Jolly old England!

We are now in England, staying with my brilliant auntie Debbie and uncle Simon and my cousins Katie and Tim! Debbie is a fantastic archaeologist, and has been giving us a personal tour of the villages around here, telling us all the history of the different buildings and churches and such. It's really cool, because everything is SO OLD! One of the churches we went in today was built in 1135, (the 12th century!) and it has stunning stone work. We also did a bit of shopping for New Years, Simon has set up a gazebo outside, disco balls inside, and Debbie has a fantastic music playlist organized too!

Last night, Steve and I stayed with my grandparents, Jill and Godfrey, which was great fun! We went into Uppingham, went out for lunch at a local pub, then walked around Oakham. We stayed the night there, and in the morning, went back into Uppingham and then walked down to the church that is right near their house. I remember when we were really little, getting all dressed up to go see the Christmas Nativity, and I think Debbie and Simon's wedding was there too! It's such a gorgeous little church!

Tonight we are going out to dinner at an Italian restaurant, and then tomorrow we are setting up for the big New Years bash! I have a fantastic purple dress to wear that Debbie bought me (thanks again!) and Katie has a gorgeous dress to wear. Steve wanted to buy a rugby jersey but couldn't find one.

I'm having a hard time getting pictures to load so I'm just going to do one and have a cup of tea while I wait for it to get up! It's so great to be back in England, and it's so much fun to be spending time with everyone again. Katie is absolutely gorgeous, she's dyed her hair this brilliant red and it looks fantastic on her, and Tim is hilarious, he's the life of the party! And of course my FANTASTIC Auntie Debbie and Simon, who is a lot more like Dad than I remember, they definitely have the same sense of humor! (bad puns, dad jokes, etc) Steve likes it here too, maybe I'll persuade him to stay!

xoxo

Russia part 3

Happy Christmas eve!

It really is a winter wonderland here, the snow is nestled on all the trees and is lightly falling. We are staying indoors today, in the hopes that my cold will go away! It's nice to have a day to relax, we have been non-stop since we got here!

Yesterday was a very interesting day. We went to The Museum of the Great Patriotic War and Victory Park, which is dedicated to WWII, and tells Russia's side of that story. Did you know 27 million Russians died in WWII? I seem to think I was taught that but I didn't remember it. I'm so surprised it wasn't taught more in schools. We focus on the 6 million jews killed during the Holocaust, and the 7 million others who were killed too, but somehow we breeze right past the 27 million Russians. There is the Hall of Memory and Sorrow that has a chain hanging for every 10,000 people killed. There are so many chains, it is unbelievable.

There were six dioramas that showed pivotal scenes from the war, some victorious, some very tragic, all beautifully done. This was my favorite, showing a battle at day-break that was held in the city.

Unfortunately, they didn't have an English explanation of this diorama so I couldn't get a description of it, only that it was held in the city and was triumphant for the Russians! There is a quote above it in German, but I'm not sure what that says, either. Yeesh!

The upstairs rooms in the gallery were amazing! They had a huge room that had names of all the soldiers and citizens who gained a certain heroic medal during the war. It was given to those alive and dead who acted heroically, and it is amazing!

This is Steve and Lisa sitting on a bench. I am across the room taking the photo:

As you can see, it is huge! What you can't see is a giant dome, above that golden border at the top of the frame. That is humongous and gorgeous!

The walls were covered in Russian names, of all the people who had won the medal. There were a lot of them!

Steve was convinced he looked just like the man in the statue. Lets compare:

I think Steve is much more handsome than the statue! Although this picture might illustrate a different point:

He will probably be annoyed that I posted that. But if he doesn't want his nostrils posted in cyberspace, he shouldn't photobomb my photographs! It is his favorite thing to do. When I am taking pictures of wherever we are, he'll sneak up on me and jump into the picture at the last session. Then I end up with beautiful photos like this! I have a lot of odd pictures from this trip, actually. I have a new camera, and it is touchscreen, which means I had to get used to it. One of the things that is cool about it is that if you tap the sceen twice, it'll take a picture. However, that means I have a lot of pictures of the ground. It's very silly.

I guess there are some things you don't learn with a photo minor!

In Russia they don't celebrate the "Catholic Christmas" which is what they call December 25th, with Santa Claus, etc. They have Father Frost or Ded Moroz, who brings presents to children at New Years Eve. He wears an ankle-length red coat and carries a staff. He has a helper, Snegurochka, or the Snow Maiden. She wears a silver and blue coat. Folklore tells that she is the daughter of Spring and Frost. One story is really sad: she becomes great friends with a Shepherd, and wants to love him, but isn't able to. Her mother takes pity on her and gives her the ability to love. But as soon as she falls in love with him, her heart warms and she melts away. They had huge statues of these two, so Steve and I of course got a picture in front of them:

It was so cold when we were posing for this picture! We took one and hoped for the best!

I still have tons of pictures, but I am very hungry and want some lunch. I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas tomorrow! xoxo

Russia, part 2!

I tell you what, it is still freezing cold! Today it was windy too, and a little bit blizzardy. Is that a word? It is now! Yesterday was another wonderful day, we went to the Tretyakov gallery. It's full of gorgeous Russian art, tons of portraits, Russian icons, and beautiful jewelry as well. My favorite was Ivan Tsarevich Riding The Grey Wolf, an 1889 painting by Victor Vasnetsov. Yes, I did write all the info down so I could look it up later! My mama would be so proud! Here it is:

I think it is so gorgeous! It's based on a Russian legend, which I love so much I'm going to write here. Ivan Tsarevich was the youngest son of a Tsar who had a beautiful garden with golden apples in it. The apples were being stolen at night, and Ivan was sent to keep watch (after his two older brothers who, of course, failed.) Ivan saw a firebird, and caught it by the tail, but it was strong and flew off, leaving Ivan with only one feather. This feather was so glorious, it could light up a darkened room. Ivan showed it to his father, who sent him and his brothers off to find the whole bird.
His brothers were jealous of Ivan, so they left him alone with only a horse. Ivan soon became tired, and so fell asleep. When he awoke, all that was left of his horse was a pile of bones. He set off on foot and came upon a Grey Wolf who admitted to eating his horse, and offered him a ride.
The Wolf took him to the firebird, and gave him instructions on how to catch it, but Ivan ignored the Wolf and was caught when he was trying to steal it, and Tsar Afron, who owned, it sent him on another task, to find a horse with a golden mane in exchange for the firebird.
The Wolf took Ivan to the horse, once again giving him instructions on how to steal it without being caught, but once again, Ivan ignored the Wolf, and he was caught. Tsar Kusman told him that in exchange for the horse, Ivan must bring him the beautiful Princess Yelena, daughter of Tsar Dalmat.
This time, the Wolf decided that he would capture the Princess. He waited until the Princess was alone, and caught her in his teeth, threw him on his back, and ran off with her back to Ivan, who was waiting outside the kingdom for them.
The Wolf then carried both Yelena and Ivan back to the Tsar Kusman. However, Ivan became upset when it was time to give Yelena to the Tsar, as he had fallen in love with her. The Wolf said that he would take the shape of Yelena, and when the Tsar gave him the horse in exchange for the Wolf-Yelena, Ivan and the real Yelena were to ride as fast as possible to the Tsar Afron. Ivan joyously agreed, and the plan was set in motion.
The Wolf caught up with them right as they arrived at the Kingdom, Ivan was once again sad. The Wolf asked him what was the matter, and Ivan said he would love very much to ride up to his father's kingdom on the beautiful golden-maned horse, and asked if they could play the trick again, with the Wolf playing the horse. The Wolf agreed, and the trick worked. It didn't take long for the Wolf to catch up with Ivan and Yelena, who now possessed the horse and the beautiful firebird. The Wolf said his farewells, and sent Ivan and Yelena on their way, asking them only to remember him by his kindness.
However, Ivan and Yelena fell asleep on the way home, and were found by Ivan's elder brothers. Seeing Ivan asleep with not only the firebird, but also a glorious horse and a beautiful princess, they were blinded by jealousy, and murdered Ivan, telling Yelena if she ever told what they did, they would murder her too.
The Wolf found Ivan's murdered body, and wanted again to help his friend. He then saw a mother crow with her two babies, and kidnapped the two babies. He told the mother that he would give her babies back only if she flew to Tsar Dalmats kingdom and brought him back some life-and-death water. The crow agreed, and next morning, brought him the water. The Wolf freed the baby birds, sprinkled water on Ivan, and he awoke. The Wolf explained what had happened to him, and that Ivan's eldest brother was set to marry Yelena that very day. Ivan immediately jumped on the Wolf's back, and together they flew to the kingdom, right as Yelena and the eldest son were about to marry. Yelena saw her true love, and flew into his arms as the suprised and confused Tsar looked on, having been told that Ivan had died on their quest for the firebird. But Yelena and Ivan explained the whole story to the Tsar, helped by the Wolf, and the Tsar was so enraged he immediately sent the elder brothers to prison, and Yelena and Ivan were married that very day.
Isn't it adorable? Well that took longer to write out than I thought it would, so I will be done for today! We didn't do much after the museum anyway, we were all so tired! We played a couple games of ticket to ride, and settlers of catan, though. I didn't win, but Steve did! I talked to Daisy and Mum on the phone, did a puzzle, and then went to bed!
One more picture of Steve and I outside the museum, and I will be done!

RUSSIA!!!

Steve and I are in Russia! It's so exciting! We are here visiting his parents, his dad works over here. It's VERY cold, but everything is beautiful! I caught a slight cold on the flight over, but other than that we are both healthy! I am writing this on the Russian blogspot, so I have already deleted a post on accident, and I'm starting over! Monday we just relaxed, we were trying to get over our jet lag! We played games, I won Settlers of Catan (obviously - I'm AWESOME at it!) and on Tuesday we went to Red Square!

We toured St. Basil's Cathedral (that's behind us) and it was absolutely gorgeous! Each of the spires is a church, and we were in the largest one when a Russian Orthodox Folk group started singing this gorgeous choral music, just three of them, but it was amazing! Their voices just filled the whole space, it gave me chills! We also visited the Armory, we weren't allowed to take pictures inside unfortunately.

The Armory was amazing, it had so many beautiful elaborate things in there, from plates (Catherine the Great had a silverware set to feed 3,000!) to ornate carriages (one from 16th century France!) and also beautiful dresses! Catherine's wedding dress from when she was sixteen was so beautiful, her waist was teeny tiny! I would love to wear those dresses, but they looked like they weighed a ton! We also saw Lenin's body, which was cool because Moscow is apparently thinking of shutting that down and not letting tourists go inside anymore. He was such a small man, and looks very waxy now, but in the dim lights and the darkness still looked very intimidating!

Today we went to Sergiev Pasad, which is the largest active monastery in Russia! It was amazing! Since I was still sick with a cold, I was wearing Lisa's jacket, which went all the way down to my ankles! I felt like I was in a sleeping bag! It definitely kept me warm, which was good, because it was snowing!

There are 260 monks who are studying there, we saw a few, all very solemn looking, and some quite young. They have tons of Cathedrals, and one of them has a 24/7 service! One is only open twice a year. It is quite intense! There were a lot of women and men coming to kiss the relics and also the icons. For many it is quite a religious experience, as Saint Sergius who opened this monastery was visited by the Virgin Mary, who told him she would pray over this monastery always, and pray for those who visited it or lived inside it. He started the monastery because he wanted to be away from the wealth of the others, and build only a small wooden hut. It's definitely grown since then! I wonder what he'd think if he saw it now! The monastery was closed in 1919, and a lot of the relics and books were plundered, but luckily it was reopened. It is definitely a piece of history!

Tomorrow we are going to a museum that has a lot of the relics and artwork stolen from various churches/monasteries during the communist time in Russia! It is an amazing collection, though a sad way it was collected. I'm really excited to see more history from Russia. It is all very gorgeous, but as Dave says, "It's all for show." The royalty were wearing pearls, sitting on diamond thrones, riding in gold carriages, but the people of Russia were starving. I can't imagine how the people would react if President Obama had the tax-payers buy him a gold-plated Bently! There would certainly be mass riots for that!

I am having so much fun, and learning tons, though I do miss my parents. It doesn't quite feel like Christmas without watching White Christmas with my mum, or seeing the horrible tree my parents picked out! I'll certainly miss my dad's mushroom gravy! Yumm! And it won't be Christmas morning without opening stockings on my parent's bed with all my siblings. But we are making new traditions, Steve and I, and I am learning his family's traditions too! I guess that's just part of growning up and being a married woman now... sigh...

xoxo Merry Christmas!