So. Another Moscow weekend has come and gone, along with some very important lessons.
Yesterday, I went with Agata (my Polish friend), Elena, her Croatian friend, and Jan, the really cute Czech boy, to an ice sculpture garden on the other side of the river. To get there, we walked through Sparrow Hills. This area is on the north side of the university. During weekend days, souvenier hawkers abound, and there are a ton of little shops selling food and the like (including, inexplicably, 2-3 kroshka kartoshkas, these little fast-food places that specialize in putting yummy-looking things on potatoes). But the area is mostly where people do snow sports... skiing and sledding, to my knowledge. So, we walked through there... it was largely scenic. We considered coming time in the near future to go sledding... apparently, you wrap your pillow in plastic and use that! lol.
Side note: I skipped my first class yesterday. I wasn't sick or hungover or anything, but there was a pounding from the room above mine until 4am, so I couldn't sleep. Plus, my Russian professor had moved class an hour earlier, and I was kind of protesting getting up at 8am on a Saturday to walk to class in the snow. It seemed unreasonable.
So anyway, we walked across the river, past the sports stadium (I think this is where the 1980 Olympics were... it is now a hotel and stadium) to a little ice park. It cost 300p to get in, but was pretty cool. I have a few pictures... It was essentially 3 loops, and I wish we had walked back around so I could have taken more pictures. Some of the figures were Ice Age-themed (?) including two plushie squirrels, encased in ice, facing in, to a giant ice acorn. The rest were dragons. One looked like Cthulhu, with dyed-red eyes, but as we did not walk back around (I hadn't realized there was a separate exit) I didn;t get a picture. Another part had sea creatures and aquarium scenes in clear ice, so they looked like still fish tanks.
We stopped and drank some tea in the little cafe there, and watched Duck Tales and Ratatouille in Russia. I still cannot get over how badly-dubbed things are. Apparently, some of the people here have issues with roaches and mice. None of us had bugs, but Jan had a mouse come in under his door one day...
So, we walked to the nearest metro (two away from universitet). We had to walk under a bridge, where a little sketchy-looking flea market was getting taken down. So, from there we went to Fruzenskaya, which features a 24-HOUR MY-MY!!! (Moo-moo in English). I don't know if I had mentioned My-My before, but I am pretty obsessed with the place. It is Russian fast-food. You grab a tray, go down the buffet, and tell them what you want. It is pretty inexpensive, and the best food I've had in Moscow...
Jan did tell me you aren't allowed to take pictures of the metro. Which is good to know before I enacted my "Walking photo tour of Moscow's metros" I wanted to try on a boring off-day.
So, I got home just in time to meet the other girls and Spencer to go to a Tchaikovsky concert we were given tickets to. As we were going out from there, I put on cute high-heeled boots, in case we went to a place with face control. Bad idea. The directions Marina sent us were terrible. She had us get off near Red Square, then wander around to Ohotny Ryad (the next metro stop! WTF?). Then, it turns out we had to get on a different metro line, and it was right by the stop... something nobody told us.
From there, we walked to the Starlite diner to meet everyone... it was so late, they weren't going to let us in. I know, crummy American diner... wasn't my idea. I had some chili cheese fries (which I've been craving), Russian champagne (85p a glass) and the most amazing, delicious, overpriced monstrosity known to man... a peanut butter nutella waffle ice cream sandwich. Yes, that just happened.
From there, we went to an American-themed bar on the corner. I finally had a white Russian, and we just chilled for awhile. We were going to go to Papa's Place, the cheap Monday night spot, but decided instead to go Club Propaganda. Grisha got talked into taking a cab, so we took a cab for 100p apiece... still not bad. As soon as we got to the club (it was 1130, so it wasn't a club yet... it changes over at 12) almost everyone decided to leave to drink in the dorms. Grisha, Will, Dan, and I soldiered on, claiming half the fun was going out. Jeff soon joined us.
Propaganda is one of Moscow's most famous clubs. It kind of looks like a warehouse, and has very few drink options, but the drinks are cheap and there is no cover. Most of our friend who have been here a while aren't very fond of Propaganda, believing it to be a foreigner's club. I don't know how true that is... The clientele seems to be mostly older women and hipsters.
One of the boys tried to hit on a much older woman (a gynecologist fluent in 5 languages) and her receptionist (speaks only Russian). The recpetionist, Sveta, took a liking to me, said I spoke good Russian (huh?), dragged me on the dance floor constantly, and grabbed my hand to escort her to the ladies' room. SOOOO much energy. The music was odd techno, which took a bit of getting used to, but was really fun. Eventually, the boys kind of pawned Sveta off on Grisha, as they know almost no Russian. Apparently, either Sveta or the doctor, Inya, had a boyfriend. I thought he was hitting on me (kept plying me with drinks every time I tried to sober up), but he was apparently being generous. He approached Grisha about hitting on his girlfriend, but they talked all night and ended up best friends. He encouraged Grisha to go into office, and called him "the next Lenin," also pledging to be his follower. Everyone involved was a little concerned.
At one point in time, Dan decided to leave to find a brothel. Luckily for EVERYONE, he wound up at a diner instead.
Lacking the encouragement of a Red Devil, I ended up really tired at around 3am. But we waited to leave until 5:30, when the metros opened. And then, of course, Grisha was talked into getting a taxi.
We got dropped of in g so Will could get home safely, but he ended up walking to v with us to get snacks. We all three sat in the basement, they with their Sharma (microwaved kebab) and me with my pereshok. Finally, we made it to our rooms about a quarter to 7.
I can already feel Russian changing me as a person. No just the alcoholic that I am likely becoming, either. So many things back home seem so trite. And as much as I miss fountain Coke, I more or less freaked out when everyone was out of cabbage pereshok for 5 days, and I had to settle for mystery meat. So there's that...
Stayed tuned next time for my "Russian Girls: a Case Study."
Also, I made supper tonight that more or less is actually what it was supposed to be... pasta in veggie sauce with cheese. Really good, but I don't know if I can deal with that much veggie.
It was also brought to my attention that the American boys in this trip a. seem to think I am interested in relationships, and b. think I get offended. One apologized for saying they didn't like to cook, and would rather a woman do it. Ha. And what about my demeanor makes people think I want anything serious while in Russia? gaaaaa
Oh, and seeing how I was walking and dancing in those boots for 14 hours straight... not a good idea. Unless you KNOW you are going somewhere with face control, wear good shoes.
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