Alright everybody! Get out your cheap combs and polo shirts, it's picture day!
After eating some cold pizza from the night before, we met up with our professor and left the dorm. Our first stop was to the nearest super market where we can go to pick up any supplies that we may need. Definitely helpful and I will be using it in the future. Afterwards, we went to a huge mall that was down the road. It included a кенотеатре (movie theatre) and I was very surprised to see that one of the movies advertised was "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer". Since he was an American president and the movie is completely fictional, I have to wonder what reason Muscovites might have to see it. I would compare it to Americans seeing something like "Czar Nicolas: Werewolf Hunter".
Anyway, the majority of stores in the building were American and even used english predominantly. this was certainly the only place that I saw this, though it is common to see english sub-text on many signs. We left the mall soon afterwards and headed for the Metro Station. I had been previously led to believe that the entire system is very ornate but that is not quite the truth. The train platforms are much farther underground than those in Washington D.C. and not all of the stations are that impressive looking (though many are, especially once you get farther into the city) but what truly is impressive is the rate at which cars are shuttled through the tunnels. If you happened to miss your ride, don't worry because another will be along in a few seconds. The platforms are usually packed and full of people that are willing to do anything to shave a few seconds off of their travel time. The metro certainly is the primary method of transportation around the city and it does not surprise me that they are that busy.
We got off the metro at a station almost directly outside of the Red Square (Красивая Площадь) and continued past the Исторический Музей (History Museum). The square was much smaller than I had imagined it and was full of cobblestone. There are lines that run along it marking the progress for military parades but the area is completely closed to traffic. The history museum lies on one end of the square and the other end is occupied by St. Basils Cathedral. To one side is the wall of the Kremlin and opposing it is a high priced mall called Муг (Moog). We did see the inside of Муг because it started raining pretty hard and we had to get inside.
When we came out, the weather had cleared up quite a bit and we could get a few more pictures and walk to the other side of the Kremlin where there was a very nice park and a few other things. The most incredible part is the war memorial for the Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная Война) which is essentially the World War II in Russia. This distinction between the Russian front of the war and the rest of the World War II is very important to Russians because the death toll was so high (25 million) and it was fought on home soil. It still has a significant impact because nearly every Russian alive today has at least one grandfather or grandmother that was killed. The United States has nothing that really compares to this so the memorial really is awe-inspiring. There is a flame in the middle that is kept lit constantly and guards are always on watch, rotating out on the hour. There is also a few blocks to the right that have the names of the main cities involved in the conflict on them and they are referred to as "Hero Cities".
After the Red Square, we walked to Арбат (Arbat) which is a shopping street full of cafes and shops. It is one of the oldest streets in the city but is not that large. We looked around for a while, grabbed some dinner at a Russian chain restaurant (called 'Му Му' or Moo Moo) and took the metro back to the dorm.
Red Square side of the Исторический Музей
The Kremlin
Inside of Муг
Outside of Муг
Front of the Исторический Музей
Front of St. Basils
Sign infront of the War Memorial. It reads "Fallen for their country".
The outside of my dorm
The War Memorial
For those of you wondering, I did take a ton more pictures but I didn't think I should put them all up here. I might post them somewhere else but there are a lot of them...
After eating some cold pizza from the night before, we met up with our professor and left the dorm. Our first stop was to the nearest super market where we can go to pick up any supplies that we may need. Definitely helpful and I will be using it in the future. Afterwards, we went to a huge mall that was down the road. It included a кенотеатре (movie theatre) and I was very surprised to see that one of the movies advertised was "Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer". Since he was an American president and the movie is completely fictional, I have to wonder what reason Muscovites might have to see it. I would compare it to Americans seeing something like "Czar Nicolas: Werewolf Hunter".
Anyway, the majority of stores in the building were American and even used english predominantly. this was certainly the only place that I saw this, though it is common to see english sub-text on many signs. We left the mall soon afterwards and headed for the Metro Station. I had been previously led to believe that the entire system is very ornate but that is not quite the truth. The train platforms are much farther underground than those in Washington D.C. and not all of the stations are that impressive looking (though many are, especially once you get farther into the city) but what truly is impressive is the rate at which cars are shuttled through the tunnels. If you happened to miss your ride, don't worry because another will be along in a few seconds. The platforms are usually packed and full of people that are willing to do anything to shave a few seconds off of their travel time. The metro certainly is the primary method of transportation around the city and it does not surprise me that they are that busy.
We got off the metro at a station almost directly outside of the Red Square (Красивая Площадь) and continued past the Исторический Музей (History Museum). The square was much smaller than I had imagined it and was full of cobblestone. There are lines that run along it marking the progress for military parades but the area is completely closed to traffic. The history museum lies on one end of the square and the other end is occupied by St. Basils Cathedral. To one side is the wall of the Kremlin and opposing it is a high priced mall called Муг (Moog). We did see the inside of Муг because it started raining pretty hard and we had to get inside.
When we came out, the weather had cleared up quite a bit and we could get a few more pictures and walk to the other side of the Kremlin where there was a very nice park and a few other things. The most incredible part is the war memorial for the Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная Война) which is essentially the World War II in Russia. This distinction between the Russian front of the war and the rest of the World War II is very important to Russians because the death toll was so high (25 million) and it was fought on home soil. It still has a significant impact because nearly every Russian alive today has at least one grandfather or grandmother that was killed. The United States has nothing that really compares to this so the memorial really is awe-inspiring. There is a flame in the middle that is kept lit constantly and guards are always on watch, rotating out on the hour. There is also a few blocks to the right that have the names of the main cities involved in the conflict on them and they are referred to as "Hero Cities".
After the Red Square, we walked to Арбат (Arbat) which is a shopping street full of cafes and shops. It is one of the oldest streets in the city but is not that large. We looked around for a while, grabbed some dinner at a Russian chain restaurant (called 'Му Му' or Moo Moo) and took the metro back to the dorm.
Red Square side of the Исторический Музей
The Kremlin
Inside of Муг
Outside of Муг
Front of the Исторический Музей
Front of St. Basils
Sign infront of the War Memorial. It reads "Fallen for their country".
The outside of my dorm
The War Memorial
For those of you wondering, I did take a ton more pictures but I didn't think I should put them all up here. I might post them somewhere else but there are a lot of them...
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