The Metro

Every great city has one: an underground train system. The universal burning rubber smell...♥ In London it's The Tube, in NYC it's the Subway, but here in Moscow, it's just the Metro. It's one of the best in the world. I personally like it because whenever I'm going somewhere, I'm usually in a hurry, and I wouldn't like waiting for ten minutes for a ride. I've never had to wait more than two minutes for the next metro car. It's incredibly efficient and in the center of the city, the stops are pretty close together. Here's a map:

Pretty straightforward, right? UH, NO. If you'll notice, there is a dark blue line and a light blue line on the map. Underground, the colors are switched. And there is an "Arbatskaya" on both of them. Try to meet someone at Arbatskaya on the blue line, I dare you. It's actually not that bad once you get used to it. I'm on the dark green line at Sokol. It's fourth from the top. There are some really beautiful metro stops. 

Chandeliers and gold leafing. Very Russian. I love going to the pretty stops. I get to appreciate Russian art without going out of my way. It's incredible that they make the metro so beautiful. It's crazy to think that this is just the underground transportation. And they're pretty clean too!

This one always reminds me of the Ministry of Magic building. Every time I come here I ready myself for a raging duel that is sure to break out one of these days.


So come to Russia and ride the Metro with me! Seriously, my mom hardly ever lets me ride it alone, so I need a buddy. There is a lot more where these pictures came from, and you should definitely come check it out. And preferably before I forget all my English. ;) Until next time, До свидания!

Soviets Train 'Em Young

The foundation of every state is the education of its youth.
-Diogenes Laertius



Everybody knows how Russian gymnasts are always incredible in the Olympics. Well the other day, I went on a bike ride with Mark so he could go fishing in a little pond. On the other side of the pond was a pretty old and decrepit playground. It was actually pretty gross, and I would hope nobody would ever let their child play there. I went straight for a bench so I could do my homework while Mark fished, and this is what I found:

Beer can and cigs. Nice. So here I was at an abandoned playground, now the hang out place for immature teens. The sad part is, that might not be true. I bet a lot of kids still play here, but it was eerily empty while I was there, so being the easily distracted person that I am, after I did some homework, I explored a little bit. 

Once I took a closer look I noticed these beauties. The ring things from the Olympics! How interesting that among all of the other pieces of entertainment, this was just casually there. I can see some completely jacked little six-year-old hanging upside-down on these, laughing along with his other friends. Makes it easy to envision our twenty-six year old buddy in the Olympics. 

This was just around the corner. Now I know its brainwashing. "Hey little Vlad, let's compete with Alexi and see who has the coolest tricks!" That's exactly how they wanted them to think. THAT, ladies and gents is how you build an army. Well, an army of Olympiads. 

So friends, come to Russia. I miss you, and together we will discover lots of Stalin's grand ideas. It'll be fun, promise. Until next time, до свидания!

Russian Hockey Team

I'm sure you all heard about the hockey team Lokomotiv that died in a plane crash about a month ago. Russia loves its hockey, so it was not uncommon to see this in the streets:

This is on New Arbott--a very busy street in the center of Moscow. It's a pile of flowers outside a sports store with jerseys of the players that died. For weeks after the accident piles of flowers such as this could be found in a lot of places. 

It's extremely sad, but if you come to Moscow and join a team and die, people that love you will put flowers all over the city for you. Now since that's highly improbable, and you'll live through a visit to Moscow easily, think of what your fans will do for you when you're alive! Come visit and see! Until next time, до свидания!

Mullets&Braids

"Business in the front; party in the back"
-Billy Ray Cyrus


Just a short blurb about Moscow: Hairstyles. 


 So first: People here can get really creative with braids. I always try to take pictures, but I guess my people watching skills are not THAT good, because I end up following people for two whole departments of IKEA only to get a blurry or cropped picture. I'll work on that. 

So yes, this is the girl I followed for a long time. And its not even that good of a picture. She has a braid that starts at the bottom of her head and fountains at the top with a pink flower. I thought it was too interesting to let it pass. Man, I'm creepy. Maybe I'll work on that too.

Well, believe it or not, the woman in the black also has a braid that sort of wraps itself around the base of her head. It was cool.

Alex Self, I just had to throw this in there for you. <3 MaHH loHHve. 

This woman's hair is just AWESOME. So fluffy. I almost went up and pet her hair like a dog's. 

Ah, our next hairstyle is demonstrated here. The mullet. кефаль. der Meeräsche. Business in the front; party in the back. ;) For some reason beyond me, they're socially acceptable here. 

I'm seriously considering people watching as a career. You probably think (or hope) I'm kidding.

Aaaaand the grand finale, the mullet ponytail. For anyone out there who gets this, it reminds me of Zarahemla. But this would be a little harder to scalp. 


So, for those of you who enjoy people watching and need a new market, looks like Moscow is the place for you! Come visit! Until next time, до свидания!

Russian Shopping Part One: Flea Markets

"The odds of going to the store for a loaf of bread and coming out with only a loaf of bread are three billion to one."
- Erma Bombeck

In Moscow, Shopping is so big that I think I'll split it into a few blog posts. But so far, one of my favorite times here was when we went to Izmailovo (is-MY-lah-vuh), this flea market that was about 40 minutes from my house. It was one of my first encounters with Russian architecture, which also deserves its own blog post just because I love it so much. Izmailovo is sort of tacked on to the back of a beautiful church, of which I did not get a picture, unfortunately. Next time;)

So these little huts are basically just sitting behind the church. The church is almost like a fort. It has walls around it and a gate. The flea market is part inside the gate (you have to pay 10 Russian rubles to get in, about 35ish cents) and part outside (free, but they do have Turkish food, so you end up paying there too...dang you delicious doner kebabs). On with the tour...

So, yes, kinda looks like these people are having a garage sale, with all the seemingly useless stuff you can find, but there are actually awesome things at some of the stands. There were old USSR pins, which I though were unbelievably cool even though my dad told me they were copies. And some other things familiar to the land of wealthy Czars and freezing winters. 

Look carefully and you'll see our buddies the Romanovs! For some reason, Royalty fascinates me, ESPECIALLY the Romanovs. There's just something incredible about the scale of their affluence and grandeur. I'm itching to get to St. Petersburg and see their real faberege eggs. But hey, these are pretty cool for the mean-time.

This part was fun. Right when we were dropped off at Izmailovo we went through the gates and saw some friends from church. We were immediately led to this. Now, I didn't come to the land of fur-lovers empty handed. Thanks to Victoria Alperovich, I should have been taken care of in the way of furry hats, but look at them! Real Russian fur hats and bargaining? Couldn't think of a better pair. 

Mark even found something to try on. After much deliberation and pulling the prices WAY down, Annie and I walked away with hats. Woo! We can't wait for Winter, but my little dog doesn't quite know what to do about them. 

Mighty Wolfpack?

Larger shot of the flea market. My dad, the bearded man in the corner (who at this point would probably comment on how studly he is), lovingly carrying our bag. We came to Izmailovo merely to explore, but you can't come here and not find something you have to have. If you still need more convincing, here's a picture taken in the market outside the gate...

Belt buckles to rival Texas. If you'll notice, yes, the Playboy buckle IS connected to a belt in which the word "FASHION" is branded. Oh, the creativity here.

So there. You should come to Moscow to check out the flea markets. Right behind this is the Turkish food stand! See how long you can resist. Or don't, Winter's a coming, and I need y'all. Until next time!  до свидания!

p.s. It's nine hours ahead of you Texas folk here. Just remember what it's like when someone calls YOUR home phone (ours, by the way, is the same number and not long-distance!) in the middle of the night. That said, we'd still love to hear from you! Just look at the clock before you call:)

First Post!

"If we do not find anything very pleasant, at least we shall find something new."
-Johan Friedrick von Schiller


Howdy friends and family! I wanted to start this blog for many reasons. One, because I know I would be itching for details and pictures of EVERYTHING if my friend had just moved to Moscow, so I wanted to provide you with just that. Two, I'm hoping you'll comment on my blog posts so I can hear from you all. Three, Chelsea LeSueur knows what she's talking about. Four, I want to be able to look back at my year-long adventure in Moscow and remember how I felt as it was happening. I'll be posting pictures here and telling you all about the fun things I discover in hopes that I can persuade some of you to hop on an airplane to come see it for yourself. I'm learning as I go, and I can't wait to show you everything!

I got here last Saturday and pretty much went straight to IKEA. Bad idea. In the States, IKEA is great. Its fun to just walk through and see the rooms and imagine living there. Russian IKEA is a different story. First off, it starts with a backwards N. WHAAAAT?!?! That's the cyrilic "I" making it pronounced ee-KAY-uh. So picture this: You just got off a 10 hour flight. You're so jet-lagged that you could fall asleep standing up. You're walking through IKEA, bumping into crowds and crowds of people babbling in a constant stream of gibberish, trying to decide what would match the walls and the floor and the other pieces, and not even having the presence of mind to say "excuse me" in Russian. IKEA is great, it's got everything you need for excellent prices, but I've been there three times in the past week, and we have plans to go again tomorrow. Yippee.

The next place we went that day was Ashan. That's the "Awah" in the picture above. There is a mall that connects IKEA and Ashan. Crowding here was worse than IKEA. In Russia, they don't really say anything if you're in their way. They just ram their shopping cart into you and wait for you to shuffle out of the way. By the time we made it to Ashan, I think we WERE asleep. Let's just say it wasn't the most thorough of shopping trips.  When we went to church the next day, more than one person told us that they have sworn off grocery shopping (especially at Ashan) on Saturdays.

There's so much more to say; believe it or not, there is life after jet-lag and it is a beautiful thing. I miss each and every one of you very, very much. If I haven't lured you in yet, I dont know how I ever could. ;) Until next time! до свидания!