Russia!!! [Day 1]

Alena and her family's apartment building!

Random fact: People don't normally rent apartments here, they buy them like houses!

Alena's building!

The mailboxes walking into the apartment.

I was getting a bit nervous as to what I was getting myself into that this point.. :)

My Mom and Rob (her bf) in the stair well of Alena's apartment building. 

Inside the Apartment

To be real, I was worried when I first walked into Alena's building... and then BAM! This =)

**Note** I started at the back of the apartment and worked my way forward towards the front door. Also, the apartment is on the 8th floor.

Alena's Room (said like Alona)

Alena's bedroom! I love the entire layout and look of this room! This is where Brooklyn and I sleep this week also.

A very cool picture of the states out of license plates in Alena's bedroom

Really neat lamp fixtures in the hallway. This is taken from in Alena's bedroom doorway. The bathroom is to the right and the master bedroom is the door straight ahead

Wash Room

Picture of the bathroom area. This is literally a 'bath room' as there is no toilet in here! It's only used to get cleaner.  You can see the shower barely to the right.

One of the coolest showers ever. It's a Jacuzzi bathtub, a regular removable shower head,  and a rain shower head!!!  I love that one =)

Not only that, but there is a radio thing inside and it lights up! You can have a party in the shower! 

Master Bedroom

A terrible picture of Alena's parents bedroom

The Lamp in that room. I like the waves

lamps above their bed

TV mounted in the corner of their wall!

The doctors office right outside Alena's house! [View from the patio in Alena's parents room]

Little stores next to the hospital

Going into Alena's parents bedroom from the patio

Living Room

They have some really cool doors into the rooms in her house.  This door is  into the 'living room' area. 

It's so orange!

John stayed in this room. He quickly got comfortable. Lol. Alena is in the picture above him!

There is a Wii =) And some very cool art pieces.

Kitchen

I love the blue of the kitchen! And I just love the kitchen in general

The table and another patio in the kitchen

View from the kitchen patio. This is a center that kids go to to learn music and dance (I think!) haha

Right next to that is an old military area

New flats (apartments) being built in the distance. Moscow is expanding because they just got a new president.

[If I was to compare Moscow to a place in the U.S., it would be Detroit hands down. There are gorgeous places of historic and modern beauty, and right next to it are run down abandoned buildings (as you can even see from the pictures above!) My later pictures will show more of the diamonds of the city than the rough of the city, but I do try to capture both!] Regardless, the people are amazing just like in the D.]

Bathroom

Door to the toilet!

It's about the size of a closet!

After we arrived!

I was so tired after we arrived at Alena's, I fell asleep for awhile! This evening is sort of a blur, but Alena fed us snack foods and then we just hung around the house for awhile.

Some snack food we ate when we first got in. It was really good! I brought home some of the candy!

This pie was almost like jello on top of cheesecake. Weird but good!

I would tell you everything I ate, but I don't know the words for half of it! You can get most of it from the pictures also.

What I tried for food!

• The strawberry jello pie stuff
• Lots of Russian candy. My favorite was a tootsie roll type candy, that was half peanut butter type flavor, with half chocolate type flavor
• Strange crunchy twists with honey on them! (sort of like those cinnamon twists you get at taco bell, but with honey instead!)
• Fruit

Kittens for Brooklyn =)

Alena's cat Atas. His name means 'crazy' in Russian

A cat on around the 20th floor balcony!

I'm in Georgia now, with less internet than normal, so it might be awhile before I can post again! I'm hoping to not let it affect anything. That's why it's been awhile since my last post also!