May 9~Day of Victory!

May 9th is probably the most important, most loved holiday for Russians. It commemorates veteran's efforts in the Great War (WWII). I was really excited to find out I would be here to celebrate it--as missionaries, we had to be in after 12, because by then celebrations have started, and it was considered unsafe. But this year I would be free to go wherever I wanted to watch celebrations.

In the morning, Sergei, Irina, and I watched from my balcony as different formations of planes flew by on their way to Red Square. After quite a few formations had flown by, nine flying in a tight, triangular formation finished it off.

I then rushed off to the metro to meet up with the youth to pass out cards to veterans, that we had made the night before at a service activity. On the way to the metro, two guys on a bench wished me a happy victory day, and I did them. Then on the metro, I smiled at someone and they actually smiled back! "I love holidays," I thought. Finally someone didn't think it was weird that I was smiling at them. This turned into a kind of uncomfortable situation, though, as he kept looking at me. I would smile, and then try to just stare off like everyone else. I even ended up engrossed in my pocket map of the city and metro to avoid his gaze. He then stood up for his stop, and it seemed as if he nodded his head towards the door. I just half-smiled and looked back down. When he looked up again as he was getting off, he puckered his lips at me in a kissing gesture and left. Maybe smiling on the metro isn't such a good idea after all. So much for holidays...

When I got to the stop, Andrei said he'd waited for the youth for quite a while and hadn't seen anyone, so instead we met up with Simyon. I know him from Ulyanovsk. He told me that Artyom, another friend from Ulyankovsk is also living in Moscow. I am excited to see him when he gets back (he went home for the holiday weekend). We decided to walk down to Red Square, along the Moscow river, and then went to the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. We took pictures all along the way, and then went into the church to look at the icons. We took some pictures on the lawn outside, and I ended up taking pictures for some Russian boys who had tried to set up a camera phone in the grass--they were hilarious. Andrei bought me a Russian flag, and Simyon bought one as well. I didn't think it was right for Andrei to be without one, so I bought him one as well.

I then left for a local branch activity (as this was my favorite part of May 9th, and really captures what the holiday is about, I am making a seperate entry about it). When I got off the metro to change lines, I ran into Natahsa, a girl I'd met the night before making cards. She invited me to a picnic, and I told her I'd meet up with them after the activity. I went to the activity, and then called her to see where we could meet. She gave me directions and I hopped on the metro and went to meet with them at Tsaritsina Park.

When I first walked in, there was a stage with a youth group singing, dancing, and doing a number with jumpropes. The most impressive was a can-can number in the middle of jump roping! I then went off to the picnic where a fairly large group was either sitting on the grass eating, or up playing volleyball. I saw some of the same people from the activity and ended up meeting more people.

One new friend is Aleksandr--we ended up kicking a soccer ball around, and he thinks I'm pretty good. I think my American-ness had something to do with it, though! He was surprised at how many places I had been in Russia, saying I had possibly seen more of it than he had! His accent is different, thicker somehow, so I don't always understand what he says. I noticed that when we talked about school, going to a movie, things I wanted to see, and places we thought were interesting, though some words were difficult to understand, most things were just fine. But when I would talk about places I had lived, or certain things related to my mission, we never seemed to be on the same page. I thought, "Man, my Russian has really gotten shaky!" (it has), but then when he said that I was the first American he'd met, I said, "You haven't known other missionaries from America?" And he said, no, this was his first time really hanging out with everyone. I asked which branch he was in, and he said that he had just met everyone today, and that he didn't know anything about our Church. It all of the sudden became clear why he didn't understand my references to the mission, and why he was so surprised at the cities I'd visited--not normal American tourist fare! I still have a hard time understanding his accent, but it was nice to know that most of the miscommunication was just from my assuming he was Mormon! In my defense, we were out with a Mormon youth group haha

Ran out of time! More to come...

And here it is. So we all went off to watch the fireworks (salut) down the street from Red Square. I ended up watching with a 14 year old girl, Natasha, who wonders why I'm not married and suggests that I get started on that and the many, many children she thinks I should have!

In between fireworks, a man standing on the street near us yelled,"For the people!" Cheering. Another burst. "For Russia!" "Hoorah!" we replied. After the show was over, a chant went up for "Russia! Russia! Russia!" What a night!