Samsonite

More on Moscow

I come from America, so I'm used to waving to a friendly person and having them smile and wave back, whether they are a stranger or not. But, in Russia, and I'm not saying anything against Russians, it's just culture, I smile and maybe say Strasvetya (Hello) and the Russian stranger would just grimace back. It startled me at first. But, If you get to know them, you really start liking them, you'd think that Russians are one of the kindest people in the world.  Even the hobos and homeless dogs are friendly.

Homeless dogs are a major problem in Moscow.  Down every street you can find one or two homeless dogs. The private school I go to even has three or more dogs living right outside it.  Most dogs you meet just look at you with friendly, sad eyes, but a person my mom knows was attacked by a pack of dogs and only escaped not hurt because it was the middle of winter and he was bundled up in coats.

Russian drivers can be bad at driving, but they have some humor. On the bus home one day, I "took" a pare of pink sunglasses from a girl sitting in front of me. I looked out of the back window with them on and smiled at the driver behind me. I did it with several different drivers and got surprising results. The first looked at me, smiled and put two thumbs up. The next driver looked shocked, then angry, and swerved to a different lane. The last driver I looked at with the pink sunglasses on made a rude hand gesture and started yelling at me. Although I couldn't hear him, I think he was forming some perfect Russian swear words.
Moscow in the Winter Time

Moscow's Ups and Downs

The drivers of Moscow are not famous for their driving. It is really funny because sidewalks are used as normal parking spaces. The other day, I was just walking along the busy streets of Moscow, when, suddenly, this big hummer just drove onto the sidewalk and parked his car. The good thing about the sidewalks is that they are huge! Most are about ten to fifteen feet wide!

At one interception, it is so crowded that no one can get through the thick stream of cars.  Whenever I want to take a walk, I have to cross this one crosswalk which is one of the busiest, so I have to walk for ages. Luckily, the ice skating rank is only across the street, so we only have to cross two interceptions.

One thing I love about Moscow is that the Russian people love flowers, so there are flower shops every block on the streets. And there are hot dog stands, and chicken stands, and used clothing stands, and other cool stands that you can buy from on the streets.  And there are lots of malls and stores to buy things from.

Russia is full of art. Down almost every street there is a church or sacred building thing with a golden cupola or steeple.

This is Red Square on New Years Eve!

Apocalypse

So many disasters have been happening this year! Haiti earthquake, Chili earthquake, China earthquake, Iceland volcanic eruption, and I think another, I'm not sure.  This isn't from a natural disaster, but the Polish President, the leaders of the navy, airforce, army, and many more, died in a plane crash a week ago. With all of these disaster, the flag at the White House in Moscow has been flying half staff a lot lately.

Volcanic Ash! *Cough*

The volcanic ash, hanging over Europe is causing a lot of airports to close because the ashes can bring down planes.  On Facebook, half of the posts are of the volcanic ash, and they all say one thing: "I'm stuck because of the volcanic ash!" My friends are stuck in so many places: London, France, North Korea (Just kidding!).  I can't wait till the whole thing is gone.