My last day in Mother Russia. The last Russian morning I would see; the last egg sandwich I would eat fried on a Russian stove; the last time I would wake up with a small back ache from my Russian bed. Today was Kremlin time. I hoped it wasn’t randomly closed, a common occurrence with things in Russia. Grabbing my iPod for the metro ride, I plugged in my earphones and enjoyed the ride. Peter Luts’s “What A Feeling” began bumping through my monitors, and what a feeling indeed: a beautiful day and I was about to go see the Moscow Kremlin. I like to save the best for last; although, this “putting-off” could have been caused by the mentality of how when a person lives in a place for a long time, they sometimes forget to visit the wonders nearby and instead travel far away to see others as there’s always later. But today there’s not later.
I’ve included the track “What A Feeling” here because it is a great song and it’s pretty much how I felt after my finals ended and how I felt riding the metro to the Kremlin.
I’ll map it out for you:
1:00 – preview of the melodic riff. This is where I try to grab the riff with my mind like a rope and let the riff control my consciousness. (You have until 2:28). This is Phase 1.
2:28 – Floating Melody no drums, multiphonic singing creating harmonies. I call it Phase 2.
3:43 – When everything plays at once. Love the riff phasing in and out, hypnotic. Phase 3.
4:28 – A break before the final return.
4:58 – Phase 3 modified. Little change in riff.
5:42 – Beginning of the fadeout, chillax time. Kind of like the cooldown after a workout (cooldown phase).
But one can’t jump to these parts without listening to the previous ones or else the effect is nullified. The way the bass and treble mix together create a very pleasing synthesis. I wonder if MBE would consider music a drug.
Back to Moscow.
I made it to the Kremlin and bought my student ticket. Once inside I made my way to Cathedral Square. There were about 6 cathedrals in a 300m radius. It was amazing.
To the left, we have Ivan the Great’s Bell Tower Complex. Inside, they had an exhibition with artifacts from old Russia.The Assumption Cathedral. I think this cathedral is the most beautiful out of them all. I really like the cobblestone look. A man from Virginia was nice enough to take a photo of me after I took his family’s photo.The towers in the background are from the Terem palace and churches. I wasn’t able to get much closer to these.The Church of Laying our Lady’s Holy Robe. This was a quaint church with a traditional interior that I had seen in the other Russian churches.Looking back across the square at Archangel Cathedral.
At about this time my feet started to freeze and so I spaced out my visits to the inside of each cathedral. They were all very pretty and my favorite inside was definitely the Assumption Cathedral. It was the most open and it had 5 copulas.
The Patriarch’s PalaceThe Tsar Cannon. This beast is huge. Some American walked by and said, “This thing is so impractical.” I laughed at him and silently remarked, “maybe, but it sure would hurt to get hit by a cannon ball that big.”The Senate Building across the square. The cannon points to this building.The Tsar Bell. Apparently, Tsar means big, maybe.The path to the ‘Secret Gardens’ was blocked so I couldn’t go to them. Not that they were secret anyway. They were on the map.One of these is the Tsar Tower. These towers overlook Red Square. The map showed the leftmost tower was the Tsar tower but that didn’t make much sense as everything else with the Tsar title was larger than normal.The Clock Tower, to the left of the other three towers above.On the other side of the Kremlin stood the Arsenal, with cannons lining the outside.Tower on the opposite side of Red Square that I walked underneath to exit the Kremlin quarters.One last look back into the Kremlin before leaving.The bridge from the tower to the entrance on the other side of what might have once been a moat gave me this view of one last incredible Moscow sunset.
I took the metro to Old Arbat where I stopped one last time to pick up some last minute gifts. Luckily, I was able to find some. And I noticed the wall that everyone writes on, as stated by our Russian Language teachers:
Kino – a band representing the culture and ideology of Russians in my generation.
I headed home listening to the metro’s warning that the next station was mine for the last time:
I figured Mongolia, or Maggie’s deserved to be here. This was the first store I visited in Moscow. Ira took me at 530 in the morning when I first arrived at the dorm. It’s just down the block. I remember this walk seeming so far away and being totally lost walking with her. And now, it seems right next to our dorm and I could walk there in my sleep. The store is really called Magnolia, and the word to the right is “produkti,” literally meaning products. This word is still the most common word we’ve found that uses the least amount of Roman letter rules. And because of that, I’ve memorized the look of this word so that it’s the fastest word I can read in Russian.Ira met me one last time for ice cream at the cafe near my dorm to say goodbye. She was the girl who escorted me from the airport and into the taxi and helped me out that first night in Moscow.
I spent the rest of the night packing for a few hours as I hadn’t really done much yet. Then Lenny and I feasted on a last Russian dinner together. Then the Russians started coming by to say goodbye and we partied for a bit. Tanya Timofeeva took this next photo and she didn’t mind not being in it as she went on a lot of excursions with me, and I have photos with her too.
Everyone saying goodbye as the gentleman next to me, Lenny, and the man in blue on the right, Austin, were about to leave as it was close to 230 am, their departure time. We have me, Lenny, Katya (R), Yuliya (R), Karrina (R), Will, Kyreel (R), Austin, and down in front the gangsta from Philly: Chris; nah, he talks big but couldn’t hurt a fly, but a mosquito yes.
I would like to take this time right now to state my least favorite thing about Russia, in fact my most disliked thing:
Avatar, possibly the greatest film of our time, I don’t know I haven’t seen it yet because of this->, is DUBBED in every single possible theatre in Moscow. Not one theatre, not even the English speaking theatre is playing it in English with Russian subtitles. I mean come on, who wants to watch a dubbed film anyway; it’s horrible. I would much rather read subtitles and see the mouths move to the actual words. This is possibly Russia’s biggest fail, and my most disliked aspect of Russia. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, let me explain.
Avatar is James Cameron’s Sci-Fi Epic that cost over $300 million to make and has been on his mind since his success with Titanic, the last film he directed. It stars Sam Worthington, a talented actor who has picked up many new roles after stealing the show from Christian Bale in Terminator Salvation. But as pictures say a thousand words, so a video must equal the integral over a time domain where the function is defined as the amount of pictures combined to create a frame (a continuous function no doubt), here is the trailer, which I watch everyday, sometimes more than once. I think I’m going to watch it again: www.avatarmovie.com. And honestly, the least we could do is support this film enough so that it surpasses the lame excuse for a film written by some lady about a girl and a vampire and a werewolf and something about not wanting to kill her centered about the time in between daylight and darkness that for some reason, must have been a fluke, won some sort of box office award it definitely did not deserve.
Anyway, to contrast this,
“These are a few of my favorite things…” dum dadada dumdumdum dum da da dum dum.
Russia was fascinating. Moscow a never ending mystery to explore. I could have stayed there for over 2 years and still not seen everything I would like to see. This means that I will definitely have to go back. Even if I do not participate in the math program again, which was challenging and helped me as a mathematician, I would like to return to Moscow. I would especially like to see towns outside Moscow: northern Russia, and as far east as Vladivostok. The experience was extremely rewarding and I’m very glad I decided to do such a thing.
But now, I’m off to Switzerland to spend Christmas with the Bosshards where I will continue to post my experiences there and afterward Berlin and other places.
On a side note, it was interesting spending my first day there with only 1 hour sleep on the plane staying up my last night in Moscow. I almost didn’t make it, drifting off around dinner time with Desiree having to prod me to wake me up.
Finally, the Russian winter I had been waiting for all semester. Thank you Russia for at least letting me preview your winter my last week in your hospitality. And it came with blue skies all week; how nice. It was almost as if Russia was saying, “stay through January. It won’t be that bad. Blue skies and a warm sun never hurt anyone.”
I went for a run Monday and bundled up a little extra this time. The changes: 2 pairs of gloves; leg warmers underneath tights, arm warmers underneath underarmor. No face covers, my beard covers it. I did intervals today and although I did not notice any respiratory difference in terms of pain when breathing, my intervals were noticeably longer. Instead of being around 45 seconds, they were closer to 60 seconds. But it could have been that I was just stiff.
Then I went searching for my dad’s Christmas gift. This week is pretty much about me searching for his gift everyday. But it’s cool, it brought some good photos of Russia that I normally would not have seen, except for this one:
The twin towers we see everyday when we leave our dorm and head left for the metro.
I took the metro all the way to Sokolniki station and got off at the bike market. There were supposed to be a lot of cycling shops here. And there were; I just didn’t discover more than two until my second day back on Thursday. But there was a cool looking church across the road:
Teal Church that I glimpsed walking to the cycling shop.
And in between the church and market area:
The central walkway complete with a Christmas tree.
But alas, I could not find what I was looking for, so I went to another metro station which supposedly had a bike store nearby. Once there, I got lost and could not find the bike store. But I felt like a normal Russian commuter walking with all the peoples down the icy sidewalks getting colder and colder. Eventually, I gave up for the day and decided to check google maps again before returning. Plus the next day was my Complex Analysis final and needed to study.
During lunch on Tuesday I realized I didn’t have any photos of our cafeteria at the IUM. Here it is:
My complex analysis professor on the very left.The piano I practice on and the window where we get our food.From the entrance looking in at where we sit.
The final was long and challenging, but fun. Afterward, I played the piano a little bit and braced myself for the cold outside. It was the coldest day of the week according to weather.com and it felt like it. Along the walk home there’s a thermometer on Old Arbat so I decided to check it out.
Proof that I experienced part of the Russian Winter. Check out that negative sign! It is just Celsius though.
Thursday morning Bill and I got up around 640 to see the Moscow sunrise from Sparrow Hill. I waited to do a lot of things my last week here. This probably would have been more comfortable had I done it earlier. But no matter, we were committed.
Moscow State University just behind the edge of the hill.Turning around, the sun comes up from the right and hits the top of these buildings first.The Moscow fútbol stadium in the center of our view.Looking eastward at the rising sun.The panorama (open in new tab to enlarge)Turns out it was colder this morning than on Tuesday evening. It did feel a bit chilly out on the hill.
I left Bill on the metro at our junction to home and I resumed my gift hunting. At Baumanskaya station I found these cute dogs:
Too bad I couldn’t take them home. All shaggy and in need of a bath, one with a limp—they could have used a good home.Going the right way on the street now I saw the church I was supposed to see at the intersection where I was supposed to turn. It’s a magnificent church though.Russia’s finally getting into the Christmas spirit. Christmas trees are popping up all over the city.This is not the Christmas spirit but someone seems to be trying to help this little dog out. I saw this guy when I turned off the street to get to the bike store. Double downer as the bike store was now a snowboarding store for the winter.But I got to see more churches, like this one.On my way back I spied another dog trying to keep warm in the metro. These guys can navigate the metro just as well as I can. These dogs are pretty smart to be able to survive a winter here.
Back to Sokolniki, I found more the actual bicycle market, an underground maze of kiosklike shops that also sold 4-wheelers and motocross equipment. And across the street I found something not usually seen in America.
Apparently, the Russian does not use telescopes to gaze at the stars. Instead, the Russian uses the telescope to find the Russian’s targets for shooting.
Back on the metro I was able to witness a very cool event. A police officer brought her dog on board and told it to lay down next to her. This dog was extremely well trained and did as told. It remained calm the entire ride and luckily I got off at the same station as them. Then I watched her and the dog mount the escalator. I stole a photo during this moment:
Police and dog on the escalator.
Pretty dog eh? Her whiskers were greying but she she was still energetic. Toward the end of the ride she started pulling the policeman, trying to get higher on the escalator, as if in anticipation of something. Then, the officer bent down and wrapped the leash around the dog’s lower stomach, while still having it connected to the neck, and grabbed the neck part and the stomach part with her hands. When the end of the escalator arrived, the officer said something to the dog. It jumped at the same time she lifted the dog upwards to clear the ending of the escalator. It was really cool. Lakota and I should try it sometime. Although, I think Lakota might freak out at the escalator and not even want to get on it. Anyway, at the top of the escalator I realized I wasn’t supposed to have gone up it, but instead walked the other way as this was my transfer station and not my exit station. No matter, I went back down, got on the metro again and exited at BVND station as I wanted to check out Ostankino Tower, what once was the tallest free standing structure in part of the 20th century.
A mild surprise awaited me outside the station:
Look familiar Michael? If not, it didn’t to me until from a different angle.Tsiolkovskii, the man who figured out the minimum velocity needed for an object to escape Earth’s gravitational pull. This is the space memorial and museum center. Underneath the tall spire, a space museum lies and part of a spaceship sits as well.
A couple other structures caught my eye before I headed to the tower:
Some sort of Victory ArchA long walk to another Stalin Skyscraper. I didn’t know at this time but behind this skyscraper is something like the Washington Mall: a long walkway with cool buildings on either side and a giant dome at the end.
But as I couldn’t see behind the building and wanted to see the tower at the moment I skipped it. So I got on the monorail to travel to the tower.
Russia has a monorail. But it was just as cold as the outdoors and so not very comfortable like the metro.Unfortunately, Ostakino Tower was closed to the public. I mean really closed, not the “oh, it’s closed but we’re Russians so we can still get in” kind of closed. That barb wire looked pretty serious.The tower looked pretty ominous. I wanted to go up to the observation deck and look out over the city but it was still being renovated after the 2007 fire. Maybe next time.Behind me another church stood, also under renovation.
On the way back to the metro station while riding the monorail I spied another monument farther down the track so instead of stopping at my station I continued down the line to check it out, especially as it looked like the demonhunter from WC3.
Instead, it was a communism monument. The two persons are holding a hammer and sickle and together a cloth.
So I turned around at the exit and waited for the returning train. In the meantime I was treated to a beautiful sunset.
Steam rising from a cooling plant masking the setting sun.I finally remembered where I had seen this monument before. It was on the card that I sent to Michael for his birthday.
I was getting hungry and as the darkness settled in so did the cold, so I headed home. My plan for the next day was to visit the Kremlin, after my last run in Moscow.
Even though my run went on schedule and I was out of the house on time to see the Kremlin, the post office delayed me so that I did not have enough time to visit the Kremlin before our university’s closing ceremony. So instead, I decided to return to the park from yesterday and check out the giant dome.
Close up of the Stalin Skyscraper.Inside the building there were tourist markets. Cell phones, cameras, and other technology were on racks for sale. But the exquisite decorations still peaked through above and behind all this.A gold fountain on the other side of the Stalin building.A Christmas Tree! On the left, the dome I wanted to see. Another Stalinesque building on the right, and one of a different style in the middle.The long pool, now frozen, in front of the middle building.The Soviet Logo still looking good at the top of the building.I was getting closer to the dome. Now there was a rocket in front of it.And a plane. with CCCP on it. You don’t see many of these nowadays.Close-up of the rocket“Pavilion No.32” it read on the front of the huge building with the dome. I didn’t know what to think of it from this close. I was expecting a giant cathedral with detailed decorations and now it turns out it’s a Soviet Building.I decided to walk around it, clockwise. The building was still pretty amazing but in a different way. I was unsure what to make of the architecture and glass. It seemed like it had the potential to be beautiful, but the cheap glass created a setback.From the backside of it. It took me almost an hour to get to this point along the walk and I didn’t dillydally, except for the quick photo every 5 seconds.
At this point my toes and fingers were frozen with pain. It was not a good idea to switch out my jeans for cloth pants today, and boots for normal shoes. I put my camera away and began the long walk back to the metro station. I stopped in the Stalin building to warm up the toes as they didn’t seem to warm up from the walk. Then I made the final short distance to the metro. But on the way I saw another dog:
This one might not be stray. But I doubt it. I think it would be warmer with its bed off the snow.
I was 30 minutes late to the pre-closing ceremony final matters (turn in my internet cable and pay for my lunches) but I got it all taken care of before the ceremony began. I got a certificate stating that I completed the Math in Moscow program successfully and then we went downstairs to feast.
Lenny, with Dasha and Dasha, our Russian Language teachers. The tables are set in a square-like arrangement so we all sat on the outside of them and faced inwards.
I took this time to say goodbye to some people and things.
Irina and I. Irina is the Math in Moscow director / coordinator / student liason, she takes care of everything for us.Elena and I. Elena is the secretary of the Math in Moscow program and she is always running around making sure everyone is doing alright. Oh, and our packages got delivered to her all semester.Now this is a bookstore. The one room bookstore inside the Math in Moscow university.The entry way complete with a pingpong table. We joked the IUM was dealing in less than legal matters as they always had these boxes stacked up all over the place with white powder sometimes spilling out…no, just books, all books.Quick look at a subway car. Check out the Shapka Ushanka on the right, the classic Russian hat.
After saying goodbye I went home to spend my last sleeping night in Moscow. Tomorrow, I crossed my fingers, we visit the Kremlin.
The morning John and I arrived back in Moscow it snowed. And it snowed. This time it didn’t go away; it stuck, finally. It was getting colder. I kept looking at the next week’s forecast as the weather was supposed to drop even more. This is good as I was thinking about asking for a refund if the weather didn’t change. I come all the way to Moscow for a Russian winter and I get a California one?! But it was beginning to change… My first three finals went well this week and I was able to cancel my Algebra final with the three cancellation problems. Whenever I get around to typing them up I’ll put them on here. The proofs are pretty sweet. I must give credit to those who helped though: Lenny & Adeel (the other students in the class with me who also needed the solutions), Connor, Dan, and one of Adeel’s mysterious friends on a forum he frequents.
Anyway, Saturday morning we went and saw the noon showing of the Nutcracker:
Front Row: Jordan, Christina, Me. Back Row: Dan, John, Will.
It was wonderful. I loved every minute of it. The music was very entertaining and the storyline was childish enough for me to appreciate it. Most of the dancing was not as flashy as Swan Lake; nevertheless, I liked this ballet more. And when the dancing did get impressive, it got super impressive. Take this move the male from the yellow doll couple: first watch this video (it will help me describe it). In the beginning of the video the dude does a 540, and his upper body goes kind of horizontal. Starting at 20 seconds he continuously does leaps in a circle. In the Nutcracker, the yellow doll did those continuous leaps in a circle around his partner, but with the height of the guy’s 540’s and with his body more horizontal than the 540’s. It was insane. I can’t remember the last time I was more impressed. So here is the amazing ballet master:
The amazing barrel roll leaping ballet dancer and his partner.The Nutcracker Prince and Marie.The whole cast. Check out the vertical black line in the middle right of the photo. That’s the godfather’s (magician’s) cane. It stands up on its own. How cool is that? Oh the red girl with the fan and the red dude behind her dressed in red danced the Trepak, my favorite part of the ballet.
It is by far my favorite part because the accompanying music is: Trepak. If I have ever wanted to get up and dance to a tune, it would have been this one. I got pretty antsy in my seat when they were dancing to this, and a big grin filled my face, because this piece is too happy and energetic and uplifting to not be smiling. So I left the theatre at the end happier than I’ve been in a while.
View of Moscow from outside the Bolshoi Theatre.
And then I went for a run whistling/humming/singing the Trepak theme the whole time. It was fantastic.
And then I ate some of this. The infamous poppyseed bun: variant 1. These are the bane of my existence, as I am gaining weight like no other; well, at least I think I am. It’s probably a good thing I’m leaving Moscow so I won’t be tempted to eat these anymore (I’m bringing one on the plane).
The next morning John and I went again to the souvenir market. And this is where my blog’s ratings drop faster than my plane’s speed from Moscow to Zurich, just like every Hollywood movie’s ratings do when a dog suffers on screen:
I wasn’t sure if it was alive when I approached; but it lifted its head when I got close, which is good. Luckily, this heating exhaust is here. Enough said, I can’t look at it anymore.
Tanya invited me to Tsaritsino Park and it took my mind off the dogs (yes there are more of them, a lot more). It’s quite an amazing park, complete with a palace, pond, river, and bridge.
The entrance to Tsaritsino Park, with Catherine the Great’s palace on the hill in the background.Another lampshot. I like lamp posts.The Cavalry Quarters, just at the top of the small hill.A decorative bridge leading to the palace.Catherine’s Palace, recently renovated in 2007 and opened to the public.A closer shot. That’s me in the center.We got to wear these cool booties that keep the floors clean, and create sliding fun for us.What the palace looked like before 2007 and long after Catherine had died. It had crumbled and decayed considerably with nobody taking care of it.A closer shot. The model even had little people walking around it. That would have been cool to do with the palace in that state.The Gold Room. Every bit as impressive as the one in the Hermitage.The Ruby Room? (The second floor hall)The Wood Room? The third floor hall including a piano.Us walking toward the exit. Cool effect around the lamp though eh?
Unfortunately, photos were not allowed in the palace without payment for a pass so our photos were scarce as we did not pay for the pass. But we got most of what was worth photographing. The other parts of the palace were museumlike in that there were glass cases with clothes worn by Catherine and other trinkets from her time. It wasn’t a total recreation like Peterhof by any means.
We stopped at Kievskaya station on the way home to get some groceries. I picked up one of these bad boys as they had been out of this style for quite some time:
Variant Number Two. Even more delicious and only 2/3 the calories. This is the type I’m bringing on the plane. It’s in the fridge now staying fresh.
Back in Moscow, for the weekend at least. We kept this weekend pretty low-key as we attempted to get caught up in our school work. I still managed to get out a bit during the weekend to see and do a few things.
On Saturday, Jordan, John, and I went to try and see Lenin’s body in his tomb at Red Square. We were approaching the end of the line when the guard walked up and closed it off: “absolutely no more people.” Aghh. We decided to walk through Red Square (since it was open, a rarity) and ended up walking the perimeter of the Kremlin. So I did get to do something new! And I saw the back-side of the Kremlin, or at least a side that not many people look at.
Such green lawns in Moscow. Not anymore! The snow has finally fallen and it’s white, and brown (yuck).The Kremlin, hiding behind the walls.Two of the cathedrals inside the walls. I still need to go see these. It’s getting close to the end…I better make it.
Then, as John needed to get to class, we headed back home. I remembered that I haven’t taken many photos of the dormitory area so here’s another:
The building opposite our dormitory building. These are all dorms for college students, and they are all basically identical. There are 10? of them in this one area, but we don’t wander around that much so we haven’t met too many people outside our own building. But that’s alright, I already am having trouble keeping track of some people’s names.
The next morning John and I tried again to see Lenin’s body before heading to the souvenir market again. This time, we got there a bit earlier and so were successful in entering the line. After a short wait, we were led to the tomb and got to walk past the other graves of other Russian leaders, from the 1800s onwards. Finally, we entered Lenin’s tomb and walked down the stairs, a guard standing at each corner. We turned right and saw his body, on top of a rectangular box with a rectangular glass case on top of him. Felt shrouded him on the outside of the case and he wore a suit with a tie just for us. The rumors were true: he had a definite pink hue to him. Other than his nose and ears seeming ridiculously small, he looked pretty real. Apparently they take his body out every 3 years or something to bathe it in Formaldehyde and methanol. There are some pictures of his almost nude body getting a bathe online through a quick google search (rather shocking even it’s a fake body), but there is debate whether it’s Lenin or even a real body. His right hand in the tomb is closed and the left hand is open, but in the bathing photos both hands are open, and the body goes rigid after death?
Anyway, I’m not sure whether the body we saw was real or fake but it still doesn’t change the fact that if you split my life into two parts: before Moscow, and after arrival, I’ve seen more dead bodies and churches since my arrival than beforehand. Back to the tomb. We had to keep walking or the guards would immediately walk toward us (there were 4 in the room), as we saw happen to another viewer who stopped to gaze at Lenin. Luckily this viewer began walking before the guard reached him (another 3 steps) and so the guard returned to his standing position.
Then we headed to the souvenir market, of which I’ve shown already. Just before exiting Red Square we saw this:
A Russian woman begging at the edge of Red Square.
Encounters like this frustrate me, as they are caused primarily because of the Russian government. At the age of 65, an employee here (from what I’m told) must retire. They are then given a pension each month to support them, about 1000RUR, approximately $30. Ideally, the employee should be saving for retirement during his working years; but, often their salaries are barely enough to support them living less than luxurious lives (by far). So unless their children give them money each month, which I’m told happens a lot: the family of the boy I tutored gives money to his grandmother each month, they must resort to street begging as a form of income. And what happens when they don’t have kids? They don’t stand a chance. Really pisses me off. I mentioned it to the head of our Russian language classes as one of my least favorite things about Russia and she agreed that sadly it is a problem here.
After the souvenir shop I split up from John to meet the other Russian language students at the southern end of Moscow as we were going to the head of the Russian Language department (if you will) to learn how to make Borsch, a traditional Russian soup made from beets (delicious, and I dislike beets), and creamcheese/dough/sugar pancake things that you eat with sour cream on top. Russian sour cream, and cottage cheese, are different here. I won’t touch cottage cheese at home but here they put it in chocolate and other things and it’s pretty good; it has a better texture and better taste.
All of us sitting around the table about to chow down on some Borsch. Actually, I think we already started.From left to right: Dasha (one of the Russian teachers for my class, the other is named Dasha as well and they’re friends, go figure), Lenny, and me. Note the apron: I helped cook.
We returned home, full of good food and prepared for the upcoming week. That meant John and I started getting serious about our next trip as we were planning to leave the upcoming Wednesday night.
On another note, one about more of Russia’s failures…on one of the following days after returning from Kyiv, I was transferring metro lines and looked up from my feet when I reached the top of some stairs. Standing on the adjacent wall with a sign in her hands stood an ordinary girl about my age, with really pretty eyes. So I glanced at her eyes again as I walked past, not slowing my stride as I was in a rush, or at least I usually think I am. It was then I noticed that in fact she had one very pretty eye. The other was missing. And still, the look of pleading she was able to convey was painful. It didn’t effect anyone enough to do what was written on the sign, so maybe I’m going soft. My excuse for not doing what was written on the sign was that I didn’t understand it—and I didn’t get to read all of it, because I was in a rush like the others in the mob of people behind me (they’re behind me because I’m bridging the gap between two groups, using my cycling tactics, because I’m in more of a rush than them) Did I mention everyone was in a rush? too much of a rush to stop and help anyone? unless that person enters a metro car and the helpers are sitting and wearing fur coats exerting minimal energy to drop a few coins? Maybe what was written on the sign was some political activist thing and the girl didn’t want help at all. Who knows, obviously not me.
In the area of helping its people, the government (and any other entity or individuals) of Russia get the following rating, one that I see written on a wall everyday on my way to practice piano. It’s a great motivator! So maybe Russia doesn’t deserve it, but it was the first thing I thought of when I looked at this photo on my computer before writing this post. So here ’tis, conveniently in Roman letters and in English:
This week began with a boom. Literally. Apparently on Monday, Dian was sitting in class and heard ‘gunshots.’ At the end of the day, he and the rest of the students who had class were walking home and noticed this car on fire, or what was left of it, sitting on the side of the road:
Aren’t CRV’s supposed to be safe?Check out that paint job. Paint styling like this is not uncommon in Moscow.
So as of today (Nov 21) this car is still there, but with a cover over it. We have no idea what happened but it’s somewhat interesting.
On Saturday, Tanya & I decided to go see the Diamond Fund and so after my morning run we headed out. As we were exiting the student hostel area, we got caught in the middle of a camera crew setting up there equipment to film a scene:
And they even put fake snow down, and all over the tree. They had a cart system for the camera to go through the tunnel on the right.
But we eventually made it to the center, and inside the Kremlin walls.
A little preview of the Kremlin.
This is all we got to see of the Kremlin. And since our tickets were for 2pm we decided to walk around Red Square and the outside walls to kill the time before our Diamond Fund time.
So much brick for the Kremlin walls.Thankfully, the Red Square was open. It has been closed every time we try to come here. (Lenin’s tomb is in the center)St. Basil’s on the left, and one of the Kremlin Wall Towers on the right.Lenin’s tomb. We didn’t go in to see the body this time, but next weekend I hope to go in and see his pink face. (Apparently he has a pink hue to him)St. Basil’s up close.
Since we had more time, we dropped into St. Basil’s to check it out. There are about 9 separate towers/rooms of worship.
The first room of worship inside Basil’s.One of the walls in another room.Looking upward in the same hall.Looking to the right while sitting in the same hall.And finally, to the left showing the door we came in. This was the biggest and tallest hall.
So two Friday’s ago, while we were chillin’ at the IUM, and Lenny was thinking about selling his Oakley gloves to me because they were too big for him, Adeel leaned over and said, “Yeah, Caleb that would be a good idea. Oakley is like Oakland & Berkeley put together so it would be perfect for you.” I had never thought of that before. But it turns out Oakley isn’t from the Bay Area so it would have been a bad idea. Plus, I wear Smith, because…
…even when life moves too fast to capture, you can count on Smith to stay fresh, in focus.
It was now time for our Diamond Fund appointment so we headed back over to the inner Kremlin area. The inside was particularly dark and unfortunately the tour was in Russian. But I was with Tanya so she translated for me; plus, they gave me an information sheet for each exhibit. My favorites were the Platinum with diamonds brooch and a gold and emerald corsage. But everything was pretty amazing. Catherine the Great’s Scepter was pretty incredible. She took the old Russian Scepter and stuck a fat diamond on it that some dude got her from western Europe as a gift. Most of these treasures were declared property of the state by Peter the Great and so have been passed down to each generation. Now they sit in the museum for us to gawk at. But they were impressive. Especially the large pieces of gold (36.2 kg) and platinum (7kg). Check out the wiki page for more information as I was not allowed to take any photos and I forgot to bring the information sheet with me: Diamond Fund. Then we headed back to the outer walls of the Kremlin and decided to walk around before heading home.
The trees outside the Kremlin walls are rather pretty.I called Lenny to help us decide if we were going straight back to the dorm or if we were going to stop at Kievskaya to shop for food supplies.
Later that night Bill came into my room and reminded me of a Rachmaninoff concert that we had been invited to. I completely forgot and sped to get ready. Rachmaninoff’s third concerto was going to be performed by one of the best orchestras in Russia. So we took the metro to the outer parts of Moscow, near the State University actually, and got out to walk to the hall.
This is how we cross the street in Moscow and other cities in the former Soviet Union countries. Underground passage ways.The program for the evening.
This was a huge surprise. Not only were we going to get to see the Rach 3, but Brahms’s 4th Symphony was being performed as well. Stoked!
The orchestra appeared.
And then the pianist came out. She was very good but unfortunately very quiet, and so didn’t quite capture the fervor of the piece. I’m not sure if she wasn’t using enough energy or if the acoustics were just horrible. But the orchestra sounded superb so I’m unsure. I fell asleep during the 2nd movement of the Rach Concerto which meant that it was very good (Plus I was really tired). But I do have a tendency to fall asleep at classical concerts for some reason. I think it just soothes me into a peaceful state and I just relax to the point where I sleep. Anyway, the Brahms Symphony 4 was great and I lasted 3 movements before I drifted again. I was wide awake toward the end and enjoyed it all, including the encore.
And the concert ends after a Liszt Hungarian Dance encore.Perhaps the coolest looking building in the fog in Moscow, the gold up top supposedly solar panels, according to one of the Russians with us.
Naturally, I couldn’t resist taking more photos of this place.
The top of the other side of the building, shorter but still capped with this gold solar panel configuration.These neon lights were ridiculously cool. I wonder if because they are green, then they don’t ruin one’s night vision, or bat’s vision.This is one of the funnest things I’ve seen in Moscow so far. I can’t stop taking photos.Finally, as we were walking away, I got a full photo of the whole building complex.This sign was right above the metro. 4°C is actually warmer than average lately. But it’s still feels super cold.
We rushed home and hung out before I tried to go to sleep only noticing that insomia is beginning to creep up on me. Seems to be happening more and more every semester now. To counter, I read almost a hundred pages in my new book, Hyperion. It’s incredibly complex in terms of how many aspects of life & society Simmons chooses to write about. I’m stunned by how much I’ve learned about this fictional society. It’s like Battlestar Galactica merged with Dune, merged with Serenity, merged with a story where 7 specifically chosen people make a pilgrimage to a planet because the religion there needs them to meet with their ‘god,’ a metal? monster with 4 arms that can freeze time, and has been killing a lot of people, because of some time tombs that are being opened up for the first time in 300 years while at the same time these ousters, a society like the mutants from Serenity, are coming to invade the planet (I don’t know another book with a plot like this so I just listed the plot). Nevertheless, I finally fell asleep.
The week started out normally, with us trying to finish our homework the day before each class. The Russians got a holiday on the 4th; unfortunately, we didn’t. But it made for an interesting morning commute to school. The entire city was silent. At first I didn’t notice a difference (maybe that’s how much I zone out every day to and from class), but then when I could see all the way down a street without cars blocking my way, I finally saw.
Empty StreetsNice color on that Audi.
I just realized I haven’t shown you our university yet. Here it is, all in one building. All of its glamor. To be exact, our classrooms are on the third floor toward the right. Only one window can be seen: on the right of the three birch trees. We use three classrooms. Two on this side of the building, one on the rear.
Independent University of Moscow
The workload steadily increases and we try to deal with it:
Dian takes a powernap. One might assume with all these sleeping students that I might be some kind of sleep stalker. On the contrary, I just coincidentally walk in on people when they’re passed out, and then go back to grab my camera.
On Friday, right after lunch, I headed over to the Higher School of Econ to practice piano like I usually do. Then I was to head back to the IUM to have consultation with my algebra professor (office hours). I stepped outside and Moscow was covered in 4 inches of snow. And it was dumping more. Amazing. I put my earphones in and walked to IUM. Here are some photos of us walking home after our consultation through Little Arbat and to the Metro.
The corner that takes us to the IUM.This girl kept jumping to the fresh snow to make snow angels.
Luckily, the snow stayed until after Saturday morning so I was able to go on a real snow run. I brought my camera this time and took some shots of my run to share. Great scenery on my long Saturday runs.
The train tracks near the park. About 1/3 into my run.Turning around back towards the way I came down. I came from the right in this photo and wanted to go left.One of my interval sections. I go hard for about a minute along this section, which gets me about to the end.After looping around an apartment complex, I get to run through a short forest area along this path.I stopped to look around and saw this firepit off the path a bit. I wonder if it has been used recently.Gotta cross the street again on my way back. It’s just a 2 lane road though so it’s not bad.I’m back at the monument dedicated to memorialize the Napoleonic War in Russia. I took photos of this my first week here. Looks a bit different now—the grass at least.Toward my right there was a cool looking building under construction.My last corner (a left) before a short straightaway and I’m home. But check out the fiberglass walls on the right. They silence the freeway on the other side pretty well. To the left of the circular kiosk-like building the downward stairs lead to crossing the freeway, underneath.
The rest of the weekend was pretty uneventful as we stayed indoors and did homework. So no more for now.
Since the song just came on in my headphones while I finished writing this, you should listen to it while you read. It’s probably my favorite song for the semester, and the other students laugh at me when I play it because I get up and dance, not really, well maybe, but no not really, just kidding, maybe, not really. Anyway, it’s called [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9FlE5eMN–4[/youtube] and it sounds amazing on my headphones after getting them back from China where I got them repaired. You might not like it if you don’t like electronic dance music, but I do.
Yesterday, October 30 was our first day of snow. There was less than an inch and it didn’t cover everything, but it stuck for the night and I was able to run through white covered trails in the park nearby during my run Halloween morning. Here I am, successfully returned from my first ‘snow’ run:
I had to add the beanie to my attire as it is getting pretty cold. Even though I cannot ride a bike here, I can pretend by wearing some cycling gear every time I run.
After a quick shower and a double-decker egg sandwich we headed out for the Kremlin area. The idea was to see the Diamond Fund, but when we arrived we noticed it was harder to get into the Kremlin than we had thought, and even with 3 students in the beginning Russian class we were not confident with our communication abilities. It also didn’t help that some of us haven’t been to Disneyland that much and so have not had practice in, and thus no patience for, standing in a line longer than 5 minutes—much to my dissatisfaction. So we ended up walking around the outside of the Kremlin and going on a short walking tour through inner Moscow.
I think a WWII memorial but there were no signs describing what it was.Just to the leff of the pillar. In the background we see the Kremlin walls.Stalingrad Memorial. There were about 12 blocks with different Soviet city names on them to the left and right of this one.Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. Too bad we can’t walk up to it like the one in St. Petersburg. (Kind of a depressing photo for that lady to put her kids into no? )
We then branched off the Kremlin area and began our short walking tour.
The old Russian Stock Exchange building. To my understanding it’s not in use anymore. But back in the early 20th century the square that I’m standing on, and this building were the center of the Russian stock market.Cool cathedral next to the Romanov’s Moscow house.
We then ventured into the Romanov’s Moscow house which is now a museum. Even though it was four stories tall, the building was very tiny and the doorways were less than 6 ft tall. The stairs were extremely narrow and it was difficult, but fun, to maneuver between rooms. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed of the inside. It kind of reminded me of an east coast colonial home where all the rooms are like the attic room: the ceiling shaped by the roof boards, the room and windows small, very cozy. Behind it stood, or once stood, a great Soviet hotel that is now under demolition.
Honestly, this is what I thought Russia was going to look like. It would have been fun to run around inside a place like that.Here is an example of beauty jutted up against ugly. This setting is all over Moscow: a really exquisite church right next to ugly business buildings. It makes the church, or buildings, look extremely out of place. But I imagine it makes those employees’ lives happier each day they get to see this amazing architecture.
We then went to the Moscow History Museum which was quite fun, and free since we were students. We learned about the growth of Moscow from the 16th century onwards. After walking around for a little more and getting colder and colder, it was below freezing today, we decided to head home…and get ready to go see Swan Lake. The theatre gives away a limited number of student tickets for 20 rubles ($.70) if you get there early and sign up. Unfortunately, we were a bit late for that but still tried to get them anyway. It failed. So we bought $30 tickets from a scalper organization outside the building. After all, it was Halloween, and we wanted to see Swan Lake, and that still was a better price than the actual price.
The Большой (Big) Lobby where we were to see Swan Lake.
I am lying to you a bit. This isn’t really the Большой театр (big theatre). It’s the one across the street. In Russia, when they are doing construction on a theatre, they first build another one nearby so that audiences may still see shows while the original theatre is under construction. No, probably not. They probably just had an extra theatre they moved in by truck or something. Anyway, this is called the New Bolshoi Theatre, or New Stage. Okay, so after checking the name online, it seems that the Russians did exactly just what I was joking about above. They built this theatre in under six months so that performances could still continue while construction was going on. This country does not cease to amaze.
Tanya, me, Natalie, and Lenny (left to right), inside the lobby about to see Swan Lake.Up the first set of stairs to the inner lobby.Up one more flight.Looking down the finite spiral of stairs.The inside of the theatre. I was very awestruck. Even though there are less balconies than the real Большой театр it still had that impressive aura to it.The Stage, from another vantage point.At intermission we went down and looked into the orchestra pit. Check out that timpani set. It would feel good to play the timpani right now.The timpanist’s sheet music, full of rests that makes the percussionist so good at counting them.The final bows and giving of flowers and celebration and hand waving and telling your dance partner they did a magnificent job.
I’m not much of a fan of ballet but since the music was superb, it kept my interest. And I was even amazed by a dance move sequence the jester/joker performed in the middle of the ballet. He did super fast pirouettes across the entire stage and they were all in control. Everyone cheered, including me. I think it’s the first time I’ve actually been really impressed by ballet. It was crazy good. He was the best dancer out of all of them.
But hey, the next time someone complains about women’s beach volleyball uniforms and how it’s just for men to check the women out, pull ballet argument: clearly, the mens’ uniforms are so the women can check some dudes out with virtually no clothing. The main character was wearing his tights so far up his buttox I’m not sure how he was even comfortable. I mean come one, the girls where those tutus, the men could wear them too. But then I would probably be laughing the whole time. I was impressed by how high the main character could jump, a testament to his huge quad muscles, which with my glasses, were clearly defined. Also, the dancers’ heart rates must have been sky rocketing. I had no idea how athletic this event was. One other move that I liked was when the women ‘fluttered’ their legs like swans I guess. Their feet were together with toes on the ground and they would make their legs look like rubber, sort of like the pencil trick where you hold the end and move your hand vertically. It was really graceful and very pretty. I tried it at home but apparently there is some finesse in it that takes training and practice, because I couldn’t do it—it doesn’t help that I’m terrible at ballet. Anyway, it was a very cool move.
I must confess, I was mildly disappointed at the conclusion of the ballet as my limited knowledge of ballet music caused me to think Tchaikovsky’s Waltz of the Flowers from the Nutcracker Suite was actually part of the Swan Lake Ballet. Yes, shame on me. But I was looking forward to it the whole time. It was only afterward when I realized my mistake that my disappointment subsided. But I did recognize the Swan Lake Theme as it is one of my favorite themes, especially when the horns play the melody and it darkens. But it’s alright, we’re going to see Nutcracker in December so I will get to here the waltz.
The enormous chandelier and murals on the ceiling.
After the ballet we went back to the dorm, but not before buying a Snickers at Mongolia (really Magnolia, the 24 store near our house. we call it Mongolia though, I’ll take a picture one of these days.) Then we watched “Silence of the Lambs” with Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster. It was quite good. The next morning the sky gave us a new surprise with more snow!
Check out that snow. Too bad it rained the next night and then warmed up some more so that it all disappeared until the following Friday.
Time to do Complex Analysis homework that I’ve put off since Tuesday.
The second week of October went by pretty uneventful, except our preparation for the midterms the following week. There was one thing that was a surprise. After we got home one day this week, there was a loud announcement over the PA system. Suddenly, those of us who were home, and understood Russian pretty well, came out of their rooms and said, “We’re quarantined? Because of swine flu?” Then others asked, “wait does that mean we can’t leave now?” “No, we just can’t have visitors.” So basically, since none of us have had any visitors except those already living in the dorm, nothing changed. But now many Russians wear those ridiculous masks all over the place–metro, city sidewalks, malls. Friends even compare the differences between one’s mask to another’s.
Another thing that is kind of odd is how people sell items on the metro. We’ll get on in the morning on the way to school and as soon as the doors close, a person will begin talking in Russian holding the item for sale and waving it around, pointing out all the ‘good’ things about it. Today, the day I’m writing this, a lady got on and tried to sell a battery powered desk/reading lamp for 100p, about $3. One time, a man got on and successfully sold a knife sharpener to a passenger. Weird, but I guess effective.
Also, the Kindle and other electronic reading devices have become very popular over here, probably because of the convenience. I see people using them on the Metro all the time, I even try to read over their shoulders occasionally. Although, it saddens me, for some reason, that people are reading an electronic device and not a real bound book. But I still see some people with real books, magazines, and newspapers so all is not lost.
Anyway, Saturday the 24th I was invited by my friend Mason, who has been over here on his mission, to his 2-year mark dinner. We ate with his fellow elder at some French restaurant on the edge of the city, called Le Noir… The idea of the place is guests eat in a completely pitch black room. Blind people provide the music entertainment as well as wait the tables. Guests order either a meat dish, vegetable dish, seafood dish, or a mix of the three. Then they trust that the waiters bring what they ordered. Unfortunately it was a bit more expensive than we had prepared for so we just ate upstairs. The food was still great and we had a good time. This was the metro station I stopped at to meet them. It had some pretty cool decorations:
A pianist decorating the wall with his performance.A hero with the world in his hands (Mir). Or it could be peace. The words are the same in Russian.
The next morning a few of us went back to the Disneyland Market.
It’s weird, the buildings are jutted right up against really trashy dumps. This is kind of how all of Moscow is. There will be a beautiful old cathedral and right next to it will stand a really ugly business building. There seems to be little separation between art and function here. After all, Russia had no idea what a monument was other than a church until recently.
Our university here offers many different kinds of classes. Every Wednesday night a bunch of adult women come in for some class and over fill the largest room:
I don’t know what’s taught but they continually pass the lecture notes through the doorway. It must be an interesting class, or really necessary.
On the 29th, we were invited to some classical concerts by some of the other Russians in our dorm. We went first to see a Haydn concert performed by students at the Tchaikovsky Conservatory and then a piano recital by students there.
A quaint hall for a small orchestra.Look, they even have a harpsichord!Then a pianist came out and played a huge grand piano for her piano concerto. It was very out of place. Not only was it one of the largest grands I’d seen, but it was entirely out of place. If they have a harpsichord why don’t they have a fortepiano as well?The recital was exceptionally long and the first pianist was absurd. She was amazingly full of herself, and I couldn’t help laughing as she repeatedly kept staring at the ceiling during the performance puckering her lips or something. To top it off her playing wasn’t that great either.
The next pianist was a bit better and she was more modest. For the most part the rest of the pianists were pretty good, especially the girl who played Brahms’s 4 Ballads. Unfortunately, for Bach and Liszt, this dude butchered one of Liszt’s “Bach Preludes.” He just played the whole thing loud, and louder, and louder, until eventually I had to plug my ears because they were hurting. Then he played the next piece very quiet and beautifully. I don’t know what his deal was.
On October 30th, it snowed! It wasn’t much, but it stuck overnight. To celebrate the end of our midterms, we decided to lunch at Hard Rock Cafe, as we walk past it everyday to and from school:
Hard Rock Cafe MoscowProof that we were thereI didn’t remember that Hard Rock had all this cool paraphernalia.
It was amazing how much I felt like I was back in the states while we ate there. The music, the English menus, the American Rock souvenirs, the whole atmosphere made me feel quite at home. It was a wonderful feeling. I’m definitely going back again sometime.
The math is becoming more involved and I am required to spend more and more time with it. Perhaps if I had spent more time in the beginning, I wouldn’t have to now. Nah, that never works. Anyway, Dan shows how our exhaustion is setting in.
Dan works hard. And then he drops.
On Saturday after my morning run we took off to the center of Moscow to begin our walking tour. We were going to get a snack at Volkonsky Keyser first, then head to the Museum of Modern Art, and finish with the Gulag (and eat a pastry afterward to cheer us up). Into the metro!
The metro station we stopped at to surface and begin our walking tour with Volkonsky Keyser bakery.Another shot of the station.We surfaced to the presence of this grand building, some nice soviet architecture.All deliciousness within arm’s reach almost—except, none of us spoke good Russian to order; luckily, the understood pointing. There were too many choices so we ended up each getting a few items and splitting them. All the pastries were scrumptious! And the olive bread was great. We saved some of that for after the Gulag.John, Mark, and Lenny all ready for sweets.There were a bunch of statues out front of the MoMA, and unfortunately they were probably the best part.I even got to ride on a ram!This was the best exhibit. “Say I love You” by Andrey Bartenev. Those little things are speakers along curved metal poles. Ambient music would play and the sound would travel up and down the metal poles. There was a microphone and a computer handling everything. We were supposed to say “I love you” into the microphone. When we said it the computer inputted the quote into the mix and would repeat it every now and then. It was a lot of fun saying random things into the microphone and listening to how they would return, sometimes in different sequences than how they were inputted.Monkey Bars! Lenny and I got to climb on them. There was a repeating song that quickly became annoying coming through speakers. A video of dudes climbing on the bars accompanied the speakers. So we figured it was alright if we climbed on them as well.
Then we headed down the street to find the Gulag, a museum memorializing those sent to Siberia among other places during Stalin’s reign.
The entrance to the Gulag. We were kinda skeptical of its legitimacy at this point. But we went ahead and entered.Up the stair case we saw this artwork. Pretty grim.Another piece of artwork, illustrating the trains used to transport people away from Moscow.At the camps, punishment was rather gruesome. There were millions of mosquitoes. One of the punishments was to strip a man, lash him to a tree and let the mosquitoes have their way. Soon his body would be completely black. In the morning, if the man lived (unusual), he would be unconscious and taken to his bed to recover.Another piece of artwork depicting the horrors of the Gulag camps.A map of all the Gulag camps in CCCR (USSR).
There was an hour long film about the Gulag. So of course we watched it. The documentary featured interviews of survivors and was pretty depressing itself. But sometime during it the narrator mentioned that Stalin’s motivation for building a railway across the northern border of Russia, ie across Siberia, was to defend the northern border. Immediately Lenny busts up laughing and says, “What?! to protect against who…the polar bears?” We basically couldn’t take the rest of the documentary seriously.
Once we finished with the Gulag we headed back to the metro to go home. Along the way we saw a few interesting things.
A Federal building of somesort in between the Gulag and our metro station.A didgeridoo! in the middle of Moscow! I want one of these, and to learn how to play it.
Once home, we had a mouthwatering poppyseed bun, one of my favorite things about Russia.
I apologize for this almost “double” post, so soon since my last one, but I need to catch up to the present. The weekend began shortly after my Friday lunch when I headed off to the Higher School of Economics to practice piano on the only grand piano I’m allowed to play:
It’s quite a nice piano. The action is really nice but in the middle of the higher registers the volume drops a bit. Russia doesn’t seem to have piano benches—only in piano stores, and recitals at the conservatory. So I had to put my Russian books on my chair to raise the seat a little bit. They also call grand pianos “Piano Royal.”It’s made by August Foerster, a German Company. I think I like the sound and feel better than Steinway’s but that could be because I have no other piano to compare.
Then Tanya, a friend I met at the dorm when she stopped to listen to me practice on the upright there, called me and said we were going to the Pushkin museum. They had a visiting gallery of the Lichtenstein family. Some of my favorite painters and their pieces were:
Freidrich Gauermann: The Well at Zeelam Lake. Watering Horses at Lake Zell. The Harvest Wagon.
Ferdinand Goerg Waldmuller: View of Moedling.
Thomas Ender: The Gulf of Sorrento.
Jakob Alt: Church at Kaschau.
Jens Lekman: Black Cat.
Then we visited the sculptor part of the museum.
The first room. Actually, one of like three rooms. It was a pretty small exhibit.Tanya got me taking a picture.David. Just a copy though. But I bet you can’t just put this guy into your normal copy machine to make a double.
Then we headed over to Pushkin Cafe after the museum closed and we were forced to leave.
A photo for the tourist picture book of me at Pushkin Cafe. Everything here is outrageously expensive, but we have no intention of eating there anyway.
Next Tanya showed me this grocery store that had taken occupancy in an old Soviet building that looked like an incredible museum.
The groceries look really out of place here with these exquisite decorations. I was finally able to find soymilk here! I bought one Liter and drank almost the whole thing that night when I got back. Unfortunately it was $6 so I haven’t been back to get more.Of course I snapped a shot of the clock. But actually, this specific photo is Tanya’s as it came out better.Tanya! Taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.Disneyland! Or maybe if Disneyland had gotten bombed or something. We call it the “Flea Market.” It has a whole bunch of souvenirs and old postcards, broken cameras, US Military Surplus (no idea how), and all kinds of paraphernalia. We struck gold by finding this place. I bought a couple of Soviet propaganda posters and postcards as well as some gifts.A shot of the left side of the market. It was built to resemble one of the Russian city’s Kremlins.An old mill inside the market area. I don’t know if it ever worked though.
Later that day, Tanya and I decided to go to a honey festival where representatives from 81 provinces in Russia brought honey from their respective areas. The festival had been going on for almost a week now and was almost over so I wanted to get some honey before it closed.
Honey! Everywhere I looked there was honey. And behind each tasting table, there were buckets and buckets of honey. I must have consumed a cup of honey during our time there. Which was alright, because my body was producing a lot of energy to keep me warm. My hands turned purple.An example of me tasting honey. They had all kinds of honey. From clear and spiderwebby, to opaque and cakey or like salty in texture. The different tastes were spread out all over the taste bud map too. They had honey made with strawberries in them, apple honey, eucalyptus honey, mint honey, etc.Tanya tasting honey.I got out my honey to show it off, and then got some on my gloves. So then I proceeded to clean the honey off of them. It worked.My loot. But its not all for me. I bought/sold it for/to people when I came back to the dorm. I kept one of the bears on the right. The best honey I tasted there. It’s super tasty and smooth and beautiful. I eat it with my Kasha (Russian oatmeal) in the morning.
I started a new book the past week and am now into the a good amount of plot. Although, it’s pretty short so it wasn’t too difficult to get there. It’s called Fahrenheit 451. I really like it though. One of my favorite quotes so far is: “How rarely did other people’s faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought?” (p11) and I really like “It fed in silence with an occasional sound of inner suffocation and blind searching.” (p14) (in reference to a hose going down a woman’s throat to basically pump her stomach of sleeping pills) Time to read more of it!
