I woke up at 6 am. Here is what it looks like outside of my window. It is just so beautiful.

On the hotel TV there are a lot of Russian channels. The 2nd channel - 1tv, the 4th channel - Матч ТВ, 6th channel - Россия 1, 7th channel - Россия 24, and then also СТС, МУЗ, ТНТ, etc. There are also some German channels such as Kika, Mediashop, Spanish channels such as Bloomberg, and CGTN, CCTV, and Iranian channels.

Many stores here open at 10 am, so I better go somewhere first. I thought of Lomonosov Moscow State University.

I went into the Kievsky Railway Station and I asked, "как купить билет?" They said, "Куда ты идешь?" I said, "МГУ". I typed "Ломоносов" on my phone. They said this is the railway, not the metro.

Then I found a metro entrance. I bought a ticket. Metro systems in Moscow doesn't care about how long you take it or how far you go, it's just one "поездки". Or you can buy a ticket for a day. So I got a card. I went to the window and the babushka asked, "Сколько положить", I said, "Тысяч рублей".

I didn't know which metro to take so I took a random train.

I went to the Кутузовская station. Then I understood everything and I transferred to Line 14. Line 14 is so modern!

Inside Moscow you rarely see soldiers. I only see a few around the Kievsky Railway Station. It's a modern city. On the elevators people stand on the right and walk on the left, not like Shanghai where everyone stands.

I changed back to Line 1 at Luzhniki.

ВТБ bikes

At Спортивная, you put your bag inside like a refrigerator for the bagge check.

All the metros are so deep. But you only need to go through one long escalator to the ground usually.

On the metro there's a dynamic screen that allows you to change langauges.

It's 30 degrees now, and Moscow is becoming hot. The highest temperature is 34 degrees.

You don't need swipe a card to get out, you simply walk out of the metro.

Shops here aren't as expensive as the ones at the airport but it's still 1.5 times the price in China.

2 йогурта, 1 хлеб, 1 печенье, 1 сок: 500 руб. Very good food.

I haven't had deep conversations with Russians, I will try to move into a hostel tomorrow.

Ломоносовский проспект.

There is a conscription ad near MGU, so weird.

And here is MGU Lomonosov. I have watched many lectures from MGU on YouTube, and I deeply admire the Mekh-Mat department.

Улица Колмогорова.

Статуя Ломоносова.

Главное здание (сейчас на реконструкции)

There were very few people here. I decided to walk in the Botanical Garden.

The guard said I need a ticket. The guard has half a finger missing.

But it seemed the касса here is closed, and I am not a student of MGU. I am in USTC. And a very kind babushka came and helped me. She said you need to knock on the window of the ticket booth - it's not closed actually. I said, "спасибо".

I heard a Babushka say another Babushka, "Девушки, посмотрите, какая красота".

They list the origin of the flowers here, such as, "1957, Великобритания".

It's getting hot. I didn't ask for heat in Moscow!

There are a lot of babushkas here.

I left the garden. The snack bar near the garden is really good, just 365 Rubles for fish, potatoes, and a coke.

I headed toward the western part of MGU.

I went back to the campus center. I tried to enter a building and the guard said, "Куда идёте? Я вас раньше не видела." And I left.

Здания химического и физического факультетов: у химического корпуса — памятники Бутлерову и Менделееву, у здания физического факультета — Лебедеву и Столетову.

Groups of kids visiting the campus

I didn't understand what the guard was saying when I was trying to enter the library, but he looked scary. I think it's fine to go in but I didn't register or do anything earlier.

A portrait of Tikhonov on the Mekh-Mat faculty building of MGU.

I walked 2.5 hours (with a quick pace), almost non-stop around MGU Lomonosov. I didn't even visit воробьевых горах. I was really tired from just walking around MGU, so I went back to the metro to Kievskaya.

First I went to a notarization service. It was in a residential building. I had to wait outside for 20 minutes and pay 1300 Rubles.

Then I went to "Мои документы", which isn't far from Kievskaya.

But I couldn't do it in that branch as I am a foreigner. The worker gave me an address for foreigners. But I do not have Internet! A young person pointed it to me on the map and tried to show me how to go there. Маршрут 240, улица Гришина, улица Маршала Неделина, 40.

He said I needed to find the bus station, but without Internet, I do not know how to find the right bus station. So I went to the hotel and found out the bus station location.

By the way Russians usually answer the phone like "Allo?" Like, Valya Karnaval's song, "Алло? Не, не знаю, где он. Вы что, думаете, Я его насильно держать буду?"

If I have to go through this amount of work in China, I would have given up. I couldn't even handle half of these tasks!

Many people here speak only Russian, which isn't much of a problem for me. However, latin scripts and transliteration is found everywhere.

The bus arrived at улица Гришина, and I started walking.

There are many street signs in Moscow.

I arrived at the address for СНИЛС office. Once again there is a very long line, which is another nightmare. There seemed to be many people here from Central Asia and it's really chaotic. So that makes things really complicated with everyone. Fuck this country, I just want a sim card!

If you are a foreigner - stay away from Russia.

When I was waiting in line, a man from Uzbekistan suddenly started to "help" me informally. He scared me, and I am afraid of people suddenly offering help here. He grabbed a SNILS application and started to fill it out for me. He has messy handwriting. He grabbed my passport and the notarized translation and stepped into a corner, so I had to follow him. It happened so fast that I barely had any time to react.

I knew how to fill it out myself, but he had my documents, and it was really an unpleasant situation. He kept trying to "explain things" to me, then he asked how much money I have. He grabbed my purse and went through it looking for cash. Fortunately, I only had 700 Rubles in cash. He asked, "Сколько денег у тебя на картах? Где твои бумажные деньги?" and a lot of confusing things.

Then he filled out most of the form and told me to fill out the rest. Finally he said, "Я помог вам, 5000 рублей". He snatched the 500 Ruble from my wallet. Then he pushed me to the line and acted like I knew nothing.

I quickly packed everything into my backpack and got in line. He followed me behind, and when my turn came, I handed the documents to the receptionist. And the man started to explain everything for me again. I got a ticket for the 40th place, and he said, "3-м этаже." And he ran up the stairs, calling out to me, "Сюда!" A female receptionist was sitting there and he rushed to explain everything again for me.

Then finally he left and told me, "Я больше не буду здесь помогать". Thank god, I was more afraid of this person than anything else. I understand Russian perfectly.

On the third floor, things were fine, and the staff was kind. I said I didn't have Internet. She shared her phone's connection with me so I could use the Gosuslugi service. The woman's name is Eteri.

She told me to sign 4 times. Then after a while she whispered quietly, "Вы понимаете по-русски". Otherwise it's mostly quiet. When I had her hotspot data, I downloaded Gosuslugi and registered my email address.

Eteri told me to delete my account and register again with my SNILS number. I opened the app and handed her my phone and she deleted it for me, and I registered a new account. After that everything went fine, and I received SNILS. She told me to keep the paperwork. I took a photo. Now I need biometrics. She said I can go contact any bank. I said, "Можно в банк ВТБ?" She said, "Возможно".

I headed back to the bus station. I bought water for 19 rubles, and yogurt for 51 rubles.

As I got on the electrobus, a heavy sunshower started. By the time I got off, the rain stopped but it was still very hot.

I stopped at the VTB bank at Kievskaya. I took the ticket and waited for half an hour. Two people came in, got their numbers, and left. Then the employee told me that the biometrics system isn't working today.

I asked, "Может быть, в другом банке?" He said, "Другие банки тоже не работать, биометрия сейчас не работает". He said, "Приходите завтра".

I'm dead tired in the hotel. I walked around like crazy today. There is a hole in my sock. And Moscow is above 30 degrees!