A day of food

Today we only had language class and then a long lunch break before our tour of the Kremlin (!!!). Miriam, Joe, and I decided to take a break from the столовая (stolovaya) - cafeteria and went to a familiar place - Subway! Yes, they have subway here. I got a 6 inch turkey sub for 99 rubles - about $3.50, a pretty good deal! It was a nice change and very yummy. But more importantly, I used some serious Russian. Miriam only started learning Russian on the flight over here and Joe speaks pretty good Russian but doesn't know vegetables. We had a whole food chapter in our book this year (which made for a very hungry couple of weeks) so I put my knowledge to the test. We successfully ordered 3 sandwiches and got the right bread, the right size, the right meat, and all of the right vegetables, down to the right sauces! I even effectively communicated that Miriam wanted her footlong cut in half so she could take half home. All in all, I was pretty proud of myself.

We ran home to drop off our books and bags and then headed to the Kremlin. There were no pictures inside the buildings unfortunately, but we saw some of Catherine the Great's dresses, traditional clothes, a bunch of "treasure," a royal cradle, ambassadorial gifts, armor and weapons, thrones, and a whole bunch of carriages. Our guide told us a lot of stories and had some quirks of speech that were pretty funny. She prefaced every new thing with "And what about the cathedral?" "And what about the tower?" etc and then would tell us about it. She also called Faberge "bloody talented." I'll share a few stories because I find them interesting:

Dishes from Napoleon: So as you know, she says, Napoleon was not Russia's best friend (since he tried to invade and all that...) but he gave Nicholas or Alexander or someone this giant set of dishes painted with Greek gods and goddesses. First, however, he gave them to his nephew as a wedding present, then took them back a month later to give to Russia. But the Tsar was "deeply uninterested" in them and never used them. The joke is that when Napoleon invaded Russia, he was coming to take back the dishes.

Peter the Great's throne: Peter the Great was coronated when he was only 10! Here's his throne: http://www.kreml.ru/en/museums/armoury/hall07/showcase48/ (click on the picture to enlarge it). There's two seats because he was crowned with his brother, 15-year-old Ivan. Ivan was super sick though so the boys were crowned together. (Ivan's crown was bigger because he was the actual heir but it was accepted that Peter would be the actual ruler when the boys reached majority because Ivan wouldn't live that long, so Peter had to be mollified with a new crown). If you look carefully, there's a cutout in the throne so the advisers could hide behind a curtain and tell the boys what to do in the coronation ceremony. The three poles in front were to make sure people kept distance and couldn't hear the advisers. There are also posts to hold the scepter and orb because the little boys weren't strong enough to hold them.

So some pretty cool stuff. We walked through the gardens, saw a "secret tower" where water used to be funneled in from the Moscow River, saw a giant bell that cracked during a fire and could never be used, a giant cannon that was never fired, and the two "official" residences of the President - neither of which he actually lives in. One is where the state things happen and he receives visitors in the same reception hall that the Tsars used. The other is where his office is and also where Lenin and Stalin lived with their families. We saw the three churches: Church of the Assumption (which we went in), Church of Michael the Archangel and Church of the Announciation.

After this we all wanted to cut our feet off so we went and had some snacks and a drink by Red Square, then dinner at Pizza Express, which I thought was an English chain but apparently has locations worldwide. I finally stumbled my way home, but not before successfully ordering two ice cream cones for Miriam and I for about 60 cents each at McDonalds! I fluently asked for the two cones in Russian and then followed it up with a nice American "Please" before catching myself and saying it in Russian. Whoops, cover blown.

A thought for parting - I usually ride the metro alone, so I'm pretty much silent unless someone says something to me - usually "this is my stop" or "can you move over" in Russian. I think the fact that they speak to me like I completely understand might mean I'm passing for a local. But today I rode for one stop with Miriam and we were speaking English to each other. Not loudly, because it's hard to hear on the train so you have to lean in close. But anyway, people seriously stare at you when you are speaking English. Usually I'm walking with the group and I don't notice if people are looking at me or not and they are busy on their way. But today I definitely noticed. Maybe they're trying to understand us, maybe they're just interested in the foreign language, but we got a lot of stares. I wonder, do I look at people like that when they start speaking a foreign language in America?