Snow Storm

It's been snowing like crazy in Moscow the past few days. The plows and professional shovelers are having a difficult time keeping up, not to mention its a holiday weekend as well. After class on Friday everything was pretty clear, but then the snow started. Sasha, Amitesh and I wanted some pictures and stuff so we went out to Храм Христа Спасителя (Khram Khrista Spasitelya) which means Cathedral of Christ the Savior.



It's currently the tallest Eastern Orthodox church and a lot more impressive in person than I ever imagined. It was originally built in the late 1800's but after the Soviets moved the capital back to Moscow, they wanted that prime location next to the Kremlin and Moskva River for themselves. So in 1931 it was razed to the ground in hopes of building the "Palace of the Soviets" in its place.



This horrifying building (yes, it was to be topped with Lenin) was to be the tallest in the world and even beating out the newly constructed Empire State Building. But due to the poor foundation next to the river and falling economic conditions leading up to WWII the whole plan was scraped. Years later Nikita Khrushchev turned it into a public swimming pool. After the Soviet Union collapsed, The Russian Federation gave permission to the Orthodox Church to rebuild the church, which was completed in the late 90's.

Well I hope you enjoyed that little history lesson. Everyday that I go out, I learn something new and fascinating like that!

Due to popular demand, I will finally talk about my observations of the Olympics and Russians. First of all, so many people are wearing Russia themed clothing, it's actually really cool to see. Everyone seems to have sweatshirts, hats, scarfs dealing with supporting Russia in Vancouver. Also, the Russians are more in love with Evgenii Plushenko then I thought they could be. He's on advertisements and magazine covers all over. That's also another reason no one is happy about his loss. I haven't talked to anyone about him yet, but being from the US, I'll give it a couple more days. Last night we went to the cafe within the dorm and watched the Russia vs. Czech Republic Hockey match (which Russia won 4-2). It was packed with people at midnight who were all intensely watching the game and cheering at every goal. I imagine that Russians love their hockey team like Brazilians and Soccer.
Another big thing I've noticed is the large amount of advertisement and pride in the 2014 Winter Olympics which will be held in Сочи (Sochi), Russia which is in the very south on the Black Sea between Ukraine and Georgia. This is the first time the Russian Federation has ever hosted the Olympics. It was in Moscow, USSR in 1980 for the Summer Games, but many western nations including the US boycotted the games and didn't attend plus the were in the Soviet Union and people here don't count that apparently. Anyways, there are signs and clothing dedicated to Sochi everywhere and that is something I would love to attend. Speaking of Olympic clothing, we went to the official Russia Olympic gear store in GUM only to find jackets for 49,000 rubles or 1,600.00$. Umm, no thanks.

So we took lots of pictures in the snow in Red Square and at the University. I'm not sure why, but I think we were all in a really big picture taking mood, so I have more from this day than any other. If you compare the pictures of Red Square from those posted 2 weeks ago, you'll notice how much snow came down in less then a day. Plus they are constantly plowing it.





Then on Saturday we went to find a graveyard where many famous Russians (Yeltsin, Khrushchev, Shostakovich, Chekhov, Prokofiev etc) are buried but kind of failed. We got so close, but then got confused and cold. We then went back home. But we did see a really awesome convent called Novodevichiy. The grave yard is associated with this church but next to it, not in it like we thought.






The last two days have been pretty relaxed. We've been playing a Russian card game called "Durak" which means idiot. I'm pretty good and will challenge anyone in the States.

Till next time,
Justin