From Pennsylvania to Moscow

Today is, well, would you look at that, I have finally posted on the day the blog thinks it is - May 26th 2011.  As the title suggests, I am reaching my final days in Moscow. Am I sad or happy? How about a mixture of feelings. I am going to miss a lot about Moscow such as the friends and good relationships I made here, some of the food like Pelmeni (not that I can't make it at home, but it's so nice to be able to go to the freezer section of the store and buy a bag!), and borscht.  I am also going to miss being able to speak in Russian everyday with all sorts of different and interesting people.  When I go back to SUNY Albany and the Russian class isn't completely taught in Russian, well, I'm afraid that it may be disappointing, and my heart will be longing for Russia. One thing I have learned is that the people here are not as scary as what foreigners make of Russia. When you are unfamiliar with the language, it may sound like Russians are always angry and shouting ...

For the program I am involved in through SUNY, everyone in the group had to take a mandatory Russian Studies Seminar Class.  In this class we had many different lectures involved in Russian culture on topics such as: history, politics, literature, architecture, music, and film.  The first part of our grade for this class was to do the architecture project where we worked with Russian students and created a presentation on a specific aspect of Russian architecture in Moscow. I believe I talked about this in an earlier posting where you'll be able to read about and see some pretty pictures!  For our final grade in this class, we went to Vladimir and met Russian students.  Little did we know that we had to do another project with them. I made good friends with one of them, her name is Natalia. She is your typical Russian girl, very beautiful, smart, and not afraid to give her opinion. Tatyana, the professor who took us to Vladimir, saw that we were getting along and pai...

Monday May 9th In Russia, Victory Day is celebrated on the 9th of May, what is so important about it is Russia's victory over Nazi Germany after World War II, or as it is known in Soviet Russia - The Great Patriotic War. People go home on this day to be with their family. They'll have picnics, maybe go to their dacha (Russian country house), drink to the victory and to those lost, and watch fireworks in the evening.  In Red Square it is possible to see a large parade of military vehicles and soldiers marching.  It is difficult to go and watch, because first of all, it's about as crowded as Time Square on New Year's. Secondly, the metro closes down until after the parade which makes getting there very difficult. Thirdly, both the president and the vice president go to the parade so security is very tight. My friend Karen texted me the night before asking if I wanted to go with her and some of her friends at 8am, to go to Третяковская (Tretyakovskaya, is a metro stat...

A week before Easter Spencer and I decided to take an active part in our physical well-being by running and doing yoga together. He had already gone on some really long runs with our German friend Benny who is really into Football, the European kind. Since it was Spring, and the chill from winter was beginning to leave, it was definitely time to go out and get active. Back home at SUNY Albany I would go to the gym with a friend of mine 3 times a week where we'd run on the treadmill then head on the floor for some strength training. Aside from that we also went to yoga once a week, and I had my Irish dance class once a week. To say the least before I came to Russia I was in fabulous shape. We decided to run down to the river by way of going to Sparrow Hills, which is a really pretty park behind the main building. When you get to the bottom of Sparrow Hills, you will be standing right along the shore of the Moscow River. As soon as I started running with Spencer I was able to fe...

Tuesday, May 10th Today is my last day of break, and what else is there to do but get all my homework and essays completed? For my political structure class, I had to write an essay, once again on my choice. I had no idea what I wanted to write about, so my professor, having considered my last paper, mentioned that I should write about the corruption of the Duma. While this topic is fascinating in my opinion, it also freaks me out...especially since I'm still in the country. I figured that as long as I use articles that have already been published, then there is no way harm could come to me. All of my articles came from The Moscow Times, and other sources you'll see all the way at the bottom. If you have read my previous essay and already understand how the Duma operates, then you might want to scroll down a little bit. I hope you enjoy this one, I promise it's much more interesting then the last one. Corruption in the Duma of the Russian Federation Corruption ...