Wow! It has been an absolutely crazy past couple of days. Early Tuesday morning at about 3:30 AM, I left my home to go to the LAX airport; my flight left at 6:30 AM. Fast forward 16 hours later and it's 9 AM on a Wednesday morning in Moscow, Russia! Talk about the absolute and literal longest day of my life. We were flying right into tomorrow morning with only a couple hours of actual night time. Staying up that whole day I arrived is probably one of the more difficult things I've done recently. However, so far it has been completely worth it! Russia has been treating me well, and jet lag hasn't gotten the best of me!
Where I'm actually living at is very nice! It's the beverly hills of Moscow, even the President lives in this area. I live in a double gated community! I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in the U.S. You're probably wondering, "double gated?! Isnt' one enough?" Noway. Not when you're a millionaire in Russia, cause apparently you can never have too much privacy and safety. So the whole community is gated within itself and then you walk down the roads there are huge mansions after huge mansions that have about 12 ft. gates surrounded each house. You can hardly see how nice the house is. How fun is that? Not at all. I live in a guest house of one of these gated mansions with three other girls (this is the group I'll be teaching with). The man who owns the mansion is also the owner of the school that we volunteer at, which is also within this gated community. It's a very nice school, and I'll let you know how teaching goes when I start Monday! I feel very lucky to be in this part of Moscow because of the safety I feel.
Here's what the roads look like within the gated community. I wasn't expecting it to be so green!
However, not all of Moscow is so lucky. On Thursday we did some traveling into the city and as we take the bus to get there you see skyscraper looking buildings that are used strictly for residential purposes. They are very run down and look ghetto. There's about 11 million people in Russia and I'm convinced that most of them live in these battered buildings.
When my group and I got off the bus we met with our coordinator Goulya, a very sweet Russian lady who speaks fluent English. She took us through the metro and into downtown Moscow where we visited Red Square; the heart of the city and where the country's history is embedded with cathedrals and memorials.
The Kremlin; the formal royal citadel:
St. Basil's Cathedral; the legend here is that the man who build and designed this was asked if he could build something more beautiful than this building when he said that he could, his eyes were taken out and he was blinded. If I wasn't sure I was in Russia before, I definitely can feel it now (:
This is the memorial dedicated to the unknown soldiers of WWII: Yes, those are real life military men standing in those glass arches!
It's truly a beautiful city and the history is so intriguing to me! Just by the short amount of time that I've been here I have gained an appreciation for the proudness that the Russians hold for their country. From their history to present time, they are proud of it all and if anyone voices their opinions otherwise, are subject to the police. Eeeek! I'll try to keep my big fat mouth shut (; The police run the city around here whether it's against the law or not. Americans have to be careful in many different ways to not attract attention to ourselves and to keep our purses and money right in front of us. But I have to admit that trying to attract the attention of the police is a little difficult; Russian officers aren't terrible looking people (: I try my best not to make eye contact though! (Don't worry mom and dad, I won't be running away with any Russian men, this is a joke...kinda) Apparently making eye contact and smiling at a Russian man is an invitation. Makes Americans sound the most forward people on this planet! It's very difficult not to smile and make eye contact when walking the streets; however, fear is a very good motivator! Our coordinator says that if a guy tries talking to us to pretend to be deaf hahaha! She's a very funny lady.
There's sooo much more I could talk about and say but I'll have to save it for the next post so stay close by! I just want to give another huge thank you to all of those who donated and helped me make this trip possible; I am filled with gratitude by the hearts of all the generous donors. Thank you so much!!
PS. THEY HAVE DIET COKE! (I'm definitely not an addict)
Where I'm actually living at is very nice! It's the beverly hills of Moscow, even the President lives in this area. I live in a double gated community! I don't think I've ever seen anything like this in the U.S. You're probably wondering, "double gated?! Isnt' one enough?" Noway. Not when you're a millionaire in Russia, cause apparently you can never have too much privacy and safety. So the whole community is gated within itself and then you walk down the roads there are huge mansions after huge mansions that have about 12 ft. gates surrounded each house. You can hardly see how nice the house is. How fun is that? Not at all. I live in a guest house of one of these gated mansions with three other girls (this is the group I'll be teaching with). The man who owns the mansion is also the owner of the school that we volunteer at, which is also within this gated community. It's a very nice school, and I'll let you know how teaching goes when I start Monday! I feel very lucky to be in this part of Moscow because of the safety I feel.
Here's what the roads look like within the gated community. I wasn't expecting it to be so green!
However, not all of Moscow is so lucky. On Thursday we did some traveling into the city and as we take the bus to get there you see skyscraper looking buildings that are used strictly for residential purposes. They are very run down and look ghetto. There's about 11 million people in Russia and I'm convinced that most of them live in these battered buildings.
When my group and I got off the bus we met with our coordinator Goulya, a very sweet Russian lady who speaks fluent English. She took us through the metro and into downtown Moscow where we visited Red Square; the heart of the city and where the country's history is embedded with cathedrals and memorials.
The Kremlin; the formal royal citadel:
St. Basil's Cathedral; the legend here is that the man who build and designed this was asked if he could build something more beautiful than this building when he said that he could, his eyes were taken out and he was blinded. If I wasn't sure I was in Russia before, I definitely can feel it now (:
This is the memorial dedicated to the unknown soldiers of WWII: Yes, those are real life military men standing in those glass arches!
It's truly a beautiful city and the history is so intriguing to me! Just by the short amount of time that I've been here I have gained an appreciation for the proudness that the Russians hold for their country. From their history to present time, they are proud of it all and if anyone voices their opinions otherwise, are subject to the police. Eeeek! I'll try to keep my big fat mouth shut (; The police run the city around here whether it's against the law or not. Americans have to be careful in many different ways to not attract attention to ourselves and to keep our purses and money right in front of us. But I have to admit that trying to attract the attention of the police is a little difficult; Russian officers aren't terrible looking people (: I try my best not to make eye contact though! (Don't worry mom and dad, I won't be running away with any Russian men, this is a joke...kinda) Apparently making eye contact and smiling at a Russian man is an invitation. Makes Americans sound the most forward people on this planet! It's very difficult not to smile and make eye contact when walking the streets; however, fear is a very good motivator! Our coordinator says that if a guy tries talking to us to pretend to be deaf hahaha! She's a very funny lady.
There's sooo much more I could talk about and say but I'll have to save it for the next post so stay close by! I just want to give another huge thank you to all of those who donated and helped me make this trip possible; I am filled with gratitude by the hearts of all the generous donors. Thank you so much!!
PS. THEY HAVE DIET COKE! (I'm definitely not an addict)
Uhhh, not sure what ingredients are in here or if it's exactly diet, I guess I'll never know! But it taste pretty good to me and does the job to ease my withdrawals.
