Some Teaching Notes
Friday was a pretty calm day. We had our language and food class, which was great. We learned how to make borsch. I love borsch. It’s scary to look at, but it is really good. Everyone needs to try it!
One of my classes was canceled on Friday, so I got to watch those kids at their musical program, rather than teach. They were having a little graduation ceremony from kindergarten to the first grade (or something to that effect). It was adorable to watch, and it was also nice that I didn’t have to teach.
At the other school, I only had two of my five students show up. One of my students left halfway through the class, so it was just Andrey and I hanging out. He normally gives me a lot of grief, but we became friends that day. I had this strong feeling during that time that I needed to let him teach me something. So I said, “Hey, I’m trying to learn Russian. Can you teach me a few words?” He suddenly understood that I wanted to be his friend and I wanted to help him out. He taught me a few words and then let me teach him. It worked out really well. I realize that my students’ number one rule is ‘English Only,’ but I think I needed to bend that rule at that moment. I really think it was a defining moment in our relationship as student and teacher. I hope that the next time he comes to class, he is as pleasant to be around as he was that day.
Kolomenskoye Park
Saturday afternoon, Jordan and I decided to visit Kolomenskoye Park. I had looked it up, and it looked like a pretty cool place with a lot of history. Although lots of people really like Kolomenskoye, I wasn’t super impressed. Honestly, I thought it was a pretty weird place. The park primarily consisted of a bunch of nude, decapitated sculptures. Every statue was of someone’s body part. I typically am not scared off by nudity in artwork, but for some reason, the sculptures here made me feel slightly uncomfortable. It just wasn’t my thing.
Overall, the park itself was beautiful, but the statues and buildings were bizarre. There was a weird log cabin and a few ghetto churches. Sadly, they weren’t quite ghetto enough to be memorable or interesting at all.
Circle of Light and the Hard Rock Cafe
We left shortly after to meet up with Jess, Lydia, and Colby at the Hard Rock Café. None of us knew where it was, but we knew it was on Arbat Street. Jordan and I wandered Arbat Street for half an hour, searching for the Hard Rock and we could not find it. We also couldn’t get ahold of Jess, and we also didn’t have Lydia or Colby’s phone number. We looked in the window of one building and saw a Linkin Park poster, which was pretty out of place for Russia. After further inspection, we realized that we were standing in front of the Hard Rock. They didn’t label this place at all though. If you didn’t know that the restaurant was on that street, you never would have found it. Luckily, Jess, Lydia, and Colby were having the same struggles as us and arrived a few minutes later.
The food was fantastic! If you read my Latvia post, you know that my Mexican food experience in Europe has been pretty crappy. I had hope though, that this was enough of an Americanized chain restaurant that I would have a good Mexican experience. As my plate of fajitas came out, I smelled the familiar spices and felt at home. Warm flour tortillas, guacamole, salsa, lettuce and cheese were all waiting for me next to a steaming skillet of grilled chicken. It was heaven. I was so incredibly happy at that moment. The only thing that would have made it even better was if they had given me three or four more tortillas. I want to go there every week. Seriously. I need my fajita fix.
Circle of Light at ВДНХ
After the Hard Rock, we went to ВДНХ to watch the Circle of Light festival. The traffic getting there was insane. We were all squished super tight onto the metro. There was no room to move at all. It truly was a pickpocket’s paradise.
Once we arrived at our metro stop, we all waddled off of the train and up the escalator. I have never seen the metro so crowded. It was completely insane. Everyone was waddling through the crowd, praying their valuables didn’t get stolen and also that they don’t lose a loved one in the crowd. The local people were crowded by the traffic as well because they were all taking pictures of the pileup. After some time, we finally reached the escalator, which broke halfway up. Everyone began marching up the stairs, when it abruptly reared back to life, causing most of the riders to tip over.
Almost everyone from the metro was going to the same place we were. Since it was free admission, everyone wanted to go experience this world-famous event. All of the buildings had projections with a music show that corresponded to a country. Some were certainly more impressive than others. The American performance was really disturbing. It had a creepy message. There were bodies crawling around and weird Illuminati-Esque symbols everywhere. The music was dark and creepy. I felt really uncomfortable watching it. Nothing like sending a great message about the American people right there. Hungary had amazing performances- no naked people crawling on the buildings. They were all upbeat and well put together. I thoroughly enjoyed it. The Russian performance was a little strange, but the locals were excited about it. It certainly wasn’t as morbid as the American one though, so I can’t knock it at all.
There were concerts going on through the park and different light displays on different buildings. It was a super cool atmosphere. I loved it. One thing that stood out to me was how calm it was. This was a family event. Everyone brought their young children and watched the performances. If this event happened back in America, it would be a straight-up rave. Everyone would be rowdy and wasted. Granted, it smelled a bit of marijuana in the air, but it certainly wasn’t as dense as it is at concerts back home.
One of my favorite parts of this event was that we got to climb on a fountain. We went to this park when we first arrived in Russia, so we saw this fountain when it was full. Since the weather was getting colder, the fountain was drained. There were several people standing at the top of the fountain, so we decided to jump up there and join the fun. It took quite a bit of work to get to the top. Each level is surprisingly high. Short people like me struggle, especially when it’s dark and I’m wearing a backpack. We all made it to the top though, and it was awesome. I loved it up there!
Izmailovsky Market
We were all exhausted after the long day, so we left after a little while and went to bed. The next morning, I was a total zombie. After getting some rest, I decided to go spend some money at the Izmailovsky Souvenir Market. You spend 10 rubles (28 cents) to get in, and you get awesome deals on all of the popular souvenirs. Everyone speaks English, so you can barter pretty easily. I didn’t have much money on me, so I didn’t get much, but I will definitely go back in the near future to get my matryoshka dolls, fur hats, music boxes, and other necessary items!
After the market, Jess, Jordan, Colby, Lydia, and I went to a little pub to eat lunch. They had great food for pretty cheap.
All told, it was an amazing weekend. I’m so glad I was able to take advantage of Moscow and its incredible events.
All My Love,
Madison
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