Circus, Ballet, and Adventure.

Moscow is finally showing its true colors! Or at least it's magical Autumn colors :)

The weather went from pretty darn cold, to leather jacket weather

                                   

Exploring the woods NEVER gets old. There is so much to find and enjoy.

Like this random sketchy latter

 There are loads of parks too

filled with artistic stuff like this bench.

(I'm not sure what I'm doing)

 And this Magical cube of mirrors!

 And whatever the heck these things are.

 Also I found my new home. Fairies might live there too...

 Russia celebrates Teachers Day! They gave us all these beautiful flowers and had a huge performance.

It. Was. Awesome. :)

After about a week or so, My host mom gave my roses a bath

It's made them last SO much longer

She's a magician

 The Russian Circus was sooo cool! 

AND it was my first Circus ever. I wish I would have seen one when I was younger so I could have become an Acrobat and fly through the air with only a piece of fabris to hold me up!

 And this could have been me.

They also had people on huge Pogo sticks flung into the air and doing backflips!

Madness 

 One day Brooklyn and I decided to go and find this huge red bridge that she had seen in pictures. We could see it from her window on the 15th floor of her apartment building so we figured it wouldn't be that far....

Solid Logic

 After stumbling around the forest for two and a half hours, we could see the Bridge!

There was a small walkway on the highway that we decided would be the best route....

Little did we know, it wasn't actually a walkway at all and crazy Russian drivers would zoom past inches from us and we had nowhere to go but to continue on. 

I was hyper ventilating in no time.

 At one point, Our protective red wall stopped and there was a huge drop but luckily we found this grey grating that we thought if we shimmied onto... we would find our way down. 

 Turns out this was a worse Idea. The bars would shake as the cars zoomed past and we felt very vulnerable. So we climbed back to our sketchy walkway and eventually found an actual walkway right to our desired red bridge.

 Terrifying experience, but an adventure none the less. 

 That night we climbed a huge ski hill where we could see the gorgeous city lights surrounding us. 

City life has it's perks :)

 We've now had the chance to see the Russian Ballet perform "The Nutcracker" and "Sleeping Beauty" 

I never knew how much I love Ballet

It makes me so happy to see because ballet is the same in every Language

And no matter how confused I am everywhere else in this country,

I understand the Ballet as much as the Russian sitting next to me. 

I love all these adorable Russian kids and how wild and crazy they are. 

This has been a whirlwind of an experience and I've loved every second. 

Until next time.

With Love,

Nesha

Dreads!

 So I've thought long and hard about dreadlocks. Anyone who knows anything about me knows that I practically obsessed over them for the past two years. Doing double takes of those brave souls walking down the streets.
I've thought of the consequences:
 1. everyone automatically assumes that your a pothead (I've never smoked and never plan on it.)
 2. People think your dirty and don't wash your hair. (dreadlocks actually look better faster if you wash them as regularly as your regular hair :)
 3. It may be difficult to find a job

Well, those are the things I considered and knew to expect (along with other thing) BUT I also thought of all the reasons I wanted them.
 1. To me, dreadlocks represent a sense of freedom. A person who wears them is freed from the constant nagging of trying to be like everyone else. dreadlocks are obviously not the norm and if you wear them, it's because you don't care about being in "the norm". They have a courage to be different that I admire deeply.
 2.  having dreads calls for a more natural lifestyle. Although you of course still wash your hair, you use shampoos that don't leave chemicals and all that other junk, Just squeaky clean hair :)
 3. It fits my personality, It sounds super lame, but now that I finally have them, I feel like I was putting of a part of myself. It feel RIGHT to have them and although I don't plan on having them forever, it was the right decision for now :)

SOO onto the process!

 I called in a favor

And my wonderful friends Kaity, Alex, and Brooklyn helped me do the deed. 

What troopers

Thanks guys :)

I showed them how to do it and they started dreading away

It probably only took about 3-4 hours, which is surprising cuz usually it takes a lot longer

But with two or three people working at all times...plus Kaity had done someone's dreads before

So they did the bottom half in about an hour and a half and then we all got tired

We went to the Russian Ballet the next day (the nutcracker!) and a girl sitting in front of me had the most beautiful, long, neat dreads I've ever seen tied up in a really pretty bun. It was a sign! haha So when we got home we busted out the rest of my dreads.

            

 

So on the left are my brand spankin new dreads...Like a lions main eh?

And on the right after I tamed them a bit :) 

The ends were super hard to dread so we kinda just left them wispy.

I kinda like it more natural looking 

 Before and after. Viola

\

Its like my dream to tie my hair up without any hair ties

Don't ask me why

I have no clue

But guess what!!! No hair ties 

"We must take Adventures to know where we truly belong"

With Love,

Nesha 

Red Square, Moscow

 


I have a new found passionate love for Moscow! This weekend we explored down by Red Square, and since it was a tad bit rainy, there weren't very many people there!

Inside St. Basil's Cathedral is an incredible castle with secret passageways and tiny rooms to explore! We followed a tiny, steep, brick spiral staircase up to an opening at the top of the cathedral where the most incredible acapella group I've ever heard was singing. Their voices bounced off the high ceilings and came back in a perfect harmony that sang to my soul. It truly brought the Cathedral to life. 

 The area around Red Square is so beautiful! Walking around the European streets bundled up in scarves and boots is just Heaven! The weather is just perfect this time of year, cold enough to feel cozy in your fall clothes but not so cold that you can't feel your toes! :)

 The Russians happen to love England, so sometimes we pretend like we are from there! haha

Even the Russians were taking pictures with this gem!

 Red Square at night was so magical, we sat on the cobblestone listening to Frank Sinatra coming from a cafe, enjoying the white lights, crisp air and Krispe Kreme donuts.

All the main buildings are lit up like Christmas :)

 It rains A LOT here! but I happen to LOVE rainy, cold days... it makes for good Sweatpants/hot chocolate/movies days. But here we walk around in it loads more, which is why I've used an umbrella 100 times more than I have in my whole life. Another great thing about the rain, It makes this wonderful forest possible.

 I explored this one on my own, which ended up being WAY creepier than I thought, there were beer bottles and trash EVERYWHERE. Not to mention shopping carts, clothes, and cardboard boxes that looked like they were used for sleeping. this little adventure made me sad in so many ways. 1. there are people who live out there with nothing but a box to keep them safe :( 2. the people in this city keep there streets spic and span but don't even pay a second glance to there wooded area's. But I was also happy cuz I found a place where I couldn't see all the building. (not that I don't like the buildings, it's just a nice change of scenery :)

With Love,
Nesha

St. Peters-burg and first weeks in Moscow, Russia!

 A new chapter begins, I'm now living in Moscow Russia as a head teacher for the International Language Programs. I am helping 8 teachers that work in four different schools to teach English to the locals. So far, it's been a blast. Not to mention a whole new world. I've never lived in the city before, so Moscow (the New York City of Russia) is quite the experience.

 The day after we arrived, the other teachers and I hopped on a sleeper train to St. Peters burg. This city is incredible. It's architecture is so beautiful and the city is filled with canals, fountains and beautiful buildings.

                                           

This is the first European style city I've visited and everything from the grand architecture to there doors was everything I'd ever imagined. The first day in St. Pete we walked around and explored the city for hours and hours. When things started to open, we climbed a million stairs to the top of St. Isaac's Cathedral and enjoyed this view of the city.

We also had the pleasure of experiencing the famous Church of Our Savior on Spilled Blood Cathedral. 

 It was SO beautiful! and even better in person. There were artists painting the Cathedral and street performers that just brought this building to life.

Inside, every single wall and inch of the grand ceilings were covered in detailed Mosaics made with tiny pieces of painted tiles.    

You get a neck ache by the time you leave from staring up at this art. You could stay in this cathedral for hours and hours and find new pictures depicting scriptural stories. 

Just down the street is the HUGE Winter Palace (or as some call it, Anastasia's palace) 

We even saved a few bucks by showing our student visa's and got it for free! 

 This Palace was absolutely incredible. The architecture and detailed decorations were more than I could have imagined. I could just see royalty walking through it's halls in there massive gowns and jewels.

We found this massive chocolate Santa statue outside a "chocolate museum". We were so excited to see other chocolate sculptors that we came back three hours later when it opened to see. Little did we know, Russians use the word "museum" broadly.....this museum was just an expensive chocolate store haha. 

 This was my first morning in Moscow. The architecture was much more obvious of the communist period in Russia, but it has it's own sort of beauty. We were so busy training and preparing for lessons that we weren't able to explore much the first week in Moscow. But Gulya, our awesome native coordinator, took us on a boat cruise through the city to see all the major sites!

This is one of our students who came with us. Her English is so good! she'll chat your ear off :)

 We spend A LOT of time on the metro. Pretty much anywhere you want to go, the metro is the way. I actually really like it. No traffic Jams, just standing really close to a lot of strangers. I love just watching all the people in the city rushing around, on with there busy city lives, wearing there fabulous clothes. I just wonder all there stories.

Our first weekend in Moscow, our new friends, Dina and Murad took us to the "New Moscow". They are building tons of really cool. skyscrapers and malls all at the same time...so technically, the city isn't open yet. I didn't know people did that. 

In one of the malls are these HUGE Dolls that were created in Russia... You know, the kind that you take apart and there are a bunch more inside.

 This is the "new city of Moscow" Beatuful huh? It's weird because since it's not complete, there aren't that many people here. so This huge place, is probably the least crowded place I've seen in Moscow.

This is my walk to the metro from the Pent house my host family lives in. I would never call myself a city girl, but it will be fun to play the part for four months and when I miss the mountains, at least this city preserves some trees for me to enjoy along with the hustle and bustle of the people. 

With Love,
Nesha <3