn...not write a novel. I have a wonderful Russian literature class and since I love to read, I know I will really enjoy it. I've started reading the first required reading already called, The Life of Archpriest Avvakum and it is written by himself. It's not very long and an interesting read. According to a small review on wikipedia:

    "Avvakum's colourful autobiography memorably recounts hardships of his imprisonment and exile  to the Russian Far East, the story of his friendship and rupture with the Tsar Alexis, his practice of exorcising demons and devils, and his boundless admiration for nature and other works of God."

Feel free to read it at this link, http://www2.potsdam.edu/mausdc/class/481/avvakum.htm

Well, that is honestly about it.

My ballet review

So, as some people know, Russia is famous for ballet. Tonight I got to watch sleeping beauty. The costumes were beyond wonderful, the scenery was magnificent and the dancers did a perfect performance. I was thoroughly entertained. A guy named Je in my group was also entertained because he was clapping really really loud :).

After the ballet we went to eat at a traditional Russian/Ukraine place and they fed us so much delicious food. I now know why there is so much sour cream in Russia-because it is amazing with pancakes! I know that sounds strange but it is soooo great.
During the performance I feel like I got homesick because I started thinking about how my cousin does ballet and she would really enjoy watching this. That made me think about missing my aunt. Then there were two ballet dancers acting like cats and it reminded me of how much I miss my cat. Later that night my mom skyped me at a restaurant and then I started missing her. My dad sent me a message on facebook and I started missing him. I then started thinking about kabsa (middle eastern dish) and I started missing all my friends back home. This was just a downward spiral of homesickness.
In addition to the ballet, great food and homesickness, I was told today that I have to write a 20 page paper and I am really not interested in doing that at all. If it was a paper about Russian history then that would be awesome but no, it's about why America's economy is better than Russia's and why a lot of American businesses wont come to Russia. It could be a potentially interesting topic, but not 20 pages worth of interesting.
Everyone wish me luck :).

Never a dull moment

It's Sunday and on Sunday's I like to do laundry. I was going to ask my roommate to help me figure it out but I decided to take the adventure myself. The laundry room is on the bottom floor of my sector so it is very close to me. Before I came to Russia, the only advice that was repeatedly given to me was "be prepared to wait and have a lot of patience." I didn't think I would need patience to do a small task such as laundry, but I was very wrong. I had to wait over an hour to put my clothes in the washer because there was a "laundry room monitor" who would tell you when you could put your clothes in the washer. It cost around $2.85 (100 rubles) and she gave you the coins to put in the machine as well as the laundry detergent. I thought that was convenient. After your laundry was done washing, you put it in the dryer yourself, pay her again and she gave you the coins. There is an option to have her wash your clothes but that can take up to 3 days.
While I was waiting, I met some other Americans as well as a new Russian friend, so my time waiting was time very well spent.
So, I thought tonight I would order a pizza from the cafe and have it delivered to my room. I must have been feeling very confident or something. I didn't understand what the lady on the phone was saying, even with my best Russian she didn't know what I was saying so in the end I just hung up and walked downstairs and ordered it.
Other than that I have just been working on my Russian homework and trying to memorize some new verbs. I have class tomorrow at 9 am and I am definitely not looking forward to that.

Today was a day to remember

Today, Feb 15th, was just one of those days I will never forget. The American's got together with some Russians along with a Finnish guy (Mark) and watched the US-Russia hockey match. I can't explain what a fulfilling experience this was for me. These few hours encompassed why I came to Russia. The fact that people from all different backgrounds, world views, and experiences could come together and cheer for our countries without hard feelings was amazing. It is possible to have pride for your own country and not be obnoxious or arrogant about it. I thought both teams did an amazing job and I am happy that I was able to be in Russia at this time. I am so thankful for my new Russian friends that are so willing to help me with the language and willing to show me the Russia that they know and love. I will forever be grateful for this day.
After the hockey match we all walked to the red square and it was so amazing with all of the lights. Some of us went to Mcdonalds and some of us went to a London styled pub. We ate, drank, and talked about the game. One of the Russian guys told me how hard it is to understand us when we talk fast and that made me feel better because to me it is also difficult to understand Russians when they talk fast. We all are experiencing the same things when learning each other's native language. Every day I learn how we all are the same rather than how we are different. We're students on a limited budget. We study, learn and have dreams for the future. I'm just so happy I got to achieve one of my dreams of coming to Russia.

If America sneezes, the world catches cold.

The past few days have been extremely busy which is why I really haven't had a lot of time to write about whats been going on. On Thursday I only had one class, but then that afternoon our group met with a group of Russians (some young, most old) to talk about politics and stereotypes. Amazingly, one of the older women talked about when she was younger and she read a book called "Tom Sawyer." She always dreamed of the imaginary land in the book until one day she learned that there really was a place like that and it is called America. Her entire childhood she saw America as a competitor in sports and the race to the moon but she never saw America as the enemy.The way she described America made me want to go there myself. She was speaking like she was a young child again and by the way her eyes shined, you could tell that everything she said was straight from the heart.
Another lady spoke on how Russian women aren't so wrapped up in worrying about what Russian models look like, but they do want to look like American models. They do all these things that Americans do such as "eat hamburgers."It broke my heart that she said that because even though America is pretty great, Russia is also great as well. They are two different cultures but that doesn't make one culture better than the other. Obviously I thought Russia is pretty amazing because I'm willing to take 4 months out of my life in America to come here, explore and learn.
A lot was earned from this experience and I now have a greater respect for America as well as Russia. We have to realize that the actions of the government do not always reflect the beliefs of the people. Just because Russia and the USA have some issues on a governmental level does not mean the Russians and American people have to have issues with each other. We are all humans. We want a lot of the same things out of life; to make a comfortable living, have our children have a better life than we do and to live in a peaceful environment. Until we all communicate with one another on a personal level, we will sit 4,000 miles away from each other, watching CNN and FOX news believing whatever 'news' they happen to be selling that day.

Back to school

I started class today! Each class is an hour and a half long with 20 minute breaks in between. My first class was reading, followed by phonetics, followed by grammar. The classes had 6 people in it including me, so its very easy to get one on one attention. I feel like the classes are right on my level and they really were not to bad. The teachers come to you rather than everyone changing classrooms, so I stayed in the same room, in the same seat all day long. In reading class we were given a worksheet and we just read it together and translated. Phonetics class we were given a list of words and we read them while working on pronouncing them correctly. In grammar class we learned new vocabulary and went over masculine, feminine and neuter. It was good to have a review! Alex and I ate boneless wings and fries after class because we were not in the mood for culture exploration. Haha.
Tomorrow, I only have one class and then Friday I have 3 again. I think this semester will be just fine.
I went to the bookstore and bought a notebook. Lined paper must not be a thing here because all I can find is graphing paper. 

PS, I didn't write a post yesterday because I didn't feel like me sleeping all day was blogworthy. Sooner or later my sleeping will get adjusted.

At least I tried...

This morning I got up to take my Russian placement test -_-. Since I couldn't even understand the directions, its obvious I didn't do very good. It consisted of listening, grammar, reading and speaking. I wrote on my entire paper, 'Я не знаю' ( I don't know). I never even made it to the speaking before I gave up and said "just put me in the beginner class."I am definitely struggling with the listening part. I'm not going to get discouraged though because I'm here to learn and I'm getting better everyday. After that me and some others went to the mall and ate Lebanese food and it was actually really good. I've believe I've previously mentioned the shower issue where the water wouldn't drain for like 5 minutes. Well, my roommate being the angel that we all know she is, bought me drain cleaner. I don't believe anyone fully understands how wonderful she is. I would have never found drain cleaner here because it's all in Russian. I will forever be grateful for her helping me to adjust and figure things out here.
Not much else is really going on today. We don't start class until Wednesday and mine doesn't start until 10:50. Thank the good lord Jesus. A good tourist would probably spend the rest of the day and tomorrow out adventuring, but it has been non stop since I've got here and I think I just need to sit back and take it all in. We are going to be visiting a historical sight once a week for the rest of the trip so I think I'll see plenty of sights.

Note to self

Today I woke up and thought I would navigate the bus system since I had a free day. I have to get to the classroom building tomorrow to take a placement test at 10 am. Luckily, the first bus I got on took me straight to the bus stop in front of the language department. Walking there is around a 25-30 minute walk, which is very reasonable but I know most days I will not want to be trudging through the Russian winter at 8 am for class. After getting off, I took a little mini bus back to where all the shops were to go to Ashan, which is like a little Walmart. I bought, 10 hangers, hair ties, 2 books, a towel, and a shower caddy all for 9 USD. I then went to McDonalds and ate. A man was walking around asking people for money and it was a little creepy. My friend Alex went with me on all of these little adventures today.
On Sundays, you cant walk through the entirety of the building, so you can only get to your dorm room by entering from the outside door of your sector. Alex and I entered in sector Б rather than sector В and there was no way to walk through the building to get to the right side. A guy from China walked us through some sketchy underground doors that lead to outside and then walked us to sector B. I am so thankful that he did that because we would never have found it ourselves.
Tomorrow I have to get up early for the placement test. I need to be in the beginner class to review on the grammar. I wish I could just tell them that rather than going through this whole testing process that includes speaking. I hope they don't judge me on my southern Russian accent.

New russian friends

Today was one of those days where it was so cold outside that I just wanted to stay in bed and not move, but I made myself get up and get ready to go on the tour.

The morning started off with breakfast at the cafe. I tried to ask if it was breakfast or lunch and it turned into a complicated scenario but in the end I got an omelet. I then took the "marshooka" (little mini van bus) to the metro with my new friend Alex. We met our group, a girl from Florida, some new American students and 4 Russians. We all went and met our tour guide who gave us a walking tour of historical points in Moscow and gave us interesting information on the political situation and basically why Russia is so far behind everyone else. It all boils down to geography and Russia not having mountains or rivers like everyone else. Fun fact for everyone, did you know that currently, United Russia is the number one political party in Russia and the Communist party is number 2? I thought that was interesting information. I saw St. Basil's cathedral and it was extremely breathtaking especially with all the snow! Ivan the Terrible had St. Basil's cathedral built and it is the first Russian building with the onion domes on the top. He actually took the idea from India. There was a story that he wanted this building to be the most beautiful in the world and no one could remake it, so he cut the tongue and eyes out of the architect. I'm not sure of the validity of the story.
After the tour we all set down at an armenian restaraunt for dinner. This gave us time to talk to the native Russian's about their stereotypes of Americans and our stereotypes of them.  The interesting thing was that they had to think really hard on American stereotypes and only came up with one which was that Americans were going to steal the Russian people. This was a big contrast to the 20+ stereotypes that Americans have of Russian people. We are so quick to think that Russians "hate" Americans but in reality they all don't. The Russians actually invited me and 3 others over next week for pancakes and we all exchanged numbers. Since one of my mental life goals was to meet a Russian person and become friends, I did that x4 today. I ate potatoes at the restaurant. I'm still trying to figure out the foods to eat. :)
After eating, we all took the metro back to MSU and here I am. I've had a struggle trying to get on the internet because I kept getting some warning page in Russian. After pushing buttons for an hour I think I might have fixed the situation. Fingers crossed.

кофе досвидания

Today was a great day! I started off the morning with a coffee with milk and sugar which they refer to as a cappuccino and I also got eggs with tomatoes and their version of pancakes. I've decided that the language barrier is not that hard to break through if you can get creative with what you know. I wanted to get my coffee to go and I knew the word for coffee but not for "to go" so I said "кофе досвидания" which means, coffee goodbye. She understood.
We then all met at the Метро Университет ( Metro University) and got off at the stop Библиотека (Library). There we went to the Kremlin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Kremlin
I saw some pretty amazing cathedrals with beautiful and historical paintings. The best part was it was snowing so we really got the full Russian effect. After, a few of us went to eat at an Irish pub and then went to a pretty interesting bar to watch the opening ceremony of the Olympics. The cool thing was, the bar/restaurant had multiple American flags and a sign that said God Bless America. This was right in the main part of Moscow. Like I said before, the stereotypes are just NOT true. I have to say, America really represented at the opening ceremony.

After that, we took the metro back home and I went back to my room. The small steps and improvements that I'm making in communication as well as navigation is really motivating to me. I didn't have to even find my student ID today because some students went and brought back everyone's.
I'm looking forward to language classes starting next week so I can improve on my Russian more and more.

Breaking Stereotypes

After one of my group members posted a status about stereotypes about Russian people, I felt the need to also address the issue as well. It's easy to pass judgement on people when you are being fed information from the media. If all you have ever known about Russia is from American news channels and TV shows, it would be easy to think that Russia is a terrible place with rude people who are mean to foreigners. I figured that when I got here I was going to be mistreated and Russians wouldn't help me and that they wouldn't smile. I can agree that Russians do not smile as much as Americans do but the rest is ridiculous. Any time I have been to a restaurant or have been lost and needed directions, Russians have been willing to help me in any way possible. Even though their English isn't very good and my Russian is very bad, they still manage to help as much as they can up until actually walking me to where I need to be. I had heard so many negative things about Russian people that when I got here I was shocked. I am having problems with the money because I don't know my numbers very well and every cashier has been patient and helpful with me.
I think it is very important that students study abroad in lesser explored areas because now I have a new outlook on Russia that I can take home and share with others. By doing that, I will be contributing first hand information on the truths about Russia rather than accepting everything that the American news posts as fact.

My roommate is a gift from God.

 Today we didn't get started till around 2 pm. We took our first trip on the metro. The doors on the metro close without warning and they close with extreme force. It's very scary. Other than that it is very convenient to use. We went to a tourist street in Moscow and it was definitely aimed at Americans with English music playing, the statue of liberty and mickey mouse. A drunk, old, Russian man kept trying to talk to us. We then went to red square and are going back tomorrow to go inside and actually tour. I have to go get my student ID tomorrow which is about 2 miles away and then meet at the metro station all before 2:30. I know I can get to the metro station but getting to the language department to get my ID is another story. Today, after the metro ride, I got into a little van which is used as a type of bus here and got to the university all by myself.
That was really the main excitement of the day. I came back to my room and took a nap. I needed to put roubles on my phone so that I will have minutes to call our director tomorrow when I am lost in Moscow looking for my student ID, and my angel roommate helped me do that. She is from Japan and speaks some English.
Prayers that I don't get lost tomorrow.

I like the view from here

I'm finally in Moscow! It was not as easy getting here as I had hoped. There was a huge snowstorm that caused a lot of flights to JFK airport to be cancelled so I ended up getting rerouted. I left the Louisville airport at 5 pm on Monday then flew to Minnesota then immediately borded the plane to Amsterdam then immediately borded the plane to Moscow. I arrived at Moscow about 4 am US time. There were no layovers, just constant travel. When I got to the airport I realized I was definitely in for an adventure as I tried to find terminal D arrivals. Eventually after using all the Russian I knew, a Russian guy walked me to the elevators. I found where I needed to be.

The ride from the airport was nothing less of exciting. Russian drivers drive like they are shown on youtube; CRAZY. The traffic was extremely backed up and it took us every bit of 2 hours to get from the airport to the dorm. I got into my room after a long drawn out process and I soon realized the lack of wifi. At this point I was tired, STARVING, dying of thirst and going through internet withdraws. We were given phones that can have minutes put on them so I was excited to call home when I found out the entire phone was in Russian. I really questioned my sanity and choice of coming to Russia at this point. My roommate came back from Sweden at around 6 am Moscow time and she was so sweet and helped me find where to get food and after I ate and was in a better mood I figured out the phone situation. Carbonated water is very common here and is sold right beside bottles of regular water. (I learned that the hard way.) I definitely have the word for non carbonated water memorized now.

Today (Feb 5th), the group got together and waited a long time for our passports to be registered with the university, then we went and took pictures for our student ID's, we then walked to the language department, walked around Moscow, went to a little mall and wrapped up the day at a sports bar that served boneless wings!

For everyone who is concerned for my safety, I promise, this has to be the safest campus in the world. The university is gated and in order to get through the gate you have to go into a little house and have your documents checked by very intimidating security guards. Once you are in the gate, in order to get into the area of the dorm rooms you have to have your documents checked by another security guard. Russia is very secure in the sense that they know who is in the country, where they are, and when they better be gone. I kind of like it.

I know that everyone is concerned about the weather and right now at 10:00pm it is 21 degrees. It honestly does not feel that cold outside because there is no wind. I was walking most of the day and had no problem. Some sidewalks are a mixture of snow and mud which can be slippery, but the majority of the sidewalks were pretty clear.

I'm having a good time so far and I'm excited for classes to start soon. We have a metro tour tomorrow, walking tour on Saturday and then a placement test on Monday.

The Rollercoaster Ride

I keep reading about how studying abroad is like a roller coaster with ups and downs. I hadn't really experienced any feeling other than pretty good about the preparation for the trip, that is until tonight. When I got accepted to the program I was so excited because things were starting to move forward. I wasn't even sure that I would be able to study abroad this semester because I started the process so late. After the initial excitement things just kind of stayed the same and I didn't have any change of emotion. The past week I've felt like I was in a dream. Russia seems so far away and for some reason I can't believe I will actually be there very soon. So here it at 1 am on Feb 2nd so that means I will be heading to Moscow tomorrow. This dream that I've had for so long will actually become a reality and in theory I should be overjoyed, but that is far from what I'm feeling tonight. I think I'm scared and I don't know what I'm even scared of. It might be just a fear of the unknown. I'm one of those people that is over prepared for everything. Knowledge is not only power to me, but it is comfort. If I know what is going on, what to expect and a few random facts about something then I'm 100% comfortable. Don't get me wrong, I've done my research, took a semester of Russian, went to my Russia club meetings and read my Moscow tourist guide but I still have no idea what to expect. I have absolutely no expectations because I just don't know what expectations to have. I'm hopeful that this nervousness will pass soon because the rest of today is totally dedicated to visiting my family and doing some last minute Russian studies (I feel like I'm cramming before the ultimate test.)
I intend to keep my goals in mind and remember all of the reasons that I fell in love with the idea of Russia to begin with. I know these next four months will fly by and I am going to spend that time embracing, experiencing and learning all that I can.

Ready or not, Russia, here I come.