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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:

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:

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.

And then I went for a run whistling/humming/singing the Trepak theme the whole time. It was fantastic.

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:

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.

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:

One more final…

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:

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.

We then branched off the Kremlin area and began our short walking tour.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Time to do Complex Analysis homework that I’ve put off since Tuesday.

We woke early Monday morning  (8am) to get to the IUM which is 2 metro stops away, and then about a 10 minute walk. My first class was Basic Algebra at 930. I’m auditing this class to review what I learned last semester; plus, the professor, Igor Vladimirovich Artamkin, is pretty cool and the problems are fun. I got my first taste at 3 hour classes. At least they are only once a week. That’s the ‘Russian’ style apparently. Then lunch at 1300 in the cafeteria and then back to the dorm to hang out. We’ve been to this class twice now, and the professor has worn the same brown/tan polo. It’s a legit shirt but I dunno, he only sees us once a week. He could rotate his wardrobe a bit. (At least I know the professors are somewhat like some in the usa). Then we went back to school for the crash course in Russian language. Even though I’m taking the actual class, I thought it would speed up my learning a bit, and it has a little. This course is only 1.5 hours.

Tuesday came a little later (class at 1115) with Russian Language 1, but I chose to wake up and go for a short run with Mike before class. We ran back to the monument park with the spire and then back. Still no bike. Our teacher looks like someone our age and barely speaks english. Between her mistakes and ours, we have a pretty good time and it is forcing us to communicate more in Russian. We found out at next Russian class (Thursday) that we have two teachers, and the other one is just as fun but speaks better english. After lunch some of us, those in Complex Analysis, met the Cowboy. At least that’s what we call him. His name is Sergei Mikhajlovich L’vovski and he has a shaved/bald head with a goatee. His hanging gut together with the jeans and flannel shirt he wore tempted us to visualize the cowboy hat atop his head as he turned back and forth from the board explaining how the complex plane worked. The only thing that made him cooler was that he says “Very Nice,” exactly the same way Sasha Cohen says it in the movie Borat. We have started a counter on this quote, and he is at an average of 7 a day. Crash Course again after this class and so I arrived wiped back at the dorm having spent most of my waking hours at school.

Wednesday is my longest day. Topology in the morning and Advanced Algebra in the afternoon. Our Topology teacher Victor Vassilievich Prasolov is boring and pauses for 30 seconds at a time in between sentences. I appreciated this at first because I was taking notes, but then I realized he was just reciting his ‘book’ that we bought, which consisted of his lecture notes. He is unlike Alex Paulin, my algebra teacher last semester, who also gave us the lecture notes before class and then went over them during class, but was engaging, funny, and basically convinced me to love algebra. I’m thinking this isn’t going to be the case with Topology. We had a more traditional Russian style in this class, as the lecture was 1.5 hours and then a TA (GSI) came in halfway to do “problem session” with us for the next 1.5 hours. Unfortunately, this meant we each work individually and then show him our answers. Since then, we have managed to work together somewhat and help each other which in my opinion helps us learn more. I got in an argument with Vladimir (TA) the first day as he said I shouldn’t use the new definition of continuity to solve this problem as it was harder to solve using it than the traditional epsilon delta definition. I tried to explain that by solving it with the new definition, I would learn how the definition worked…it didn’t get across to him. But he’s gotten more sociable and agreeable in the subsequent classes.

After lunch 3 of us joined Pavel Ivanovich Katsylo for Algebra. After telling us his grading scheme, he gives us a cd with his algebra book on it, as well as some math programs, and about twenty other math books he thinks would be useful for us. I guess pirating in Russia is pretty lenient. The grading scheme is as follows: He gives us the final exam the first day of class. There are 71 problems. They are the homework for the semester as well. Then, at the start of the final, we declare how many we can solve, if we say above 64 then the maximum we can get is an A, if we declare 57-63 the maximum we get is a B. Of the problems we declare he chooses 3 of them for us to present on the blackboard. If we get all right, he gives us our grade (from what we declared). For every problem that is wrong, he lowers our grade one letter. Here’s the catch, we are allowed to use ALL our notes and work from the semester during the final. So we solve as many of these problems during the semester as we can, type them up and print them out to bring them to the final. What this means it that the problems are hard. Here is an example of a problem from Group Theory:

Suppose |G| = 4m + 2. Prove that G is non-simple. ie there exists a non trivial normal subgroup N in G.

We proved this in class. Apparently if you put 4m + 2 = 2(2m +1) and then just prove it for (2m+1) because the proof of 2(2m + 1) is included within the (2m + 1) proof, it takes 200 pages before the claim is proven. Glad we don’t have to do that.

Since this first class, I’ve liked this class more and more and it is now probably my favorite class here. We just learned the Sylow Theorems this week (3rd week) and proved the first 2 statements.

Anyway, since I had spent 6 hours in class already, I ditched the crash course and never went back. Instead I went walking around the city with Ester, Michael Donatz, and Lenny. We were trying to find a sheet music store to get music for my piano lesson tomorrow as well as michael’s lesson tomorrow. We found the shop, but it was closed. So Ester showed us some of the sights:

Then we went out to a cafe, and even though we had a local Russian with us, the order got screwed up and Lenny got some fish filet crepe thing and he’s allergic. They made us pay for it anyway but whatever, we never went back.

Thursday Morning I went for a run again and then went to Russian Language class. Afterward I headed out to the music store to buy some sheet music. They didn’t have a lot of choice in editions but even so, a Barenreiter copy of Rachmaninoff’s Preludes cost me only $25. So I picked up the etudes as well. Got the Skriabin Sonatas, Prokofiev Sonatas, and Chaikovsky Seasons too. I navigated my way back to the piano teacher’s house (we had a consultation guided by Ester previously in the week) and made it in time for my lesson. She doesn’t speak much english so it made it difficult to communicate at first. But I’ve noticed that two things go in our favor. One, Italian is the language of music (western classical) and so we were fine there, and because the common words we knew were few, it made it really easy to understand her comments, like: “Brutal hands here, relax!” (Her piano was the first I’d touched in two weeks. Also, I do need to work on relaxing when I play to avoid harsh tone, so we’re working on that)

We decided to work on these pieces:

Schubert Impromptu Op.142 No.3 I had started this with my piano teacher at Berkeley. I don’t really like Horowitz’s interpretation but it’s the best I could find. If you can listen to Murray Perahia’s performance. It wasn’t on youtube though.

Rachmaninov Prelude Op.32 No.5: Horowitz Ashkenazy These are the first recordings I’ve heard (I don’t usually listen until I’m farther on in the piece) but I like Ashkenazy’s interpretation better. When my teacher, Tatyana, played it for me, I was awed at how beautiful Rachmaninov could be. I had no idea; I had not heard many of his pieces at all. She said we could start this prelude next: Prelude Op23 No4 (I chose Richter’s as Ashkenazy’s was a little more muddled) or we could do an etude. I’m torn.

Chaikovsky Seasons: June – Barcarolle I’m listening to Pletnev play this right now for the first time but I like it so far.

And then of course I’m continuing to play the Chopin Berceuse and Nocturne Op.62 No.1 (Pollini is just a little too fast) whenever I get to try out a new piano. Like when I dropped into the C. Bechstein piano store. Ester wanted to hear me play something so I played the Berceuse. The piano in there was amazing. It felt like touching my fingertips into glassy water; I could see how I affected every little detail, but comfortably. It wasn’t like it was too harsh or revealing. It was warm and smooth (just wish I had practiced more beforehand) (and that the lower bass had just a little more tone). The black keys had sort of a texture to them also. Instead of slipping off them when my hands were moist, (not that I was sweating profusely or anything) they absorbed it and gave extra grip.

Friday I only had Russian Language class again. But that evening, Chris’s friend Evgeny invited some of us to his friend’s birthday bbq over near Moscow State University at Sparrow Hills. So we took the subway there and got out at Vorobiyovy Gory Station:

It was a very pretty station with a nice view. The BBQ was fun. It ended with Austin becoming so drunk, that when the Russians led us through a short cut (an old cobblestone pathway 3 ft wide with a 50 degree slanted hill downward next to it) so we could make the metro before it closed at 1am, he slipped off the cobblestones and went head over heels down the hill. Chris and I thereby proceeded to keel over and laugh uncontrollably as every time Austin became right-side up he would flail and then slip, and since he was drunk, his reaction times were super slow. It got even funnier when the Russian with us jumped after him like Austin had fallen into a shark tank. Then the Russian started falling and they slid all the way down to the road, where we wanted to go in the first place. Nobody was hurt, it was soft dirt and grass along the hill. But we did get a good laugh.

Here are a couple more shots of my dorm so you can get a better look of what it looks like. Maybe interior shots will come later:

I do believe this is the most I’ve written in one post. So I will stop now. Tomorrow I hope to put the Moscow Bus tour photos up and then by the end of this weekend I hope to put the St. Petersburg trip up. I took almost 600 photos while I was there. So I will post the trip in 3 parts. Last thing, how cool is this: I’m currently remotely connected (remote desktop) to my sister’s computer who is running windows xp so I can clean it, while I’m running Mac OSX and I’m google-video chatting with my mom, dog, and cat on the computer next to my sister’s. I feel like this is cheating the whole “study-abroad” thing because I’m virtually at home. My mom could walk the laptop around the house and it’d be like I was there. Sort of. Anyway, time to sleep.