Trinity Cathedral

Ashley invited me to go to Sergeyev Pasad where the Trinity Cathedral is. We took a commuter train and set out to meet up with the other study abroad students Friday. We made our way towards the cathedrals and churches, and looked around for an Orthodox ring. I have decided I really want one, so I took this opportunity to scout one out. I went in the little shop on the grounds and tried on a beautiful silver and gold ring. Then, upon finding out that it was about $60, returned it to the nice Orthodox woman behind the counter. At least I found out my ring size :)

While we were looking around for our group, Ashley and I decided to go inside one of the churches. There was a sign on the door saying no access, but we saw a smaller, more intricately designed door off to the side. "Can we go in there?" I said. "I'm not sure." "It kind of looks like a service door--where people participating in administering in the church would go in. She would check it out anyway?" I said as I made my way towards the door. I then looked around and crossed the threshold. Ashley and I kept looking at each other and wondering if we were supposed to be there. We walked down some steps and down a hall. If we run into the holy of holies we're in such big trouble, I thought. When we got into the room the hall had led to, we realized we had walked into some kind of a crypt. We turned around and headed back out. We then found our group, and went into the cathedral to listen to a choir sing and watch the service.

We stepped back outside, and I introduced myself to Tyler--one of the students I hadn't met before. Justin came out and told us they were singing again, but this time it was a men's choir. I followed everyone back into the dimly lit church, but ended up wandering to the left and more towards the front, instead of towards the choir in the back with the rest of the group. All of the sudden, one of the holy men came in front of the mass of people, and everyone went down on their knees. I looked around and realized I was the only one standing in this area. I didn't know what to do. Should I kneel? I threw a glance at Tyler, and we gave each other a look like, what should we do now? Luckily, just about then Chandler appeared by my side so I didn't feel like a total idiot. After everyone stood, Chandler and I made our way back towards the rest of the group.

After leaving the church, we grabbed some food from a little store on the grounds where the churches stood. Tyler said they'd seen one of the churches before we got there, but that he would show us where it was while everyone was just kind of hanging out. As we started walking over, he pulled out a Bon Aqua bottle and asked if I wanted some holy water. "Sure," I said a little flippantly, "I didn't realize Bon Aqua was making holy water these days." He just kind of laughed and then told me he had filled it up with water from a spring on the grounds. "Oh. I love it when I make smart alec comments when I'm wrong. That was awesome," I said a little sheepishly. "I was just afraid you were going to be mad thinking I had just picked up water somewhere that might not be clean," he kindly replied.

The church ended up being closed, so we walked across the courtyard to a different one. We passed the holy spring on the way. "Well that makes a lot more sense. No wonder you filled it up here." I scooped up some of the water in my cupped hand and drank it. We entered into the church and looked around at the different icons and symbols. We talked about symbolism and faith, and about how we could appreciate the differences in Russian Orthodox and our religion and respect what their faith means to them.

After we'd seen all we came to see, we headed back through town to the train. While waiting on the platform, some girls came up to us to ask when the next train was leaving. We told them we didn't know, and they thought that was so funny. They couldn't believe a group of people would stand on a platform, waiting for a train they didn't know about. It made sense to us. We were done, wanted to get back to Moscow, had a ticket for this line, and it comes periodically. Not so crazy, right?

After getting back into Moscow, we decided we wouldn't make it to the discotecha that some of the youth were going to, and instead decided to watch a movie. We couldn't find any good ones at the rinok, so we decided to go back to Ryan and Tyler's and just watch one they already had. We settled on the Count of Monte Cristo in Russian. We started out with 6 people, but by the end of the movie only four of us remained.

Svetlana was upset that no one had escorted Kenzie to the metro, so Tyler decided to avoid another lecture by walking with Ashley and I down there (plus we'd come a different way and weren't sure how to make it back haha). We decided we'd all meet up at Ikea the next day to play cards. "Because, hey, if we get kicked out, that'll make a great story!" So I live my life for stories--nothing wrong with that :)