Day Two/366

2009

November 19 2009 - this was my second day in Moscow. I had my orientation with the school I was teaching at then, which much to my dismay began with a 9:30am pick up. It was a pretty long journey from where I was living into the center where the school was located. The metro exit was directly opposite the Kremlin - which was such a surprise, since I hadn't ventured to that particular metro station back in 2007. I can see why the school brings new teachers there - it's certainly an impressive first view of Moscow! 

I was told that orientation would only last a few hours, then I'd be free. That was not the case, and I was stuck there all day. Finally free around 8:30pm, I escaped and went directly to Red Square to see Saint Basil's Cathedral, Alexander's Garden, GUM, and the Kremlin - exactly what I'd been dreaming of since I stepped off the plane! It was just as magnificent as I remembered, maybe even more so since it was all lit up at night... I remembered all of it, of course, but one thing was funny - St. Basil's seemed huge! I guess after spending two years only seeing it in pictures, I forgot just how big it was! I wandered around a bit more, then got myself a blini (like a crepe) for dinner. Blini were definitely one of the things I was looking forward to eating when I got here, and I figured that it would be an appropriate first official meal in Moscow! It was just as good as I remembered, and it was even from the same chain - Teremok. 

After that it was time to make the journey home... and what a journey it was! Going by metro was no problem - I had a map and figured out where to go, that was easy. I'm pretty sure I even took the right exit out of the metro. The problem was remembering which paths to take to get to my building, because from the metro to the apartment you basically needed to navigate through parking areas and other buildings. Jet lag and an unplanned very long day are not a good combination, and due to that it took me a good 30 minutes to find my building! Once home, I contemplated unpacking a little, but decided in favor of going to bed :)

2010

Today was a nice and relaxing day. My 8:00am lesson was cancelled, which meant that I got to sleep in! It was a grey and cold day, just like last November, so I decided to just stay in and relax. I cleaned my apartment a bit, baked some peach and cherry muffins, and taught my only lesson for the day. It was nice to just do nothing and unwind at the end of what's been a rather stressful week. To celebrate my anniversary of surviving one whole year in Moscow, I did exactly what I did one year ago - walked around Red Square and Alexander's Garden! Yes, I'm familiar with everything there now, but I still love seeing it just as much as I did last year. Now I'm off to enjoy a little piece of America, Grey's Anatomy... stay tuned for more on my adventures!

One Year Ago

Exactly one year ago I stepped off a plane at Sheremetyevo Airport and began my adventure in Moscow. There was about an inch of snow on the ground, and the temperature was hovering around freezing. There was no gate for the plane to pull into, so we were loaded onto a bus and dropped off outside of the terminal. After waiting in the seemingly endless lines at passport control, I collected my luggage and found the driver sent by the company I was working for at the time. After a  long drive (half of which was spent in a typical Moscow traffic jam... welcome to Moscow!), I arrived at my apartment.

The location of the apartment was quite a surprise for me, as I had thought it was going to be in a completely different area than it was! It was late when I arrived, so I met my roommate (another teacher) and her friends, called home to tell my parents I made it safely, then fell into bed to get some much needed sleep. It had been a long trip, but I was finally in Moscow!

Check back tomorrow for more on my story, and to find out what happened on day 2 in Moscow! I plan to do a comparison between my life now and on the same day 1 year ago, since I didn't blog much about it then. As for today, I taught like usual, and then treated myself to a walk around Red Square and Alexandrovsky Sad in the evening. A nice way to celebrate my one year anniversary of living in Moscow!

November Update

Well, here it is - November 2010 - almost one year since I arrived in Moscow. So much has happened that I don't even know where to begin... but I'll try to chronicle as much as possible over the next few weeks. To start off, here's a snapshot of the past year by numbers:

• 9 types of transport taken
• 6 Russian visas
• 4 different roommates
• 3 very different apartments
• 2 trips to Kiev, Ukraine
• 2 trips back home to America
• 2 companies worked for (1 past, 1 current)
• 1 trip to Saint Petersburg 
• 1 Moscow Suburb visited
• 1 Smogpocalypse (aka Moscow this summer) survived
• hundreds of churches seen
• thousands of pictures taken (I promise to post them once they're finally sorted!)
• +40 C/104 F - the record breaking temperature in Moscow this summer
• -26 C/ -15 F - the coldest day of the past winter

Right now, the weather is behaving much like it did when I arrived last November. It's cold, but tolerably so, grey, and rainy. We have had a few sunny days recently - yesterday was one of them actually, and it was gorgeous. Sun definitely becomes a precious commodity in the winter here in Moscow!

As for me now, I'm right where I want to be. I've got a great apartment in the center of the city, a great roommate, a great job, and life in general can be described as great! :D While this past year certainly had its share of trials and tribulations, the good far outweighed the bad, and I wouldn't change anything even if I could. Everything happens for a reason, and I'm pretty sure if things had gone differently for me in the past year, I wouldn't be where I am now.