Metro

hello.

sorry my last blog was short. I didn't have a whole lot of time.

Everyday I wake up at 7 to get to class at 9. It only takes me around an hour to eat and shower and prepare myself for the day. I leave a little before 8 and then I have an hour commute. I walk to the Metro which takes 10-15 minutes. I actually enjoy this walk most days. Then I get to the Metro go one stop get off and take another line for awhile. Then I have another 15 minute walk. I have been up for two hours and already exhausted. Generally you have to push and shove to get on the Metro in the morning. Today a nice business man put his arm behind me and helped push me on the train. Apparently I am not aggressive enough. Some days you can get a seat on the train. Amazing but rare.

Then I have classes. I have grammar from 9-10:30 and then usage from 10:40-12:10. On Wednesdays I have a Russian lecture class in broken English about Russia from 1-2:30. However I do not have classes on Friday. Heavens bless. Today was not as bad in class. Basically my teachers told me to relax. Ha. I guess I could do that more. I actually laughed in class.

Laughing is a weird thing here. You don't do it very often. On the metro and things everyone is really quiet and doesn't really speak. If you want to say I'm an American, laugh or talk loud. You are not even supposed to smile at people...strange I know. Anyway you notice when you laugh.

After class today, it was raining but Ashley, Linsey and I still wanted to do something so we went on a Metro tour. HA. I know. Actually Metro stations here are very grand and beautiful, full of communist propaganda of course but gorgeous. We found a list of must see metros and began train hopping. They were so pretty. Stalin built them up to show the Moscow was modern. Some have mosaics depicting Russian events in history, heroes um heroes thought of at the time (i noticed Stalin had himself with Lenin a lot), there were also paintings of happy soviet workers...you too can be this happy. The unfortunate thing is the Moscow police don't like tourists taking pictures so we couldn't take a lot. We designated Linsey who had the best camera to take pictures well sneak pictures. We looked for police. You don't want to have an excuse for Russian police to talk to you. Anyway. Linsey got some pictures but has not given them to me. I will post them when I get them. If this blog gets shut down..you know why.


Funny story: While we were metro hopping we were a little late getting on a train and the doors closed with my backpack still in it. I let out some what of a squeak and just kept pulling my self forward with my arms flaying. My friends just laughed at me, well we were all trying not to laugh and this nice Russian lady pulled my backpack out. This made us want to laugh a lot harder but again we can't because you know it isn't allowed. I turn around to say thank you and a whole bunch of Russians are laughing at me. We lost it at this point and couldn't look at each other in the hopes that we wouldn't laugh out loud. You know something was funny if Russians laugh on the Metro. However, by this time we are trying to get it together we don't realize the train is stopping and Linsey falls back into this poor old lady. We had to get off of the train because we couldn't control ourselves. We needed to recoup.

After our tour, I came home. I was beat. For dinner I had pelnini..it is a Russian ravioli. I liked it. Though yesterday I had a veggie pizza that was great. Also they have this drink here I like alot. You take fruit, um I've only had it with strawberries, and boil them in water with sugar. Let it cool and yummy drink.