Nizhnii Novgorod

I am in Nizhnii!

My university where I am taking Russian classes and living in the dorms is in an awesome city called Nizhnii Novgorod. I have been in the city for a week now and I love it! The people here are much more friendly than in Moscow and I love living in the dorms. The picture on the right is of me and another girl in the program Crystal in my dorm room wearing our "house coats" that some previous exchange students left behind. We adopted these house coats and we wear them all the time.

We started our classes last week; language and history. Language is really hard but the locals who are living in the dorms help us with our homework. We start doing homework and then the locals come in with music to have dance parties. That happens pretty much every night.

Yesterday we went to a Russian version of a sana called the banya. It was so much fun and we decided that we are going to banya every weekend. They have an ice cold pool in the banya to jump in and birch branches that you hit each other with to "beat out the evil spirits".

I also went cross country skiing yesterday! It was my first time so I fell down a lot but by the end I could stay standing for a few minutes. Next weekend we're going snowboarding I'm so excited!

Everyone's running around right now cause it's dinner time and they can't wait to eat borsch.

Babushka

...means grandma in Russian.

Me and my friend Crystal from the group have been trying to find the best Russian babushka in Moscow. Babushkas are who keep this country alive, ya know "The Motherland". Anyway, we grade them on a scale of 1 - 10 depending on how much fur their coat has, if they have glasses or a cane and how big and squishy they are. The babushka on the left is like a 9.5. She would be a 10 if she had a cane. Crystal and I can't wait to be big babushkas.

The next picture is a picture of the whole group in front of the Church of Christ the Savior which is right downtown next to the river. The church is so awesome inside, lots of giant paintings and gold. Oh and incense, lots of incense. Incense is one of the best parts of the Orthodox churches. That and the babushkas.

We're leaving Moscow tomorrow to go to Nizhnii where we'll start school next week. I won't have access to the internet for about a week while we're settling in there but I'll update as soon as I can.

P.s. it was -5 degrees today!

9 degrees in Russia

It's 9 degrees right now in Moscow and we're all freezing!

The past few days we have gone to museums, galleries and cathedrals. We went inside St. Basil's which was even prettier inside than outside. We went to a Russian history museum that had a lot of artifacts from the soviet era and a gallery with giant paintings that were up to 20 feet tall.

Today we went to a bazaar by the hotel that is the biggest market for souvenirs in Russia. I got a bunch of Russian nesting dolls, my favorite being one that is a family of pandas. I also got some fur socks that will hopefully keep my feet warmer than they have been lately.

The locals are so serious! On the metro they just stare straight ahead and don't look at anyone. The picture on the right is of me on the metro with another one of the girls in my group, Tavia. I have the biggest jacket I have seen yet. They also don't say anything, it's always dead silent in public. It's only when you're with them one on one that they open up and laugh. They are all very well dressed and love mullets. Even some of the women have these really sleek mullets. Some how they all pull it off though.

Tonight we are going to the theater to see "Swan Lake", whatever that is.

I'm in Russia!

Hi friends!

I am officially in Moscow! We got here late last night after 24 hours of traveling.

Today we went to downtown Moscow to see Red Square, St. Basil's cathedral and Lenin's tomb. Lenin's body was the most bizarre thing I have ever seen. The body is in a glass case and it looks plastic from all of the embalming of the past 90 years since his death. St. Basil's was great and Red Square was really pretty. We also rode the metro around and stopped at all of the big stations in downtown. Lenin wanted to have the prettiest metro system in the world when it was made so it is quite extravagant.

The group is great, there are 14 of us. 12 girls and 2 boys from all over the U.S. 2 of our girls are also Canadian. Monica, Beverly and I are the 3 representing Biola. Then there's our 2 directors Harley and Debbie who know the city very well and are really nice and helpful. Tomorrow we are going to the market next to the hotel to probably buy a bunch of Russian nesting dolls so I am looking forward to that. I will update again soon and I hope you are all doing well in the states.

Riley

My new blog!

This is my new blog!

I will be posting news and pictures from my Russia trip starting next week. I will be arriving in Russia on the 13th, so be expecting pictures and blogs about Russia soon after. Thanks for being interested in my trip and I look forward to seeing you all when I get back!

Riley