Moscow

Even though its 2 minutes till midnight and I just got back from Moscow (safe and sound I should add) and I really want to sleep, I am going to write this entry now, recapping Moscow because, as we all know, if I just put a promise for the entry here, chances are it won’t appear later. Or maybe it will appear but on a completely different theme or topic than promised. Moving on,

Moscow.

Wait, I want to preface this with a short description of Peterbsurg (remember that?). Petersburg was beautiful and the entire time I was there I felt like I was in Europe, Venice to be exact (which I only found out later was the city that Peter modeled his city after more than any other) But it was interesting because as beautiful and interesting as Peter was (Peter as in the city. Though Peter the First was, indeed, a very interesting and well groomed individual) it had a completely different feel to it than any other Russian city I’ve been in. The whole time I was there I felt as if I was in Europe but with Russian people walking around on the streets. Поэтому I am glad I only visited there and am not studying there. Though I don’t agree with people that say Peter is “not Russia” I do agree that its feel is not as close to the heart of RussiaMoscow. as, say,

Speaking of which,

Thursday I arrived in Moscow with my friends and the first half of the day was spent seeing if they would pass the test to get their Visas. We arrived at a small square where stood an incredibly large gathering of people (there are only 6 or so days each month when people can go see the Consul for the interview to try and receive the Visa). There were more than 400 people there, and at one point Oleg (one of my friends) turned to me and, in English said “You should be proud of your country. Look how many people want to go to it.”

I’ve always had a underlying appreciation for America and of course every time I criticize her policies or political tendencies I thought I was doing it out of a deep seeded love for my country. And I was, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say love, I think my appreciation and understanding of America is just that, a strong realization of how lucky I am to live in such a country, but nothing close to a feeling of love. But what Oleg said really struck me and I stood there, while they waited for their numbers to be called, looking at all the people there, the giant crowd, each waiting anxiously for his or her turn. The most striking and powerful scene I saw was, while waiting for Oleg and Aleksei to emerge from the Consul building (a nerveracking wait) I saw a young girl exit from the building. She had just received her Visa and smiling wildly, ran to embrace her mother, who had tears in her eyes. And I think it was exactly then, that I fully felt how important this opportunity was for people.

Both Olyeg and Aleksei got their Visas! I am psyched beyond beliefe about this, as it means they will be in America this summer.

The second halfd of the day was spent wlaking around Red Square.

Friday: After moving into “Galina’s Flat” (a small 4 room apartment, a woman named Galina rents out to people) I spent Friday morning inside the Kremlin and then walked around for a good 9 hours going to pretty much ever single literary spot in Moscow. These included: Lermontov’s House, Chekhov’s house, Gogol’s house (unfortunately closed for renovations) Bulgakov’s Flat, Patriarch Ponds (the opening scene from Bulgakov’s Master and Margarita, Gorky’s house and various other places.

Saturday: I spent the morning at a cemetery looking at famous dead people: GOGOL!, Chekhov, Kruschev, Bulgakov and then went to a very beautiful church which I forget now how it is named. But there are pictures of it, it’s the one with the giant golden dome. Yeah.

And then in the afternoon I met up with the people for whom I am currently working translating their website. They are a band (called “RadaNik”) and we had an incredible time – went to a café, talked, laughed; it turns out one of the members of the band loves Mr. Bean with a passion only, perhaps, eclipsed by my own, and we spent a good hour or so saying things like “Помните когда он делал это!» “Remember the time he did this!” etc. It was great, and they are all wonderful people and I now have an open invitation to go to a recording session of theirs next time I am in Moscow along with a CD of theirs they gave to me as a gift.

Saturday night I saw a concert of the group Сплин (Spleen), probably my favorite Russian rock group that is currently still together. It was incredible. And I was 50 feet away from the stage (it was a small club but still), and they played some of my favorite songs. And I bought a shirt.

Sunday: My second day in Moscow while heading into the Metro I suddenly heard “Гриша!”, turned around to see who had yelled out my name and saw a friend of mine (Misha) who had worked at the Middlebury Russian Language Schools last summer. He is living and working in Moscow now and so on Sunday we had made plans to meet up. And we spent a long time catching up and talking about the Russian experience in general. Also, the next time I visit Mocow I will be able to do so free of charge as Misha has kindly offered his apartment to me any time I need it.

I forgot to add that Sunday morning I was in Red Square and saw the body of Lenin and the grave of Stalin. Both resulted in a vary odd feeling; seeing a body or the place of rest of a body that once held so much power, and under whose command so many people died (60 million under Stalin I believe). If I was more in the mood to write I would elaborate on this point.

Sunday night I saw a presentation of Gogol’s Ревизор “The Revisor” (maybe that’s not an accurate translation), a comedy that I occasionally understood and, when I did, very much enjoyed.

Monday: was by far the most interesting and unorthodox day as all of my original plans fell through and most things were thrown together at the last minute. I had originally planned to travel by train to an Yasnay Polyana, a town about 4 hours outside of Moscow where Tolstoy’s estate is located. Woke up early, bought my ticket, only to find out when double checking information in my guide book that the museum is closed on Mondays. Returned my ticket. I still wanted to travel outside of Moscow and thus found another town to go to called КлинПарк Победи (Victory Park) an entire park dedicated to the Russian Soldiers of World War II. The main museum ended up being closed but this was a blessing in disguise because the grounds were almost empty and hauntingly quiet, so that the only feeling was one of incredible awe and smallness standing beside the incredible monument that formed the center of the park (there are pictures). (pronounced Clean, as my clothes rarely are here) where Tchaikovsky’s house is. Bought my ticket and with the 3 hours I had until the train left I went to see

Its impossible to stress just how different the Russian view of World War II is. Not difference, so much as, just how central a part the war played (and continues to play) in the lives of Russians today. In America we talk about the “Lost Generation” but in Russia this phrase applies to such an exact degree it is almost impossible to see things from the Russian viewpoint. America had many losses in WWII but in Russia almost one person in EVERY family was killed, oftentimes entire families were killed, in the long struggle. As a result, any American visiting Russia will frequently be met with the question “Who won WWII?” It is the opinion of most Russians that all Americans believe they, themselves won WWII, (this certainly is not completely true but, to some degree each country has its own biases when teaching history in schools), while Russians get little credit for the incredible price they paid. Every time I’ve had this conversation with Russians I’ve tried to make it clear that I am aware the Russians were invested for a longer time but that does not mitigate America’s losses. Regardless on this point, WWII, no matter how hard I try I find it impossible to fully comprehend how strong a part WWII plays in the Russian Conisciousness, and on just what incredible a scale the death toll was.

After the park I went ot the train station, got on the train, and sat next to an old Russian man who told me Russian Jokes. The funniest one, and the one I understood the best, was the first and goes something like this:

«Что такое Русский стол?»

«Там лежит пива, бутилка водки, киелбаса, и собака.»

«За чем собака?»

«Есть киелбасу»

In English
”What makes a Russian table (for eating. Basically: What is a Russian table composed of)”

“Beer, a bottle of vodka, kielbasa, and a dog”

“Why a dog?”

“To eat the kielbasa”

I arrived in Klin, only to find out when I got to the museum a piece of very important information that was not written in my guidebook. I documented this revelation in my photos where can be seen a very friendly, welcoming sign, that just happens to say (in English and Russian) that the museum is closed the last Monday of each month. So I took a picture of the house through the iron gate and, finding it meaningless to return immediately to Moscow, decided to try and find my way back to the train station by walking. I knew this would be a good half hour to hour walk and as a result I would be able to see some of the town.

Klin is a nice, small town that certainly has the feel of the Russian countryside, occasionally interrupted by busy streets. One large difference from either Moscow or Yaroslavl, however, is the attitude of the people there towards foreigners. There is no outward display of antagonism, and I wouldn’t even say a very strong dislike, but I definitely received a feeling from people I passed on the street that it was strange I was in their town and I wasn’t fully welcome. Of course in Yaroslavl (Moscow even more) the sight of иностранци (foreigners) is something people have grown used to. But small towns like Klin, except for the draw of Tchaikovski’s house, I would imagine don’t often see too many foreigners. That said, everyone I asked for direction was very kind and obliging.

There was only one sort of scary incident that happened on my way back. Sensing the fact that I stood out fairly strong in the town I tried to take as few pictures as possible so as to not look even more like a tourist. However, at one point I came across a bridge that was over a small but pretty waterfall. I figured that taking pictures of the waterfall would not immediately identify me as a foreigner, since Russians probably did as well, and therefore headed down the staircase to the path which ran alongside the river and started taking a few pictures.

Suddenly I heard a loud crash close to me and looked up to see a group of middle schoolers standing on the bridge overlooking the waterfall. They were throwing fairly large stones in my direction and laughing. (I only found out later that this happened to a friend of mine in Irkutsk while she was running and a bunch of middle school aged kids threw stones at her and ran after her. I’m not even sure if it was because I was a foreigner or just because they thought it was funny). Anyways ,it was a difficult situation because I wanted to yell something in Russian at them, or at least make some threatening movement in their direction, but the last thing I wanted was for other people, seeing or hearing my response, to get involved. Therefore I stood there with a smirk on my face, looking at them, and then walked away. That was probably the most worrisome moment I had the entire time traveling alone in Moscow but, in comparison to stories I have heard it was nothing.

Returning by train to Moscow I knew I wanted to see some sort of concert and that they started at 7:00. Luckily, the Russian sense of time is about as good as mine and concerts usually start at least 20 minutes late. (Interesting fact: if you tell a Russian “see you at 4”, they will meet you around 4 but probably be late. If you tell them, “see you after 4” with the intention of seeing them at, say, 4:15, they may arrive at 6). So at 7:04 I ran into the famous Tchaikosvsky Concert Hall to see if there were any tickets left for the performance. All were sold out, but there happened to be someone standing nearby me who said he had an extra ticket. After a good 5 minutes of scrutinizing the ticket to make sure it was real, and finding no fault with it, I bought it (for the equivalent of 6 dollars!) and for the next 3 hours saw the Moscow Symphony Orchestra in conjunction with numerous guitar virtuosos.

Tuesday: Went to the Tretyakovskaya Gallery (an incredibly famouse museume, with onie of the best collections of Russian art), got in at the student price which is about 2 dollars. Afterwards I went back to “Victory Park” to see the inside of the museum. Then met up with friends, and, at 7, headed on the train ride back.

One last story before I finish up:

On the train ride back I was quite tired and was looking forward just to reading and not having to think, so for the first hour I ate my Russian equivalent of Raman Noodles, drank my chai, and read. But somehow or another, (I forget how) I ended up exchanging a few words with the guy sitting across from me (with the intention of going back to reading right afterwards). However, the conversation quickly took a fairly philosophical turn and, not being one to turn down such a conversation, the remaining 3 hours on the train flew by as we talked passionately about the human soul, how to lead the fullest life, karma, God’s existence, and the responsibility of one human being to another. It was an incredible conversation and it turns out the man (he’s probably about 30-40 years old) lives in Yaroslavl and owns his own shop there. I am going to visit him at some point this week. Just to stress this again, the conversation was wonderful, and his point of view was an outlook that I spend half of my time believing in strongly, and the other half not finding enough proof for. At the very least, however, the exchange of ideas served to refuel and reenergize various views I used to strongly hold before they grew tired under the burden of so much faith and trust.

This is already too long of an entry and badly written. Next time I am going to write an entry about various aspects of Russian culture/philosophy I enjoy/don’t enjoy. And perhaps soon I will finish the entry I already started about the 8^th of March as it touches on many of the same themes.

In conclusion, I successfully traveled alone around Moscow for a good 6 days and am now home and happy to be relaxing.

До скорово,

Гриша

Oh

I wanted to write a long interesting entry here, but due to a scheduling error on my part (1:30 am in the morning is called "at night" of the previous day and this lead to various confusions all translating into the fact that I am leaving for MOscow [where I will be goign for my break, not Kiev] in about 9 hours or 1:30 am Wednesday NIGHT.

As a result just a few things:

Pictures from St. Petersburg have been posted. Go! See them! Now!

Um, I think that's all, when I get back from Moscow I will write a long entry, maybe even 2.

Hope everyone is well,

-Grisha

Soon

there will be a new post regarding:

-8th of March (humongous holiday here)

-My trip to Saint Petersbug

-and new photos will be posted.

Very soon.

Righ now i am quite busy. Also, I think I will be ehading to Kiev in two weeks

-Grisha

Part II –In which Grisha learns the real meaning of the word болен as well as many other fun medical terms.

Read Part 1 first if you haven’t yet.

As I said we returned around 5 and I was tired and decided to take a nap. I couldn’t sleep, however, and around 6 I started to feel sick. Ok, very sick. I will spare everyone the details but I will say this was the most sick I have ever been in my entire life and, though it sounds silly to say now I definitely was laying in bed at times thinking that this was how I was going to die, in Russia, in Arhangelsk, in the Taiga of all places (weird to think in Russian –I’m almost positive I conjugated the verb “to die” incorrectly. Sigh).

So while I was busy not retaining any water, food, or medicine, and heating the entire hotel with my forehead, our Coordinator, Megan was constantly checking on me, giving me different medicine to try and trying to think of what it was I might possibly have come down with. We went through a bunch of different possibilities and kept coming back to the river. But this seemed unlikely since no one else fell ill and a lot of other people drank the water.

One of the most interesting medicines I tried was called “Activated Charcoal”. They have it in the U.S. to and its basically charcoal that you take and it binds to anything not good in your stomach so that you don’t end up digesting it. Scientifically speaking its incredibly interesting and it kept me interested, but maybe that’s only because I saw so many of the tablets.

When it was clear that nothing we were trying was working Megan was able to get the hotel people to call a doctor (keep in mind, we were in the Taiga so hospitals weren’t an option. And, even had we been in Arhangelsk, well, its difficult to explain and understand- coming from a country where the hospitals always have all the newest medicine, good doctors, clean needles, etc – but the hospitals in Arhangelsk are not exactly where you want to go. But we were able to get hold of a doctor who went around making house calls etc. I was thrilled at this as I am currently reading Doctor Zhivago and when he arrived I wanted more than anything to call him Zhivago but I decided it may not be the best thing to do.

So the doctor arrives and inspects me and he’s not completely sure what I have but he says most likely it is an intenstinal infection, virus, что-то (something). He ruled out грип (like the flu) which is quite strong and super contagious so this was good. He then said the nurse would give me two shots, one to bring down the temperature and one for antispasmatic purposes. This was a very interesting experience which I will take some time to detail:

The nurse comes over to me with one of the needles and says something to me in Russian which I don’t fully understand but I figure she wants to give me the приривка (shot) so I start rolling down my right sleeve.

She’s on the left side of the bed and starts saying «Нет, нет» (No, no) and repeats what I didn’t understand the first time.

“Oh” I realize, “I’m an idiot, obviously she’s on the left side, she wants me to unroll my other sleave” so I start to do this too. Unfortunately this action is again met with the now too familiar «Нет, нет» followed this time by an explanation with hand movements.

And then I understand.

So I turn over on my stomach, half glad my Russian wasn’t good enough to understand what was about to happen until the last possible moment, and half hoping that maybe I still hadn’t properly understood and she was about to give me a shot in my leg or something.

But I had understood perfectly and luckily I hadn’t seen how big the needle was.

A little while later she gave me another shot and started to explain what to do and I said “Еще раз, да? Хаха Я знаю что делать, я уже мастер сейчась!» (the grammar is off but something to the effect of “Again, ok, haha I know what to do – I’m a master at this now!”)

After the doctor visit I began feeling better and was finally able to sleep which was good. Unfortunately our group of American students needed to leave the next day and end what was supposed to be a 5 day stay there since it was still unclear what I had and we didn’t know if anyone else would get sick. As it was another girl, Вера (Vera/Virginia) in our group also got sick, luckily not as bad as me, but still not good.

So at this point me and Vera have two options as we head back towards Arhangelsk on the 4 hour road (remember how bumpy it was on the way there? It was no different on the way back. This was interesting and nowhere near as fun as the first time)- we can see a doctor there if we are feeling very ill (we were both feeling a bit better already) or we can fly into Moscow the next day and go to an American clinic. Despite my fear of Russian planes we chose to fly into Moscow.

There’s not much more to tell, well there is but I am tired of writing. It was Wednesday when we arrived at our hotel in Arhangelsk, we couldn’t get tickets until Friday and by Thursday I was feeling quite a bit better so me and two other girls in our group walked around the city, went to a fascinating museum, and walked across a frozen river to an island (pictures were taken). It was only after I got back that I realized I probably shouldn’t have done so much but it was a good time. Then yesterday we flew out to Moscow at 7 in the morning, went to an American clinic, got medicine and tests done, etc and then took a train back to Yaroslavl. Now I am sitting in my room in Yaroslavl and taking the weekend to relax and recuperate.


Oh, an interesting side note, we obviously know I had some type of poising or virus from the water but like I said we just don’t know what exact virus or disease. And Megan said there is a small possibility it could be Dissentery which would be extraordinarily cool to say I had so I’m crossing my fingers for that result. But we’ll see. I’m feeling much better now (infinitely better compared to Monday/Tuesday) but now I’m off to go eat some lunch and do some work. Hope everyone is happy and healthy at home!

До встреча

-Гриша

PS:! Big news! This morning I called and talked to a guy who lives in Moscow and who has a band and he wants me to do an English translation for his website. I am so psyched. Apparently I will be paid for this was well which is cool. And he knows other people who want the same thing –pretty soon I may have my own business here!

PPS: I forgot to say how now, for at least the next week or so, there are certain foods both Vera and I can’t eat. These include: Any and all milk products, fruit, anything fried, boiled, broiled, lemon, eggs, and various other things as they will hinder progress of the medicine, aid the organism, and make my stomach танцует (dance). This means my diet will be consisting mostly of bread, water, pasta, meat, and чай (tea)- here’s to carbohydrates!!

I learned some new words in Russian this past week….Part 1

Most of them were medical terms.

Let me start from the beginning.

Last Sunday we got on a train to go to the Taiga in Arhangelsk, something I had been waiting to do since we first heard about it. The train ride was 16 hours and a lot of fun (pictures of both the train ride and the time in are Arhangelsk have been posted) and involved шахматы (chess), reading Doctor Zhivago, sleeping on the top bunk on a moving train (a formidable task especially for one with a penchant for both sleep talking and sleep walking), and attempting to eat all of the food our бабушки gave us for the train.
Side note: (hence the indent) We were on the train for 16 hours as I said but our host grandmothers gave us enough food for about a month. It was kind of insane. In the two plastic bags that I received I had two or three logs of meat, a full packet of cheese, 2 full lunches, 3 oranges, 2 apples, and enough bread and water to get me through any potential famine that happens to strike Russian поезды (trains) within a 16 hour window. Actually one of the girls, Аня (Anya) in our group had about twice as much as me. But all of this yielded various photographs of me attempting to eat a rather large sandwich so as to not let any of the food go to waste. Also, I lost the шахматы game. Sigh.

Very quickly a bit about the train: We were in the cheapest (and most safe) compartment though now I’m forgetting what they are called in Russian. Each one of these compartments has room for 4 people and is not closed off from anywhere else. So basically there’s one main walking hall that runs through the train and on the left occasionally is the место (place – it sounds better to say this word in Russian, in English saying “place” sounds like you couldn’t think of a more descriptive word and, as I couldn’t, here it appears in Russian) where you stay. It’s a small area but not tiny and lining the two longer sides are cushioned “benches/beds” The two bottom ones are where everyone sits when people are awake and they also can be opened to function as trunks to store чимоданы (bags, suitcases) –a very good idea so that no one steals them. Some distance above each of these are the top beds (where I slept) and in the middle of the room is a small table. Okay, enough about the train, I love Russian trains. (Though I must add that sleeping on one is difficult, I got about 20 minutes the entire night)

We arrived in Архангелск (Arhangelsk) sometime VERY early morning (7? 8?, anyways, it was before 1pm) and there we had an excursion around the city. It’s tough to describe the city as its has multiple feels to it, its at once large and white from all the snow but dirty and with an industrial (not factory industrial just industrial if that makes sense) sense that stems from the shipping ports (its located along a large river). The tour was very interesting and we went to one museum where we clearly told our museum guide we only had an hour and a half before lunch and we wanted to see everything.

And so we ended up standing in front of the VERY first Icon in the VERY first room for an hour. This was as hilarious as it was frustrating and half the time she wasn’t even talking about the icon. But there were some very beautiful paintings we saw in our 30 minute jaunt through the rest of the museum (Айвазовский/Aivazovskii was there so I was thrilled beyond belief).

We then had lunch at a restaurant with a sailor/ocean theme which was exceedingly strange and afterwards we went to an incredibly beautiful area (pictures were taken) where are preserved all of these houses and churches. Its an old village where people lived but the thing that makes it so different is, since metal was so expensive, everything is made out of wood. Everything. I had never seen a wooden church before but this was incredible. Imagine typical Russian architecture of a church but then imagine that completely made from trees in the forest. Like I said, there are pictures.

After that we then took a 4 hour ride to the area we were staying in the Taiga. The road was incredibly bumpy and our group ended up in the back where every few seconds we were catapulted to the ceiling. This was actually very fun.

Oh, another quick thing, there was other people in our tour group too and we all stayed at the hotel together and did the excursions together. They were all Russians and were all really nice. Lets see if I can remember them. There was Таня and her mother from Moscow, Сергей (Sergei) and his wife (they were 20 years old and had already been married for two years) from Arhangelsk, a boyfriend and girlfriend pair that were fine during the day but at night they were drunk and yelling at eachother, and then a 6 year old named Федр (Fyodor) and his mother. In one of the pictures I have constructed the самый сильный дворец в мире (the strongest castle in the world!) with him out of blocks. He also beat me at chess. Sigh.

The next day (Monday) we had our first excursion in the Taiga. I can’t describe how incredibly beautiful, peaceful, pure everything is there. Well I can but I have a lot to write about. Look at the pictures. Our first excursion was in a cave (there are quite a few in the area) and I believe people used to live there. It was incredible and we got to put on a lot of very funny gear including camouflage (so our clothes wouldn’t get dirty), special boots for some (there were none that fit me unfortunately), and a hard hat equipped with a working light). At one point towards the end of the excursion our guide (a great guy who, if you are reading this, Joel Norton, reminded me of you a lot. If you are reading this and you are not Joel Norton I am sorry, I will try to find someone else in Russia who reminds me of you.) Anyways, at oen point he had us turn off all our lights and we stood there in silence and then he told us to think about how we were in one of the few places on earth where there is absolutely no light. It was wonderful. And we stood there for about 15 minutes, our eyes trying desperately to adjust but not seeing anything, just listening to silence and occasionally the voice of our guide as he told us stories and philosophy.

Oh, by the way, all tours, etc, everything was conducted in Russian.

On the way back through the caves there was an underground river we came across. We were told that the water was okay to drink and so some people began taking sips and or gulps. I was one of those people. Remember this point. We will return to it later.

Later on in the day we went and explored two waterfalls and returned back to our “hotel” site at around 5pm.

-End Side A. Please Turn Tape Over to Side B to continue-