Moscow! This weekend gave me some MUCH needed perspective on my life right now, being in Moscow and getting to see another side of Russia. It's been very surreal going straight from home to this small Russian city without ever having been to this country before. I've felt almost like I've been dreaming, that this isn't my real life, more because something about it just doesn't feel real. I guess it's just such a huge difference, Vladimir from DC, that my mind has just not been able to wrap itself around this lifestyle, I have no previous experience to compare this to. But going to Moscow has helped greatly. All major world cities have something in common, some kind of quality that always feels familiar... I almost felt like I was home again in Moscow, I felt immediately more confident, comfortable, alive even. 

I was completely prepared to dislike, even hate Moscow based on what I've been told by other people. For some reason, people often like to discuss the bad sides of the city. Often what you'll hear is that Moscow is ugly, at least compared to St. Petersburg, the city is dirtier, more crowded. And sure, it's a big city like the rest of them. But Moscow contains great beauty. I still haven't been to St. Petersburg and, yes, I'm sure on the surface there is no comparison, but in no way do I consider Moscow to be ugly. My first time on Red Square was at night, and it was breathtaking. World class art, theater, immensely important history... I don't think I had any bad thought about Moscow the entire time I was there. It's just... majestic. A wonderful city with so much to do. So what did I do?

We took a train Friday morning and arrived around noon, checked into the hotel and had lunch. With a few hours of free time, I headed to the Tretyakov Gallery with Sarah and Faye. Wonderful art, of course. There were many paintings I loved but the only one I can remember is the one that's pictured above, and it's called, I believe, "Princess Tarakanova". I also saw familiar portraits of Dostoyevsky, Pushkin and Peter the Great. Icons, religious art. After this we met at a theater to see a modern interpretation of the opera The Marriage of Figaro. It was sung in Italian with Russian supertitles, meaning I really didn't know what was going on at all. So I decided to focus on the music instead. It was a great experience and I think my first opera that didn't involve marionettes (Prague). After the opera I decided to join Reese, Kyle, Chelsea and Kelsey to walk around Red Square, this being, of course, my first time. An ice skating rink had been set up on the square, so we watched the skaters for a while. After taking some pictures, we left the Square only to run right into the path of some police officers, which is generally always a bad thing in Russia. They asked for our documents, probably after hearing us speaking English, which is a very common thing to have happen to you in Moscow. I had all my documents, but not my train ticket, and since my registration indicates that I'm living in Vladimir... as the police officer put it, "we have a problem". He told the other 4 that they were free, but brought me over to the side. Immediately Reese, one of the year-long students, come over and tried to help. His Russian is much better than mine and he's been in this situation before, apparently. He's also... a more resourceful and clever person in general. The thing I've been told about Russian police officers, of course, is that they're usually looking for a bribe. And bribing, in general, is much more common and accepted as normal in Russian culture. Even at orientation we were instructed on how to handle situations where police officers decide to be difficult and imply that a bribe is needed. Reese began by calling our resident director, Tom, who instructed him to stall... so Reese continued to speak in English on the phone saying "I'm stalling, I'm stalling, it's working well, blah blah blah" etc., hoping the police officers don't understand English. Eventually then we got in touch with Elena Vladimirovna, my Phonetics teacher who had accompanied us on the trip, who got on the phone with the police officer. After a short conversation, after the police officer repeatedly stating that this is a big problem, eventually the conversation ended with the police officer handing the phone back to Reese and saying simply "иди (go)". Elena Vladimirovna, generally speaking, is someone we are all somewhat in awe of. A great representation of the kind of women Soviet times created... immensely strong, intelligent and capable. We returned to the hotel immediately thereafter.

Saturday we had the entire day to do as we pleased. I joined a city bus tour headed by the Moscow resident director, and was joined by a few of the Moscow and Vladimir students. We drove around looking at famous sites, stopping only a few times. Bolotnaya Ploshad (Swamp Square) is one example, where we saw a sculpture I really loved by Mikhail Shemyakin called "The Children - Victims of Adult Vices". Click on that link for more information. After the tour I had lunch at an Italian restaurant with about 5 other people, and we went to Mikhail Bulgakov's apartment afterwards. We tried to find the Pushkin Museum but the line was too long, so I went with some friends to Dom Knigi (House of Books), which is a big book store. I bought a few English language books because I miss reading in my own language: Dostoyevsky's "Notes from the Underground" and Nabokov's "Transparent Things". After Dom Knigi, we walked along Stariy Arbat, watched some street performers, got dinner in an underground mall food court (I had sushi and beer), walked through GUM, the huge wonderful shopping mall on Red Square, watched some more ice skating and finally went home, exhausted.

The next morning we had a group tour of the Kremlin Armory where we saw Peter the Great's boots, thrones, carriages, and other treasures. We also walked around inside the Kremlin, where we saw some cathedrals, including the Cathedral of the Archangel. When we were inside, we were treated to maybe the most beautiful singing I've ever heard and, in such an old beautiful cathedral, it was just... indescribable. Absolute pure perfect beauty. We had lunch, sat around at a cafe in GUM and finally returned home. 

So Moscow was... well I did much more in that weekend than I've done in my two weeks in Vladimir. But I'm glad that I'm studying, at least for now, in Vladimir as opposed to Moscow. Everyone describes Petersburg as the Western city but, compared to Vladimir, Moscow is very Western. The stores, clothing style, everything. There is no escaping the fact that you're in Russia when in Vladimir... you're smothered and constantly reminded by that fact. But in Moscow it would be easier to embrace the familiar Western qualities of the city, to occasionally indulge in homesickness by visiting an American restaurant or to avoid speaking Russian too often. Vladimir is definitely more immersive, and more Russian-flavored, if that makes sense. Moscow life would be more busy, more stimulating maybe, but, in terms of getting to know Russia, of knowing what Russia and Russian alone, with minimal outside influences, really means, Vladimir is the place. We can visit Moscow, we'll have several opportunities to do so and it would be good. I'd like to live there at some point for at least a short time, I definitely have plans for Moscow, but it's good to finally understand Vladimir in a comparative perspective, and I have a better grasp of what I'm doing and where I'm doing it now.

To answer a few questions:

1) What kind of cars do you see in Russia: 

Normal ones. I've only really paid attention a few times. It's like cars anywhere else... some look expensive, some look broken down. Of course the cars looked nicer in Moscow but nothing has really stood out for me so far.

2) How would you describe the clothing, what is style in Russia? What are the colors?

It's funny, most of what I see on people is their outdoor winter clothing so I'm very familiar with coats and such. In Vladimir there's definitely a Russian style that also exists in Moscow, though Moscow fashion is much more Western. Women wear warm coats, hats, scarves, boots, the works. They're wrapped up very well. Most outfits seem to contain leather and/or fur. It's hard for me to describe exactly, but Russian women do look, on average, more well put together than the average American. The men wear a coat, hat, boots, whatever. But the hats are very big and warm and furry looking. For women and men. I see fashion in the malls, where things like jeans and shoes just look so different than what would be popular in America, but in a European way. Colors are darker. 

3) What has Kostya been up to since he's been home? And how old is he?

Kostya is 19. I haven't seen him at all because I was in Moscow this weekend. Everyday that I get home, he's already gone out and he gets home late after I'm asleep. As far as I know, he goes out every night, which makes sense since young Russians often go out to clubs and he's on vacation from school. Kostya is a cadet, studying to become an officer in the Russian army. His brother, who I think is around 25, is already an officer. Their father was in the army... I finally asked and found out he died from a heart condition. I asked Kostya if he'd like me to introduce him to the West Point guys in our group. He said he'd heard of West Point but it would be a bad idea to meet them because he's a "secrets man".