So I understand everyone back home is enjoying some nice, dare I say warm weather over the past few days. Well, I cannot relate to you. The weather is already bad and just getting worse. We have had temperatures down to -25 degrees F. So needless to say our trips outdoors have been limited to basically supply ourselves with the essentials; sushi and chocolate.

But the city is still beautiful with all of the snow. Right now there is a blizzard outside, and whether it be Russian or Minnesotan, I still love the snow. Probably a good thing considering where I chose to spend the semester.

On Saturday we visited the Museum of Political History. The museum is in what used to be the private mansion of Матильда Кшесинская (Matilda Kshesinskaya), a very famous Russian ballerina who became the mistress and constant distraction of Nicholas II. The mansion later became central location for Lenin's большевики (bolshevik) party.


I was really hoping for more out of Defender's Day, maybe a parade of some sort. But it is really just an excuse for old Russian men to get obnoxiously drunk in public and ride the metro. After realizing this fact we decided to celebrate Defender's Day with some comfort food. After all it is defending our sanity. Thus, I ate my first Russian Big Mac. It is the first real protein I have had since the extremely rancid chicken fiasco. Getting good meat here is a problem.

For example, the boys who live next door set out to make us some stew one night and went to the store to get meat. Long story short they came back with neck meat. We don't know how old it was or really from what type of animal it was, but it was neck meat. The butcher just pointed to his neck when describing it and, naturally, not a single one of them could understand him. And because of the huge butcher knife in his hand, the boys quickly realized they did not want to say no. So we had neck meat stew.

Everyone keeps asking about the most exciting thing I have done. Well, its hard to pinpoint it because just being here is exciting. In a completely mysterious, I have absolutely no idea what is going on right now kind of way. Every trip outside is an adventure. We get lost, pick-pocketed and hassled but every part of it is a good time. Completely exhausting, but always exciting.