Moscow

I returned from Moscow today, where our group spent three days. Again, I apologize but at the moment I do not have the ability to upload pictures.

The first day there we walked around the city, near the Kremlin, but it was a national holiday so the Red Square and Kremlin were closed to people without passes. Riding the metro was fascinating, as the Soviets designed the subway system to be an emblem of the city- each station is filled with art and statues, and the architecure of the stations is incredible. The first day we also visited a few churches, but at the moment I cannot remember the english or russian names, so I will find out later and provide a wikipedia link.

The second day we went to a sort of Russian flea market so that everyone could buy gifts for their family. I unfortunately did not see anything I wanted to buy, so at the moment I am still giftless, although the other students picked up a variety of touristy gifts for their family members. Afterwards we went to the Red Square, where we entered Lenin's mosoleum. If you do not know who that is, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lenin. Joseph Stalin and a few others are also buried there. Afterwards we visited a convent where various czaristas were banished to after attempting to usurp power from their various royal family members. Others in the group took a lot of pictures here, so I will put a link up once they have them posted. Next we visited a famous state cemetary where various presidents, generals, scientists, and artists are buried, including my favorite Russian, Nikolai Gogol: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikolai_Gogol. That night on television Matt and I watched a show on MUZ, a sort of mtv, where for an hour amateurs were allowed to sing or dance. It is not a competition, and for the most part everyone on the show was awful. Very entertaining though.

The third day our group visited an art museum, which features only Russian artists (where as the museum in Petersburg included artwork from all over Europe). A few pieces were very interesting, but the most interesting moment would have been one of our sleepy students momentarily leaning against a statue and being scolded by museum staff (he braved a Russian club the night before). Afterwards we went to the Kremlin, where we visited a museum that included many items formerly belonging to the czars, such as long gowns, carriages, icons, ambassadoral gifts, crowns, and sceptres (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kremlin_Armoury). Afterwards we toured the rest of the Kremlin, which you should know from movies to be the seat of Russian government (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_kremlin). From here we visited a WW2 monument, before catching our train back to Novgorod.

Finally, I saw that the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Los Angeles Lakers both one their series, which is the result I was pulling for at the beginning of their respective playoffs!