Birthday Blast

Greetings everyone! Yes, I have returned once again from Moscow. I don’t think I’ve ever celebrated a birthday like this, in fact, I’m sure of it, but it was very fun. Moscow, as well, was very fun. And on top of all that, I have only 5 weeks left in the semester. Welcome to week 12. That’s ¾ of the way through, thanks to everyone for keeping up with me, it’s been fun, but it’s not over yet. (I should apologize though, I took absolutely no pictures this weekend, mainly cause I kept forgetting my camera, guess you’ll all have to take my word for it).

So, what did I do for my Birthday? The actually day (the 9th) started with birthday wishes (and presents) in class. I received a couple candy bars and the like from teachers and friends. The actually celebration took place that night in one of the cafes we frequent here. We went directly from our weekly round table with some Russian students to the café so of course they were all invited along. So I had some American friends some Russians and of course my tutor, it was a fun evening. My tutor, Ivan, even got me a gift, which was so cool. Of the actually evening, there is not much to tell, we all had a great time, but it was a short night. Most of us had early trains the next morning and needed some sleep (our train left at 7:25am). Besides, this was only half of the party; the other half was to be in Moscow.

We trained to Moscow early the next morning and arrived at the dorms we were staying at a little bit before lunch. After we dropped our stuff off, we decided to check out the Moscow zoo. Lunch was at a Mongolian place, which was delicious, and the zoo was strange. I haven’t been to the zoo in a while, but are most animals crazy at the zoo? Specifically, the seals? We must have watched this one seal for ten minutes doing nothing but swimming back and forth between a ten foot section of the pool, we walked by again like 2 hours later and it was still doing that. Another seal we think was blind. We watch it try to eat a fish for ten minutes, it was really sad actually, and it nearly jumped out of the cage after it finally got it. Actually, they have many seals at the Moscow zoo. Anyways we were there till the place closed. Later the night we were meeting up with everyone else who went to Moscow for dinner. So to kill some time we stop at a café. I found out that what is cold “hot chocolate” in Russia is not what you think; it’s actually a small cup of hot fudge, which was an odd surprise (I did eventually find a cup of hot chocolate; it was called “kakau”. Eventually, we meet up with everyone and headed out to find a Mexican restaurant. The one we wanted apparently does not exist, but the one we found was great. Not only did it have live music (another great rockabilly band), but it had the best enchilada I have ever eaten. With being in Russia for 3 months and my lack of taste for 3 months before that, I can honestly say that this was the best meal I have eaten in 6 months. It was great!

So that was my birthday. The rest of Moscow was great. It was highlighted by excellent meals at an Italian restaurant and an American 50’s diner. We really didn’t do anything touristy; mainly just walking around the city checking out cafes and restaurants and having a great time in Moscow (The Italian place even had lemonchello! That was great!)