My goodness! It has nearly been a month since my last entry and aren't I embarrassed... Naturally, much has occurred since mid-September and I can give you a quick rundown of the basics:
We had a week-long vacation from October 5th to October 12th, during which I was in Moscow with my friends Brad and Natasha. We took a night train from Moskovskii Terminal here in St. Petersburg to Kurskii Terminal in Moscow, arriving at 4:40 AM. Through Brad's connections with the Resident Director of ACTR's Moscow study abroad program, we got a nice room in the hotel/dormitory associated with the International University on Leningrad Prospect. The trip was a real blast and we more or less got our fill of tourism and nightlife. If you ever have the chance to visit Moscow, naturally I highly recommend it.
- As it turns out, a lot of my preconceptions about Moscow were off-the-mark. I had imagined Moscow as being almost entirely Soviet and rather drab, but in reality there's a lot of architectural variety depending on where you are in the city ranging from 'classical European' to Soviet to modern skyscrapers.
- Moscow is definitely an expensive city, and it's hard to tell how expensive a restaurant or cafe is going to be judging from its external appearance or interior decor.
- Red Square isn't nearly as big as I had imagined it. It's big, but not THAT big.
- Lenin doesn't look so good these days.
- Moscow seems to be more racially diverse than Petersburg (diversity of nationalities from former Soviet republics, naturally)
- Moscow has lots of cool boroughs and neighborhoods to explore, whereas Petersburg's hot spots tend to be located in the historical center of the city.
Here are some pics from the trip for you folks to enjoy... hopefully I'll add a few more in the near future.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jonwebah/MoskvaOct5Oct12
Also, the host fam and I are having our Resident Director Tim and Homestay Coordinator Lena over for dinner tomorrow night. I'm hoping some serious pictures will result and I'll finally be able to write that post about my homestay.
С любовью,
Джон
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3 comments:
hey, fella, about time!! You still look good (especially in that hat in front of the onion domes ... you kinda match ..!) Looks wet but not too cold yet. How many hrs of light these days?? Looking forward to hearing about the host family. Love you.
Я думала, что ты почему-то от блога убежал, но я рада видеть, что ты еще жив и здаров! Мне было бы очень приятно узнать, как идут твои уроки. Трудные? Ты много учишь? Мне стыдно, но занимаюсь русским языком очень мало, потому что я "студентческая учительница" по английской литературе в этом семестре. Прости мои ошибочки, пожалуйста! =)
Я обожаю твои фотки! Я не знала, что ты раньше не бывал в Москве. Классно, что ты имел возможность туда съездить. Я особенно люблю фотку собора на Красной Площаде с туманы позади. Очень красиво!
did you meet jon smith at international university? that's where i studied, he's the program director.
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