Favorite Russian Moments and Observations

(for full story of Russia look one below)

1. Face-Plant in Red Square

When we first arrived in Moscow we got off the bus and took a look around Red Square. One of my friends was posing for a picture so I ran up behind him and jumped into the picture. On my way down I lost my balance and slammed right into the ground. I was moving in some strange way to save my camera from the fall--I'm not sure how I did it but I ended up with two huge bruises only on my left leg: right above my knee cap and right below my knee cap...who knows how it actually happened (oh right...the entire packed square and everyone on the tour bus). My favorite Red Square souvenir:



It was quite hilarious though.

2. Russian Vodka

WITH CHEMISTRY. Oh em gee! What do I love more than Chemistry? Russian + Chemistry just makes me sooo happy. Unfortunately I lost the bottle after one drink (DAMN my ability to lose things).



3. PDA

I don't know if it's just the fact that people in Sweden don't ever touch one another or what, but there was sooo much PDA all over the place. I'm curious if Russians do it more in public than out of public, because they must need a break for a breath or something at some point. It's not even just young people. There were many old and older couples going at it on the streets too. Ick gross.

4. Stilettos and matching

This didn't bother anybody else but me (or I just noticed it and constantly pointed it out. Almost every girl was wearing Stilettos. Every where. I don't understand. They are so painful. Whats wrong with regular high heels? Or you know...tennis shoes :) And they also always matched. So it would just be black or brown stilettos, they'd wear baby blue stilettos and have a matching hand bag or jacket. Who still does that? (Russia.)

5. Bus

I hated that bus and trying to sleep on it and being on it for hours, but it lead to some really funny moments. The boredom it caused lead to conversations such as me defining "quite nice" (a little better than nice, not as great as very nice...) for 10 minutes and many other completely useless or completely inappropriate conversations.

6. Hours spent perusing souvenirs to find the perfect gifts.



7. Russian Tour Guides

Ridiculous Russian tour guides were my fav! They were so hilarious. I was thoroughly impressed by their ability to continuously talk and breathe simultaneously. Even when there was nothing to point out and talk about for the moment they would find something to say, "see that building on your left? it is pretty yes?" (and the bus is like, ooh what is that a church? something old or iconic? nope. Coffee shop.) or "if you look to the river you see two ducks. these are russian duck" bahaha so hilarious. Or my personal fav, "to get into Hermitage for free, use a student card...if you don't have student card please, there are two counters, have a your friend go to one counter to buy ticket and another counter to get one for friend. hide cameras in back pockets to take pictures for free insdie"

how awesome. I love them.

Russian ducks (mmmm trash)


8. Don't drink the water...drink vodka to be safe!

So you can't drink the tap water in Russia annnnd now I know why Russians drink so much. It's the same price as water! I couldn't believe it when I went to my first restaurant and it was the same price for a glass of water and a shot of vodka. What the...seriously? Haha and from then on I always seemed to notice people around the city with alcohol. Just drinking on the metro or walking down a street. So funny.

8. Russia vs. USA

So Russia and the USA aren't the biggest fans of each other...well...my observation: Russia is just like America. At least more so than Europe. I mean, it's still very different, but the people in general...so similar. I first noticed just the fact that people smile and look at you when you walk by (I MISSED THIS SO MUCH) and if you are on a crowded street they'll actually attempted to make room to not bump into you (unlike in Sweden where I swear they try to bump into you...GRAH I hate that! So this could possibly be just me noticing the differences between Scandinavia and Russia).

And then I was asking the tour guide (Swedish) what she thought about the culture. And she said she noticed that many of the Russians think the world kind of revolves around Russia (C'mon...you have to admit that Americans believe this too) and they are stubborn in their ways (more unwilling to learn English...eh eh? How many languages do you know? My friends from France, Germany, Sweden, The Netherlands, etc... all usually know 3 languages fluently or close to fluently and will know some of a few other languages)

I also think it's easy for us to see how corrupt Russia is...I mean I was told to not be scared if the police detain me because they just want a bribe. When I heard this I was SHOCKED. How is it possible that this goes on? But the US is corrupt when it comes to politics too--Russians can't believe we're okay with what goes on on Wall Street.

I don't know if others agree when they go to Russia, but this was my opinion. I'm sure the US would be angry to hear me say that, but who cares. I was just really surprised when I started thinking about it.

I'm sure there is more, but I'm tired and can't think of it now. Will post more thoughts later :)