6 weeks and Counting

So, I realize that I'm quite the disapointment in the area of blogging, for which I am sorry. Truly, it is much harder to keep up with than I thought. Once teaching started, my time is literally gone. Since arriving, we've done so many things it's hard to keep track. So, here's a list of a few things.

1) Red Square...very cool. We stood in line for at least an hour to Lenin's body, but now we can say we've seen it. I must admit, though, that I was a bit distracted by the mean looking guards everywhere boring their eyes into us and telling us to keep our hands out of our pockets.

2) St. Basil's Cathedral was amazing! You can simply imagine a group of 10 teachers walking through something historical. The conversation went something like...."This is so amazing! How beautiful! This is such a blessing to get to see....!" All said with deep reverence of course.

3) Art museum (it only took us about and hour and a half...maybe longer...to find) to see a photography exhibit done by expatriates.

4) Souvenir Market....very touristy and we heard way more English here than anywhere else. Still, this is where you go if you want to buy things like matrushka dolls and other "traditional" items. We ate Shashlik which is the meat of your choice grilled over an over fire, served with warm bread (very much like naan for you Indian food lovers!) Most common phrase hear that day was...."you buy hat? Only five dollars." And apparantly to these sellers the exchange rate is 100 rubles to 1 dollar, instead of 30 to 1!

5) Day trip to the Golden Circle...we mastered the the metro, bus, and train system. We spent the day about an hour and half away, toured an monestary, and tried to eat traditional food, and settled on the traditional food sold in the miniature mall. Here are a few pictures which I copied from one of my roommates.