Always Ready!

So the other day, most of us went to conversation hour with a group of Russian students learning English. They were putting on a fairy tale play for their last class. So we went, the play was pretty good and we thought we could leave. No such luck. We were ushered back into the room where a guy stood up in front of the class and started talking about Lenin's birthday, October children, and Young Pioneers. All us Americans started looking at each other thinking, "What the hell is going on?" Before we know, it we're all standing in front of the class wearing red boy scout hats, scarves, and a pin with Lenin saying, 'Всегда Готов!' meaning, 'Always Prepared'. We had to do a special salute and sing a song. It was the strangest thing I've ever encountered. We later learned that Young Pioneers was a USSR organization that everyone had to join when they were 10. We think they were trying to show us their culture. Then again I wonder, did I become a Communist today? If you want to learn more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Pioneer_organization_of_the_Soviet_Union

This week was sort of hectic. Wednesday we were supposed to go to the Icon Museum and couldn't because a pipe burst and the museum was closed. Most of us weren't too sad about it. The bad thing was that we had class everyday this week, even Wednesday and Saturday. We had to do this because of the May Day holiday and us getting Monday and Tuesday off. May Day holiday is a leftover Soviet holiday to celebrate labor and spring. Sunday we went out of the city to see two ancient towns, Vladimir and Suzdal.

Usually this is a river. Now it's a swamp! YAY!

It was really nice to get outside of the city and breath in some fresh air, despite the five hour bus ride with traffic. The people are much more pleasant outside the city and happier. We were in only Vladimir for probably a total of an hour, but it was nice. When Russia used to be a bunch of princely estates Kiev used to be the capital, and then moved to Vladimir in the late 1100's. Vladimir has some great churches (it's Russia after all).

This is the front of the Dormition Cathedral aka Church of the Assumption Cathedral in Vladimir. It is THE church of medieval Russia. Andrew the Pious, who moved the capital, commissioned it. Many princes of the time are interred here. There's a story that someone tried to open one of the crypts and that when they opened it the crypt was on fire. There's an entire fresco dedicated to it and everything. There's also some saint buried here. I forget who but you can see his hand. The bell tower in the front was added in the 19th century and used during Soviet times for parachute jumping (until they realized it wasn't high enough). The inside of the cathedral has frescos painted by Russia's favorite iconist Andrei Rublev. He is known as the greatest iconist because he depicted the saints not at Byzantine (or Grecian), but as Russians. Many of his works have been lost and the frescos here are treasured.  

CLOSE UP

Next there is the Cathedral of Saint Demetrius. This Cathedral is famous for its white stone carvings on the outside that depict the story of King David. It has many lions on it, even though Russians have never seen lions. It also has Heracles stories on it (not entirely sure why). Inside there's threads from some saint's clothing (you could kill me I don't remember).

I know this picture is awful, but the facades of Russian
houses are like out of a fairy tale. So cool.

After that we went to SUZDAL! Suzdal is fucking awesome. Our advisor described it perfectly, that it's like a toy. They have a wooden architecture museum there with wooden churches. SO PRETTY. Who could ever think that they could make circular onion domes out of wood?

Then we saw even more churches! This beauty is called the Cathedral of the Nativity. It's domes are too beautiful to exclude. We also went into a convent where there was a concert in the bell tower, and another concert by some monks, which was really beautiful. Consequently, this excursion was on the same day as a guy in our groups birthday. Some of us bought honey beer (so delicious) to drink on the bus on the way home. Some of us (myself) brought vodka and Schweppes to drink on the way home. I offered some to our advisor, who thought I was kidding when I said I had vodka in my bag earlier. Sadly she declined thinking the bus driver would judge her. I was sad to leave Suzdal. I want to live in Suzdal, in these fairy tale houses, and drink honey beer for the rest of my life. Then again, they say if you drink too much honey beer, you'll try to stand and find your legs don't work. I didn't drink enough to find out.

The next day was perfect weather so me and some others in our group went to the Moscow zoo where we saw this:

AND I GOT TO PET THIS! (the Moscow Zoo has the shittiest barriers I've ever seen in a zoo)

Otherwise the zoo was kinda shitty. It was crowded with children and had a shit ton of birds that we couldn't care less about. Plus we missed the Dolphinarium, which is their main attraction. I mean, once you've been to the Columbus Zoo, not much can top it I guess. We ended entertaining ourselves for day with Sammy.

I paid more for this damn balloon than I did for the zoo ticket. This balloon is the size of a German Shepherd. It's the most obnoxious thing in the world and I took it everywhere with me. 

To see it's relatives,

On the metro (I got the best looks and laughs on the escalators), and to Sparrow Hills. Speaking of Sparrow Hills,

View from the top

Sparrow hills is one of the highest points in Moscow. There's a hill with a shit ton of woods so you can hike up to the top. It's a nice change of scenery for Moscow. We're definitely coming back. We climbed to the top, then went back down to the river to watch the sunset.

All in all, it was a pretty awesome day in Moscow. Do svedanya, bitches.