Yesterday was a bit of a slow day. We woke up in the morning and just layed around. We read, we ate, we talked, we slept some, but mostly, we waited. We were waiting for Katya to come and fix our internet, because by now we were all dying for some home connections. At around one in the afternoon the internet was fixed, and we were all busy check facebook, blogging, writing emails, and showing each other the person we just couldn’t quite get out off our minds.. Haha ;)
After the excitement of this had passed, we got our stuff together and headed out into the big Moscow, our first outing. After leaving our apartment, we can walk just a few blocks and find a metro station. The one by our house is slightly ghetto. (But only compared to the extravagant ones closer to the heart of the city. Which, I really wish I could take a picture of, but if I did I might be locked up in jail from a bomb threat..ha) I LOVE riding the metro. Its so full of interesting people, and when I ride it, I feel like I’m on the train ride at Disneyland! Haha J Also, I feel very legit. when I scan my card to pass the gates, and stand in the train without holding on AND not falling over, I feel as if I’ve done this my whole life. Granted all the locals probably can see right through my victories, but nonetheless, I quite like it. J The only thing that scares me though.. is there are frequent, well not SUPER frequent,but bombings. Tis a little scary. Thus leaving you sizing up your neighbors to see if they will be the next bomber… but so far, so good. Haha..
Our first location we visited in Moscow, is a little place called Arbat street. It’s a cobble stone street, meant only for pedestrians, and is full of souvenir shops, high end retailers, and a PINK starbucks. J Because for some reason, I can’t seem to keep the taste of Russian food down, I was starving, so seeing a beautiful starbucks was like walking straight into heaven. Janelle, one of my roommates, felt my joy, and we both ordered a hot chocolate, (rare in Moscow) and I ordered a muffin.
Ordering was kind of funny because I was determined to order my first meal in Russian, so I ask Ariel, my head teacher, how to say “tall hot chocolate please.” And with confidence swaggering I tell the attendant, “tall chocolatia dasvidonya”. And he replies, “anything else?” haha, it took me a while to realize he spoke English to me, but when I did I was glad, because now I could order a muffin without looking it up in my little English to Russian dictionary.
Arbat street was pretty, tall old buildings were the hats to small, really small, stores. People were dressed up in classic Russian attire, to lure you into their store. And the souvenirs were tempting. But perhaps my favourite part was seeing a small boy play the violin beautifully out on the street. Ariel said that’s her favourite part of Russia. No matter where you go, it seems you can always hear classical music being played.
Heading home, we stopped at a grocery store, where we all purchased our own food. We each got some fruit and of course some chocolate. Haha J and, oh. My. Gosh. I tasted the most incredible candy bar! I really hope it will last the trip home so EVERYONE can taste this beautiful stuff. It was amazing. Haha! :D
All in all, yesterday was a pretty fair day. Its always strange to me how I can go through so many emotions in one day, but being here, my typical emotion right before I got to bed is, “I can get the hang of this, I like it.” And that leaves me excited for whats next. :)
{eating "vampire soup"}
{our metro stop station}
{some Russian mula}
{first sighting of starbucks!}
{Russian cinnabon!}
{pink starbucks!, Russians love their pink?}
{my yummy muffin i ordered in english.}
{ordering my yummy, needed, hot chocolate.}
{Moscow hard rock cafe}
{Arbat street}
{little boy playing the violin}
{he was really good too}
{Russian chocolate. this wasn't the super good kind, but i was still yummy. :) }
