Flying Home

After spectacle we had a couple hours before we had to be to the airport for our long flight home.  I had to repack my suitcases because everything wasn’t going to fit.  So I repacked my suitcases and then had a really nice meal with Anya and Oleg.  Oleg and I talked about a lot of things and it was really nice.  Though we have different ideas as to what is acceptable I respect him and his opinions.  One of the last things I did was give Oleg a Utah State Aggie hat.  He really liked it.  He thought he looked really cool in it.  He then decided that he needed to get me a hat.  So he went to his closet and found a hat.  He ended up giving me a cowboy hat.  He said that the cowboy look really worked for me.  Anya agreed.  That is why I wore a cowboy hat from St Petersburg to Salt Lake.  It isn’t like there are many places that you can put a cowboy hat while you are traveling.

Getting to the airport was pretty awesome.  My host dad works and so it would have been inconvenient for him to take me to the airport at 3 am so he took me to the apartment at midnight.  Then at 2:40 am Alla comes to pick up the 4 girls at the apartment and me.  With her came another car with Megan.  Another car was supposed to be coming but Alla got a phone call saying that the other car wasn’t coming and we still had 3 big suitcases and me that didn’t fit in Alla’s BMW.  Alla wasn’t sure what to do because its nearly 3 am and it would take too long for a taxi to come.  So she just walked down the street and found two random guys and asked them to take me to the airport with the luggage.  It was an adventure.  Only one of the pieces of luggage fit in the trunk because of the stuff the guy already had in his trunk and so the other two pieces of luggage were in the back seat with me.  The ride was nice.  It felt very much like my many taxi rides on my mission where I was squished in the back of these little Russian cars with luggage and with techno music blasted from the back speakers of the car.  It brought back pleasant memories.

Munich airport.  Looks like a happen' place doesn't it?

Once we were at the airport and getting checked in it kind of sucked because they would only allow us to have 1 carry-on item.  That meant that I had to check 3 bags and so that meant that I got charged for 2 extra bags.  It was expensive also!  But I do have to say though that it was very nice to only have my backpack because then I didn’t have to drag my other suitcase behind me.  But it wasn’t worth the money I paid to have it checked through.  After that the trip was uneventful.  We flew from St Petersburg to Munich.  Sat in the Munich airport for a while.  Flew from Munich to Washington.  Sat in the Washington airport.  Then finally made it home in Salt Lake.  Once we got into to SLC though it was a little hard to find our parents because there were like 7 missionaries that were on our flight with us.  There were a lot of people at the airport.  It was a long trip.

Review

I have had a hard time writing this blog post.  This is the second or third time that I have started.  The previous time(s) I didn’t really like what I had written and then when I reread what I had written it wasn’t what I wanted.  Hopefully this time will be better.

I have been back from St Petersburg for about a week now.  I have gotten back to normal life, if you can say that.  We celebrated Christmas.  That was great!  On Christmas I was looking through my pictures from the last couple days in St Petersburg and I began to miss the kids incredibly much.  Emphasis on the word ‘began’.  As the other ILP teachers can attest to I didn’t seem all that attached to the kids when I was there.  At the spectacle, which was the culmination of the progress that the kids had made throughout the whole semester, everybody else was crying but I looked like normal.  Thinking back on my feelings at that time they were these.  The idea that I wasn’t going to be seeing these kids in a week hadn’t sunk in.  On the way back from one of the last times we taught I remember people were talking about how that is the last time they were going to teach the kids.  I guess I tried not to think about it.  I didn’t want it to happen.  So I waited until there was nothing that I could do about it, I waited until I had already left Russia, to think about how I would never see those kids again.

I do miss the little kids that I taught for nearly 4 months.  Some of them I taught 4 times a week and others I only taught twice a week.  Well, that was when they came.  It was kind of weird how there would be periods of time when some of the kids wouldn’t come.  Then after that break they would return as if nothing had happened without any explanation.  But what would the kid have said?  Teaching was kind of difficult and near the end it was getting harder and harder to think of things to do with the kids that they would enjoy and also speak English instead of Russian.  There was a big problem with that.  But once I saw the ending show it made it all worth it.  When Kostya showed up in his penguin costume that was legit it made me so happy.  Then to see Igor with his white tux made me proud also.  Then it was also sad to see little Nika, who sometimes excluded herself from the group and didn’t want to participate, with huge crocodile tears because she didn’t have any costume for spectacle.  But then I gave her some reindeer ears and she cheered up.  Spectacle was also great because we heard each one of the children say a short sentence like: “I have an orange beak.” “I pull Santa’s sleigh.” Or “I waddle like this:” It was precious.  Then after all the kids had said their lines and sang all the songs then they were released to go to their parents and get some cookies and juice at the back of the room.  Then after they got some cookies then they came back to find the teachers and, with the help of their parents, gave them gifts.  I was completely surprised by the gifts that were given.  These kids and their parents are so very gracious.  I received gifts of chocolate, calendars, mugs and bells.  It was hard to remember who gave which gift because I just wanted to give the little kid a hug and thank them for their present and for being in my class.

All of these were gifts.  Alina gave me the little bag.  Alla gave the nesting doll. Then I don't remember who gave me the mugs.

Then after the primary kids were all finished then the level kids came in.  They did their performances and they were pretty good.  Some were better than others.  But it was still a moment of pride to know that I helped to teach these kids some English.  Then again the same thing happened when the levels had finished performing.  The kids would find their teachers and thank them for teaching them and then also give a little gift.  It was incredibly nice and very thoughtful.

Level 2 taught by Ty

Level 3 taught by Sydney

Half of level 5 taught by Sydney

We were all very proud of the kids and how well they performed and how they had progressed this semester.  But what added the frosting to the cake was that Ludmilla, the school principal who did everything she could to make sure that spectacle went off well with costumes and organization, said that this spectacle was better than all the other spectacles.  That it was лучше всех “better than the rest.”

Weekend trip to Finland

When we were planning for our week long adventure Jessica did some research about some things to do in Finland.  One of the things that she found was the home of Santa Claus.  It is in the north of Finland.  We didn't end up doing that for the week long adventure but she still wanted to go.  I decided that that would be pretty cool and so I looked more into it.  Long story shorter.  We made the plans and were on our way.

We decided to take a bus from St Petersburg to Helsinki because it would cheapest and it would still work with our time schedule.  Our microbus left at 11 pm St Petersburg time.  We were off and going and we were thinking that things would be good.  We got to the Russian border and things started to happen.  It was at the "butt crack of dawn" as Katie might say and so the details are kind of hazy.  But we got stopped at the border.  Our bus was searched and then searched again.  There was a dog that was brought in even though the dog didn't smell anything.  Then the driver drove away leaving all of us just in the building for passport control.  We waited for probably an hour and twenty minutes. Then finally he came back and we got in and drove to the Finnish border.  Things got better.  We were only detained for like 40 minutes.  There were 3 guys, at least one of them was Greek but I guess he also had a Russian passport.  Well they got through passport control but then a border officer saw something suspicious and so then those three were detained.  40 minutes of sitting in a freezing van later we are on our way again.  We drive for maybe 10 minutes and we stop again.  This time to stop at a 'duty free' store.  We were making great time.    All this time we were thinking, "How are we going to make our train that leaves Helsinki at 6:30 if the bus ride is supposed to be 8 hours but we got stopped for 2 extra hours.  The (slightly) comforting thing was that the woman worker said that we would make it there in time.  Then fast forward past all the time in the uncomfortable bus bouncing around all the time and being cold for much of it.  It was only after dropping people off at the airport and then making our way to the train station in the center of Helsinki that I saw a clock and then was pacified because for some reason Helsinki was 2 hours behind St Petersburg even though they are in neighboring time zones.  Well I wasn't complaining because that meant that we didn't miss our train.  What we have done if we had missed our train?  You know I don't really know.  But I am glad that we didn't have to find out.

We arrived in Helsinki to early for anything to be open and so we were left with the little cafe in the Helsinki train station for breakfast.  I had hot cocoa (which wasn't very sweet) and then the musli that I had brought with me.  Then we sat on a very comfortable train.  It had everything.  I had a table to put my laptop on.  I had electricity and internet.  The train traveled very quickly and very quietly.  I would love if all travel was that comfortable.  Plus I got to play Plants vs Zombies.  We were on that train for like 6 hours.  Then in Oulu, Finland we switched to a different train to Rovaniemi.  This new train was not as comfortable and didn't have a electricity or internet.  Oh well.  We were only on that train for 2 hr and 40 minutes.

I was not disappointed in Rovaniemi.  When we got there it was snowing and it snowed much of the time that we were there.  Rovaniemi is not a very big city.  It may be the capital of Lapland Finland but that doesn't really mean much.  It was still a small city.  We arrived and quickly found our hotel.  Not without Jessica almost falling.  Though I am not really sure how she didn't fall especially her being the one to wonder who was going to be the first one to fall because there was snow and ice everywhere.  We found our hotel Aakenus but almost froze on the way there.  We got all checked in and then decided what we were to do.  We were going to go to SantaPark but we didn't know how to get there really (in theory we did) but we were also cold and hungry.  We asked the reception girl for suggestions to eat and she suggested this traditional Finnish restaurant.  She said that we needed a reservation and so we had her call for us.  So then we walked from the hotel to the restaurant and saw the main square on the way.  A good adjective to describe the city is quaint or cute.  After passing the town square we found the restaurant and realized that it was really out of our price range.  We went into a mall and found a little place to buy a donut to hold us over before dinner.  We ended up buying a buffet dinner from the hotel.  After dinner (meatballs with mashed potatoes and baked potatoes, steamed vegetables, salad, bread, and a ginger snap dessert) we went back to our room.  Jessica had me turn on the Christmas cartoon Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and the Island of Misfit Toys.  I fell asleep during that because I had hardly slept on any of the trains.  After the movie I was excited to go to the sauna.  There were different times for men and women in the sauna and so I went before Katie and Jessica.  I liked the sauna though I didn't spend much time there.  I felt like I did a poor job at regulating the heat.  So then I came back.  I told Katie that she should go and she did with Jessica.  Then not very long afterwards she came back saying that she doesn't like saunas.  But it was part of the Finnish experience and so I am glad I encouraged her to go.  We then went to sleep.

The next morning (Saturday) we ate buffet breakfast at the hotel and then made our way to Santa Village which is different than SantaPark.  They are actually 2 km apart.  Right next to Santa Village there was a husky park.  They had all sorts of huskies of all ages.  They were really cute.  You could even go on a sled ride with them but it was 25 Euros for 500 meters.  Not very worth it.  So we just paid the 6 Euro entrance fee and saw all the huskies and the other people on the sled.  When we got cold we went into this little building with a fire and some hot drink and cookies.  The drink was a juice and it was pretty good.

Then we went into Santa Village.  There were a bunch of places to buy souvenirs.  We also went and saw Santa Claus.  We could get a USB drive with the video and the pictures for 49 Euros (again not worth it).  But it was cool to be able to meet him.  In the room that was next to the one that Santa was in there was this giant turning wheel that was turning.  It had to do with the earth's rotation and there was an on and an off button.  So Santa can turn on and off the rotation of the earth.

The other cool thing about Santa Village was that it was on the border of the Arctic Circle.  So we crossed the Arctic Circle a bunch of times.  Awesome!  We also saw some reindeer.  I was surprised at the size of the reindeer.  They weren't very tall or very big.  If you can imagine those miniature horse except with antlers on its head.  That is what a reindeer is.  Surprised! I was.

We then decided that we had seen everything at Santa Village and that it was time to go to Santa Park now. I wasn't aware but it was actually a 2 km walk.  But we enjoyed the walk because it was through the Finnish forest and the trees were close and there was snow everywhere.  Stunning!  We get to SantaPark to find out that it is in a hill.  They actually had this hill that they had removed a lot of the insides of the hill and put SantaPark in there.  We were kind of contemplating not going because we would be there for like 3 hours or so and that was all.  It would be expensive to enter (29 Euros) and we weren't sure that we would be able to do all the things that we wanted to do.  We then go to the cashier and tried to pay.  But there was a problem.  So every one has a chip in the credit or debt card but none of us have that.  Unfortunately at that time the card reader wasn't working and so they could only accept cards with chips in them.  So we were denied entrance because we couldn't pay.  So then we stood outside SantaPark and waited for the bus to take us back to city center.

We went back into the mall and the grocery store there and got some food for the train ride.  Then we went and found the train station again.  It really wasn't any big deal that we had been 3 hours early for our train because we just waited in the train station.  I was able to charge my laptop and read the book that I am reading.

At the appropriate time we got on our train back to Helsinki.  The train was like our second train from yesterday and so didn't have all the luxuries of the first train.  It didn't matter as much because I wanted to sleep most of the way but I wasn't able to because they wouldn't turn off the stupid overhead lights.  They were on the whole 12 hour train ride.  It was horrible.  I eventually was able to sleep but not very well.  Jess seemed to sleep the whole train ride.  She seemed to be sleeping a lot of all 3 of the train rides.  Eventually we did get off the train in Helsinki.  While we were going to work things out with finding our bus stop back to St Petersburg I got a phone call from the company asking me if I was still coming.  I said that we were and got things worked out.

We then left the train state and went to Senate Square.  I am not sure that it is the senate building or if it is a cathedral because it said that day (Sunday) there was no tourists from 9:30 am - 11:45 am.  A reasonable time to hold Mass.  We just looked around the building and the market in front of the building.  Then proceeded to see other parts of Helsinki.  We enjoyed that part of Helsinki very much.  We bought shirts in a souvenir shop and then found an information place that had warm drink and ginger snap cookies.  People in Finland like their ginger snap and their warm fruit drink.  Information showed me where we should go to catch our bus and then we were off.

We just had to walk down this one street.  Then continue on that street when it branched.  Then take a right and we would be there.  It was actually that easy.  It was then that we really realized how different this trip to Helsinki looked than last time.  This time there was snow all over and last time there was no snow.  The last thing we did in Helsinki was go to Subway.  I got me a meatball sandwich because I have never had a meatball sub from Subway and wanted to try it.  When we left the mall that Subway was in we realized that Finland has cool malls and Utah doesn't have cool malls.  We entered the mall on one side of the street and then went down to Subway and then came up on the other side of the street.  It was really cool.

We easily found our bus and got on.  It was the same thing.  A micro bus that was full.  There were about 20 people to start out with.  I say start out with because half of them jumped bus midway through.  Just like our other bus ride it wasn't uneventful.  We started going and hadn't been going for very long and then we stopped.  What the actual story was I am not quite sure but this is what I think. We supposedly ran out of gas.  The driver left the van and didn't come back for ever.  There was another bus (like a tour bus) that stopped and was allowing people to come on board.  I heard that they were charging an arm and a leg to go though.  We decided that we didn't really have money and so we would just stick it out with the van because the driver had to come back some time.  The driver did come back maybe 5 or 10 minutes after the other people had left.  They did whatever the needed to to get things running.  We went up a hill right ahead and then on the left was a gas station and we went and stopped there to fill up on gags.  But one difference between this group of people and the other was that they didn't all go into the store.  Only a few did and they were quick.  It seemed that the bus driver wanted to make up lost time and was going rather quickly.  When we talked about it we really wanted to catch up to the bus that there other people were on and say hi but we didn't see them.  We may have seen their bus at the border but we were sure.  Crossing the borders was the easiest thing.  Both the Finnish and the Russian borders were really quick.  We waited only a short time at bother of the borders and nobody got held up.  It was awesome.  We were then on the bus for a long time.  We left Helsinki at about 1 pm (3 St Petersburg time) and then got to St Petersburg at about 11 pm.  This included that more than an 1 we were sitting in the van waiting for the driver to come back.  We got back to the bus stop and then we had the metro ride back to our normal stop.  Then I had my normal 30 minute walk from the Metro Station to my apartment and I was home free.  I got back about 11:30 pm and immediately looked for something to drink and then something eat.  My host family did not fail and had something in the fridge for me for when I came home.  I was very happy to be back at home.

Overall the trip was a very nice one.  I really enjoyed it.  I decided that I enjoy traveling by train.  You just have to sit there and it is more or less comfortable.  When I say this I have in mind more comfortable than a bus where you are bouncing all over the place and being jerked back and forth and side to side.

Thankfulness

One of the things that I really liked about the blog that I read before I started my blog was how simple this person made their blog.  I have not done that so far with my blog.  Most of my posts have been long and detailed.  This one won't be.
As I am riding on this (very comfortable) train through the Finnish country side I am really grateful for what I have.  I am grateful for the opportunities that I have had.  I just look out and see this snow covered wilderness/forest that looks so wonderful.  I would try and take a picture but it won't turn out.  It will be blurry and the feeling won't be there.
This morning we took a (rather uncomfortable) bus from St Petersburg to Helsinki.  Our microbus was stopped at the Russian border forever because who knows what.  But they brought a dog in and had the driver drive away for at least 40 minutes.  Then we get to the Finnish border and some of the people on the bus were detained.  Maybe they didn't have the proper visa paperwork.  We didn't have any problems really.  Then even with these delays we still had plenty of time to get to the train station to get on our train.
As I started writing we were passing this place in the forest that had some green houses and they looked perfect.  Very much like those in the cartoon "Frosty the Snowman".   But that passed very quickly.  Now we are stopped in the town Seinajoki with a couple more hours on this train.

Life is good.

The Last Couple Weeks

So my adventure here in St Petersburg is going to come to close fairly soon.  No I am not leaving tomorrow to go back to America.  I still have two week here in St Petes but they are going to fly by I know it.  It only seems like last week that I was a world traveler again going to Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, and Latvia when it was actually like 3 weeks ago.

What's left?

There is still another weekend trip.  This time to the North of Finland.  Hello Santa Claus!  I am super excited for that.  It is going to be absolutely gorgeous!

Next week we are going to be doing a lot practicing for Spectacle.  It will also be my last full week in St Petes.

Then the following week will be a short week.  Monday will be spectacle for levels.  Tuesday will be the day for primary.  Then early Wednesday we will already be on our way back to America land.

State Russian Musuem

I was again faced with the decision as to what I was going to do this Friday afternoon.  The reason it is such a decision is because it is the only day that after lunch I go out on the town and do things.  Monday through Thursday I am preparing for the classes that I will be teaching that day.  That and I don’t want to be in the middle of town and then not make it back in time to teach.  That would be really bad.

Today I wasn't interested in what the other teachers were doing and so it looked like I was going to spend the afternoon alone again.  I was going to go to the Hermitage again but then I remembered that I wanted to go to the State Russian Museum.  So I asked Jessica where it was and then I went.  I was waiting around the Pushkin Statue and there were the people dressed up in costumes so that you can take a picture with them.  I was working things out with Katie and stuck around there too long.  They targeted to and talked to me and asked to take my picture with them.  Long story short.  I got my picture taken with the lady.  She said that it would be 100 rubles.  Well I didn’t have 100 rubles.  I had 1050.  We took the picture and then when I went to pay them I said that I didn’t have 100.  They weren’t going to take my 1000 because they didn’t have change and so they ‘gave me a gift’ and only charged me 50 rubles.  Ha!  Think you can swindle me.  Didn’t work.  At least not like it was supposed to, and I still got the picture.

The Barge Haulers

I really liked the State Russian Museum.  Though the Winter Palace is more detail and intricate than the Mikhailovsky Palace I think I would say that I liked the State Russian Museum better than the Hermitage.  There were still some cool floors and the ceilings were awesome.  The other thing that I liked about the Russian Museum was that the paintings were HUGE!  There were some that took up entire walls.  20 feet tall and 50 feet wide!!  It was incredible.  I don’t know very many paintings but there was one that I did remember.  The painting was “The Barge Haulers” by Ilya Repin.  There was one more that looked familiar but I didn’t know where I saw it before.

The one I wondered where I had seen it

Use the lady in the picture as a scale as to how big this painting was

I also liked in the Russian Museum the exhibition “folk art.”  There were a ton of regional Russian art pieces.  There were toys made from bone and wood carvings.  There were also many pieces of pottery and ceramics.

Wood Combs

Pottery

The other exhibit that I really liked was “Art from the end of the 19^th and 20^th Century Art.”  There were a bunch of modern art pieces and some older pieces.  There were realistic pieces, abstract, and everything in between.

Hermitage Round 2 down Nevsky Prospekt

Hermitage floor

Last Friday was the first Friday that we haven’t had Russian language classes.  So what did we do?  We each did our own thing.  I went to the Hermitage.  I got there at like 3:30pm and then left when it closed at 6pm.  I enjoyed myself a lot.  The part that I enjoyed the most was in conjunction with something that Sydney has said.  She said that people should enjoy their music as they walk around.  I was listening to Natasha Bedingfield and Neon Trees while I was in the Hermitage and I was feeling the music.  So I danced around in the Hermitage.  There weren’t very many people in the rooms that I was when I would dance.  I started being a sneaky dancer just doing a move or two and then stopping.  But then I listened to the music more and looked less at the people around me. (There weren’t very many anyways.)  I have now been in the Hermitage for about 5 hours.  I still have more to see!

After I left the Hermitage I decided that I would just walk down Nevsky Prospekt because it is the biggest street in St Petersburg and it has a lot to offer.  Can I say that it didn’t disappoint.  I have three stories:

I walking down the street and then I thought that the lady on the street ahead of me was a hooker.  Why?  She was sending a lot of signs.  She was wearing a skirt with black tights.   The also had her coat unzipped.  Something that tipped me off that she was a hooker was that she was standing in the road itself trying to flag down cars.  Then whenever a taxi or a bus would drive by she would drop her hand and motion for them to move along.    Then the thing that made say, “That is a hooker.” Was that I did see a car stop.  He rolled down his window.  There was a short dialogue/conversation.  Then the car drove away and the lady was still there.  The car got 10 feet away and the lady flipped the car off.  Must have been a bad offer.

Second story.  I was just walking by and there are a lot of stores and there is some good window shopping.  For this particle window it was advertising Techno Gym: The Wellness Company.  They had a girl exercising  in the window.  She was walking on a treadmill listening to her ipod and was super excited.  I walked by and she smiled and waved at me.  Then as I was walking by there was another person coming from the other direction and she pulled out a camera to take a picture.  The exercising girl posed for the camera and so I decided that I wanted a picture also.  I was thinking “work it girl!”.

Third Story.  It starts to get dark kind of early.  It was getting dark during the last story.  By now it is dark.  There is no more sun.  It was definitely night.  As I was walking I saw a couple cars stopped with their hazards lights on.  I was walking on the left side of the street so the closest cars were coming at me.  When I got closer to the cars I noticed that there was a group of like 4 Africans in a circle.  Now I don’t know what sort of business they were doing but I don’t know that it was legal.  The reason I saw that is because I totally saw a gun in one of the hands.  That was enough for me to not pay any attention to myself and keep walking forward just like the flow of the crowd.  That is the first non-cop that I have seen that has had a gun. 

Theater

Canal

Week 'Vacation' Adventure: Riga

We made it to Riga, Latvia!  Hurray!  After some minor hiccups with the Russian Border control we got everything worked out and nobody got kicked off the train without much hope of continuing on with our adventure.  I call it an adventure because since when is it relaxing to travel in foreign lands where they may or may not speak a language that you speak.  So far we have found people that speak English and so things have been really easy.  Of course there is the time that Marci and Courtney got yelled at in Latvian because they were playing around in a tree that was probably 200 years old and had moss and what not.  But then we just walked away and nobody was the wiser.

When I think of Riga there are a couple things that I think of.  Here they are:  I think of Old Riga which is a section of the city in the middle where there are cobblestone streets and cobblestone sidewalks that are skinny like alleyways.  There are also a number of open squares where either the Soviet history is prominent or the Independent history is seen or many other parts of Latvian history.  There are also a lot of street musicians.  Whether it is the saxophone player in the walkway under the streets or the band on the Latvian Square that makes it hard for Marta (our tourguide) to share her knowledge about Latvian history or the opera singer that is kind of close to McDonald's or the accordion player by the Freedom monument.  It is kind of difficult for cars to drive on the cobblestone streets so there are bike taxis all over the place.  There are young guys that ride these taxis around and offer people rides.  They even play music as they drive by.  Tonight I overheard Gungnam Style by PSY on one of the bike taxis.

A little bit about Latvia and about Riga that I learned from Marta on the tour that we had.  There are about 700,000 people that live in Riga which is a fair proportion of the 2 million that live in all of Lativa.  Riga is the center of learning, history and everything important pretty much.  On many of the churches here in Riga there are roosters.  These roosters are good luck for Riga.  Supposedly each morning when a rooster crows all of the bad omens and demons are dispearsed and this leaves all the good spirits in Riga.  Another animal that is seen on top of at least one building in Old Riga is a cat.  There was a fight between guilds many many years ago.  A very rich person then bought another building on Old Riga and put a cat on top of his building.  But to offend the people of the guilds he put the cat's butt to them.  Outraged, the guilds forced the other guy to rotate the cat.  Resolution?  The cat was turned.

An important monument, if not the most important monument to a Lativan, is the Freedom Monument at the top of Old Riga.  Latvia was an independent nation in the early 20th century.  The Soviet Union overtoke Latvia pre-WWII.  During WWII, Latvia was controlled by Nazi Germany.  Post WWII, Latvia was then controled again by the Soviet Union.  The Freedom Monument was erected during the first indepence and was not torn down while under Soviet or Nazi occupation.  During Soviet times the three stars respresent the three Baltic States in the arms of a Soviet woman.  But now signifies Fatherland and Freedom, at least that is what the inscription "TĒVZEMEI UN BRĪVĪBAI" which is on the front of the monument means.

Last thing to talk about is the hostel.  This hostel was awesome!  The workers at the hostel were all very helpful and they spoke English which helps things a lot.  Not to mention they are all very good looking.  The hostile was also very well placed.  It is in Old Riga which is where a lot of the really cool stuff is.  Another plus is that there is breakfast every morning from 7-10am.  That means that there is cereal with milk, bread for toast with butter and jam, tea and coffee.  That is very nice.  The one drawback has been the other poeple in the room with us.  Last night they came in at like 3am, drunk and were trying to find some stuff.  They made a lot of noise but that was the only interruption.  I have high hopes for tonight.  Speaking of sleep now is a good time for me to actually go to sleep.

Morning trips turned to the Circus

As Katie recently posted we go on morning adventures.  They are pretty great.  Katie and I go.  Jessica is usually with us.  The way I am going to do this post is look at the pictures on my memory card since the last time I added pictures because I posted a blog entry at the same time I uploaded pictures.

The first two pictures are of the day that it was really foggy.  Like incredibly foggy.  This a picture of the apartment building that is like right next to mine and you can hardly see it.  You can't even see that the building goes to the left also.

My next pictures were of the time that Katie and I went to Kazan Cathedral on Nevsky Prospekt.  We had talked to Jessica earlier about going there but then she ended up meeting us afterwards.

Kazan Cathedral was built at the beginning of the 19th century and was modeled after St Peter's Basilica in Rome.  Sveta told us earlier that the builder or somebody wanted to build another cathedral like this one but on the other side of the street so that there would be a nice place to gather.  That way the cathedrals would be mirrored by Nevsky Prospekt.  The mirroring cathedral was never built.  The cathedral was built in memory of the Russian victory over Napoleon in 1812.  It was really interesting to look at the pillars around Kazan Cathedral.   They were in various stages of weathering and restoration.  We actually arrived at the cathedral at like 10:30 am which was right in the middle of the morning service that they normally have there.  It wasn't like we interrupted anything but there were priests there.  There was also singing that was going on that normally isn't going on when you go to a Russian Orthodox cathedral.  We stuck around to take a look at all the different things on the walls and took a gander at the ceiling (because they are almost always decorated) and then went outside to meet Jessica.

Outside of Kazan Cathedral Katie and I met up with Jessica and then went to St Isaac's Cathedral which is right down the street.  When we went to the ticket office we showed our student cards and we got into the cathedral itself for free.  Then to go up the stairs on top was only 150 rubles so we were like okay.  So we went up this long circular staircase to the top and looked at St Petersburg from the top of St Isaac's Cathedral.  Sveta took us to see St Isaac's Cathedral the first Saturday we were here and said that we should really go up there because it is really cool.  Up at the top it was really windy.  There didn't seem to be a lot of wind on the street but once we went up there was a lot of wind and it was cold.  But it was totally worth it!  You could walk all the way around on top and so they had markers saying that this way was east and that way was west.  It was very informative.  It also really helped with connecting where things are here in St Petersburg.  One of the things that we kind of miss out on by taking the metro everywhere is the path actually to our destination.  For example: when I would ride buses on my mission I would know specific landmarks that were 5 minutes away or halfway to our destination.  Here it is just like we walk into a hole in the ground in one part of the city then we appear out of a different hole in the ground in a different part of the city and so trying to navigate St Petersburg by car would be really difficult.  Occasionally, I would be able to recognize some buildings but not really know how to get from one place to another.  I digress, St Isaac's Cathedral.  From being on top we were able to point out some more things that we still need to visit.  Part of the problem will be finding out what they are but it will be easier because I know in which direction from St Isaac's they are, which is really helpful.  We should really get on that.

The ceiling at St Isaac's cathedral was very similar to the ceiling at Kazan cathedral.  So I took one picture for both places.  Mostly I didn't want to take a picture while the ceremony at Kazan cathedral while they were having their ceremony.  It was in St Isaac's that I realized that the 'no pictures' signs that I thought I have been seeing are not actually 'no picture' signs but they are 'no flash' signs for cameras.  After that then I wasn't sneaky trying to get pictures at St Isaac's.  I took some pictures but my batteries were dying so I didn't take very many pictures.

One of the main doors at St Isaac's Cathedral. It isn't actually used but it looks really cool.

The next group of pictures was from when we went to the circus.  Now I have never been to the circus before. Here in Russia it is very much a kids thing.  There were a lot of kids in the audience.  But I loved the show anyways.  I especially loved all the acrobats and the people that were jumping and juggling.  There were enormous feats of strength also.  The first guys (orange ones) had to be incredibly strong.  It quite literally blew my mind.  I loved the circus and it made me want to go once I go back to America and see the difference.  However the part that I didn't really care for was when the lions came out or the poodles.  The poodles were kind of scary/freaky to look at and the lions looked really skinny.

 After the circus we were all hungry and so we went in search for food.  We walked down the street and I knew immediately where I wanted to eat.  It was right there in front of me.  I had heard a rumor while I was on my mission that there was a Carl's Jr. here in St Petersburg but I had kind of forgot about it.  But every time I would get off the metro at Nevsky Prospekt I would always see the advertisement.  The advertisment would perk my interest but we were always going some where else and so I never sought out the address.  Well, we happened to walk right by it.  So, naturally, I went in.  I went in alone but it was worth it.  I got a Western burger.  It tasted really good.  The BBQ sauce actually tasted like BBQ sauce.  It was awesome!  Then they were playing good music.  When I left they were playing "Where'd you go?" by Fort Minor.  Much better than the elevator music that was at the Teremok that everybody else went to.

Then the last picture to add is the bird that we made for one of my primary lessons.  It was unfortunate that when we actually made the birds though I couldn't find the googly eyes and so they didn't look as cute.  But they still liked the birds.  Success!

Victory Square

Today Katie, Jessica and I went with Sveta to Victory Square and the biggest cemetery in the world.  It was very much like our morning adventures but better because Sveta was there to be tour guide and explain the things that we were looking at.
Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me.  I brought Katie's though.
On Victory Square there was a big obelisk and a circle wall where there were bunch of plaques.  Sveta didn't really read them or translate them but I took pictures of them.  Again with Katie's camera though which I have not at this time.  But what Sveta did talk about was the blockade.  Leningrad was under siege for 900 days from 1941 to 1944.  It was forever and a lot of people died.  There were approximately two million people in Leningrad before the war and then after there were less than a million.
Sveta emphasized that one of the things that they can be really proud of was even though during this time they had little to nothing (125 grams of sawdust bread a day) they would still go to school and be cultural and have the opera and the theater.  This greatly affected the German soldiers.
Victory Square is in the south of the city.  We then went to the north of the city to go to the cemetery where most of the people (both civilian and military casualties) were buried.  There were more than 490,000 people that were buried in that cemetery.  I didn't see any individual headstones.  Instead there were marker stones that had a year, either a star for military or a hammer and sickle for civilian, and an oak leaf (which signified there determination to fight even to death) and then a number.  If a person had documentation that their relatives had been buried there then they could find out exactly where their relatives were buried but other than that things were kept quiet.

Moscow Conclusion

Sunday morning we got a quick breakfast at McDonald’s and then headed to the Kremlin.  There aren’t very many places that you allowed to go in the Kremlin but the armory is one of them.  In the armory they have a lot of relics from the 15^th to the 20^th century.  There were Bible covers and other religious paraphernalia and regular plates and goblets. We also passed antique clothes worn by royalty, Maria Fyodrovna was incredible skinny when she was coroneted, and a couple thrones and crowns.  I was impressed by the stagecoaches and the sled that royalty would ride in.  They were very big and looked somewhat comfortable with their big cushions.

Before we went into the Kremlin we saw our first “forever flame” of the day and our first one in Moscow.  Also situated by the Kremlin are some gardens and some fountains.  Russians do love their fountains.

We then met up with everybody else and we were all together for a little while.  We first walked on top of a mall that we had been to earlier which was pretty cool.  Then we walked down the street in search of the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts.  The problem was trying to get across the street.  It was a street with six lanes of traffic that seemed to be constantly coming.  There really didn’t seem like there was a break but Megan just wanted to run across.  That would have been really dangerous!  But instead of probably dying we went around the corner and actually found the place we were supposed to cross the street.  It was better this way because then we actually found the museum.  If we would have j-walked then we would have not found the museum probably.

I really enjoyed the Pushkin Museum.  It was a special collections art museum of paintings and figurines.  We all started out together on the main floor and on the 3^rd or 4^th painting I asked Marci, “So what do you see in this painting?”  She replied, “I really like these kinds of paintings.  This one is very calming with its color.”  Then we all seemed to go our own ways.  Some faster, some slower.  I enjoyed myself a lot in the museum.

There was an old guy (like 65 years old) in the coatroom that took me of guard.  He asked if any of us spoke Russian.  Everybody looked at me and I said I did.  So then he asked what some English word was in Russian that I don’t remember.  Then he asked what a Russian word in English was.  I translated the word to mean ‘be quiet’ but the dictionary he looked at said ‘shut up.’  At first I slipped and told him that that was a more vulgar way of saying it but then said that it was stronger.  ‘Be quiet’ was more pleasant to hear and he should say that.  I was totally taken by surprise because I didn’t expect a guy that old to speak English as well as he did.

It was at this time that the other group left to go to the open market and buy souvenirs while Katie, Megan, Jessica and I stayed close and went to the Cathedral of Christ Our Savior.  It was a magnificent cathedral.  We didn’t go inside because we were pretty sick of being inside but we saw it from the outside and it was really cool.  There were a lot of statues on the outside walls that we could see and were really cool.

Right there close there is a statue to Emperor Alexander II.  The sign says paraphrased, “He got rid of serfdom in 1861 and freed millions of peasants from many centuries of slavery.  He held many war and legal reforms for the instigation of self-ruling government and farming practices.  He fought many wars in the Caucasian area.  He freed soviet people from the ‘osmansky’ occupation.  He died on March 1, 1881 as a result of a terrorist act.”

We walked across this bridge to get a better view of the Cathedral of Christ Our Savior and plus to look at the city over water.  That was really cool.  Then we happened to run into a couple clear boxes that had various things from Italy.  There was one with a motorcycle and Vespa. In another there was a sweet Ferrari.  There were also two big heads; one made of grapes, the other made from macaroni.

We saw a couple more churches and then found the metro so that we could go somewhere else in the city.   I tried to ask a couple people where the nearest metro stop was but they just kept walking.  Then I asked this other guy with a little kid and he told me to keep walking straight until the light and then turn right and I would see it.  We rode the metro a little ways to Park Pobedi (Victory Park)

When we got off at Park Pobedi there were a bunch of exits and so I was looking out the exits and I saw this big bridge and I thought, “Oh! That’s cool!  I want to go see that.”  We went and saw this arch.  It was called the Triumphal Gate of Moscow.  It was about this time that I thinking this is awesome.  I don’t really need to go to Europe now.  I bet the Arc de Triumph looks a lot like this and so I have seen that and the Hermitage is comparable to the Louvre.  I am glad I came to Russia.  The Triumphal Gate was situated in the middle of a really busy street.  There were four lanes of traffic on each side that seemed to ALWAYS be flowing.

Also at this metro stop there was this huge monument to World War II.  It was at this time I kind of felt bad that I don’t know very much about WWII or The Great Patriotic War as Russians call it.  This was definitely one of my favorite places that I visited here in Moscow even though we only spent an hour here.  Marci, do you remember when Sveta was talking about the place “Poklonnaya Gora?”  Well this is where it was.  I didn’t realize it until I was looking at my pictures and read some of the signs I just took pictures of.  Poklonnaya Gora literally means “bow down/ worship hill.” So it is very important to Russians also.

I am getting ahead of myself.  There was a huge open square and on the left there was a big hill.  On the hill there was Moscow in flowers and a huge clock.  The really cool thing was that the clock actually worked!

Walking towards the huge obelisk on the left were monuments to each of the forces that fought in the war and the years in the middle.  For example there was the Black Sea group commanded by Admiral F. S. Octyabersky and the Baltic group commanded by Admiral V. F. Tributs.

Approaching the obelisk was amazing!  It was incredible tall!  Looking on Wikipedia it says that the obelisk is 141.8 meters tall, which is 10 cm for every day of the War.  In front of the tower is the Coat of Arms for Moscow.  Saint George is depicted being victorious over a dragon.  On one of the pictures you can see that the dragon has Nazi/Fascist swastikas and that the dragon has been cut into many pieces.  It showed that Russia won over Germany.

On the close inspection of the obelisk you can see different cities that were were very critical to the victory of the Soviet Union; i.e. Moscow, Leningrad (St. Petersburg), Kiev, Minsk along with many others.  They were the same ones that were given stones at the Kremlin and hung on banners in Chelyabinsk around Victory Day (May 9^th).

After admiring the obelisk I saw the second ‘eternal flame’ of the day.  I love this idea.  A symbol to remember WWII each Russian city has a flame that is supposed to be allows lit.

Then I went down some stairs because I saw this monument and thought it would be interesting.  It was!  It was also kind of disturbing.  I didn’t know what it was all about when I was taking pictures. Upon returning home I asked Oleg, my host dad, and he explained it.  He said that this monument was to remember the repression of Stalin on the Russian people.  He then had me look on Wikipedia to learn more.  On Wikipedia the article was called the “Great Purge” which was when Stalin purged the government of all the people that didn’t or wouldn’t see eye-to-eye with him.  The plates behind the people say “Let it be a sacred memory of them that will remain throughout the centuries.”

Another monument at this same place was to remember the countries participating Anti-Hitler Coalition.

Yet another reason I really like this part of Moscow was that the trees were absolutely beautiful.  The leaves were changing and there were wonderful greens, yellows, oranges and browns.  I also loved how far you could see.  There were plenty of apartment buildings but they were quite a ways in the distance.  I felt like I could farther than I have any other place in Moscow which made me feel less trapped in.

But then it was time to go back to the Hostel so that we could gather our stuff, go to dinner and make it back to our train at 9:27.

It wasn’t until I was leaving the hostel that I finally took a picture of it.  The hostel was called “Za Za Zoo” and they had a wall that you could write a nice note on.  Megan wrote two things.

For dinner we went to the restaurant Mu Mu.   It was like a buffet. There was a bunch of prepared food laid out and we just pointed what we wanted and then we were given some.  Usually you try and get combos so that it will be cheaper but I was super hungry and plus I was going to be on a train so I got everything.  Salad, soup, main dish, dessert and strawberry drink.  The salad was lettuce and tomatoes with olives and a nice dressing.  I had borsch for soup.  The only thing I was disappointed by was the chicken.  It didn’t taste that good. But the mashed potatoes and the chocolate cake were excellent.  Then my strawberry drink had actually strawberries in it and that was awesome.  In the picture with my food I am sporting my new Kremlin museum t-shirt.

We finished eating and then had a little bit of time before we needed to be at the metro station to meet up with the other group because they went to get Thai food.  We went to a convenience store and bought a couple liters of water which I was glad for.  Then with a little extra time we fast walked to GUM to try and find us some “I love Moscow” shirts.  But because we were running low on time and we weren’t finding any place where we could buy the shirts.

Getting on the train back to St Petes was kind of stressful.  My group ended up getting to the train station at like 8:45 which was a normal time.  But the other group (Marci, Courtney, Sydney and Ty) hadn’t come yet.  I was worried and so I stayed outside the metro stop at the train station until they came.  I wouldn’t feel good about just leaving other people in Moscow to fend for themselves to get back to St Petes, especially if I could have helped them.  When Jessica and Megan were freaking out that we needed to get on the train I thought of a Disney Movie.  “Ohana means nobody gets left behind.”  So everybody stuck it out because Megan, Jessica and Katie didn’t know where to go and so they had to wait for me to follow.  Then I saw the other group and I made sure that they saw me and then I was off.  I am a pretty good speed walker I have found out.  We walked straight but then hit a road block.  We were going the wrong way.  In front of us were the suburban trains that went only a short distance.  Then one of the security guards asked us where we were going and I said to Saint Petersburg. He pointed us in the right direction.  We passed through the door we were just about where we needed to be.  We were on platform 4 instead of 5 and so we made that quick walk and then made the longer walk to the 12^th wagon.  We got on the train and still had like 15 minutes or something.  Maybe only 10 minutes.  But we made it.

I had a top bunk going perpendicular to the direction of the train and that was SO much better than the train ride to Moscow.  I didn’t immediately go to bed but instead wrote down my comparison between Saint Petersburg and Moscow.  Then once I did that then I went and found Marci, Courtney and Sydney because I knew that they would still be awake.  I showed them my comparison and they approved.  Then we talked for a while longer.  Courtney then asked me if I would talk to the conductor lady to see about moving beds so that she was closer to Marci and Sydney.  I asked but the conductor said no.  It was then at that time that I laid in my bed and went to sleep.  And what a glorious sleep it was.  I was ready to go once we arrived here in St Petes at 5:15am.

We then found our way to the metro, waited like 20 minutes for it to open, and then rode that home.  I then walked to my host family’s apartment and got on the internet because by then it was like 6:30am and I thought that they would be getting up soon.  It took them longer to get up then I expected but I was happy with what I was doing.

I didn’t take a nap the whole day because I really didn’t need it.  I am not counting the 5 minutes that I was asleep at the old kg when we were waiting for lunch after teaching.  Then at night I didn’t go to bed until 11pm because I was talking to Oleg about my trip to Moscow.  You might ask when I caught up on my sleep.  I may have gone to sleep at 11pm but I didn’t wake up until 10:30am the next morning because I don’t teach in the morning on Tuesdays.

I believe that about sums up my trip in Moscow.  I was very glad that I went.  I learned a lot in Moscow.  Dima was a huge help and I am grateful for him.  I also left Moscow with questions and I have been able to get some answers to these questions here in St Petes.  I still have lots to learn though and am glad that I still have a couple more months to learn even more about Russia.  Russia definitely has a rich, fascinating history.

Moscow Day 2 - Thank you Dima!

I included some of the things that Dima taught us and so if it gets boring then skip to the next paragraph.

Saturday we stayed in the two groups.  Marci, Sydney, Courtney and Ty were all too tired to leave with Megan, Jessica, Katie and I because they stayed out really late. I worked things out with the former Sister Zakharova so that her husband would give us a tour and show us around Moscow some.  Dima was incredible nice and knew a lot of things.  He was the one that told us about Minin and Pozharsky above.  He also was able to take us to the open market so that we could get some souvenirs.

On the way to the market we passed these apartments/hotels that were built for the 1980 Olympics that were there in Moscow.  I realize now that I only took a picture of one of the buildings.  Dima was great on the market!  He was able to get us better deals on the things that we bought and was able to help us avoid fake products.  He would say things like “It’s no good.” or “Bad product.” “It’s a good price.” “It’s expensive but it’s a souvenir.”

There was a time when I got separated from everybody else and he was kind of worried for me. But then Megan got separated from the group and he was even more worried because Megan doesn’t speak Russian like I do.  We found her and then Dima helped her buy her souvenirs.  Dima helped everybody.  He saved me from buy poor quality shoes on the market.  I did buy some gloves and a present for my mom at the market.

Dima also prevented me from buying shoes on the market.  I currently walk around with holes in my shoes and so they get water inside very easily.  Well this weekend it has rained a lot.  So my shoes were wet.  I was picked out and they had ‘new’ shoes and new socks on me but we were beginning to discuss prices when Dima showed up.  He then talked about how you can’t trust the quality of things on the market.  There are no guarantees.  Dima said that he only buys clothes abroad in Europe.

After the market we saw what Old Moscow used to look like.  I have only a couple pictures because my batteries were just about dead.  Between that and the fact that it was raining I didn’t use my camera.  But I took a couple pictures on Katie’s camera.

From there we went back on the metro to go see another statue.  This statue was to the men that worked in the factories and the women that worked in the fields during Soviet times.  It was huge.  Dima had a lot to say about this statue.  It was built in Paris but then it was taken apart and brought to Moscow.  If you look really close at the statues of the man and woman you can tell that there lots of places where the pieces are coming together.  Paris, at one time, wanted to buy the monument but obviously that never happened.

At this time Dima told us a soviet joke about how Soviet people are tricky/ sneaky.  One of the things that made it funny was that he would say a line in Russian and then I would translate it for Megan, Jessica and Katie.  So the joke was told a line at a time.  Here is the joke.  During the cold war America and the Soviet Union both set off atomic missiles.  They meet in space and had the following conversation.  Soviet bomb said, “Hi.” American bomb said, “Hi.” Soviet, “Where are you from?”  “America.  Where are you from?”  “Soviet Union.  Let’s have a toast to meeting each other.” So then the Soviet missile pours two glasses of vodka and they drink them.  Soviet asks, “Where are you headed?” “Soviet Union.  Where are you headed?”  “America.  Look at us being good friends.  Let’s toast to our new friendship.”  So the Soviet missiles poured another glass of vodka for the American missile and the American drank it up.  Then the Soviet missile said, “It’s time for me to be going now.” American replied, “Me as well.”  Then the Soviet missiles proposed one last toast in hope that things would turn out well.  The American missile agreed and drank another shot of vodka.  Then the Soviet missile said, “American missile.  You aren’t looking too good.  Let me take you home where you can recover.”  “Alright.  Take me home.”

Dima then also gave the following analogy to compare Americans and Russians.  Americans are like peaches.  They are immediately sweet and tasty.  But if you eat more and more than you get to the big pit in the center.  Russians are like oranges.  You have to peel them and clean them before you can eat the fruit.  Then there are small, little seeds on the inside.

The last place that Dima took us was the center of the USSR.  This was the place where each of the different republics had a building and a shield on the main building.  There were 15 countries in the USSR but on the main building there are 16 plates.  That is because when the building was being constructed negotiations were being made with the Bulgaria but an agreement was never reached.  So now there in a empty plate which was supposed to be for Bulgaria.  Behind the main building there was a fountain with 15 women representing each of the republics in the Soviet Union.  This place did not function for governmental purposes because, as we all know, the Soviet Union broke up and so now they don’t need a building for each of the individual republics in Moscow.

Also on this complex was a rocket commemorating being the first rocket to go into space.  Dima was saying that the whole goal of Soviet Russia was to catch up to America and then pass them.  So this monument to space exploration was a shining moment in that attempt.

Before Dima left us he gave me some suggestions on places that we could go that would be worthwhile.  I really liked his suggestions and so those were the places that we went to.

The first place we went was Arbat Street.  Arbat Street is this really famous walking street where normally there would be street performers and all sorts of interesting people.  Unfortunately it was raining when we were there and so there weren’t performers and there were less people who were just as interesting though.

For example on the escalator leaving the metro before we got onto the street we saw a group of four girls about 15 years old and two of them were in costume. One was in an eeyore costume and the other in a bear costume.  We were behind them a couple steps on the escalator.  Then in front of the girls a couple steps was a group of boys about the same age.  One of them cat-called to the girls in costume and in response she just turned away from them and flipped them off.  I was surprised because that is a very American thing to do.  Russians have their own way of flipping somebody off but she choose the American way to do it.

On Arbat Street we found a Wendy’s.  It was so good!  I got a classic single with cheese and onions, a cup of chili, and a chocolate frosty.  I really liked it.  At this Wendy’s there were 3 floors.  You order on the main floor and then there is room in the basement and upstairs to eat.  Megan got her food first and decided to go upstairs to eat and so I followed.  When I walked up the stairs I passed this table with four girls about my age talking English with a guy.  I was immediately intrigued because the English sounded really good.  Then I sat down and overheard the girls’ voices more.  Then Megan said, “Wouldn’t it be funny if they were ILP teachers just like us?”  I thought in my mind that their English is too good to not be American and they don’t have strange accents so I don’t think they are from England.  So I finished my cheeseburger with onions and then went and talked with them as I at my chili.  Turns out they were some of the ILP teachers from Moscow that just happened to be eating at Wendy’s when we decided to go there.  How serendipitous!

We talked with them for only a couple minutes and then Megan and Jessica wanted to go and so we went down to the basement to go to the bathroom.  We then saw the other teachers again on our way out the door because they had come down the stairs by then also.  That was really fun.

We picked a bad time to leave though.  When we walked out it was raining.  As we walked farther down Arbat Street it just rained harder and none of us had umbrellas so we were all getting really wet.  We finally got smart and found some cover and made a plan.  The plan was to go back to the Hostel and look up some more things to do for tomorrw.  We walked back and the rain started to die down.  By the time we got to the end of Arbat Street it wasn’t even raining so if we would have just waited the 5 minutes under cover like we saw other people doing then we could have continued walking down Arbat Street.  But that didn’t happen.  We got back to the metro station and changed our plans anyways.

Dima explained that when Lenin had the metro built the original architects had three lines in place.  The lines were going this way, that way and the other.  Lenin was drinking some tea or coffee at that time and put his cup on the plans.  When he did this there was a circular line from the cup on the plans and so the architects thought that Lenin wanted a fourth circular line.  So that is what was made.

I really liked the metro in Moscow.  It wasn’t forever deep like here in St Petes. I liked that because then it doesn’t take forever to get from the surface down to where the trains are.  Another thing I liked about the Moscow metro was that the metro stations were really well decorated, especially the circular line.  That is why I really liked the circular line.

Once we got back to the metro station I expressed a desire to ride the circle line all the way around and look at each one of the stations.  I really enjoyed it and really enjoyed taking pictures of all of the stops.  Megan, Jessica, and Katie might have gotten bored with it but they didn’t have anything else to do so they were out of luck.  At every station I would hurry off and look around and then I would start taking pictures of all the things that were special about that specific station.  I would try and do all that before the next train would come.  Usually the trains would come every minute and a half to two and half minutes (1:30-2:30) so I had to be quick.  I didn’t always make it but I just had to signal to Katie to either get on the train or to wait.  If nothing else they would go to the next station and then I would come on the next train but that never happened.  I took more than 120 picture of the metro in the two hours we went around the 12 stops on the circle ring.

Dima told two stories about jokes that old missionaries would play on new missionaries.  The first one was that they would take missionaries from the office to the circle line of the metro and tell them that they had a long train ride ahead of them.  Then they would have the mission ride the line around two or three times.  Each time around is like 45 minutes so they would be on the metro for more than 2 hours while their trainers would come to the office.  Now the new missionary wouldn’t know that they didn’t actually go anywhere but would walk out and thing that they are a ways away but that’s not true.

The other story was that an old mission would ask his companion if he wanted to go to St Petersburg.  Then they would sit on the circle line for a while.  Then they would exit and announced that they were in Saint Petersburg when they were actually still in Moscow.  The sticker we found that said Moscow – Saint Petersburg was actually on a straight line and so was as ironic as it could have been.

After that busy day we went back to the hostel and ran into the other group.  We all wanted to animatedly recounted our adventures of the past two days since we haven’t seen very much of each other.  I was interested to hear what the other group had done and seen and hear how it went.  This is because when we are all together in a group I frequently take charge because I speak Russian and can read signs to get where we want to go.  I do not mean to demean the other group.  I consider them adept explorers that can find things also.

After we recounted our adventures then we talked about ideas and some plans for the next day.  Jessica really wanted to go to Tchaikovsky’s museum.  The only problem was that the museum was an hour and a half train ride away and being as we had a limited time anyways I didn’t want to have all that travel time.  The museum would have been really cool but there were other things closer that we could do.