A day without class

This morning I woke up at around 10:00am since I didn't have any class today. It was nice to get to sleep in and take my time getting ready. My friend Alice who I am in Russian Language class with also doesn't have class on Wednesdays. After visiting via facebook this morning we decided to go explore the city instead of staying home. At around 1:00pm I met Alice at her Metro stop and we took off for Red Square. 

Last night the temperature dropped to around 30 degrees and so today the high was only about 43 with partly cloudy skies. The wind only made the cold that much more piercing but to be honest it really didn't bother me that much. On our way to Red Square we stubbled upon this huge bronze horse fountain with three rearing horses. Of course since I am on the equestrian team and Alice is on the Polo team at Stanford we had to stop and take a picture in front of it. 

Once we got to Red Square we decided to go into the Gum, this giant upscale mall that makes up one side of Red Square. The building used to be old Soviet offices and then was later turned into this mall so it is a very pretty building for just a mall. After we were sufficiently warmed up we ventured back out into the cold to visit St. Basil's Cathedral. The Cathedral is not only breathtakingly beautiful and intricately adorned from the outside but it is also, if not more so, quite extravagant on the inside. It was a very neat experience to be able to literally step back into history. However this church was not as quite as beautiful as the church of Christ the Savior was, (visited on Saturday) but probably more historically significant/accurate since the original Church of Christ the Savior was blown up by Stalin. If I get a chance I will try and post some pictures of these places, at least from the outside, because they do not allow photography inside since they are both still functioning places of worship. 

After a stop at St. Basil's Cathedral we stopped for a quick bite of pizza and then headed off to this art museum a metro stop away. Once we got to the art museum we made it through one exhibit and then Alice started to feel ill. She figured it was something she had eaten for breakfast, so we left so that she could go lay down. 

It was probably best that we left though because it was already 5 and I had a 45 min metro ride home. 

Those were all the adventures today so far... Tonight Heidi, Ellen, Nastia, and I are going to the movies and then out for drinks somewhere but now it's off to dinner with the host mom. 

                                                           Ciao, Jean Margaret