Football, Peach Juice, and New Friends!

15.9: Today was a busy day. I wanted to feel pretty after days of not feeling so (due to strep), so I wore my blue t-shirt dress with ¾ sleeves, light pink tights, flats, and a beanie; I curled my hair and put a smile on my face. My ladies and I took the bus to our metro station, Melodozhnaya, and then met up with Moscow 1 at the Arbatskya station. Last semester’s teachers met and made friends with two Russian men, Nikolai and Miron, who Emily (Moscow 1 head teacher) invited to join us on our outing; we met them at Arbatskya as well. Nikolai and Miron guided us through further metro stops until we arrived at our destination: the Locomotive stadium. We were attending a Russian football (soccer) game! It was Locomotive vs. Rubin. I purchased a Loco scarf for 500 RUR and wore it with team spirit. It was a large stadium but Nikolai explained that Loco is only a local team; there are two bigger and more famous Moscow teams that play in the gigantic stadiums downtown. Nevertheless, it was still the biggest sport game I’ve ever attended (besides the Fort Wayne Tin Caps or Mad Ants) and it was much cooler because it was a football game. Most of the fans in the stadium wore red and green scarves (like the one I had purchased) and cheered and chanted throughout the game; it looked exhausting but quite exciting. If we go to another game, I might like to try to sit in the crazy fan area and participate in their fanfare. Nikolai sat by me and I was able to chat with him about Moscow culture and life. Some interesting facts: most people believe that it’s bad for babies to be around big city air and so the parents and the baby live outside of the city for the first two years of the baby’s life. Also, many sports are popular in Russia but the most popular are boxing and MMA. Winter in Moscow doesn’t really start until January; it’s mostly very cold and rainy in the earlier winter months. Nikolai used to box but quit because it so many hits to the head were turning him “stupid.” There are all kinds of genres of native music in Russia: rap, rock, acoustic, and even country; they listen to all the popular western bands but of course have their own native musicians in every genre. I can’t wait to hear Russian country music! We will probably hang out with Nikolai and Miron in the future; it is exciting to know we have Russian friends! At the end of the game, the crowd shuffled out of the stadium and past a wall of stern-faced uniformed policemen. Apparently football fans are infamous for being hot-blooded, and games require hoards of guards to maintain the peace. Good to know after we attend the game. Whitney, Shelley, Ally and I met with Vlad Tropi, a Russian native who recently returned from serving an LDS mission in Rostov, Russia, with my past seminary teacher and her husband. Sister Davis informed him that I was coming to Moscow, and since he lives here we should meet up. Vlad was born in a small town in northern Russia but moved to Moscow to go to university. He studied English in London for a few months and traveled to Utah, Nevada, and Arizona a few years back; plus, he served with “too many Americans” on his mission and learned English from all these experiences. He speaks incredible English and was so helpful and polite to us. Since we were starving, he took us to a Russian pizza restaurant where we ordered margarita and chicken pizzas and peach juice—his recommendation. The pizza was tasty, but the peach juice was to die for—oh heavens, it was drinking a peach right off the tree. So glad we chose that place over the neighboring McDonald’s. Here, Vlad rehearsed to us his conversion story: although he has always believed in God, he was a rebellious teenager and got into things he shouldn’t have, like drinking and drugs and such. One day, he was nursing a hangover and watching South Park—the episode all about Mormons—and wonder of all wonders, he felt a strong desire to learn more about these “Mormons.” He went onto Mormon.org and contacted the missionaries in his area and they set up an appointment. Before the discussion, he figured the missionaries would brainwash or hypnotize him into believing their words, but he found out that they were just normal human beings with really bad Russian language skills. For the most part, he found the discussion boring but then he felt something melt within him; he said he looked around, trying to find what the missionaries were doing to him, until he realized the feeling of warmth was coming from his heart. He had goose bumps and he knew he needed to hear more. A year from his baptism date, he put in his mission papers and off he went to Rostov. Two years and four months later, he met us. What a crazy story! His interest in the Church was piqued because of South Park! Who would have ever thought? After dinner, we walked down the street to the Russian Exhibition Centre, a gigantic park surrounded by old colonial-style/Stalin-era buildings. During the Stalin era, the buildings were used as museums and exhibition centres; any new Russian invention or great piece of artwork was first displayed in one of these buildings. After the fall of communism, the exhibition centres fell into disuse and have since been used as market centres or public gathering places. The park has become a sort of carnival ground with small amusement rides and carnival games and food stalls. It’s quite disheartening to see such beautiful buildings being misused. In the center of the park rests a gorgeous fountain. Brass-colored statues lean out of the spray with their arms outstretched in a welcoming way; it is the Fountain of Friendship, symbolizing peace between countries. We walked a short distance to a skyrail, or a metro that runs on an elevated track above ground, which we took to the foot of the famous TV tower here. The TV tower is 680 metres tall and has a revolving restaurant with a panorama view of the city at the top. If I had the money, I would eat there. Across the street was a lake and a golden-crowned cathedral; the sun was setting and the weather was perfect, creating a beautiful scene. The four of us sat on a bench and chatted. Vlad admitted that when we, Americans, speak Russian, we sound Chinese because our voices are so high—I would have never thought. Also, it’s disappointing to find out someone is American, as opposed to English/British. And I look very Russian—that’s the fourth person to tell me that; I find it flattering. As long as I don’t smile and keep my mouth shut, I will fit in here. There was a grocery store nearby, so Vlad guided us through it and pointed out all his recommendations and the things we shouldn’t even dare try; his advice will be extremely useful. He recommended these mini ice cream bars, which turned out to be utterly delectable, and packaged peach juice, which is amazing and I will buy it every trip to the grocery store. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Vlad and get to know him; he’s such a funny guy and actually knows enough English to understand and play along with my sarcasm. He wants to show us other places around Moscow this semester and he wants to introduce us to all his friends here—most are from his Russian ward. We plan on attending his ward not tomorrow but the next week—it should be quite the experience! He promised us one hundred new Facebook friends—and he was dead serious. I’m excited!