My Attempt at Positivity

To prove to everyone that I am capable of positivity, today’s blog post is a list of all the things I like about Russia.

1. 1. Russian history. There isn’t a part of Russian history that doesn’t fascinate me. It has a rich tsarist history rife with intrigue and drama. The history of its peasantry is very interesting as well. I attribute my fascination with the Russian peasantry to Professor Jack Kollmann, who I took a class with last year about rural religious practices in 19^th-century peasant Russia. Speaking of which, Professor Kollmann and his wife Nancy are here in Moscow for a semester for the Stanford in Moscow program. Tomorrow I am going on an outing with them to a small town called Zvenigorod, which was founded in the 12^th century and is home to some very old Orthodox churches. I’m really excited, and I promise to take lots of pictures. Anyway, don’t even get me started on Communist history, which is the granddaddy of all of my historical fascinations.

2. 2. Russian food (well, generally). Every one of my meals includes cabbage in some form, which greatly pleases me. Borscht, or beet soup, ranks as one of my top five favorite foods of all time. Pelmeni, or Russian dumplings, are sinfully delicious. Russian mushrooms are always fresh and flavorful. Blini, or Russian crepes, are also awesome. Russians also use fresh dill on most of their dishes, which adds an interesting taste that I am not accustomed to. Although Russian food is certainly not the best food I’ve ever tried, it has its highlights.

3. 3. The Moscow metro. It is one of the most beautiful and efficient in the world, and many of the metro stations were built during the Communist period, so there are lots of historical remnants everywhere I go.

4. 4. The architecture, at least from the tsarist period. You know those onion-domed churches? Those are pretty awesome. Stalin also commissioned some pretty cool buildings, like Moscow State University.

5. 5. Russian hospitality. If you go to visit a friend at her apartment, you will never go hungry or thirsty.

6. 6. Russian trains. Train as a means of transportation is very popular here. To get to St. Petersburg or other surrounding cities, it is common to take an overnight train. It is so much fun because there are little fold-out beds and also a table to sit around and chat with friends. It’s always fun to bring your own food and alcohol and have a little feast on the train. It is also common to meet other passengers on the train, strike up a conversation, and become friends. At the end of my stay in Moscow, I hope to take the Trans-Siberian railroad all the way to Vladivostok, in eastern Siberia. That will be the mother of all train rides.

7. 7. Russian honey. Honey here doesn’t just come in liquid form in a plastic bear, like in the US. Here you can buy light yellow honey, dark brown honey, honey in solid granular form, honey in a comb, and the list goes on. There is even a honey fair every year, where you can go taste test people’s homemade honey.

8. 8. Russian vodka.

9. 9. Vladimir Putin.

AllAll right, I know this is awful, but I just can’t think of anything else I like about Russia. It took me forever to come up with the list I already have. So just accept it for what it is. I tried extra hard to be positive and now I’m exhausted. I think maybe I’ll go back to bed now.