Russian to Russia!



Peter the Great monument

Entry in Red Square with St. basils
 in the back

    In May of 2015 I started applying for colleges, a year after I graduated from high school. I spent four years of my life in high school studying multiple subjects one of which I opted to keep studying for the full four years which was Russian. I spent four years learning from a wonderful teacher with a wonderful class. When I switched schools my sophomore year I chose to move to the only other school that had Russian even if it was kind of far away, just so I could continue my passion for languages. Over those four years I learned as much as I could have and more about the culture, the people, the language and the history of the country from the Huns and Peter the Great all the to Putin (Thanks to Russia, Land of the Tsars) I learned to love and be interested in a community that was not only my own but very far away! So in May of 2015 after I all but enrolled my classes it hit me, if I don't achieve my dreams myself, no one will do it for me! So I called a good friend of mine who was just as passionate about Russia as I myself and we booked and flew away on July 1, 2015.

 

Nesting Dolls for Sale Izmailovo Kremlin

My photo of St. basils

  People judge everyone and everything but we never let that stop us whether we were being judged as foreigners or as people who wanted to travel to such a 'forbidden' land. It's really funny actually because if I say I want to go to Germany no one bats an eye but if I say Russia everyone is quite literally up in arms. Maybe it's because the communist regime only fell within the last 20 years compared to world war II which was nearly 75 years ago, but why do people let the past dictate how we are now? I say to forgive but not to forget as to not let the past repeat itself. So on July 2, 2015 we landed in Moscow after a hellish few hours in Amsterdam (Avoid Schiphol Airport if possible). Russian drivers are in fact 'russian' to their destination, I am surprised that we lived through that first taxi ride. After arriving to our hotel (a best western) we immediately went up to the 26th floor where our rooms were and promptly fell asleep for roughly 15 hours. Oh that jet lag. The next say we awoke with the anticipation to see a new land and new people. We immediately went to go to the Izmailovo Kremlin a roughly 10 minute walk, where we came upon all types of items from clothing, to souvenirs and even food! They had everything we could have needed and more. We walked about for probably half the day just there opting to spend our first day out somewhat close to the hotel.







Panoramic view of Red Square



Where Lenin is entombed

     The next day

Christ the Savior Cathedral

my travel buddy and I parted ways and went out to see Russia ourselves. Both of us went to Red Square and various parks over the next few days while he was trying out fancy restaurants such as Pushkin's Café and Café Mari Vana, I opted to check out the main grocer Ashan and stick to grocery stores and fast food (Yes they have Burger King, Mc Donald's, Starbucks, Subway and even KFC). We met up over the next week here and there to talk about what we had seen and where it was. We both slowly mastered the infamous Moscow Metro and I found Christ the Savior Cathedral (My favorite cathedral). We both saw Lenin's entombed body. Over the next two weeks we started to feel at home in Moscow. We kept in touch with our families and I happened to forget one time to post my photos on Facebook or call my grandmother and she thought I had been kidnapped. She contemplated calling the Muscovite police and was calling everyone in the family asking if they could get ahold of me, needless to say I received a call at 4am from my mother worried to death, thinking I had been kidnapped so I laughed it off, walked over to my travel buddies hotel room and knocked on the door until he answered and we promptly took a selfie and sent it to my grandmother with the note 'I'm alive'. We spent 12 days in Moscow, Russia but it never seemed to be enough, we felt as though we had been there a year though and to this day when we talk about it, it's as if we had just left yesterday. It left a yearning in us. A yearning to travel and be apart of the international community. To see the world as we want to see it and to meet everyone from every walk of life. That will not be the only time I am in the Russia and we will be back!

*All photos in my blog that show international destinations are my own