Bewildering, Bonkers and Brilliant

Today being my first official day of classes, I thought I would do another update. This time I thought I would describe what has struck me about Moscow so far using words beginning with the letter ‘B’.

 

BIG in every way

I may have mentioned this before- but Moscow is a BIG place. Today I thought I was going to be early for a class so hung out at the history faculty for a bit. But it then actually took 30 minutes at walking pace to get to the next building and I only just made it in time. You can’t go anywhere without discovering some massive building or random inexplicable sculpture. After a wander near the university building I randomly stumbled across a huge building in which was housed a “children’s educational musical theatre”. On Friday I met up with my friend Zhenia in the centre of Moscow, and we went and looked at some other big buildings and stuff. 

View of the Moskva River

On bridge (I forget the name) with Kremlin behind.

Zhenia in front of the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour

The world's ugliest statue?: http://observers.france24.com/content/20101008-will-moscow-finally-get-rid-of-ugly-peter-great-statue-russia-architecture-moscow-monster

Bureaucracy

I was warned of this, but it has required a lot of patience to jump through the many hoops of studying at the university. One moment of particular frustration was being told last week that my student ID couldn’t be completed as the photo I had given was shiny (rather than matt) and therefore not suitable.

Bonkers

This dude...

Breath-taking

Look at this lovely view…

Beautiful people

This particularly refers to women, and specifically the students I see wandering around campus. I remember the frequency of high-heels from St Petersburg, but the ‘power-dressing’ here does have the effect of making me feel even shorter than I already am, and exceptionally dowdy. An older lecturer came into one of the offices I was waiting in last week, and her boots were so outlandishly fantastic that I had to take a picture. Yes, I did do it, and no, I am not ashamed. On a deeper level, I have also come across some people who a beautiful in a different sense: kind, interesting and willing to help.

Why wear ordinary shoes when you can wear blue boots with incredibly high heels?

Bewildering

I have been of a few adventures try to navigate myself around. My lovely neighbour invited me to dinner with some of her friends, and told me one of them would walk down with me. At the last minute the girl couldn’t and so I had to find my way to a Korean restaurant 30 minutes’ walk away from the university. I actually exceeded my own expectations and made it to the hotel where the restaurant (with a little help over the phone in English…) I saw a sign welcoming me to Seoul and breathed a sigh of relief. After all, how many Korean restaurants could there be in this hotel?... It turns out at least 5. Not being able to get through to my friend and find out the name of the restaurant, I wandered from restaurant to restaurant before eventually finding them. I was greeted by a warm welcome, praised for my ingenuity and then got to eat tasty food, so the long journey had definitely been worth it! Another adventure was on Sunday, when I attempted to get to church. Arriving at the correct metro station, I was confused as to why I couldn’t find the church anywhere. Eventually getting through to the church office, I worked out that I had only read the first line of instructions on the website and that I had to get to a tram afterwards. Praying like mad, I eventually found myself at the correct tram station, but then realised I had no idea how to pay. Thankfully an older man and woman somehow could decipher my panicked Russian (or perhaps my vivid facial expressions) and I successfully managed to pay and stumble onto the tram. Still not sure where I needed to get off, I tried to ask the friendly old lady where I should go. Then a younger woman piped up that she was travelling to the same church. PHEW. A very quick answer to prayer… That being said, the metro system here is amazing and not actually that hard to use.

Bloomin’ marvellous

Sorry, I ran out of things beginning with B and I wanted to talk about woman’s day and flowers. We don’t celebrate it in England, which I think is a shame. The celebration has roots in the Socialist Party and working rights movements. In modern Russia it is basically just a day for boyfriends/husbands/sons /daughters to give their girlfriends/wifes/mothers flowers or gifts. There was something really lovely about seeing every other person carrying flowers, either to give to someone else or having just received them. The dinner on Saturday night was supposed to also be a birthday celebration, but the birthday girl (who I am yet to meet) was ill and so I kept the flowers I had bought for her for myself… It’s feminist to give yourself flowers, right?!

Anyway, on that deep note I shall finish. Thanks for reading.