Friday's are our shortest days. With only ballet technique early in the morning and gymnastics (shudder) right after lunch, we are completely free from 2:30pm until 6:30 dinner.

Rather than spend all that time waiting around in our room, my roommate and partner in crime, Morgan and I decided to head to Gorky Park.

Over ten times the size of central park and home to ice rinks, a skate park, several fancy restaurants, numerous cafes, small amphitheaters, intricate playgrounds and street cars that sell fried corn on a stick. We walked around for about an hour until we were too cold to go any longer. We decided while the park was beautiful covered in snow and ice, we would much rather enjoy it was its a bit warmer.

Hopefully in April or so, we'll be able to go without concern for our fingers and frostbite.

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.

 

It's been snowing here! A lot. Actually everyone is complaining about how there's barely any snow on the ground but coming from a girl who's lived in Texas for 9 years, this is a TON of snow. I open our window a lot and just stick my arm out, or make a snow ball from the snow collecting on the sill and aim for a tree. I'm also fond of sitting in the window and letting my legs dangle out. * Small children don't try this from home!