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.