Red Square

Matt and I went to Красная площадь (Red Square) last Friday with the Nelly Alexandrovna (Matt's Russian instructor, fellow teacher at RACU, and friend). We got to go into St. Basil's--where on the main floor there where some beautiful paintings and when we climbed this old, wooden spiral staircase (that was only found in the 70's), we arrived at the upper level that houses much of the location's artifacts. As we climbed up the staircase, we heard this beautiful music being sung by 5 Russian men--the sound filled the entire upper floor. As we watched and listened in this church that was over 500 years old, I was struck with how beautiful it was to have my feet in this place where so many believers over the years had stood. To be standing in that place and hearing those men sing and feeling the hand of God was awesome.

Here's a funny story that happened after we finished our visit to Red Square . . . We ate lunch with Nelly (who speaks no English), during which we had potatoes. She said she enjoys eating potatoes and asked me if I cooked with potatoes. I told her, with my limited vocabulary, that, yes, I cook potatoes with chicken and sometimes peppers. When I finished the sentence Matt and Nelly started laughing hysterically. Apparently the Russian word for pepper is very similar to the Russian word for pirate, which I had said. I had told Nelly that I cook chicken with pirates instead of peppers. We all had a good laugh at that one--trying to figure out just how I would get those pirates into the pot.

-Makinzie