Heading to St Pete

Yesterday we finished our night in Moscow, and it was a late night. We caught a train at 2:20AM and rode until 1400 today. It was a long journey and not one that I (Wendy) was quite ready for. I'll explain later. First, before pictures of St Petersburg, I want to put a few more up of Moscow. Brian and I are quite different, he loves pictures of people and experiences and I love pictures of buildings and locations.
Check out the beauty of Moscow!!!

YESTERDAY WE WALKED EVEN MORE! HERE IS A HUGE STATUE OF PETER THE GREAT

WE DIDN'T QUITE MAKE IT INTO THIS CATHEDRAL BECAUSE BRIAN WAS WEARING SHORTS AND I HAD A TANK TOP ON, BUT HOPEFULLY WE WILL LATER!

RUSSIAN INDEPENDENCE DAY! JUNE 12TH! TONS OF PEOPLE OUT AND ABOUT. HERE IS A PICTURE OF AN AWESOME BUILDING IN RED SQUARE.

Onward to St. Petersburg! Our train ride there was definitely something different for me. I had no idea what to expect for a sleeper train for 12 hours. In my mind I was thinking of the wonderful trains in Harry Potter, or  any old black and white movie from the past, Nick and Nora, Agatha Christie movies...and so on. Well, it wasn't quite that extravagant. Very tight quarters, a lot of people, cigarette smoke blowing in often, the smell of body odor drifting by and oh wow, the heat!! This train carriage was at least 85 degrees the whole time! Especially in the top bunk, which Brian and I both had. Check out the pic below.

HERE IS A PICTURE OF BRIAN'S BUNK FROM MINE. 

YES, THAT IS RIGHT FOLKS, NO DOORS, NO PRIVACY UNLESS YOU GO TO THE NOT SO CLEAN, TINY BATHROOM. 

MY HANDSOME HUSBAND.

AFTER I HAD SOME SLEEP AND CLEANED UP MY ATTITUDE IT WAS A GOOD RIDE, VERY LONG AND TIRING. I DIDN'T SLEEP WELL (NO SURPRISE THERE) THE MAN BELOW HAD QUITE THE SNORE, PLUS I FELT LIKE I WAS SLEEPING ON THE GROUND. 

We've got some funny pictures coming up for you later! We are working on some fun blog collections. Like: Guess this restaurant and Weird things of Moscow. Should be fun! I've been here one week and have one week left! Tomorrow we'll explore more of St. Pete. The weather has taken a drastic turn, it was so hot and sunny yesterday and today it is in the 60's and started to rain this evening. Praying for some nicer weather tomorrow. Until then!!

Well first off I would like to apologize for leaving all of our faithful blog readers hanging for three days. Im finding out Wendy is bad for my blogging consistency because she is so much fun.

 WENDY AND OUR GOOD FRIEND TANYA. SHE SPOKE ENGLISH WITH A BRITISH ACCENT WHICH MADE TALKING TO HER IN RUSSIAN AND ENGLISH FUN.

ME AND SASHA FROM SOCHI. HE HAD A PINCHED NERVE IN HIS BACK SO I GAVE HIM A BACK MASSAGE.
We have some serious updating to do for you. We had a pastors conference at the place in Snegiri and people came from Sochi, Moscow, St. Petersburg, Nizhny Novgorod, and so on... It was so much fun to get to meet so many cool Russian people. I was Wendy's translator for a lot of the time which was super challenging and super fun.
                         
A 30 PIECE "Матриошка" MATRIOSHKA DOLL. IT LOOKS A LITTLE CRAZY.

                      
I SAW THIS LAMBORGINI ON ARBAT STREET AND JUST HAD TO HAVE IT. WERE IN A LITTLE DEBT NOW SO IF YOU FEEL LIKE DONATING US MONEY THAT WOULD BE NICE.


After the conference we went into Moscow with two people we met there: Anton and Irina. It was Anton's first time in the capital and I was excited for him and Wendy to see it. However because of the dumb Russian independence day "June 12" Red Square was all closed up to build a stage for some concert.
Wendy and I are "good walkers" by Russian standards which makes us acceptable partners for sight seeing in Moscow. You have to be a good walker seeing as how Wendy and I have walked over 12 miles in the last two days.

                                                  
ANTON, IRINA, AND MYSELF POSING FOR A PICTURE IN FRONT OF ST.BASILS. THEY WERE TRULY FUN CITY EXPLORERS.

WENDY GETTING READY TO EAT HER CHICKEN AND POTATOES AT THE 

"MOO MOO CAFE"

MY WIFE IS JUST SO STINKING CUTE!!! OH...YEAH AND THE MOSCOW VIEW IS NICE TOO.

After seeing Anton and Irina off at the metro station. Wendy and I headed for the "Vanilla Bed and Breakfast" which is a fancy name for "Hostel run by a student" We totally loved it though, we made friends with the other couples staying here one from Argentina, the other from St. Petersburg. Our room is an old dining room that was half heartedly turned into a bedroom. The lights were still the original chandioler and the long china cabinet still occupied one wall (but we thought it just made the room cooler)

                                          
HANGING OUT WITH RAQUEL AND EDUARDO FROM ARGENTINA IN THE COMMON ROOM OF OUR HOSTEL.

                             
THE PICTURE DOESN'T REALLY SHOW THE WIERDNESS AND THE COOLNESS OF OUR HOSTEL ROOM.

Wendy and I are sitting in the hostel right now waiting to pack up and go to the Leningradsky Train Station to get on an overnight train to St. Petersburg. Everyone tells us that if we thought Moscow was pretty just wait until St. Pete. So we are super stoked. Stay tuned for more adventures.

Wendy's first two days in Russia.

So, this is Wendy speaking again. Brian is such a good blogger, I tried to make him write this one, but he wouldn't do it. Instead, I'll start with a great picture of Brian in a tank. (See below). Unlike the US, there was a handful of tanks at a WWII memorial site that could be climbed in and on. We wouldn't even be able to touch these things in the US. Brian has already mentioned this place in a previous blog, but of course you get double when I go to it too. 

BRIAN IN A TANK, GIVING A GREAT LOOK AT THE CAMERA!

A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE BUILDING, RIGHT NEAR THE WWII MEMORIAL SITE. LOCKED DOORS AND NO ENGLISH, SO I CAN'T GIVE YOU A NAME.  

HERE I AM INSIDE ANOTHER WWII VEHICLE. 

OUR TRAIN STATION

My second day in town, we decided to head to a bigger city than where Brian is located to exchange some money at a bank. Our mode of travel: first a 1.5 mile walk to the train station. Very empty at this time since the train actually didn't come for another hour and a half. But we didn't know it and just waited and waited and waited... Finally, the train arrived and we sped down the track for about 35 minutes to where Brian knew we could exchange money easily and safely. I guess some banks keep a larger percentage than others, and we wanted as much money as we could get for our US dollars. $1 is about 27.6 rubles right now. 

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We made it to the bank and even checked out a large shopping area for locals. Almost like one of our "Saturday markets" or fairs, with booths and sheds all lined up selling anything. This one mostly had clothes and shoes. But also, check out above, a furniture store, outside. Couches and beds for sale. Who knows what they do if it suddenly rains. 

HEADING HOME, WAITING FOR A TRAIN ONCE AGAIN

We finished the evening with a small ice cream cone that is quickly becoming Brian's favorite while he's here and a chocolate bar that is Russian's chocolate bar. Note this picture above was taken at about 9:15 PM, for those of you not from Alaska, the sun stays up a very long time, and I know it will get even different in St. Petersburg. Tomorrow, I think we go into Moscow! 

Ice Skating and Camels

A group of us decided to go to МЕГА mall which is a new and very "western" style mall. This mall also happens to have a ice skating rink smack dab in the middle. The ice skating was fairly inexpensive compared to everything else in the mall (150 рублей or 4 dollars for 2 hrs). I don't consider myself to be an expert skater by any stretch of the imagination, however I guess growing up in Alaska has given me some unforeseen benefits. I could ice skate backwards which everyone wanted to learn how to do so I became the teacher for the group.

THE ICE SKATING RINK WAS SHAPED LIKE A BEAN WHICH WAS ACTUALLY QUITE FUN

                                      I BET YOU CAN"T GUESS WHICH STORE THIS IS!!!

MY MANNEQUIN FRIEND NATALYA... ALTHOUGH SHE TALKS MORE THAN ALL MY OTHER MANNEQUIN FRIENDS.

After ice skating we walked around the mall so that the girls in the group could ooh and aah at the ridiculously  overpriced clothes. While walking through the mall I noticed that there were many American stores which was definitely a strike against the book in my book.

                                            THE REALLY COOL FAIR IN SNEGIRI, RUSSIA

After riding home on the Електричка, we stumbled onto a fair in our local village. They had horse rides and even a camel for the right price. However this camel owner had his price way too high (400 рублей/12 dollars) and that got me thinking... If I had a camel and wanted people to enjoy riding him and make money at the same time, the way to do it is to give rides for like (40 рублей/ less than 2 bucks) I would have payed that in a heartbeat to ride a camel and so would our whole group which would have made him 200 rubles. Instead no one rode the camel. Now I know what your're thinking "what about the camel? he would have to haul 5 people up and down the street." But my answer to this is... Camels (if in shape) can walk across the Sahara Desert with one stop for water so I don't think 30 ft up and down the side of the road makes any difference to him. To sum it up, I think I'm going to save up for a camel now!!!

I ASKED THE CAMEL IF HE WANTED TO BECOME BUSINESS PARTNERS WITH ME AND COME TO AMERICA? HE SAID HIS AGENT WOULD GET BACK TO ME.

YOU CAN"T TALK TO THE HORSES HERE IN ENGLISH, THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND... SO I ASKED "Как ты делал волосы так красивые?" (How did your do your hair so pretty?) THE HORSE ANSWERED "У меня нет руких, я сам не делал, дурак! Кроме того, я мужской лошадь, у тебя идея как глупый я чувствую?" (I don't have hands, so I didn't do it you idiot! Plus I'm a male horse, do you have any idea how stupid I feel?)

I NEED AN ACCORDION SO BAD... THEN THE RUSSIAN BABOOSHKAS WILL WANT TO HANG OUT WITH ME AND SING FOLK SONGS.

My 1st Banya

Yesterday we had a Shashlik (Russian-shish kabob) barbecue. That was really fun and afterwards we played volleyball, and sat around playing Rummy. The day was pretty fun and relaxing, I guess everyone here gets stressed out from all the work that has to be done. Truthfully I don't really feel like it is that stressful but I don't cook which as far as I can see is a large portion of the work that needs to be done.

ANTON PREPPING THE SHASHLIK BY CUTTING EVERYTHING INTO LITTLE PIECES AND SOAKING THEM IN KVASS AND VINEAGER. 

After cards and clean up Anton decided it was time for my first Russian Banya experience. I had always heard that Banya was something that Russians take pride in and Americans usually pass out from the sheer heat. I was excited to prove tradition wrong and stay in just as long as Anton. But before we could go in, пареца had to prepped. These are branches that are used to beat each other in the banya which by Russian medical expertise says that it opens your skin pores and allows cleansing to take place. Truthfully I had no idea the pain that was about to be inflicted on my entire body.

          NADIA, ANTON, AND I PLAYING SOME SERIOUS POST MEAL VOLLEYBALL.

Even typing this now reminds me of the sheer heat that hit me as soon as I opened the door to banya. The celsius temp was 98 which doesn't mean much to us Americans, but when I did the calculations it came out to 208.4 degrees F. I wanted so bad to out last Anton, however when you start to get so lightheaded you are  starting to see that tunnel starting in your vision, you know it's time to take a break. My body temp was officially through the roof when Anton says in his broken English " We just begin, we still beat you with branch" I had know idea what to expect, so I laid on my stomach leaving my back up waiting for Anton to "tenderize" me like a hard steak. The only way I thought of to describe it was if someone took a piece of wood out of a bonfire and began beating you on the back with it. The pain was just under unbearable and all could do was say to myself "You can do it, just a few seconds more". When he finally said " okay now outside" I was so amazed to find that my back instantly felt so great. It was like someone had poked thousands of little holes in my back and now oxygen was flowing into the deepest layers of my skin and it felt really good.

THE Пареца SOAKING IN KVASS AND WATER WAITING FOR THEIR CHANCE TO SCAR MY TENDER BACK.

THE BANYA AFTER MY TORTURE SESSION. ANTON USED THAT SPRAY BOTTLE ON THE HEATER WHICH RAISED THE TEMP WITH EVERY PUMP.

After getting every inch of body beatin with branches by Anton, it was my turn to inflict the same pain on him. However I never saw him even wince once, he was so relaxed the entire time I was laying into his legs, back, stomach, and chest with birch branches. I thought that he must be feeling the nerve searing pain that I was just recovering from, he just seemed to feel nothing but enjoyment. Russians are tough people I didn't stand a chance in that banya.

THE WOOL HAT THAT IS WORN IN THE RUSSIAN BANYA... I THINK IT HAS A SHOT TO COME INTO STYLE.

I slept so hard last night, I hit the sleep button on my alarm three times which I haven't done once yet since getting to Russia. Banya was a truly relaxing experience and I know there will be more to come.

Плов с Тажиками (Plov with the Tajikis)

Last night my roommate Anton got a call on his cell phone that the neighbors across the street had made plov. Plov is a rice and meat mixture that is eaten with bread, vegetables, and keffir. We went over to their house which is just one room behind a bigger house. And we all sat on their beds with a table in the middle. I love watching people of different cultures prepare food that they take such pride in, it is somewhat like watching an artist paint a picture, they have such a concentration. They know the more they put into the food, the more people will enjoy it. 

                                     

THIS IS THE PILE OF PLOV (RICE,MEAT, VEGGIES) ON LIKE A TORTILLA LOOKING TYPE OF BREAD. IT WAS REALLY DELICIOUS.

The Tajiki people in Russia have similar situations to other minorities in certain foreign countries. They come to Russia because their is no money in their country, however they have hard work here (mostly construction) and the pay is very little compared to what a Russian would receive, however it is still more than they would receive in Tajikistan so they don't really seem to have a choice. So these men I ate with last night are all brothers living in the same room earning enough money to last them and their families through the winter back in their home country.

THIS IS ME,ANTON,AND RAJELEL IN THE MIDDLE OF OUR AWESOME MEAL.

YOU CAN SEE THAT THEIR BEDS DOUBLE AS THEIR CHAIRS, THEY HAVE SO LITTLE MATERIAL POSSESSIONS, BUT THEY HAVE SO MUCH CHARACTER.

As we sat in their room and ate plov, I couldn't help but notice they were all watching me to see if I enjoyed it. It is really strange to be an American in such strange places. Most of the places I go I think to myself "I must be the only American who has done this, or at least the first in a long time." These guys were so nice and we sat around and talked for such a long time. It was the first time for me that I have been in a conversation where both of us were speaking our second language which was really fun for me. All in all these guys were super cool, the food was super good, and I'm going to go play futbol with them tomorrow. 

THE MAN ON THE RIGHT IS THE OLDEST BROTHER SO HE IS THE MOST RESPECTED. EVERYONE JUST CALLS HIM "OLDER" WHICH IS A SIGN OF RESPECT.

Bible Studies and Bike Factories

Yesterday I took the electrichka downtown into Moscow to meet up for a Bible study at the Fisher's house. They are an British family who live in Russia working for the BBC, however they are moving back to England soon. They host a Bible study every Tuesday so some of us went to check it out.
                             
IN THIS PHOTO L TO R THERE IS MARJORIE (FRENCH), RICK (OREGON), LYNN (ENGLAND), INNA (RUSSIA). JUST PART OF THE BIGGER GROUP THAT WAS THERE.
We had such a fun time meeting such a unique group of people at the apartment. There were French, Spanish, Russian, American, British, and Dutch people making up the study group. I truly enjoy meeting people from all over the world, it is just fun to meet people from such different cultures.

THE VIEW FROM THE FISHER'S FLAT... THE BBC REALLY HOOKS THEIR PEOPLE UP!!!!

One of the girls at the dorm teaches English here and her student's name is Alexei. He happens to be the director of Stark Bicycles here in Russia. Stark is the leading brand in Russia for bicycles. So when I met him for English lessons and we talked I was so excited to talk about bikes and he invited me to the warehouse were Stark distributes.

SORRY FOR THE BLURINESS, BUT IT IS A BIG BIKE WAREHOUSE WITH ALL KINDS OF RUSSIAN BICYCLES. I WANT TO WORK FOR A BIKE COMPANY SO BAD!!!!

I was so stoked to see a real bike warehouse and the general manager gave me a full tour. We talked about bikes for over an hour and they said they need an American to buy a bicycle so that they can receive a registration as an American bike dealer also. I am very interested in becoming the first American (in America) to own a Russian bicycle. I always like to be a trailblazer with weird stuff like that and since it's bikes then heck yeah!!!!!!!!

ALEXEI ON THE RIGHT, HE WAS SO NICE TO SHOW ME THE BIKE WAREHOUSE AND THEN WE WENT TO LUNCH AFTERWARDS. SOME RUSSIANS ARE SO COOL.