It’s Monday and I’m worn smooth out! This weekend was jam packed with excursions in and outside of Moscow. I’ll start with Thursday evening with my dinner in the dark.
On Thursday night a group of 13 went out to celebrate a girl in the programs 20th birthday. This restaurant is the same type of restaurant that Jess ate at in Berlin but I’m not sure it is the same chain. My experience at the restaurant was unbelievable and unforgettable. Just at Jess explained to several of you already the restaurant is COMPLETELY in the dark! Before we entered the “dark” dining room we were seated to select our meals and drinks. The options of meal types were as follows: Red (meat), Blue (seafood), Green (vegetarian), and white (surprise). Being the picky eater I am and thinking that I was being adventurous enough by opting to eat in complete darkness I chose Red (meat). I couldn’t quite bring myself to venture so far and order the white, but many students did and really enjoyed their meals. After we had all ordered we were led down to the entrance of the dining room and offered free vodka shots. After the free liquid courage was consumed we lined up holding the shoulders of the person in front of us and led to our table (in complete darkness!!!) by our waitress, who was blind! All of the waiters and waitresses at the restaurant are blind. The meal was 3 courses and absolutely delicious!!! I was amazed at how willing I was to try everything on my plate and that I enjoyed the majority of everything I tried!!! I guess from now on I should eat with a blindfold! The meal was quite entertaining; since we had such a large group it was fun to hear about how everyone’s experience was different. I’m going to be honest and let you know that I had to eat with my hand because silverware was incredibly hard to use in the dark!!!
After that excursion on Thursday evening I started out a sleepy Friday morning with Russian language class and my walking tour class in the afternoon. On Friday afternoon we went to the Spaso house also the United States Ambassadors house. Although we didn’t get to meet the ambassador I did meet a really interesting girl who works for the embassy and was helping show us around. The girl graduated from OSU a couple years ago and is now interning at the US embassy in Moscow. She’s originally from Minnesota and grew up on a farm there. She received this internship opportunity from the USDA foreign fellowship program and urged me to apply for myself and travel to a foreign country next summer. If I meet the requirements and my non-agriculturally focused major doesn’t keep me out of the application process it’s definitely something I will look into.
After leaving the Spaso House we came back to the academy and went to a “freshman” talent show. It was quite interesting to see Russian teenager sense of humor and their notions of American culture acted out through foolish skits. Continuing on the jammed packed weekend of excursions we left the talent show and headed to one of our favorite local bars in the center of Moscow. There is this chain of sports bars all over Moscow called “Krushka” which means mug in English. This wasn’t actually all that eventful although I did insult a Russian guy by telling him that “I thought Russians could drink but I guess I was wrong,” when he didn’t finish this large mug of beer at the table next to ours. So of course to defend his honor he challenged me to a chugging contest and in traditional fashion the United States came home victorious. I know you’re proud Dad.
From there a group of us girls headed over the US embassy for a Marines party and WhOmP WhOmP it wasn’t that exciting. 1.) the embassy is US soil so you must 21 to drink 2.) they’re really strict about the drinking rules 3.) There weren’t really that many people BUT I’m not giving up on them yet and I’m sure they’re a fun group. When I came home on Friday night after being out with friends my host mother was awake and ready to feed me. She is taking very good care of me and making sure I eat, even if that means mystery foods. Since I know very little Russian and she knows only a few English words and often misuses them our communication is comical. Whenever we talk about meats we make the animal noises associated with the animal. Pork gets a snort, chicken gets wings and balks, beef gets a moo and horns. Last week she handed me mystery cheese and when I asked if it was horn/moo she said NYET (no) and held up her hand like antlers above her head….hmmm since there was no noise associated with this animal I still have no idea what kind of cheese I have been eating for a week. Continuing in this manner, on Friday she gave me a steak looking piece of meat that she SAID was beef but regardless of what kind of meat it was I enjoyed my mystery meat.
On Saturday morning I had to wake up at 5:30am to catch a bus to Suzdal and Vladimir on the Golden ring, located 4 hours outside of Moscow. Sudzal and Vladimir were very interesting places to visit. Sudzal is more a tourist hot spot with quaint traditional Russian architecture/city planning with little influence from the modernized world. Vladimir while having many historical buildings is larger and more influenced by modern capitalism. During this trip it was very very cold and walking around was pretty uncomfortable. Nonetheless though I had a good time and enjoyed getting to see a slightly more traditional Russia. On Saturday night we got back to town at 11:30pm and all headed home to take a hot showers and get some sleep.
Oh no there’s still MORE…Don’t stop reading yet, I told you it was a jam packed weekend!
On Sunday morning it was very hard to wake up but in hindsight very worth it! I got to see Lenin! Lenin’s body is mummified and on display in this creepy dark marble mausoleum outside of the Kremlin. He looked very strange and almost wax but many believe it is really his body. They are very strict about behavior within the mausoleum. There is absolutely no talking, no stopping to look for to long, and no photography. Eventually Lenin will be buried beside his mother in St. Petersburg, so its neat to think that I’ve seen some will never get the opportunity to. Jack and Nancy Kollmann, two of our professors who are over here from Stanford during this quarter, led a tour through the Armory at the Kremlin. Jack and Nancy also led the trip to Vladimir and Sudzal. The Armory was the best museum I have been to so far in Russia. The Armory houses all of Russia’s greatest treasures and was really quite a treat to see. Most of the things in the museum were older than the United States, which was a pretty trippy idea to think about. Finally though I did get some rest on Sunday evening. Last night was a peaceful evening that consisted of a hot shower, tea, and homework. When my host mother got home from running errands last night she walked in the door with several bags. Out of one end of the bags I noticed a large fish tale hanging out, just as I had figured out what it was it flopped! She took this 2 foot Carp and put it in the bathtub full of water and let it swim around!!! I couldn’t believe it!!!! Even stranger was that at 11:00pm last night the fish was still swimming in the bathtub and this morning at 6:45am it was gone. However, it was NOT in the fridge so we will see if at some point this week if I will be eating Carp.
Hopefully later this week I will find time to post so my posts can be shorter in the future.
Cheers from Moscow!!!! –Jean Margaret
