Russian Tradtl Dance

Tuesday, July 28

On Tuesday, our last full day in Moscow, we decided we should get back into some more touristy things and headed off for Red Square. We went through St. Basil's cathedral and while in line met a couple who were touring the world for one year. Sounded like they had been everywhere! The man gave me his blog address, which is now lost in a stack of papers, but someday I will check it out.

We then went to a street by the river where a bunch of artists had set up their work and were selling it. Unfortunately, everything we really loved was about $400 and up. Deciding we could find something a little more to our budget, we left. We grabbed another shwarma on the way back to Tyler's apartment where my mom took a nap. We had dinner (pasta and vegetables from Sunday's birthday dinner) and a some banana cream pie (also from Sunday--a real treat considering they don't have pies like we're used to).

Then Tyler, my mom, Svetlana, and I headed off to the "National Show of Russia" which is a folkdance performance of traditional Russian songs/dances. We thought about Jenny the whole time--she has toured with BYU to Europe on the folkdance team. It was really fun and both my mom and I are glad we were able to go! I really think Svetlana enjoyed it, too. It was fun seeing my mom and her communicating with each other through the little bit of English Svetlana knows and some improvised sign language! We then took pictures by a pink cadillac that was parked outside the Cosmos Hotel where the performance was. Then it was back to Tyler's to try and shuffle a few things in our bags, then back to our place.

When we got off the metro at my stop, we grabbed a cheburek (roll type thing) with cheese which was delicious! Two guys heard us speaking English and followed us to the little stand where we bought our food. I heard them say, "Let's get a little closer and listen." Not sure that I was up for an adventure (it was already 1 am), I tried to ignore them. They gave us suggestions on which food to buy, and soon I gave in to talking to them--they were both really nice, and one of them spoke English. Afterwards, my mom commented on how nice they were and not creepy at all. I told her, "See--now you know what I mean when I say I stopped to talk to some random guy, but I wasn't worried because he seemed really nice." So hopefully some of my past stories aren't so scary to her now!

We got home and gave Sergei a card we had bought for him (it was his birthday), along with a pair of work gloves and a box of See's candies my mom had brought from the States. We ended up talking with Irina and Sergei until 2 am, even though my mom and I were exhausted. It was fun acting as the interpreter for the three of them, and it was really neat for my mom to listen to Irina's conversion story. I'm glad my mom had the chance to get to know them a little better, as the rest of the week had been pretty hectic and we were gone all the time.