In Russia every student is issued a navy colored, folding identification card. They're called (phonetically spelled) studiyenski cards and we can use them to get student discounts in places like bookstores and select coffee shops.

However, there's a certain perk to to cards that we dancers especially appreciate. On days that The Bolshoi Theatre has performances students can line up outside the ticket office and hope for extra tickets at an extremely reduced price of only 100 rubles (that's only $1.50 in U.S. dollars. In comparison, I saw the Bolshoi in NYC this summer and it cost $25 for a student rush ticket for our $155 seats!)

So my roommates and I lined up at 4pm at the end of an already very long line. Turns out we showed just a hair too late. With only about ten people in front of us, the ticket office closed with no more student tickets to sell. We were slightly disappointed but we knew that we were cutting it close with the time and had only ourselves to blame.

Standing outside of the Bolshoi Theatre.  The wind chill was about 2 degrees!

However on the bright side, The Bolshoi Theatre is located in a very beautiful part of Moscow. It's close to Red Square and many American stores like Zara and Tommy Hilfiger. Full of statues, intricate buildings and sparkling light displays still up from the New Year festivities, it's easily my favorite part of Moscow. While we were out walking I spotted a Hyatt Hotel and I thought to myself, "Someday when I have a family of my own I'm going to bring them here and we will stay in that very hotel."

 

Anyways, to reward ourselves for the long commute from the dorms, we walked around until we stumbled upon an Italian restaurant. I had an amazing pasta dish with a cream sauce and for dessert I had these doughy pastries with candied fruit and chocolate inside. All in all, not a bad way to spend your Saturday afternoon/evening.