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.
No comments:
Post a Comment