"Lenin told Stalin he thinks you're pretty..."
Talk about a sentence you never thought you'd hear in your life.
I don't think I'm ready to write the wordy post yet. There are just too many words floating around in my head (some are in Russian, and I don't remember what most of them mean). Moscow is quite overwhelming.
Visiting Moscow is truly like visiting a different planet. If there weren't normal-sized people walking around, you'd think it was inhabited by a gigantoid alien species with a very developed sense of creativity. Once you get past the initial shock, grow accustomed to the sheer size of everything, discover that you actually can read Cyrillic if you try hard enough and just accept the fact that the hotel staff does not / will not speak English and has absolutely no interest in serving you, it is a very cool place.
Today was "Silver Secrets" day. The abnormal awful heat that was going on for my first couple of days here seems to have subsided, and I think we had a good class. The students are great and everyone (well, besides the hotel staff) is really nice and friendly.
It doesn't get dark here till 11PM, which is kind of awesome. It gives me lots of time to go sightseeing after teaching, which is really good because there's a whole lot of sights to see. After today's class, the girls took me to do some touristy stuff.
I am madly in love with Saint Basil's Cathedral.
This wasn't my first visit to Red Square - I tried to go there a coupleof days ago, but it turned out to be Day of Russia - RussianIndependence Day. Imagine my surprise when I exited the Metro stationto find hundreds of soldiers and policemen rushing around. Has World War III finally broken out?After realizing what was going on and making my way to the square, allI could see was a huge stage in front of the cathedral, and huge crowdsin front of that (have I mentioned everything here is huge?) Today Igot to take a closer look.
This must be the most beautiful building in the world. In fact, according to a legend (according to my apparently out-of-date guidebook), Ivan the Terrible had the architect who designed it blinded when he had completed the work, so he would never be able to design something so beautiful again.
No, you can never have enough photos of this building - but they really don't do it justice. You should try to see it yourself someday.
If you ever do visit Moscow, expect the unexpected. Make an effort to learn some Russian phrases, or you'll be beating yourself up about it later. Be aware that if you ask for water you may get a glass of something that tastes like carbonated pickle juice. If you're a vegetarian, run for your life (in the direction of the nearest Italian restaurant. If worse comes to worst, they have Pizza Hut and Sbarro. And Pringles). Don't forget to bring your camera!
I can definitely see some cathedral-inspired beads in the not-so-distant future. Ambitious, I know. I'm not exactly sure what they're going to look like yet.
Hey, this came out more wordy than I thought it would. Yay me!
Tomorrow is "Glass, Glitter and Gravity" - the last workshop for this "session". Then, I have a couple of days off - and then another session of classes. As of now, life is pretty good.
I would love to end with a "good night" in Russian, but for the life of me, I can't remember how to say it. Russian is hard. Will "good morning" do? Dobre ootra!
More photos on Flickr.
Sarah~I really enjoyed your Russia blog.
I traveled there with my son who speaks Russian, which made our trip much easier. I forwarded your page to him and he noticed that you said Dobre ootka means "good duck"! Yes, it is a very hard language to learn. Happy traveling!
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Oops! LOL, I think I knew that... I'll fix it right now. Tell your son I said spaceeba!
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Gail's son, Scott, says "Nye za chto" - aka - no problem!
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Dobroe utro is really a "good morning" =) the "good night" one is not that easy=) "spokojnoj nochi" =)
I am happy to have " SARA HORNIK ON THE RED SQUARE" foto, `ll send you the one I have=)
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