The Past Couple of Weeks

I know it has been awhile since I have posted anything, but things have been crazy lately. I kept telling myself that I was going to write about my time in St. Petersburg and go from there, but I'm beginning to think there is just too much to say about Peter and not enough time to say it all, so I'll give you all a short version.

As part of my program here in Moscow we went on an excursion to St. Petersburg for a weekend. I rode in a sleeper train for the first time in my life and enjoyed the experience quite a bit. We did all the touristy things like checking out the Hermitage and doing a tour in the canals  and I have to say, when it comes to beauty Peter beats Moscow hands down. Peter is an absolutely gorgeous city with a nearly unfathomable amount of culture held within it. They say that to spend just a minute at every piece of art in the Hermitage it would take you twelve years to explore everything, and the Hermitage is just one (albeit the most famous) of the many museums in St. Petersburg. The Hermitage is easily the most incredible thing I've ever had the pleasure to see. It's one thing to do a google search of a famous artist's works, it's another entirely to be standing in front of them. I can now say I've seen original works by people like DiVinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, van Dyck, Rembrandt, and others. The sheer amount of artwork there is difficult to put into words, and I only spent a few hours exploring a small section of what was offered. After visiting the Hermitage, we went to several cathedrals including St. Isaac's which was also extremely beautiful.

Saturday night in Peter we went out and partied with some friends from Germany who had been studying at MSU with us, but were going home after the weekend. Needless to say, I had a pretty fantastic time, right up until I woke up the next morning. We were supposed to go on more tours, but those of us who had gone out the night before decided to sleep some more (we got back to the hostel around 5am if I remember correctly, and the tours started at 9am) and we went out on our own and explored some more. We took a boat tour around Peter, which required about all the strength I could muster in my hung over state and went back to the hostel to meet with the rest of the group. After dinner we took a sleeper train back to Moscow and resumed classes on Monday.

I really enjoyed seeing St. Petersburg, but I feel now more than ever deciding to go to Moscow was the right choice. When we were in Peter everyone was extremely European, and some people straight up would not speak Russian with me. While it was considerable easier to get food and do the day to day, I'm quite certain that I would be learning less Russian there because I wouldn't need to use it as frequently. Also, it didn't feel like I was in Russia. I have heard people say that St. Petersburg is a European city, not a Russian one, and after going there, I think they're right.

But that's all about Peter, if you want to see pictures, they're on facebook.

We also went to two small towns here in Russia, Vladimir and Suzdal, which were both very beautiful and interesting. Unfortunately we spent 4 hours on a bus to get to Vladimir, 20 minutes there, 45 minutes getting lunch at a mall (and not a local Russian restaurant, which I don't understand), an hour in Suzdal, and then 4 more hours on the bus back home. I was not a very happy camper and I really wish we could have seen more of these two cities. Regardless, it was still a pretty cool trip and I found out they brew some really good honey beer in Suzdal.

Since getting back it has pretty much just been more of the same. I'm working hard to keep up with my course load at MSU and trying hard to understand Russian. For the most part I'm able to get around in my daily life without any troubles, but occasionally I run into little problems. It's always the things you don't expect of course. The other day I wanted to buy a pack of gum from one of the street shops (there are pharmacies, food vendors, and little miscellaneous goods stands about every ten feet in Moscow), but I forgot the word for gum. The women thought I wanted green cheese, which is a thing, and seemed to get pretty upset when I told her that wasn't what I wanted to buy. After about two minutes of arguing with her about not wanting the cheese I finally stuck my head through the window of the stand, pointed at the gum I wanted and said, "that, I want that!" It was a bit of an unpleasant experience, but I got my gum.

For those of you that I haven't told yet, I have started dating a Russian girl here in Moscow. Her name is Anastasia Khokhlova, Nastya for short. She's in her last year at the journalism faculty here at MSU and is originally from Sakhalin Russia. I could probably go on for a long time about her, but I'll try and keep it short. She's unbelievable smart, I'm constantly thinking when I'm around her, she's beautiful, and despite that fact that she's usually pretty quiet she can be quite fiery at times too, which I love. Seeing things through her eyes is incredible because we often have such different views about things like law and philosophy.

Nastya and I 

Park on the outside of Moscow Nastya and I visited

Other than that, there's not really anything new going on in my end of the world. We had our first real snow fall today though, so that was pretty cool. As always, please feel free to contact me, I love answering questions and I love hearing from everyone back home.

First snowfall in Moscow, outside my apartment building

Vladimir

Vladimir

Suzdal

Suzdal

Suzdal

Inside an old church in Suzdal

Outside of church in Suzdal

Suzdal

Suzdal Kremlin from a distance

Suzdal

Still Getting Settled

Another week done and out of the way. Every day I'm here I feel more and more comfortable with living in Moscow. I still don't feel completely set in my routine yet, but it's getting much easier to go about my daily activities.

My grammer class is a little slow paced for my liking, but it's a good refresher on case endings for me. The professor for my reading and comprehension class doesn't seem to like the way I speak Russian very much and stops me any time I read out loud to correct my pronunciation. It's a little frustrating, but I have a feeling that in the long run it will make my Russian much better. The professor for my conversational practice class has been sick the last two weeks so I still don't know if that class will be any good, but I have high hopes based on the quality of my other classes. The two classes I'm taking in English, Russian Legal Structures and Russian Political History, are both extremely interesting. The professor for the legal structures class in particular is fun to listen to. He tends to run class about 30 minutes later than it's scheduled, but it has been worth it to stick around to hear what he has to say. He's Georgian, worked high up in the government for awhile and now teaches at MSU. I don't agree with some of the things he says, but he has a perspective on the subject that I think is very unique and I think I'm very lucky to have the opportunity to listen to him lecture.

It feels like my Russian is already improving and I seem to be able to follow the direction of most conversations at this point. I still don't understand a lot of the words being said, but I'm able to keep track of the topic and the basic idea of what people are saying most of the time. My speaking skills still need a lot of improvement, but I'm starting to meet Russians and I'm hoping that spending time with them will help me on that end.

Last night I met my friend Anton and a few people from his class who all speak fluently and managed to keep up with the conversation almost the whole night. There wasn't much I could add to what was being said, but it's still very gratifying to sit down with people who really know the language and have a clue, even if it's not much of one, about what's going on.

Week 1

I really don't even know where to begin with this first week because it has been such a storm of activity. The flight over here was good, but extremely long and I didn't sleep during any of it, so after 30 hours of being awake and traveling I arrived in Moscow and had to find the cab my program had paid for at one in the morning when I could barely keep my eyes open, much less speak in Russian. I was finally able to make it to my home stay safely though, so I guess it all worked out just fine.

My host is a very nice older woman who is very patient with me and cooks like a boss. We live fairly close to the Moscow State University campus, but my classes are all in a building on the opposite side so my walk to class is about 40 minutes every day. My classes are all very interesting and it's already proving to be a good change in perspective to hear about Russian history and politics from Russians rather than Americans. Everyone in my program gets along very well and it seems we're quickly becoming good friends. I have only met a handful of actual Russians so far, but part of that is because I haven't had much time to go out and the other part is that they keep all the foreign students in separate classes. I was having difficulty finding internet here, but was able to by a little modem that attaches to a USB port and picks up wifi. It's not exactly the cheapest option, but it works well and I'm mobile again, so I'm happy.

I've only been out to one bar so far (The Crazy Daisy) and had a blast while I was there. I had to learn the hard way that the metro shuts down at one in the morning though. Turns out when Russians go out they party till the metro starts running at 5 in the morning. It's a little hard core for me, but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

I've done some of the touristy things like go to Red Square, the GUM mall, and all that good stuff. It's incredible to see it all with my own eyes. For now I'm just trying to get used to the new routine and language, but I'm happy and feeling good about how things are looking.

Some side notes about Russia so far: Traffic here is the closest thing to total chaos I've ever experienced, the metro really is as good as they say it is, and people here smile much more than I was led to believe.

That's all for now, but please send me emails or skype me, I would love to hear from all of you. I may not respond right away, but I will as soon as I can, I promise.

Today's the Day

It seems like it has been such a long time coming that I can hardly believe it's finally time to get on a plane and fly to Russia. I don't think I can put into words what it feels like to be leaving for nine months in a completely different country. To be completely honest, I'm not sure it has hit me yet that this isn't a dream and that all the work I have been putting into getting ready for study abroad is about to pay off. 

People have asked me what I'm most excited for and what I'll miss the most and I think the answer to both is "everything." How can I pick just one thing that excites me the most about living in Russia when even little thoughts like what the coffee will taste like make me wish I was there already? In the same token there is no way to choose just one thing here that I will miss above the rest. I'm truly gifted with friends that I love like family, and parents that I know will support me through anything.  Of course I'll miss Denver and DU, but I'm leaving it all for something I've been working relentlessly towards for the last two years so it's hard to say I'm sad to be leaving. 

All that being said, I'm planning on updating this once a week, but we'll see how that goes since I'm not too good about staying on top of things like this. I will have a phone with a Moscow number, but I'm not sure how exactly texting will work on it so the best way to contact me is through my email, jones.tyler2014@gmail.com, through facebook, or over skype. Please contact me as often as you like, I would love to hear from all of you. If I don't respond right away it's probably just because I'm having a blast in Moscow. Thank you all for your love and support!