Updates and pictures

I am starting to hate loading pictures, it takes so long, but for you guys, I do it. I pick out a couple pictures of Moscow to share. I also wanted to give an update post, which I will do now, since I can't seem to get my pictures up.

Ok so its been 5 weeks, I have been to Moscow and Ryazan, and in 2 weeks I will be going to Petersburg for 8 days. That will be awesome. I can't wait. This week actaully went by really fast. The heat has finally been turned on in my apartment, but it is still very warm around here, like 60's (16-19 in celsius), so that really isn't a good thing. I haven't really done much since I got back from Moscow and home life has been normal. My babushka and I have gotten into a routine of watching this Russian serial everynight, its actually ok, and she loves it.

Tomorrow, we go to the house of some famous Russian avator, which really isn't all that thrilling. Ah! but Ivan showed me the fencing club here in Vladimir on Tuesday. That was great. I haven't seen fencing in like 4 months and I was happy! I don't know if I'll be going there yet or not. They did have equipment I could use, but the only teacher there was foil, not epee, so if they have a Epee instructer, that will be great, if not, who knows, yes, I like commas, a lot.

Classes I still pretty boring, but what can you do about that, at least I'm learning a bit. My language skills have definietly improved. I'm curious to see where I will be in another month. That's it so far, hopefully the pictures will work better tomorrow or something.

Moscow

Sorry about the lateness of this post, I’ve been busy the last few days, more homework than usual (Plus I’ve fallen asleep several times, oh well). However, here I am and I have much to tell of my journey to Moscow.

First off, yes I would love to live here (maybe next semester). I love the big city and the city life. In addition, all the churches and historical sites reminded me of Rome. Rome is the kind of place where are can’t walk two steps without tripping over a relic or Church or ancient Roman thing, and Moscow is more like 5 steps, which is still pretty good.

To get there, we had a 4 hour bus ride; there is always some much traffic on the road to Moscow. But when we got there, we drove right to the Moscow River to take some pictures of the Kremlin. Actually, my first impression was how small St. Basil’s Cathedral was. I guess the hype suggested to me something like St. Peter’s in Rome. Honestly, it’s smaller than the Basilica in D.C. But I should say that after I got up close, I was pretty amazed, the colors, the architecture, it was extraordinary! Definitely worth seeing. Anyways, the hotel we stayed at was the one built for the 1980’s Olympics, very big and very Soviet, which was pretty cool. The rooms were nice and the came with bidets (Don’t know how to use them, but they’re so weird!!). From the hotel, we went straight to Red Square. That place is amazing. It’s enclosed by the Kremlin, Lenin’s Tomb, St. Basil’s, and the GUM (huge expensive mall). I must have 30 pictures of Red Square alone. That was pretty much what I did last Friday. Moscow is great, and more western than I would have thought. There are ads everywhere and tons of expensive places to shop. Although many of the stores keep a distinct Russian feel. I doubt it looked like this 15 years ago. And gees in the GUM, one store was selling T-shirts for about $100.

Ok so, that night I stayed in talking with my tutor, Ivan, and a few others (and a beer, Baltika #3). Saturday I got to ride the Moscow Metro for the first time. That was fun. Now, I have ridden the Metro in D.C. and New York. Moscow impressed me. The feel of the Metro was a cross between NY and D.C., The trains looked and felt like the NY subway, but the station was more like D.C., not as clean, but a whole heck of a lot more architecture. Everyone says the Moscow Metro is so beautiful, I didn’t really notice. There is a lot of faded marble and a lot of statues, but nothing to impressive. That being said, I only saw like 5 or 6 stations, so don’t take my word for it. Still what it was very nice, it was pretty. On nice thing is that once ride costs about 15 rubles no matter where you go and you can save money by buying more rides. That was much nicer than D.C. ever was, plus there really is a train like every 2 minutes, also much better than D.C.

The Metro took us to an art museum. We walked around there for about and hour and a half. The art was very good, but it was an art gallery, not my thing. So by the end I was pretty tired. But after the museum, I got to eat at McDonald’s! Now before you judge me and say, “Oh gees who goes to Russia and eats at McDonald’s?” you ought to live in Vladimir for a month. Fast food does not exist in Vladimir, save for the Mister Gamburger, which is a far cry below McDonald’s. I’m sorry but I wanted a Milkshake so bad. I hardly ever eat McDonald’s, even in the States, but oh man was it delicious! I can still taste my milkshake! Prices were about the same as in America for anyone who cares. After McD’s, we had some free time so we hit the Arbat (market place) It all down one street, which is closed for cars. Lots of souvenir stands, not much to say, but it was fun.

After all of this, we headed back to the hotel for diner, a friend and I stopped at another large souvenir market behind are hotel. We had some interesting discussions about prices there; bartering is fun. Next, we were off to the Moscow Circus. This was a great circus. I have not been to a circus in like 10 years and now I don’t know why I waited so long. This circus had everything, Elephants, bears, horses, cats, dogs, and a juggling monkey. Oh man, I even got to see a bear ride a motorcycle. And that clown, oh man, ya. That night I traveled back to Moscow center and had a late dinner at TGI Friday’s. I know, another American joint, but the girls I was with were apparently dying for a good margarita. It was so weird, you’d of thought they would put Russian stuff all over the walls, but no, it was very American.

Sunday, was Lenin and the Kremlin. Yes, I saw Lenin, and for 80 years dead, he looked pretty good. It’s pretty amazing to say that I have seen the body of the Father of the USSR and Communism, as we know it today. I still can’t believe it, it was weird. It is also a very serious business, no cameras, no bags, nothing that could possibly be a weapon, very solemn. When you see Lenin, you also walk by the graves of revolutionaries and famous Soviets. I also saw the grave of Stalin. That was interesting, pretty freaky. After this, we headed into the Kremlin. This was also awesome. Inside there are several big Cathedrals, a giant bell, and the huge Emperor’s Cannon. The Assumption Cathedral is entirely covered in fresco on the inside, which was pretty neat. Oh! I also saw the Bolshoi Theater, of course. It was closed for renovations, but man it was very, um well bolshoi (which means big).

Ya so that was Moscow for me. It was great and I highly recommend a visit to the city to anyone, interesting or not. Don’t worry about the language, too many people spoke English there (I’m trying to learn Russian!)

Back from Moscow

Hey Everybody!

Well, I've returned from my weekend in Moscow. It was awesome! I want to live there! I have a lot to tell you guys about the trip and all that good stuff, look for that post soon (I plan to write a few tonight) I think I was going to say something else, but I just blanked ... so, till tomorrow!

До Завтра!

Pictures

Here are some more pictures for you guys,

This would be me sporting my new soccer scarf in my favorite orange hoodie(which I recently broke off the zipper, this makes me very sad)


This is the countryside around Ryazan, also very beautiful. This was Russia at its best. I could have honestly stared at this scene all day.


This is the Kremlin in Ryazan. It was very beautiful, see one of my earlier posts about that trip.

I ihave a ton of pictures, let me know if anyone wants to see something specific.

History Lesson

Recently I finished reading a book (pretty cool right?). I just have to recommend it to every single person I know (and my blog makes this easy).

“The Catholic Church Through the Ages: A History” by John Vidmar, OP. I love this book. Don’t be put off buy the title, it is seriously one of the most interesting books I have ever read. It is about 340 pages long and takes the entire history of the Catholic Church and puts it into a short but easily expandable format, which is easy to read and enjoyable.

I got the book because I was looking for a history of the Church that I could read in a few weeks and not fall asleep. What makes it great is it gives enough information about everything to satisfy curiosity and sparks an interest to read more. The author did a very good job of touching on everything, but keeping it short. Plus, not only does it trace history it also traces the theology of the Church. To make this short, the reason you need to at least check out this book is because at the end of every chapter (divided into 6 ages of the Church) the author provides a list of 10 or so books , rated for difficulty, that expand on everything that was talked about in the chapter. For example if you just read about the Crusades or the Reformation you could go to this reading list and pick out 3 books that go into more detail on the subject. This was very cool. And I just want to mention again that the author did a very good job making everything interesting (well, Church history is pretty fascinating anyways). If you have any interest at all about the Churches past or want to learn about the Church in general, read this book. I know for a fact that they sell it at the National Shrine at CUA, but it’s cheaper on Amazon.

Stuff to do

Hello America,

Today, or tonight rather, I am starting my pre-typing of all my post. Don’t worry; I think I can still swing some randomness into my posts. I thought I would make this post a general update. To begin, Today marks the 4 week anniversary of my leaving home. 4 weeks ago tonight I was in a hotel in D.C. preparing for my trip to Russia. I don’t think I need to tell you that it has felt like ages since then. I really feel like I’ve been here forever, which is a good thing and a bad thing. Good, because it means I am finally adjusting to living here and bad, because I have a whole year a head of me. If I don’t pay attention, it will pass me by. I should say that culture chock and homesickness really *expletive deleted* suck, but once you get over it, living in another country is pretty fun. Last weekend was especially fun. I celebrated two birthdays, went to a rock concert, and a football (that’s soccer people!) match.

Two of my new friends had birthdays over the weekend. So of course we celebrated, with eating, drinking, and dancing (I didn’t dance). One of the cafés we went to was Arab themed and we even ordered one of those big smoking things, with the long tube and the water at the bottom. I don’t know what it was called. Everyone told me it was strawberry flavored. No, I still can’t taste, although I didn’t smoke it anyways, something about smoke and allergies that just doesn’t mix (plus smokers are jokers).

That was Thursday, Friday, went journeyed to another café for some live music. The café was great (very good kalbaca sandwiches) and the band was excellent. I can only describe theme as a kind of Funk/Blues Rock (I say blues mainly cause a few songs used a blues chord). It was Russian, of course, and I the guys really knew there stuff, some great solos.

The Football match was also fun. I an now a proud fan of the Vladimir Torpedos (number 3 in the league, ya!). I even got myself a Torpedo’s scarf and everything. The Match itself only cost 30 rubles, which is roughly a dollar, that was awesome. To top it off the Torps won 4 to 1 (would have been 5 but the ref just had to call off-sides).

So that’s basically what I’ve been up to. Weekdays are filled with homework and some interesting home life. My Babushka got a new microwave yesterday, although Russia is far behind the microwavable pizza industry.

Quick Post

Hello Everyone,

I wanted to post real quick since I like to post often and its been a few days since my last post. Couple things I wanted to say.

1.) The internet cafes are just not working for me with writing longer post. So basically I've decided to begin typing up my posts at home and then uploading them here. Hopefully this will mean an increase in posts. Right now I'm have so much to say and so little time to say it!

2.) Its just 4 days until Moscow! Man, I've been reading about the Red Square, this place looks amazing. Don't worry I'll have lots of pics and posts for you guys.

3.) If you take a look at the statcounter, you'll see that we've surpassed 1000 hits on my little blog. I just wanted to thank everyone who has been visiting my blog over the past few weeks and months. (Especially those from the beginning, Julie D. from HC, the CSC gang, and anyone else) So Thanks!

P.S. Anyone from the CSC reading this, could you guys give a big hug and fond farewell the Fr. G, since I can't do it myself. I see he is saying his last Mass, sorry I'll miss it.

Thanks everyone !

Lacour Muesuem

Today, Friday, our little American group went to a lacour and crystal museum. The museum itself is actually right in the middle of Vladimir next to the Golden Gates. It looks like a Church and for the longest time I had wondered what was inside. Well now I know. Its full of lacour painted art and many cyrstal glasses. When I say lacour I am mainly refering to the way most icons are painted. I'm sure you've seen Russian icon art and all those little jewlrey boxes with the smooth polished look to them. Maybe that's a bad way to describe them, but thery pretty cool none the less. So we saw many little boxes with very detailed and very beautiful pictures on them. Then we saw some of the most amazing glass art I have ever seen. It cost money to take pictures in museums here, so I can't show you, at least not know, but I was blown away. The way these artists are able to bend and warp the crystal and glass is pretty cool. They had this huge sculpture of colorful glass flowers. Anyways it was neat.

After the museum we headed back to school for lunch and a little lacour painting of our own. We got to paint some brouches. The artist showed us how to first rub this dust on the brouch (it was just a round pin), which was made of paper mache. Then you put on a base coat of white and from there paint your wildest dreams. Now, I really can't paint worth anything, but some of the people in our group are pretty good artists.

Anyways that was my day. It was something to do on a Friday afternoon. Tonight I will be going to a Russian rock concert. I'll have to let you guys know how that goes.

Musings on America

I've been checking the news every so often and I must say its really weird to be so far away from it. Like the death of the Chief Justice, Hurricane Katrina, plus a ton of little stuff. Its like I read it and say wow that's interesting, or amazing, or horrible, and then I leave and pretty much forget about it. At the same time I know that if I was home I all this stuff would be of much more interest to me. Especially the Supreme Court such (being pro-life and all). Basically it like how I used to think when I read some international news, it would be like wow interesting and then I'd go about with my day. I also didn't even realize it was 9/11 a few days ago until I watched the Russian news do a quick segment about the anniversary. It was weird, that's all I can say.

I guess its kind of shown me how very locally minded people are. I mean yes many people like to follow international news, its more like a hobby to them. Where as to those experiencing it, its very really and very important. I can only say that gaining in international perspective of the world is very hard and you don't really know if you have one until go leave your own country and live out in the international world.

(P.S. For anyone's information, I am disappointed in the Orioles poor season ending, I am happy the Redskins won, and worried about my Terps, losing the Clemson again!)

Pictures!

Well hello all. Guess what? I finally got some pictures up on my blog. The internet cafe here has been very slow in uploading images, but it finally worked today so here are two quick pics.


Here is a picture of my new Church. As you can see its pretty nice. Its small but very beautiful, and it is right in the center of town.


This is a picture of my room. The apartment is small, but I do have a very big room and it is all to myself. So I can't complain about anything there. The bed is a pullout sofa, but its comfortable enough.

As far as general updates go, my classes are as boring as ever, I really hope that improves soon, cause it is annoying. In a week and 2 days I am off to Moscow for the weekend. That promises to be a fun trip. We even get to see Lenin, which will be interesting. I can't wait! Culture Shock is slowly starting to decrease. I'm getting more used to everything and all that stuff. I've still got a bit to go before I feel at home, but it'll happen (thanks for all your thoughts and prayers). My Russian has definitely improved a lot so far. I am definitely better then I was at the end of last semester, although that is still not all that good. I do have a good time talking with my host Mom, she is great. I'm still not into a routine yet, and everyday gets a bit crazy at times, but that too is getting better.

So I hope to get some pictures of Ryazan up here soon, that was a fun weekend.

Back again!

Hello everyone,

Well, I'm back from my trip to Ryazan. I really needed that weekend away and I feel much more relaxed back in Vladimir.

The trip itself was very fun. We left early Friday morning and drove 4 hours by bus to our hotel in Ryazan. That was long, but our little group made it fun. The hotel was great, it had a shower with hot water and everything. The hot water has not yet been turned on in my apartment yet and although my Russian Babushka and I expect it everyday, we are still waiting. From the hotel we went straight to the military special forces museum (special forces as in paratroopers). Although I understood only a little of what the tour guide said, what I did catch was very interesting. Tour guides in Russia are a very serious profession. These people know an unbelievable amount of information and are really respected. So that was interesting. That night we stayed in the hotel. After the long bus ride and long tour most of us were tried. We just hung out in one hotel room, and the hotel provided the "beverages." Before you get any ideas I don't get drunk, but I did have a very good Russian beer, Baltika #9. (On a side note, Russian beers tend to have more alcohol then American, except Baltika #0 that's non-alcoholic, as one of my friends can now tell you :).

Anyways, Saturday had another 3 museums, all very interesting, but all very long and all in Russian. So I got what I could from them. But the Ryazan Kremlin was very impressive and very beautiful, I hope to post pics soon. We saw Pavlov's house, an art museum, and a Russian poet's, whose name I've forgotten, house. That night we took a boat ride along the Oka river. The boat had a discoteka and bar on board. I stayed away from the dance floor, but several friends gave it a good run. It was also pretty entraining to see some new friends drunk for the first time. It was fun. Then Sunday, we came home, another 4 hour bus ride and then we walked home in the rain.

So that's what I did this weekend and now I am only 2 weeks away from a weekend in Moscow. I promise to get some pictures up soon, but till then, Пока!

Off to Ryazan

Well, you won't here from me for about 3 days. This weekend is our groups first weekend excursion and we'll be spending 3 wonderful days in Ryazan.

I plan to take lots of pictures and you should except to see some cause I think I finally figured out how to get my pictures up here.

So stay tuned, more to come ...

Some more Updates

So its been about a week and a half and things are ... well, ok. I've definitely settled into my homestay. Its not so uncomfortable anymore, and I do think that it is helping to improve my Russian. Classes are I guess boring. The group I am in is going pretty slow, but its only been 7 days of class so far, so we'll see. I have gotten to know my fellow American students, and were getting to be good friends.

Last night I went to the movies with my new tutor. I'm not quite sure how I feel about having a tutor yet. I mean right now its just so awkward. We kinda talk, but I don't really understand most of the time and it takes awhile for me to ask questions and stuff, so its a bit uncomfortable. I suppose that, like my homestay, this will fade with time, but I need to be honest, I am very tried of being uncomfortable, I was slowly getting used to and comfortable with my free time and now the tutor has thrown me back into the land of awkwardness. Oh well, like I said I suppose it will get better. Anyways my tutors name is Ivan and he does seem nice.

The movie we saw was Duece Bigalo 2, and it was dubbed into Russian. I actually understood most of it, which really isn't that surprising in that most of the jokes were visual. As for the movie itself, it was pretty funny, but it was also pretty dirty some of the time, so I can't say its one of my favorite movies.

Other than that, I did manage to buy a cheap cell phone, but now I have to go buy a cim card for it. I'm a little worried about this, cause I definitely stressed out the sales girl with my inadequate Russian when I was trying to buy the phone. I thought it was pretty funny, but I don't think that she did. Oh well, I consider it an accomplishment.

That's really it for, see you in a day or two.

Catholic Mass in Russia

Hey everyone, I might to post yesterday, but the internet was unfortunately slow that day and I just ran out of time. But don't worry I've got plenty today.

I wanted to do a nice post on the Mass I attended last Sunday here in Vladimir. I wrote down many things in my journal, which I forgot today, so 'I'll my best to remember.

The first thing I want to say is that this Church is Awesome! I mean if you had brought me there blindfolded I would have thought we were in Rome. It was Catholic down to the later and very enjoyable. To start off the Church itself is beautiful, its not too big or very extravagant, its just beautiful. Its all stone and the pews have these very high backs, so you can only see the heads of the people in front of you (which I thought was strange). Walking in the door, you automatically notice the Tabernacle, mainly because its right in the center of the Church behind the altar(awesome). You have a statue of Mary on the left and one of Christ on the right. (To the people from Maryland, the statue of Mary is the same as the one in our apartment, crown and all, so that was cool). When I walked in for Mass everyone was saying the rosary, that was great, so I joined in as best I could (I had forgotten my prayer sheet). Next, before Mass started, they handed out the hymnal, which to my delight was filled with Latin! I'm talking, the Our Father, the Creed, and even the Pangae Lingua, all the good stuff (In Russian as well).

The Mass began with the Priest, his Deacons, and altar boys preceding in, with thurabel (pardon my spelling, you know the incense thing) The Mass was great, the Liturgy was sung and although I couldn't understand the homily I definitely heard the word love several times. What else ... Well the thurabel was used throughout the whole Mass, we sung the Our Father, oh and everyone received Communion on the tongue and the Deacon held the plate underneath you to protect the Host. Then at the end we sang the Salve Regina. So all in all it was great.

I'm also told by my host Babushka, that the Priest speaks English, which makes me happy, since I don't have to worry about wondering how I would talk to him, especially about important stuff.

Some Thoughts

So I wanted to do a quick post on a few thins I've been upto. I was planning on posting some pictures today, but it seems that this won't be happening. As I should have guessed the computers here are set up so you can't mess with them. Right now that means that the USB ports are not working so I can't access my flash drive. This doesn't mean I can't post pictures it means I simply must find another way. (I could ask the clerk, but right now I don't really know how to describe what I want to do) So maybe I'll get it to work later.

Other than that, I am in the process of buying a cell phone to use here in Russia. I think I've picked out the one I want, I just need to get around to buying it. I've never actually bought a cellphone myself and I don't really know the process. The thought of heaving to learn it in Russian is not all that pleasing to me, but not much I can do about it. I know I have to fill out a lot of forms and sign stuff, but there is no way I'll be able to understand everything. Wish me luck with that.

Tomorrow I attend my first Mass in Russia and meet with potential tutors. It should be an interesting day. I'm definitely lookinf forward to going to Mass and meeting my new Catholic community.

I'm here to learn?

Today marks the end of the first week of classes. Fridays we have excursions and no class and of course the weekends are off. So I have a nice 3 day weekend ahead of me. I won't be doing much. This weeks excursion is only around Vladimir, just museums and stuff. Not to exciting, but its something to do. Its next week that I am looking forward too. We have a 3 day excursion to Razian, another historical Russian city. That should be real fun.

Today we actually took a tour of the Vladimir Bread Factory. I have some very interesting (not really) pictures of how you make bread. I would post them but I forgot my usb cable today. (Yes I can post pictures, I think, um well see) The Хелб factory is very big and very full of bread. They gave us so much to try, like more than have a loaf each. It was good, but very filling. Of course do to my allergies I still can not smell or taste much. Lucky I think they are going away. I don't wake up dry mouth anymore and I get flashes of taste and smell, oh well. The best part of the tour was when we got to the "sucheski," which are little hard circles of very tasty bread rings. I love them and was very happy to eat a few samples.

That's all for now :)