By Nevsky's Finger!

These first four photographs are what we woke up to Monday morning, before and after. The before pictures were taken earlier in the trip (one has been posted before). The smoke is from the peat bog fires that plague Russia during the summer. Usually, it clears up a bit during the day, but since there is no air conditioning here, we open our windows at night. I've been waking up to a smoke-filled room all week (no smoke detector of course, so no need to worry about setting that off).


The next pictures are all from Vladimir, except for the final panorama.

How Russians live in Vladimir and the church where Nevsky's finger is held/where the Final Judgment is.

View from the bluff that the church sits on.

View from our hotel. As you can see, there is a whole lot of nothing except for living quarters in Vladimir.

Suzdal'

The church in Vladimir from behind (that is, from the bluff) and the reason why I refuse to consider this country's infrastructure developed.

A random picture that I'm not really sure why I took it, and my Лебедное озеро - Swan Lake.

These last three are from Neskuchnyj Sad, my usual place to walk since it's mostly forest and therefore cooler than the rest of the city, and it's directly across the street from the apartment.

This is a house that used to be well outside of Moscow, but urbanization has made it part of the city. It is where Pushkin composed much of his poems during the summer.

Колоколы звонят

I suppose I've been lacking on my posts for the last week and a half. I'll start by saying that I have less than 48 hours left in Russia. The last week has been filled with school-related activities revolving, for the most part, around a paper we had to write. The time that hasn't been spent in study has been spent dealing with the heat. I really underestimated what it could do to me. That is to say, I have hardly slept this past week and feel a little like a walking zombie - physically, it seems to have a taken a toll as well, and I would not be surprised to find that I have lost up to fifteen pounds when I get home.

Put all is not as bad as it seems, not as bad as I make it seem. This past weekend, we went to the ancient cities of Vladimir and Suzdal', which I'm told are even mentioned in the New Testament, but I have no proof of this. Our trip there was a real experience. They are located in a neighboring province - a distance that make two hours or three at the most to reach in America. But here that time reaches six to seven hours depending on the direction and time of day.

Once we got to Vladimir, our excursion was accompanied by rain and lasted about an hour and a half. Disappointing really. We spent the rest of Saturday in our hotel waiting for the club on the second floor to open up. It was nice to hang out with everyone, but a waste of time to do it in a bum hotel in a Russian provincial town. I really understand after staying in this place what centralizing the power in Moscow does to places like Vladimir, which really seems like it's just a place to hold excess population not necessary to run the government.

That said, the church there (I forgot the name and don't feel like looking it up) was quite impressive. All of the churches in this area are, for the most part, big and white with large gold (or in one case spangled blue) domes. The inside of the one we toured in Vladimir was painted with frescoes by Andrej Rubljov - especially impressive was his "Final Judgement" placed over the main entry to the sanctuary. One of the other more interesting things there was Alexander Nevsky's finger. It used to be his entire corpse until Peter the (not-so) Great removed most his body to Petersburg. As we were wrapping up our tour in this church a thunderstorm rolled over the plain outside. It was an amazing sight and an amazing sound as it came in. I took a panorama from the bluff that the church is on - all pictures will be in the next post.

Other than that, Vladimir wasn't much to look at - a run down facade of Russian history maintained partly because it's on the UNESCO list of World Heritage Sites.

Suzdal', however, was much more interesting. This is a church town to say the least. Our first stop was a sight where some wooden churches have been reconstructed and some wooden houses have been brought in from other area in Russia. It's a whole lot more interesting than I'm making it sound, but photos were not allowed without a pass (which I didn't really feel like paying for), so you'll have to take my word that it was pretty cool to see the inside of these wooden houses.

After that it was the Kremlin (remember, how I said this just means "citadel" in Russian), with another massive white church with gold domes. I would have thought that by now I had grown tired of these things, but they are all so impressive and each one slightly different. This one was under restoration, so there was scaffolding all over the frescoes, but we were treated to a song from a quartet of singers. One of the coolest things that has ever happened to me was listening to their music and letting my eyes roll across the massive glittering iconostasis of this church.

We then went to the Spassky Monastery, which no longer functions as a monastery. All of thee churches and buildings there are museums, and unfortunately, we were all a little too fed up with eachother (a likely result of the heat) to see much here. Our tour guide took us to a building full of church artifacts, which had the potential to be one of the most impressive museums of the trip. However, we were rushed and very hungry - it's a place to return to if I can get back to Russia and brave the insane traffic of Moscow to get there. Most people left for lunch or something (we weren't communicating very well at this point) while I hung around to watch the holy man ring the church bells.

I can't remember if I commented on church bells here, but they are an amazing thing to listen to. Most churches have ten or fifteen bells (sometimes even more) and when they ring, it is truly music. Not only that, but the act of ringing the bells is intended to be a religious experience (not just a marker of the time of day). This is not surprisingly reflected in the vocabulary. In Russia, bells do not "ring," they "call," just like a person calls out to God in prayer. The call usually lasts for anywhere from twenty to forty minutes 9not every hour, but at specific times of day - I think there are five, but don't quote me on that). It has been a real treat to be living within hearing of two monasteries while I've been here. I frequently find myself opening the windows and laying on the bed to take a break and listen to the bells.

After a riverside picnic in Suzdal', we packed up the bus and headed back to Moscow - we left at 5.00 PM and did not get back until after 11.00. We didn't even bother going into the city, but stopped at the first Metro station and got on that for the rest of the journey to our respective neighborhoods. I would not at all be surprised to find that we spent the last two and a half hours or more within fifteen miles of Moscow.

In addition to the heat, there have been peat bog fires all over the region, which have turned the city into a smoke house all week - it started to clear up yesterday and today it's clear for the most part. I have before and after photos from St. Andrew's Bridge. I'll probably go try to take some night photos tonight, because it is finally getting dark enough to do so. All the other photos will be in the next post.

"I am from America, Baby"

I know my last entry was about the heat, but Iosif just said something that is very telling about both the heat and the government here. I remarked that I was taking a cold shower today because of the heat. His response was that I should savor it because tomorrow warm water will flow from the cold tap.

Why is this? Because tomorrow it is predicted to reach nearly 100 degrees Fahrenheit, which in America means that the water is still more or less cold. They don't bury their pipes in Russia, though, so the piping system basically is a huge radiator. This is expecially true when one considers another little Russian peculiarity - hot water, like most other things here, is centralised. It is heat at a large water heating plant and piped alongside the cold water pipes. This is probably something that contributes to the selective hot water droughts in summer. It's simply too easy to turn off the water here. Some of the more conservative estimates that we've heard have put energy loss between heating plant and consumer at about 50%, making it a BIG DEAL (that is, it would be in a country that cared about it's limited environment had a limited environment).

But enough about heat. I've been coming to the realisation lately of just how much my Russian language skills have improved since arriving here (or rather, since joining the advanced class). This is by no means a statement of fluency - I am nowhere near fluent in Russian by any measure. However, my conversational skills have improved dramatically, primarily as a result of hammering a bunch of verbs into my vocabulary by brute force because none of my textbooks or professors ever really emphasized verb usage. So it has been quite enlightening to realise that for the last two weeks or so, I've been undergoing a rapid but hardly-noticed change from speaking in well-thought out phrases to whole conversations of sentences constructed on the go. I've even developed a sense of humor with my host family. It is an exhilarating experience to say the least when you suddenly realise that you are actually for real speaking another language, understandably, and with a native speaker.

Not only that, but I also caught a pretty major grammar mistake that Iosif made at dinner tonight (I didn't dare correct him, of course - Mummy didn't raise me to do that). It's actually quite understandable when you think about it. There are three main sets of prepositions used to describe location and motion to/from somewhere or something depending on the type of word being described - there are many exceptions to the rules regarding each set and I am always just throwing out prepositions and hoping something gets right. For some reason, "Ukraine" uses the prepositions that are usually reserved for events and small outdoor locations. It is the only country not to use the large, enclosed locations set of prepositions, and nobody has given me a concrete answer as to why, although I'm pretty sure it has to do with the origins of "Ukraine," which means "at the border" in Russian (and coincidentally, the preposition used for "at" is from the set of prepositions used to describe location in relation to people . . . go figure). So I was quite astonished when Iosif spoke like a normal person and treated the Ukraine like any other country; that is, he used the wrong set of prepositions to describe a motion within and then from the Ukraine. I hope the long drawn out explanation of the Russian language's locational prepositions has not detracted from the original purpose of this paragraph - to demonstrate that I am beginning to notice the mistakes of native speakers in their normal speech. It is not nearly as exhilarating as speaking more freely, but exhilarating nonetheless.

That said, we had a tour of one of Intel's MANY Russian offices today in Russian, which was kind of cool, but honestly a little weird (not in the least helped by the fact that one of our presenters left me her e-mail address at the reception desk). It was more or less a presentation of Intel - that is, propaganda for Intel. It probably would have been a little more appropriate for prospective employees or new hires, but I guess I really shouldn't be complaining about sitting in an air conditioned room and eating free food for three hours.

Afterwards we went to a park in the Krylatsky Hills (the same neighborhood where the office was) and had an amazing panorama of the city. This place is on the North-West side of the city. Most of the panorama's you guys have been getting are from the South. It didn't strike me until I saw from this view just how massive this city is. The population of 14 million probably should have been my second hint - the first should have been the drive in from Sheremetjevo after the flight in. The Metro map would have been helpful too. However, when I looked out on that view of the skyline and hardly recognised any of the buildings except for the business park Moskva-City and a few very distant towers or Wedding Cakes, it struck me like a slap in the face that this city IS Russia. Peter, by comparison, has 5 million people, and although I'm not sure what the exact numbers are for the rest of the provinces (that's their name for the "smaller" large cities), I know that Moscow is the largest by a long shot. It's pretty overwhelming.

I learned a lesson from that as well (I say lesson, I've learned it many times before) - IF YOU HAVE A SMALL DIGITAL POINT-AND-SHOOT CAMERA, TAKE IT WITH YOU EVERYWHERE YOU GO. You never know when you'll end up in Krylatskoje.

Жар и душность

I went to my host family's dacha this weekend to get out of the city and the heat. It was definitely a good decision. I haven't talked a lot about the heat since I first got here, but it is really exhausting. Imagine living in Atlanta only the temperature doesn't mellow at night, air conditioners don't exist, and pants are standard acceptable clothing. Sounds a little post-apocalyptic right? That's what my view of Russia after 1917 has become in the last week or two - not post-Revolutionary, but post-Apocalyptic. In this environment of extremes and oppressive nature, it's pretty easy to imagine why these people put up with communism for so long, and why they are still putting up with a government that would be called nothing less than totalitarian in America. I came up with this little quote in class the other day while talking about the government here - "Путинская демокрация значит американский тоталитаризм, а американская демокрация значит русская анархия" - "Putin's democracy means American totalitarianism, and American democracy equals Russian anarchy."

Back to the weather. The heat and humidity don't go away at night, largely because the night is so short still. I can still go to sleep in full daylight and wake up long after sunrise. That is, if I could get a full night's sleep, which hasn't been happening in this weather. Because of all this, schoolwork is many times more difficult to concentrate on, and it's so easy to simply say, "I'm going for a walk in the park." Thankfully, we have fans now, and although sleep isn't any easier, I have a feeling I will actually be able to start working on my final project in earnest.

Other than this, I don't have a lot to say. The trip to the dacha was well-timed and much-appreciated. It was Marina's birthday, so we had quite a party on Sunday and I got to meet the rest of the family. Overall, it was a good weekend.

Patriarch's Ponds (Патриащие пруды), where I walked literally halfway across Moscow to go on Friday. Not particularly impressive, but slightly cooler than the rest of the city if you sit in the shade.

На Даче

This is my account of the last five days. It will be long, and I will write it in chapters. I apologize in advance for typos, because I will not have to correct them.

Часть 1. Дорога до Наро-Фоминска
Chapter 1: The Road to Naro-Fominsk

The road to Naro-Fominsk begins in Moscow, at the Pushkin Museum of Foreign Art from the 19th and 20th centuries. From there we went to Yugo-Zapadnaya on the Metro and awaited the group to assemble at 6.00 PM Saturday. From Yugo-Zapadnaya, we took a bus to Naro-Fominsk. It is interesting to note that we took a commuter bus on a limited-access highway - that is, the bus did not exit the highway to drop people off, but simply dropped them at stops on the side of the highway. At most stops, there is an elevated cross walk, which allows commuters to cross to the other side of the highway. By the time our stop came up, there were no more crosswalks, and it became necessary to cross on the pavement - and interesting experience on a highway. However, people here are very kind and allowed us to cross with ease (the strangeness of this experience I have a little trouble typing). We then walked through about two miles of woods in the middle of nowhere Russia in order to arrive at a gate and a gravel road, which led to Sasha's dacha.

Часть 2. Первая ночь на даче
Chapter 2: The First Night on the Dacha
The dacha itself is interesting, so I will take some time to describe it. It is part of a community of sorts. Only one person that I know of lives there year-round - he owns the dog, which will come later. He takes care of the place in the winter when people are not around. Each dacha is on a separate plot of land, and they are usually separated by a fence. It is constructed primarily out of two railway carriages, one of which can be seen as the small projection on the side. The room at the back of the picture is the second. The rest was built around this frame and there are five rooms in total - anteroom/washroom, kitchen, downstairs bedroom (the carriage), upstairs bedroom, and (unconnected) the second carriage, which also has a bedroom and a small bathroom (port-a-potty + shower)

Security in this country is a huge concern, primarily as a result of Stalin's Great Terror. During the Soviet Union, doors to residences (and dacha's as well, I would imagine) did not lock. This is why my apartment here is behind four heavy doors - two thick wood and two iron - each with a separate key and each with a lock, which can only by operated from the inside. Dacha's are also secured beyond imagination. The gate at the end of the road was a large iron-bar construction, similar to the front of an old prison cell. The fence for the dacha had a similar gate with some sheet metal attached for privacy. Additionally, there was a large lock on the door, like a deadbolt, but with seven separate metal bars instead of one deadbolt.

That said, people are very open about things when they are actually at the dacha, and as long as we were there, it was only necessary to lock the outer gate. Everything else stayed unlocked the entire time, even when we went swimming and left no one at the dacha.

We spent the rest of the light on the first night swimming in a nearby pond. The water was freezing cold, but comfortable if you kept moving - not difficult to get the motivation for that (I was surprised at how long I could tread water in those conditions). However, the cold water was a VERY welcome change after the heat of Moscow. If you haven't heard, we're experiencing a bit of a heatwave here, producing Atlanta-like heat. This is mixed with the humidity, usually in the 80's because of all the peat bogs and such surrounding Moscow. It is pretty miserable anyway, but you must also factor in that it is (usually) socially unacceptable for college-age males to wear shorts in the city and many of us simply did not pack for this weather. Moscow usually enjoys summer temperatures in the 70's and 80's Fahrenheit. I tried wearing shorts in the park on Monday and got myself into an interesting conversation with some drunk teenagers - it really is that easy to mark foreigners in this city.

We also had a grand party that first night. Vodka, shish-kabobs, tea, and salad. It may come as no surprise that I did not partake in the vodka, but in reality I wasn't particularly averse to it - I simply didn't feel like drinking that night. We also had two kids that Sasha knows over for dinner. Our conversation - in a unique breed of Russian and English, which we continue to speak with increasing regularity - lasted until the sky began to lighten, at which point it was agreed that we should stay up and watch the sunrise in a field nearby (at only 4.00 AM, not as impressive as it would be in the US). Here are some pictures from there, and they can speak for themselves:




This is one of our student helpers, Alina, who hangs out a bit and went with us. She happened to catch a hedgehog in the garden while we were cooking dinner.

Часть 3. Гречневая каша
Chapter 3: Buckwheat porridge

Day two began fairly normally (actually, it began in the last chapter, but this is from the time I woke up, 3 hours after going to bed). I had slept on the floor for a number of reasons - space and the amount of alcohol consumed by my bedmate being the primary two. We tried buckwheat kasha for breakfast, which was not particularly good. Kasha is one of the staples of this country; I've been served it everyday for breakfast. It's like oatmeal, only less "oat-ty" if you will allow me to make up a word. It is much more versatile in my opinion. We usually have a banana or other fruit with it, some sausage of some sort (so many choices here), cheese (also, so many choices), and bread. The reason the buckwheat kasha was not good was probably because the milk we were drinking and put into it tasted like it could have been buttermilk. Or maybe it was just nasty.

However, it was filling and sufficient for day two activities - a hike through the field, over the river, and through the woods, to our second swimming hole. It was at the beginning of this journey that we met the great Малыш, whose name means something like "little one." He is probably one of the biggest dogs I have ever seen.

This is Malysh when we first saw him. I would label him as our first bear - the story about bears in Russia is in fact not true. There are no bears (except for Malysh).


This is a picture of the same field as before, taken during the day obviously and from on of the trees we climbed to get a better view.

This is the second pond we swam in. I have a few pictures of the first, but I think this one most accurately captures what the place was like. On the dacha people just sit around and cool off after Moscow and her problems. It was interesting that when we first got there and were speaking English, everyone got out like we had poisoned the water. But when we were standing around drying off, we started speaking Russian and Vitya came by, and almost immediately people became much more willing to see us as not just tourists, but part of their vacation. I wouldn't say we had the cold shoulder at first, but they were very friendly later. We ate ice cream (so ridiculous how much Russians love ice cream, but also so good) and then left.

Часть 4. Заблудились в лесу
Chapter 4: Lost in the Woods
On our trek through the woods back to the dacha we lost two of our group. As it became evident that they hadn't followed us or figured out a way back, a search party was organised, which consisted of me (of course) and Sasha. It was a particularly grueling search, but I have definitely learned how to be a Russian woodsman as a result (for those you who know a little Russian, when I got back I said that he had gone настоящий lumberjack в лесу - characteristic of the language we speak in as well). On more than one occasion, we stopped at foraged for edibe plants like clovers from the forest floor. They tasted kind of like a mild spinach with a slightly acidic citrus flavor. I definitely was expecting them to be so tasty. Additionally, these woods are littered with tracks, but nothing resembling a solid trail for the most part - Sasha knows them like the back of his hand. In fact, I later remarked that he would probably be able to tell me the age of 80% of the trees simply by looking at one and telling me what year it sprouted. We received a call after an hour or so that our missing people had found their way back to the dacha.

Часть 5. Чемпионат мира
Chapter 5: The World Cup
Dinner the second night was not quite as eventful as the first. It would not have happened except as a result of one of the perks of being on vacation with our professor - class was cancelled for Monday, and we were staying another night. I had one condition for this - we had to get a TV working (such a rarity at a dacha) so that I could watch the World Cup final. This was met, and I had no desire whatsoever to hike to the commuter train four miles away through the woods. Dinner was primarily pel'meni and a cabbage salad with oil and vinegar. Promptly at 10.30, I made my exit and went to the kitchen, where my viewing set up awaited.

The rest of the night until about 1.30 was spent in here. At first everyone was watching, but honestly, they were just in it to say they had done it. The first thirty minutes were un-enjoyable because of this. However, most people left and I was left pretty much alone with two whole hours of World Cup final to satisfy my taste. I won't make any comments about the game on here, but I can definitely scratch "watch a World Cup final on a Russian dacha" off my bucket list.

This is the little train station that was used to get on the train back to Moscow. Like everything else in Russia, working hours were determined by the willingness of the employees to actually do their jobs. We had to wait an hour for the ticket office to open and another thirty minutes for the train.

Часть 6. Москва
Chapter 6: Moscow
It was a relief to be back in Moscow, but I'm already dying to get out into the country again (hopefully you see why). There is an excursion scheduled to a dacha this weekend, however, I will be skipping this to go to my host family's dacha. Sunday is my host mother's birthday.

Eventhough class was cancelled on Monday, we cancelled it again today. This time it was to see Lenin's mausoleum. I got into a small argument about it last night with my host father - I think he got out of it that I'm a communist and worship Lenin's dead body. I could not sufficiently convince him in Russian or English that this was entirely not the case, even when I agreed with him that it should be burned and shot out of a cannon. Tonight, we will talk about it again, and hopefully I can convince him this time, even if it means looking like a fickle and mutable college student, who changes his mind on a whim.

That said, it was an interesting experience to say the least - entirely not what I expected. Lenin's un-decomposed body is on display. I can imagine it is a supreme waste of money to keep it from decomposing. I hope that soon it becomes unsustainable and that people at the very least bury it. Although, I'm agreed with my host father that neither he nor Stalin deserve a burial for what they did.

Sorry for the long post. I hope you found it enjoyable, because I definitely didn;t have time for all this - two compositions due tomorrow and I really need to get going on my final project. Less than three weeks left . . .

Лубянка

Honestly, I don't think I'm going to have time to type out my account of the Polytechnical Museum and the Pushkin Museum, but here is a small excerpt:

The Polytechnical Museum is located on Lubjanka Square, next to the FSB/KGB headquarters - there's also a huge underground prison there - possibly larger than the above ground buildings themselves. The museum is basically the only building on the square that doesn't belong to FSB, and since it was built before the revolution, it does not at all match the Soviet architecture of the other buildings. Inside are many examples of Russian technological achievements, primarily from Soviet times, but also from before the Revolution. There was also an interesting exhibit on medieval iron working. There seemed to have been a theme of centralization, which should not have been surprising, but it was interesting to see how the philosophy was applied. For instance, there was a large excavator with a 25 cubic meter bucket on it and a body the size of a small village (no joke). The idea was to dig without the necessity of intermediary transport. There was also a design for centralised lighting - one lightbulb lighting an entire factory floor by way of a series of hollow reflective tubes and mirrors. There was also the first Soviet atomic bomb, which I of course took a few pictures with.

Otherwise, it isn't worth my time to talk further about this museum or the Pushkin museum, which is full of fakes, because of the trip to the dacha.

No Luck

There was an issue with the Internet last night, so I typed out my entry into Word. Unfortunately, I can't cut and paste it onto here, so I'll have to type it out again. This is definitely not happening today, because I'm leaving for the Pushkin Museum soon and then heading to my professor's dacha for the rest of the weekend. I'll try to post it if there's time on Sunday or Monday.

Извените, я занимался любовью

Nothing particularly exciting has happened to me since this weekend and given the previous rate of posts, I figured I should just provide an update saying that all is good.

I've decided to stay in the advanced class, probably for good. It's a bit more work, but I really prefer it that way - I'm paying to study, so study I'll do. Coincidentally, this also means I get compositions to write in the middle of the week (like tonight) in stead of on the weekends only. There's also a whole lot more vocabulary work for me to do to catch up with some of the other people in the class, but I should stress that I'm really not behind despite my late entry. Instead of doing inane grammar review and random vocabulary exercises like I was doing in the "elem-mediate" class, my new class consists of about one to two hours of solid conversation about our previous day, some reading exercises or pronunciation, and the rest of the time is consumed by conversation about various text that we read for homework. I'm thoroughly enjoying the challenge.

Today, I attempted to visit the Polytechnical Museum and succeeded more or less in doing so. However, posted hours and working hours don't mean the same thing in Russia. The museum is stated as staying open until 6:00, but when I got my ticket at 3:00, the lady there said it would close at 4:00 - which it promptly began to do at 3:30. I'm going back on Friday with my camera. There are some pretty cool things there that I'll keep as surprises until then. Our main excursion this weekend is to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts. If I heard correctly on the TV show I was watching yesterday, some of the artifacts that Heinrich Schliemann found at Troy are there.

That's all for today - as I said, nothing particularly exciting has happened to me. But I nearly forgot - some of my classmates got "fined" 1500p (about $45) for drinking vodka in public (right outside the US Ambassador's house, as was later revealed). They then proceeded to finish the bottle and get on the Metro singing the National Anthem. Needless to say, almost our entire class on Monday was spent in conversation about their activities.

4-го июля

Today is the 4th of July. I wouldn't need to declare this in America, but of course I'm not in America. Most of us here have better things to do today, so we celebrated yesterday by going to eat some real American food - that is, we went to a Russian TGI Friday's (actually, we tried to go to Sbarro, but I may or may not have gotten us lost). We had spent the afternoon at the WWII museum at Park Pobedy, where we found a statue of an American soldier on a monument to the Allies. We made plans to return today with large quantities of drink to sing the national anthem from the statue, but I don't think this is actually going to happen. Anyway, Happy Birthday America - I'm spending the day teaching myself participles in preparation for the advanced class tomorrow (taking a short break to write this).

So, since it's Independence Day and I have nothing to do, (nor do I feel like talking about the museum from yesterday) you will be graced with maps of the Metro. I apologize in advance if the pictures don't fit on the page - this matter I will attempt to fix as soon as possible. UPDATE: I have (kind of) fixed the issue. The images are distorted, but as usual, click them for the better quality image.

This first map is the most simplified. It is the one that is posted in the stations and on the trains:

For a more geographically oriented map go to this site: http://www.metromap.ru/

This next map also shows the current system, but is probably the most complicated version I could find. It includes a bunch of technical information that isn't needed at all:



The fourth map I have for you is what the system is supposed to look like in 2041. Be warned, if you want to actually be able to move around the city, come before this happens, I beg you:



And the final map is just to mess with your heads a bit. This is the current system, turned inside out around the circle line:



The system is usually straightforward, and once you become accustomed, it can be pretty easy to use. I will however, admit to having become lost multiple times for one of two reasons. 1) Some stations are shutdown at random times of day for God knows what - in this case it usually becomes necessary to make at least three transfers in order to bypass that station. 2) Stations like Китай Город have two lines that come together on the SAME PLATFORM. So if you want to make a transfer, theoretically you can just walk across the platform to the other line - not so fast. I was there two days ago on my Seven Sisters Scavenger Hunt. There are actually two platforms here, but one platform serves both lines in one direction and the other platform serves both lines in the other direction (confused yet?). There is also an incorrectly placed sign on one of the platforms, which is what caused me to make three transfers between the platforms before I figured out where I was. Needless to say, the Metro is convenient, but on occasion it can be a hassle (but the stations are so amazingly decorated, I wouldn't care either way).

The inside of Komsomolskaya on the Circle Line - proof

Семь сестёр

I did it. Today I went and photographed all of Moscow's Seven Sisters, so called because they are all based on similar designs commissioned by Stalin (they're also called Stalin's Sisters). They're spread all over the city, so my journey took me through many neighborhoods and many Metro stations. I've come to the conclusion that I must be doing something right here; Russians keep asking me for directions to places I have never heard of - usually when I have no idea where I am myself or what direction I'm facing. I was pleased today to be able to help two of three women (of course - a man would never ask for directions, even in Russia), who asked for directions or needed assistance navigating the streets.

Here is a panorama - when I set out this morning, it was a bit hazy, but it's still an impressive view:
Usually, all seven are visible from this point, but because of the haze, I'm pretty sure #2 and #3 aren't visible here. To take the picture of the first Sister, I simply had to turn around 180 degrees. The Sisters are in order of photography.

1.) Московский Государственный Университет (МГУ)

Moscow State University (MGU), founded by Mikhail Vasiljevich Lomonosov in 1755. The original building is in the Center of Moscow, near the Kremlin. When the University moved to this building, it became the tallest university in the World.

2.) Transport Ministry

This building has a number of names - Wikipedia calls it both the "Soviet Ministry of Heavy Industry" and the "Red Gates Administrative Building." I'm going with Transport Ministry because I got that name from a printed source; however, it is located directly above the Red Gates (Красные Ворота) Metro station. Otherwise, there isn't a whole lot to say about this one except that I felt really awkward taking the picture for some reason.

3.) Гостиница Ленинградская

The Hotel Leningrad - now the Hilton Leningrad Hotel (or something like that). In my estimation this was the smallest of the seven buildings, but I think there was a lot more behind the tower. I couldn't really linger in this area for very long; there are three major train stations that all go in the direction of the Islamic Republics, and the area was swarming with FSB and OMON (Spetsnaz units assigned to city defence and patrol - they are frequently called upon to perform the functions that SWAT teams do in America). In fact, that silver car to the left of the man in the white shirt has two FSB officers in it. The large building in the background on the left is the Transport Ministry.

4.) Kudrinskaja Square Apartment Block

Built for high-ranking Soviet Cultural leaders, this building was also fairly small in comparison to the others. Many had large outlying wings, but this one was just a tower and little more. It was the closest Sister to the American Embassy, and my walk to the Hotel Ukraina and the White House took me past the embassy. It's very comforting to have finally walked the route and to have figured out the best way to get to the embassy if I ever need to.

5.) Hotel Ukraina (now the Radisson Royal Hotel)
This is located directly across the river from the "White House," where the Duma - the lower house of the Russian Parliament - used to be. It was there that President Yeltsin stood on a tank and put down the coup in 1991.

6.) Министерство Инностранных Дел

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In my opinion, this was the most dominating building. The next one was probably the largest, but the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has a large tower and sits close to the street, so it looks much bigger. It sits at the end of Arbat - a pedestrian street with lots of American-type shopping and restaurants, like the Hard Rock Cafe Moscow. This district is also where the poet Pushkin lived, among many other famous Russians.

7.) Kotelnicheskaja Embankment Apartment Block

This was built as housing for Moscow's political elite. It is definitely the largest building, but evidently the part that is along the river was built beforehand - they're the same building now though, so I'm pretty sure this is the largest. It sits at the confluence of the Moskva (the larger one in the foreground) and the Yauza (the smaller one under the bridge to the left) Rivers. I always thought the Moskva flowed to the left, but evidently it goes the other way. It's so slow moving however that people swim in it and boats have no difficulty moving upstream.

Tomorrow, I'm returning to Park Pobedy for a guided tour of the museum of "The Great Patriotic War" (World War Two, to us Americans). Hopefully, I'll remember my camera and I can try to get a better picture of the obelisk.

"S" as in "Dollar"

Добрый день, Москва

My week has ended and there isn't much to talk about. I've been extremely bored in the intermediate class, so on Monday I'll be trying out the advanced class. If I like it, I'll stay there. Tomorrow, I'm going to go on a scavenger hunt of sorts - to photograph all of Stalin's "Seven Sisters." It should prove to be an interesting adventure across most of the city, and I'll get to see some Metro stations that I haven't been in yet. They're probably one of the coolest things about living here. I've already talked about how much is underground, but it's not depressing. I prefer to use the Metro even to go just one stop simply because the stations are so interesting. Each one has a theme, and the older ones are extremely elaborate. Most are also entirely lined with marble, plaster, and mosaic work. The"Ploschad' Revolutsii" (Revolution Square) station has life-sized statues of people in heroic poses holding things like a jackhammer or discus, which line every arched pathway from the center hall to the platforms.

Professor Medvedev has been doing his thing in Alps this week so we've had alternative professors for our two lectures. Today's lecture was conducted by Sergej Kortunov. Here is a translation on his Wikipedia page - the CV is where I would like to draw your attention. He wasn't a particularly good lecturer, in the sense that he didn't exactly speak English. In fact, on a few occasions he spoke in Russian and asked us to translate. But he was very interesting. Another reason that I'm switching classes is because of this fool that I just can't put up with anymore (who I'd rather not talk about on here). He kept asking the dumbest questions, mostly relating to Chechnya - I get the impression that he thinks everything in Russian politics revolves around Chechnya - and he kept sidetracking Professor Kortunov. So, in short, the lecture would have been more interesting if we hadn't spent the last 40 minutes or so (of a 90 minutes lecture) talking about Chechnya, which had nothing to do with Professor Kortunov's point about the political decision-making process in the Russian government. Anyway, I'll leave it there for today; it's my weekend, which means time to do vocabulary exercises.

Побеждённые Панихида

I found the other painting, finally. For some reason it isn't in the Tretyakov collection on-line, but it is definitely by Vasilij Vereshchagin - "Побеждённые Панихида"

Yesterday, I mentioned bribes, which make the Russian world turn. Unlike in America, people will and do take bribes for the most petty things, and there have already been two experiences with bribes here that I know of. The first happened to a classmate of mine when he was in the car with his host father. They were pulled over for speeding outside of Moscow (where most of this happens) and from what I understand, the host father was asked, "Would like to pay 2000p or 500p." Given this circumstance, it' easy to see why Russians put up with bribes.

Evidently, the officers in Moscow, especially near the tourist areas, hate their jobs. Bribes are most easily taken from drivers, and tourists don't drive here - plus it's pretty difficult to get away with that sort of thing in the city, even with Russian citizens. Putin loves to claim that he's cleaning up corruption by nailing an officer here or there for taking a bribe so that he and his cronies can keep dealing in American-style, big-business-contract-type bribes. Add to this that officers aren't paid much (a philosophy similar to paying waiters less than minimum wage with the expectation that they will get tips), and you get a lot of jealousy between the city patrol officers and the ones in suburbs/country.

The second bribe I was present for. This one occurred at the Novodjevichij Cemetery. When we got there, we were told that the cemetery "closed" at 5:00 and we had arrived at 5:30 (nevermind that the posted hours had it as being open until 7:00). Sasha, the professor from the advanced class was with us; he turned around and put his finger up telling us that he would "handle" the situation. He entered the gate and one of the guards closed it behind him. About a minute and a half later Sasha re-emerged with a smile (as did the guard) and we were informed that we had three hours to explore at our leisure. The bribe we later learned was 300p - just over $10. It's amazing what people do for a little extra cash here.

Sunday was spent at the Kremlin. Honestly, I wasn't that impressed and don't have much to write about. However, it was pretty awesome to see the graves of Ivan the Terrible's father, grandfather, and great grandfather - as well as the place where Ivan himself is buried behind the three fathers and on the other side of the iconostasis in the Archangelsk Cathedral. Also buried there is Dmitrij Donskoj, after whom the monastery across the street from me is named.

However, those were really the few redeeming features of that tumultuous place of constant destruction and rebuilding. And now for some gratuitous pictures of churches:

Sun and cross have finally combined for me to take this kind of picture, which I've been trying to do for over two years now. This is the Cathedral of the Archangel.

The Cathedral of the Assumption, where the Tsars were crowned (even when the capital was in Peter, they had to come here to be crowned).

Ivan the Great bell tower and belfry, where the Tsar-Bell was supposed to go.

This is actually a palace if I remember correctly. The strange crosses with the half-moon face up are also on the churches at the Donskoj Monastery. They symbolise the defeat of Islam by Christianity - the purpose for the construction of the Donskoj Monastery. Not really sure what they're doing here though.

Here are the other two slightly interesting objects in the Kremlin - the Tsar-Bell and the Tsar-Cannon - neither of which were ever actually used:

There was a fire in the city while the bell was still in the casting pit; water was poured over the cooling bell to fight the fire; the bell broke (practically shattered actually - there are cracks across the entire thing) and was never rung.

This monstrosity is simply to large to be used. I'm also pretty sure the balls there are hollow because it was WAY too expensive to cast them.

Кремль и Крепость

I had a pretty busy weekend with two planned excursions and one spontaneous, so I'll try to keep my comments as brief as possible.

First on Saturday was the Tretyakov Gallery (actually, the Russians now call it the Tretyakov State Gallery). This is one of THE places to go to see Russian art. You guys know me, so you know that I'm not really one for the visual arts. However, I am one for GOOD art, and the stuff here was pretty amazing. Unfortunately, our Russian tour guide treated us like native, fluent speakers, which most of us are not, so I didn't get as much information out of this tour as some of the others. I don't really want to talk about the art too much, but with one exception, here are links to my three favorite pieces in the gallery:
"Рожь" Ивана Ивановича Шишкина
("Rye" by Ivan Shishkin)

"Шипка-Шейна" Василия Василевича Верещагина
("Shishka-Sheina" by Vasilij Vereshchagin)

"Ночь на Днепре" Архила Ивановича Куинджи
("Night on the Dneiper" by Arkhil Kuindzhi)

The fourth, I believe, was also by Vereshchagin, but I can't remember the name and it doesn't seem to be in the online collection for some reason. There was a General standing behind an Orthodox priest in the left foreground. The priest had an incense lamp and was blessing this vast field. The field itself takes up most of the painting and is covered in light shrubbery with bare branches. There is a light dusting of snow on the ground. Barely visible and painted as if to resemble ghosts instead of interred bodies are the corpses of thousands of soldiers, neatly lined up in rows among the light shrubbery. This one was definitely one of my favorites, if not my favorite.

After eating a not-so-great and over-priced lunch in the gallery cafe, we trekked on the Metro to the Novodjevichij Monastery and Cemetery. This is where I entered my first Orthodox Church here other than Christ the Saviour, and I must say that I was blown away. It was the Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk (Смоленский собор). The decoration in these things in breathtaking and the churches of Novodjevichij are exceptionally so. However, there was another element to these places that first caught my eye in the Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk, which pervaded throughout every other church or monastery building I entered and is the inspiration for the title of today's post.

In Russian, the world кремль (Pronounced "kreml'," although we say "kremlin" in English) means something along the lines of "citadel." "The Kremlin" is simple Moscow's kremlin and all Russian signs for it say "Московский кремль" ("Moscow kremlin"). Every major city has it's own. The other word in the title is "крепость" ("krepost'" - "fortress/defense"). The reason I bring this up is because monasteries here are fortress - mainly for defense against the Mongols. The Donskoj Monastery across the street from me and Novojevichij used to be the Southern outer defenses of the city, which used to be primarily contained in the Kremlin on the opposite bank of the river.

Each monastery has a set of outer walls as fortification, but it's inside that struck me as amazing. Inside the Cathedral of the Virgin of Smolensk I noticed large square holes on the inside of EVERY door. Not just outside doors, but every door. These are so that the doors can be barricaded and the churches fortified in the event of the Mongols breaking through the outer walls. The windows are narrow and very high, like twenty or thirty feet high, and the garrison would build scaffolding during a siege so that they could utilise the windows similarly to murder holes. I was also told of a story where the garrison built an entire second floor near the ceiling where they hid out (these churches are extremely tall usually, in order to accommodate this practice). The Mongols, frustrated that they couldn't reach those hiding up there, lit fires in the sanctuary and suffocated the concealed garrison.

This was not confined to churches either. There is a large building on the monastery, which is now their primary museum. First, it seems that before it was made into a museum, the two floors were not connected - in order to reach the second from the first, it would have been necessary to go outside. Second, there are large holes in the walls, probably 2x3 feet. Third, more barricades.

The barricades basically make it possible to note how important each room was by noting the side of the door the barricade was placed on. For instance, there is an entry hall, and two rooms branch off of it. There is a barricade on the outside door in the room, but the barricades for the other two doors are in the other rooms. Then, through one of these rooms is a fourth room - the barricade for that door is in the fourth room. So, if Mongols break in through the main entrance, the garrison is waiting to fight in the first room. They do a fighting retreat through the second door and blockade it, while continuing to fight through the holes in the walls. The Mongols break through the next door and the garrison does another fighting retreat into the final room, while continuing to fight through the next set of holes. Additionally, there were barricades on the windows and thick inner shutters. Needless to say, the care taken to fortify every possible entry the every part of this monastery completely blew my mind. It's even defended by a bend in the river on three sides, making it a very telling indicator of the terrors of the Golden Horde.

After exploring the monastery, we went to the cemetery nextdoor where many famous Russians of all varieties are buried. Prokofiev, Yeltsin, Kruschev, Scriabin, and (I think) Przhevalsky are all there, just to name a very small fraction. I was only able to see Prokofiev (kind of disappointing and depressing, really) and Yeltsin (by accident - as I said, there are a lot of famous Russians here) because I had to get back home for dinner, but I will be returning and with a camera.

I also need to talk about bribes, but my battery is about to die and this post is already super long, so they'll have to wait for another day.

Кинофестиваль

Well, it seems I spoke a little too soon about the Georgian food. It was good - don't get me wrong. It didn't make me sick either. So I guess it's really a combination of everything I ate that day because I definitely ate EVERYTHING that day. That night I was awoken by a strange feeling in my stomach, which continued for most of the rest of that day. I had to turn down food at breakfast (they feed me so much here), and I skipped lunch entirely. Honestly, by the time dinner rolled around on Thursday, I still wasn't particularly hungry. I just had this weird feeling in my stomach all day that seems to have been a result of a massive bolus of food that my body simply could not process all at once.

Enough about my bowel movements on the public domain and now about Soviet housing. I live in a pretty nice apartment by Russian standards. We have two bedrooms, a dining room, a living room, a kitchen, toilet, shower/sink (separate room), and a small office, which was probably designed as a third bedroom. So, I'm living pretty comfortably with Iosif, Marina, and their dog Bonita (a male - I would say that Romance genders escape them, except that the general rules for word gender are the same in Russian as most other Indo-European languages. That is to say, I have no clue why they named their male dog with a feminine Spanish adjective). Given these higher standards of construction, I was surprised at a series of mishaps in the past 48 hours.

Wednesday, I came home to find that there was no hot water (вода нетичёт). No big deal, right? I've taken cold showers before. However, what I didn't count on was the fact that the ground temperature is lower here than in the US, meaning the pipe, which in the US means "not-hot" water pipe, here means "freezing-cold" water pipe. That is to say, I had early signs of hypothermia by the time I was done. This situation continued for about 36 hours, but thankfully I only had to take one cold shower.

During those 36 hours, I was sitting at home when Iosif came in from walking Bonita (Bonya). He had used the lift to get down (seven floors), but in the time it took him to walk the dog, the lift had quit working. It was at this point that Iosif made a joke about him having to pay me to live here since everything was breaking. Perhaps he spoke too soon.

While Iosif was cooking dinner a few minutes later, I was watching and giving updates on the football match (New Zealand and whoever they played last), which at this point had about three minutes left. Then the cable went out.

The fourth issue is evidently a non-issue I've been informed, but it's frightening nonetheless. You see, washing machines are rare, dear investments here. We have one in the apartment, but I'm not allowed to touch it. If I have clothes that need washing, I give them to Marina and she does it for me - not a bad system, honestly. The problem is that they left me in the apartment alone with the machine running, and although I knew it was loud from prior experience, I was quite surprised to hear a loud bang followed by several smaller bangs. Upon investigation, I found the machine practically walking itself across the bathroom. Of course, I called Iosif, who knows enough English to understand what I was trying to yell through the phone over the noise of this machine - half in Russian, half in English. His reply, "Oh yes, the machine is jumping again, yes? It does not damage anything right now? OK, it's fine. I have had words on this matter with Marina before. I will return now." Nevermind the fact that this thing was practically trying to attack me and trap me in the bathroom.

I'll leave that matter there because I went to the Moscow International Film Festival today and ate some Central Asian food. I don't have a lot to say on this matter really. Actually, I have a small query - if anyone knows what's in Tashkent salad and Ugra-osh, I would be very much obliged if you told me. That's what I ordered (because they were the two things that I had the least idea what was in them and obviously still haven't got the slightest clue), and it was delicious. The film we watched was Воробей (Sparrow), one of surprisingly few Russian films there. It was a pretty slow arthouse film - not that I have anything against arthouse, my issue is with the slowness and general boredom that pervaded the movie. Additionally, when I watch a Russian movie I expect an unhappy ending, but this movie was quite anti-climactic. Minimal plot resolution and really minimal plot development. Disappointing really.

UPDATE:

I found a recipe for Tashkent salad, although I don't think mine had any egg or mayonnaise:
http://recipes.wikia.com/wiki/Tashkent_Salad

Занятие по Сергею Медведеву

(и грузинский ресторан)

Yesterday (Tuesday) our second class began, and we have it two days a week only from now on. Our professor, as you may have already guessed if you can read Cyrillic, is Sergej Medvedev. He claims that he isn't related to the President, but Iosif is quite insistent to the contrary. They may not be immediate relatives, but Iosif says they're all from the same family. Either way, my professor's father was a very high-ranking CPSU member in the Central Planning Committee of the Politburo, which explains why he was able to go to Columbia for his education. He speaks English fluently with a VERY American accent (although it's still fairly evident that he's Russian, he frequently sounds like he could simply be from a different English-speaking country like Scotland or Zimbabwe), and he could easily fall into the category of the "Most Interesting Man in the World" from the Dos Equis commercials. That is to say, he's competing in the Tour d'Alps in a week or two, no big deal, and he has his own TV show, and he's pretty well known around here and in general.

However, it was his lecture that was even more interesting still. Without boring you guys with details, he talked about the expansion and retraction of the Russian state and its application as a model for the rest of society. This man was able to completely shake my world view in a matter of minutes and I was completely OK with it. Needless to say, I'm going to enjoy this class.

Today, we went to a Georgian restaurant for lunch. Now, I'm not going to say this was the best food I've ever had, because that would be ridiculous and invaluable. However, I will say that this was SOME of the best and most interesting food I've ever had, and I'll definitely be getting more while I'm here. These people have an almost entirely different concept of food as we do in America. There was a lot of walnut, cilantro, and coriander in most of the dishes, and I nearly ordered a dish that at least had the Russian word for tobacco in the name. What we did get was amazing (as a small disclaimer, I remember few of the names, but I'm going to describe everything as best as possible). First to come were these two small appetizers. One was some sort of pickled eggplant, thinly sliced and wrapped around a pasty substance. I wasn't paying attention when I ate it because I was just so hungry. There was also a substance called Лобио (Lobio) with it. It came in these half-fist-sized balls of a fairly solid light green paste with pomegranate seeds. Primarily this is composed of greenbeans (evidently with the pods, as it was slightly stringy), pine nuts, walnuts, cilantro, and various other things all pureed into the paste.

Next came what I think what called Хачипури (Khachipuri) of two types, which tasted relatively the same. Basically, these are Georgian pizzas. The crust is a light, bread-ish crust, which bakes in the oil from the cheese they put on top to form a slightly fried taste - очень вкусно. The cheese used in these and almost everything else with cheese seemed quite similar to feta. It was probably a little softer and quite salty with a higher moisture content as well, but one of the best cheeses I've ever had. We also got these large ravioli or won-ton-type things. In my honest opinion, they were fairly ordinary, but still quite tasty.

For the "main course" I had Харчо (Kharcho). This is a soup of sorts, although I also wouldn't hesitate to call it a stew either. I think if you imagine a thick tortilla soup with large chunks of tomato, rice, and lamb (I think - and they used proper stew meat; i.e. the fatty chunks that were removed from larger cuts to make them leaner), then you'll have a pretty good idea of this. There was also a considerable amount of parsley, not used as a garnish, but actually part of the flavouring of the dish, which I found interesting and ultimately - delicious.

I'm very pleased with the culinary experience I've been having here. The nightmares we hear in the US about Russian food are simply not true.

Всё нормально

There isn't a whole lot to add today. Class went basically as it should have. Some of you know that I've been keeping a private journal as well as this. Yesterday I decided that from now on it will be in Russian only so that I can get some extra practice composing (and to celebrate the decision, I had a stroke of inspiration to write four pages).

Tea is a huge part of life here, and we drink tea usually about three times a day. It's weird though, they don't brew it like we do. Sure, if I want some of the different flavored teas, there are bags that I can use for that. However, there's also this pot that sits on the counter all the time. Tea is poured out, and water is poured in to replace it. The thing is, this tea brews ALL DAY in the pot. There's a little mesh cup I the top with tea leaves - fairly normal. But the water is always touching this mesh and brewing the tea. So it's a little like the way Italians make coffee - a small amount of a much stronger brew, to which hot water is added to dilute it to the proper concentration. It actually makes for some really good tea; I was a little surprised at first.

Also, for the last tea time of the day (about 9.30 or 10.00 at night), there's a whole production. We usually have strawberries or cherries or both, and then some heavy biscuits and little candies. The candies however, are another little oddity. They're called карамель (caramel), but it's not what we think of it. Their caramel is a hard candy, although still not what we think of as hard candy either - it's slightly softer and opaque, so the sugar was heated to a higher temperature than our caramel, but not as high as our hard candies. That's not to say that any of this is not good. I could probably say that I prefer it in fact because it's so tasty and it's the main time that the family sits and talks. Evidently, this is normal here, because the other people have been having similar tea times, although I don't think many of them are as enthusiastic (people who don't usually drink tea, for instance will worry about the caffeine's effect on their sleeping patterns. I'm more worried about the Sun honestly, since today was the longest day of the year - still is actually, and will be until 11.00-ish). Anyway, I'm rambling.

There's been this jar sitting on the windowsill in our kitchen the entire time I've been here. It's filled about half-way with a brownish-orange liquid and covered with cheesecloth, folded a few times. On top of the liquid is floating a fatty looking substance with layers like a biscuit, which fills the entire surface area of the liquid in the jar. Through the cheesecloth you can smell this pungent vinegar-like substance. Hopefully you get the picture and can understand why it took me until Saturday morning to finally ask Marina what the heck that thing was. Perhaps you've heard of Russia's second national drink - Квас (Kvas) - a semi-alcoholic (fractions of a percent alcohol) "soft-drink" made from stale bread crust. There are different flavors, I think, and some places make their own, so it can be pretty hit or miss depending on where you get it. Evidently, the Kvas at Jolki-Palki (the restaurant we ate at a few days ago) is "nectar from the Gods," to quote one of my classmates. Most of us aren't particularly excited about it, and I haven't gathered the courage to try it yet - nor do I have any desire to do so, honestly.

Back to the jar. I was told that the substance in the jar is like Kvas, or brewed like Kvas - something like that (so I'm guessing, it's slightly alcoholic, and brewed from whatever the floating substance is, which I still thought was bacon grease or something along those lines). But that does nothing to explain the smell, until she says that the floating substance is a "mushroom." Now, first off, I've never seen a mushroom that big - this is probably a 3 or 4 litre jar. Second, it has had to be sitting in there for a LONG time for it to look like a decomposing biscuit. Which brings me to a question. WHO IN THE WORLD would think of such a drink, much less make and drink it?

Будешь чаю?

UPDATED - see pictures below!

The title of today's post is the question I get after nearly every one of my meals at home. Strictly translated, it means "Will you be of tea?" Fortunately, Russian is an accommodating language, with a complexly inflected grammar system, which allows questions like "Will you be drinking a little bit of tea (after the meal/now/etc . . .)," become the two words you see above. That is, "Ты/Мы будешь/будем попить чаю?" becomes, "Будешь/Будем чаю?" and there are no problems with understanding. It is for this reason that both Latin and Russian are frequently cited as some of the hardest languages in the world to learn - although in my opinion it's simply because English grammar rules have been so completely oversimplified after years of input from different language families (the rules being simplified each time to accommodate Germanic languages and then Romantic inputs). Inflection actually makes a whole lot more sense grammatically than the strange system of word order that we use.

Today, however, we did the tourist thing. Our first of a series of excursions. We had a bus tour of various places in the city (in Russian), many of which I was surprised I still hadn't been to, but that I'll definitely be going back to. Park Pobedy was the first. It's a huge plaza in the South-East of the city. There are a bunch of different monuments there, but the largest is the one that the Soviets built (of course) after the Second World War (Вторая Мировая Война). The focal point of this is a HUGE bronze obelisk. For those of you who have seen the obelisks in Rome, multiply the typical one by about three and you'll get this monstrosity. It's also reminiscent of the Greco-Roman world in two other ways. The first is a statue of Nike (Goddess of Victory) and two small Gods hanging off the top of the obelisk. The second is a progression of battles that the Russians were involved in that goes gradually up the obelisk - like the columns of Trajan and Marcus Aurelius, only not in a ribbon around, but straight up the side.

I also FINALLY went inside the Church of Christ the Saviour. This place really has no parallel in the world that I know of. As soon as we entered the sanctuary, I got the same chilly feeling that got upon entering the Cathedral of Maria degli Angeli (formerly the Baths of Diocletian) in Rome, only this time that feeling lasted almost as long as we were in there. It really was amazing, and it blows my mind that Stalin and his cronies would even think of destroying such a building, nevermind actually doing it. Photographs were forbidden, but even if they hadn't been, I wouldn't have taken any. I'm always uncomfortable taking pictures of sacred areas and tend not to do it. I did however take some nice ones outside (to be posted later, when I have a little more time).

Otherwise, I don't have a whole lot more today. Spending the rest of the night watching football.

UPDATE:
The obelisk at Park Pobedy. Sorry, I didn't get any of the details on it. There's a museum there that I may return to, in which case I'll re-photograph.

Panorama from the plaza at Park Pobedy. MGU is visible on the left (the large "wedding cake" with a large stile on top. One of these days I'll write an entry about the seven sisters - hopefully after photographing them all).

This is a monument called something along the lines of "Children are the Victims of the Vices of Adults." The name is much shorter in Russian (because of inflection). I actually really like this bit of art for some reason - it was pretty impressive and I could probably do a whole entry on it at another time.


And finally, what I've been talking about ever since I got here - Кафедральный Храм Христа Спасителя. Now you can see what I've been talking about, and why it's so awesome. The statues on the outside are plastic. The bronzes from the original are in America of all places and a few are in the Donskoj Monastery across the block from my apartment here. When they rebuilt the church, they did the statues in plastic because bronze and marble would disintegrate fairly quickly in Moscow (in addition to being insanely expensive).