Bike riding and a trek to Ikea

Irina and I decided to ride bikes down to the park where the branch would be having a picnic. I had forgotten how much I love bike riding!!!! It was so pleasant. I am definitely thinking I need to find a way to get my bike down to LA.

When we got there, Sonya and Masha came and gave me a big hug and asked if I would be staying at the picnic for long (Irina was planning on leaving soon). I told them I would definitely be staying, and we sat and chatted. I love those girls! They are so adorable!

I ended up talking with the branch president and some others for a long time. President grew up speaking Russian, Armenian, and Georgian. His mom is half Armenian, half Russian, and they lived in Georgia. He said they would often carry on conversations in all three languages, choosing the langauge that best fit the feel of what they were trying to say. Especially when it came to jokes. As he said, "Certain jokes just sound better in the language native to the joke!" He is really great, and I enjoyed the chance to talk to him more. He told me about a church he had visited around Mount Ararat where the altar Noah constructed after the waters receeded is housed. The holy man working there had sensed that President knows scripture well, and that he was a spiritual person, and invited him to see artifacts that are not open to everyone. It was great to hear of some of his experiences.

I had planned to go to the office to check my email, but it started raining just as we packed up the last left over juice and fruit, so everyone hurried off to their next destinations.

My next destination turned out to be quite the trek. There are many Ikeas in Moscow, but we had somehow chosen the one that is the farthest away from me. I asked Irina how long it would take to get there by metro, and she told me about one hour. So I diligently took off at 5:00 to make it by 6:00 pm. I texted Ashley to make sure I knew where we were meeting. She called and said that plans had changed and that they had ended up getting there at 5:00 (they had just arrived) but to come anyways because they would still be there.

Well, about 6:10 I got off the metro, and went off in search of the bus that was supposed to take me to Ikea for free. I asked a few people until someone could point me in the right direction. I found it and pulled out Atlas Shrugged while I was waiting. I had been there for about 10 minutes, standing on the edge of the sidewalk reading, when all the sudden, I realized I had been pushed back as people swarmed in front of me to get on the free shuttle. Afraid I wasn't going to make it on and be even later, I did my best to hold my own and not get pushed back any further.

So, I jumped onto the crowded bus and read while I stood, grateful I was at the last leg of my journey. Unfortunately, Moscow is about 10 times worse than even LA can be. Pretty sure I rolled in around 7:00 pm. Everyone had just finished eating, so I set off for Ikea to find Ashley. We met up somewhere between kitchen supplies and living room furniture. Then she took me back to where a group of the students had claimed a display room to play cards in. I decided to grab some food while everyone was waiting.

Just as I paid for my meal, I heard "Privet" (hello) behind me. It was Ryan. "Hey, we're gonna head out." "Wait, what? I just got here--you guys aren't going to play?" I said. "Well, we live in the north and it takes a long time to get home." "I know. That's why I just got here. And I live more north than you do. Maybe I'll head out with you guys." So he called up Tyler to tell him I'd made it finally and would be heading out, but had to eat first. So we grabbed a table, and I sat and ate my frikadelki (Swedish meatballs) while four, and then nine people sat and watched me.

Ryan had homework and Chandler had a talk to prepare for the next day, so Tyler and I decided we'd go do something. After all, it was a Saturday night! :) He was nice enough to offer to stay and look around the mall because he knew I had just arrived. So we wandered around a couple of the stores, and then decided to head into the center of Moscow to grab him some food and walk around red square and to the bridge just beyond it. Great view! We ended up chilling at pizza hut for a long time out on the patio while he ate some pizza (I was still too full from my frikadelki to get anything).

It was really fun to sit and talk--we are both thinking of going to BYU law, so we talked about a class he took on economy and the law, about our families, what we like in Russia, and what we miss about home. Then we walked passed some fountains that are also near red square. About this time, we heard yelling from the distance.

"What do you think that is," Tyler asked. "I don't know. It sounds like a riot." "Wanna check it out?" he asked. "Yah, let's do it. If there's ever a riot, you should definitely join in. I'm pretty sure that's right. Either that or at least watch history being made. Something like that," I said.

So we took off in the direction of red square. It turned out to not be a riot after all. Just some drunk military officers taking pictures. We decided they must have had some kind of graduation from the academy and were celebrating. After looking on for a while, we decided it was probably time to head home. Though it looked like 9:30 pm, it was actually midnight. So we took off to make sure we made the metro before it closed at 1:00 am.