What a long day it has been today.

The trip from the airport revealed a few things. Moscow suburbs are very green. We passed a nuclear reactor in the middle of the city. The apartment blocks are gray in color and very utilitarian. The trip leaving the airport reminded me of Kiev (the highway, the fern trees…). We had a nice walk around the Red Square, the walled city (aka Chinatown), Bolshoi Theatre, and the shopping street. We had Russian lunch and Belarusian dinner. We went to the famous, breath-taking St. Basil’s Church. A few girls from our group were stopped by the Police for jaywalking (they randomly picked the people to fine and they let them stewed for a while filing in the fine details). So that was quite a highlight of the day. Another highlight is of course the beautiful Metro stations!!! I will talk about these more on the next posts.

This trip will be a very new experience for me. Not only because I had never been to Russia before, but because I totally am going with the flow this trip. I joined a free and easy travel group organized by Russian Language Centre in Singapore where I have taken lessons every now and then. The fellow travelers are also students there. I did zero research for this trip. I let others determine the trip. Furthermore I have the least Russian language level in the group and I have not touched my notes since Feb. So most of the time I do not even know what is going on. I cannot order food, buy SIM card, exchange money, and ask around if I am lost or I am curious about some things. I feel helpless. I feel so uncomfortable. However, I think this is a wonderful experience for me….to let go of control for these ten days. Let’s see how long I can handle it. Let’s see if I learn a lot this trip about life, self, love, russian people, culture, and language…

Another proof that traveling broadens one’s life….and that a perfectionist and a control freak can still be saved from herself.