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Published: August 7th 2006
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One of the first things that our professors told us was to expect the unexpected. I have found this advice quite true.
Last weekend we took a bus tour of Moscow. By far the most impressive sight was Moskva river in front of Moscow University. After Russians get married, the whole wedding crowd goes for a tour of the famous sights in Moscow. They often end their journey at the Moskva river. This weekend was quite popular for weddings, so there must have been at least 20 wedding parties going on at the same time. There was a small band playing lively music for one of the parties. All the male friends of the couple danced around in a circle, with the wife and husband in the center. Occasionally all of them would shout "gorko! gorko! gorko!", meaning "bitter! bitter! bitter!" At this time, the groom would take his bride in his arms and kiss all the bitterness away. This custom seemed to catch on with the other 20 some other wedding parties and just as one party would stop yelling "gorko" another party would pick it up. It was so cute. I must have seen more wedding parties here than
My first dinner in Moscow
We all decided to go out to dinner the first night we were in Moscow. It was past midnight, but we were all excited to finally be here I've seen in my whole life.
After the trip, we all went out to dinner at Palmira, a cute little outdoor restaurant next to our dorm. I ordered pelmeni, which is sort of like a wonton but shaped differently. My pelmeni came with cream, mushrooms, and tasty little strips of meat. Since the menu was in Russian I had no idea what those strips of meat were. After I finished my meal I learned that they were "yazik". Which means tounge. I'm glad I didn't know that before I tried it otherwise I'm sure i wouldn't have been adventurous enough to try something so unusual.
My roommate and I then left the restaurant to go shopping. We went to a small store and I tried to order bread and jam. I didn't know the word for jam and the shop keeper didn' t quite understand what I meant by wanting to buy "fruit for bread". Eventually, however, I was able to explain what I wanted. Then a Russian guy in the shop asked me if I spoke English. We had a short conversation and then I turned back to the shopkeeper to purchase my food. Then all of a sudden
Kate
My roommate when I lived in the dorm the Russian guy came behind me and ran his hand along my thigh. I was shocked and immediately jumped away from him. He let go of me when I jumped away. Then he went off to the other side of the store as if nothing had happened. I had purposely dressed conservatively with a long skirt and long sleved shirt. I think he did that because I had smiled at him without thinking. During orientation they told us that smiling at a guy is a sign of exteme interest. I'm just so used to smiling whenever I feel like it though I'm not sure that I will be able to stop the habit.
Sexism is very bad in Russia. Whenever we sit down for meals, the waitresses always serve the men first. Also, at our dorm, men can pay a small fee to have their clothes washed. However, the maids refuse to wash women's clothes so we have to wash our clothes by hand.
Racism is also really bad. At our orientation the professors said that people in our class with noncaucasion ethnicities will likely face overt racism with waitresses reticent to serve them and possibly racist slurs hurled at them on the street. I also witnessed something really strange, which was probably meant to be a racist insult. I was with a group of other students standing in front of a store and all of the sudden this seventy year old man came up to an Asian student. He put his nose to her shoulder and sniffed a couple times. Then he cackled and walked away. We were all very suprised and didn't know what to make of it. The student who had this happen though just laughed it off. Which is probably the best thing to do. The professors warned us not to escalate any already bad situations, because you could be punched in the face or worse. The police and the crowd tend to side with Russians.
This trip has definitely been full of both pleasant and unpleasant suprises.
Anyway, yesterday I went to izmaylovskii park, a huge outdoor market. Everything is so inexpensive there, but still you have to shop around. One of my friends wanted to buy a fox fur hat. At the first store she went to, the hat cost $80. At the next store the exact same hat cost $20. There were so many things to see I didn't know what to buy. I'm planning on going back next week.
Classes started today. It was quite impressive that during the entire 5 hours of class our professor never spoke English. My listening skills in Russian are definitely going to improve a lot during the trip.
Well my time is nearly up at the internet cafe. It only costs about 70 rubles an hour (about $3), but it takes half an hour for me to get here . So I'll probably only update my blog 2-3 times per week. I'll try to put pictures on next time too.
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Kira
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It sounds like Russia is a little different than we all expected! The wedding thing sounded cute! And Masha said the same thing about smiling from when she went this summer. It's going to be so hard not to smile all the time! How many people are in your group, and what program did you go through? Are Russians really impatient when you try to talk to them in the market/the stores? Or is there frequently someone around to help? Also, where is your dorm? Anyway, have a good time and don't worry about getting back to me soon. I hope you're enjoying yourself!