Inside St. Basils' Cathedral
Lenin's tomb
Fur hats on a street stand
After arriving at the airport in Moscow
Statue in the metro
Giraffe in MES
Statues in front of St. Basil's Cathedral
Russian orthodox church in Red Square
St. Basil's Catheral
Leah and I in front of the cathedral (The gates aren't usually there)
Beautiful wall murals in St. Basil's cathedral
Inside Gum, a mall in Red Square
The Kremlin wall
The line to see Lenin's body
Hannah and I trying Boursh, a beet soup
The group excited to see Lenin's body
The city campus at Moscow Economic School
Well, I have been here for about a week now, and the week has flown by. It seems like it has been one big day. We have done so much.
Julie, Leah, and I are moved into our apartment pretty well now. We have cellphones to get ahold of eachother. We know some of the good places to go grocery shopping. We went to the mega mall... All of these have been very helpful to get adjusted. My favorite things that we have done, however, are the trips to the school, the trip to Red Square, and our first visit to church.
The school has 6 main floors and a basement. It is really nice. It even has a pool and workout room. There is a floor for art where the students work is hung all over the walls. There is also a floor with giraffes everywhere from when students brought little figurines or pictures from vacation or gifts were given to the school. The giraffe is their mascot... It's kind of funny, but I like it :)!
However, that is just the main campus. There is also the country campus and the kindergarten. I"ll be teaching at the kindergarten, and I LOVE it there. Every thing is so small and bright there. Thebuilding is really pretty outside as well. I think it's going to be a lot of fun teaching there each day.
Now, about Red Square... the first thing we did on Red Square was stand in line in the cold (yes, it's already been cold here!) for over an hour to see Lenin's dead body. They have been preserving it since his death many years ago, and one way they do this is dipping him in wax. He looks mostly wax to me by now... It's a little bizarre to me that they put him on display, but it was fun to see. He was a lot smaller than expected....
Next, we went to St. Basil's Cathedral. You know, the colorful buidling that is in all the pictures! Wow, it was so incredible. The story goes that Ivan the Terrible had an architect design it and then plucked out his eyes so that he could not make anything more beautiful afterwards. Inside was really amazing too. There were lots of religious artifacts and paintings. There were also pretty chandeleers and mosaic kind of walls. I really enjoyed it.
After that, we really did not have too much time to do much more, but we are going to go back and see more later. It does not take long to get there from where we live.
Sunday, we went to church at International Christian Faith ( I think that's the name?). I LOVED the people there. Most speak English and come from other places besides Moscow. We befriended a British couple with 3 children who had us over for lunch. We stayed until dinner almost talking. They were sooo wonderful. They have a Bible study each week too. Then, there was another couple. The woman was from Moscow but spent half her life in the US, and her husband was a Brit. They were great too! The Russian woman invited us to her weekly coffeehouse meetings... I'm excited!
Since Sunday, we have done school tours and gotten more errands done. Today we get to relax a little, so that will be nice. It's been good so far. I am just ready for school to start so I can meet the kids!!
Well, love you all! Greetings from Moscow!
Becca
Julie, Leah, and I are moved into our apartment pretty well now. We have cellphones to get ahold of eachother. We know some of the good places to go grocery shopping. We went to the mega mall... All of these have been very helpful to get adjusted. My favorite things that we have done, however, are the trips to the school, the trip to Red Square, and our first visit to church.
The school has 6 main floors and a basement. It is really nice. It even has a pool and workout room. There is a floor for art where the students work is hung all over the walls. There is also a floor with giraffes everywhere from when students brought little figurines or pictures from vacation or gifts were given to the school. The giraffe is their mascot... It's kind of funny, but I like it :)!
However, that is just the main campus. There is also the country campus and the kindergarten. I"ll be teaching at the kindergarten, and I LOVE it there. Every thing is so small and bright there. Thebuilding is really pretty outside as well. I think it's going to be a lot of fun teaching there each day.
Now, about Red Square... the first thing we did on Red Square was stand in line in the cold (yes, it's already been cold here!) for over an hour to see Lenin's dead body. They have been preserving it since his death many years ago, and one way they do this is dipping him in wax. He looks mostly wax to me by now... It's a little bizarre to me that they put him on display, but it was fun to see. He was a lot smaller than expected....
Next, we went to St. Basil's Cathedral. You know, the colorful buidling that is in all the pictures! Wow, it was so incredible. The story goes that Ivan the Terrible had an architect design it and then plucked out his eyes so that he could not make anything more beautiful afterwards. Inside was really amazing too. There were lots of religious artifacts and paintings. There were also pretty chandeleers and mosaic kind of walls. I really enjoyed it.
After that, we really did not have too much time to do much more, but we are going to go back and see more later. It does not take long to get there from where we live.
Sunday, we went to church at International Christian Faith ( I think that's the name?). I LOVED the people there. Most speak English and come from other places besides Moscow. We befriended a British couple with 3 children who had us over for lunch. We stayed until dinner almost talking. They were sooo wonderful. They have a Bible study each week too. Then, there was another couple. The woman was from Moscow but spent half her life in the US, and her husband was a Brit. They were great too! The Russian woman invited us to her weekly coffeehouse meetings... I'm excited!
Since Sunday, we have done school tours and gotten more errands done. Today we get to relax a little, so that will be nice. It's been good so far. I am just ready for school to start so I can meet the kids!!
Well, love you all! Greetings from Moscow!
Becca
