I will go ahead an give a recap of the last couple of weeks, and that will probably be my last post in Russia (maybe I'll do one last one when I get home in a couple weeks).
So today I had one of my most memorable experiences: visiting Lenin in the mausoleum. THIS IS BY FAR ONE OF THE MOST MEMORABLE EXPERIENCES IN RUSSIA! Seriously. You have to get in a long line to see him in front of the Kremlin wall, as you enter the black marble tomb, your eyes meet the eyes of Russian guards posted on every wall and around every corner. In uniform, with their arms folded, along with the lights being completely dimmed and the air icy cold to help preserve the body, it was the perfect atmosphere to represent the communist era that Lenin helped along(yes, whether Lenin wanted to or not, he paved the way for Stalin). Wow. It was just a 2 minute walk (if that) past his body, but those two minutes were close to the strangest of my life! They really need to bury the man. After I got out of the tomb, I also saw Stalin's grave. Wow.
Other recent adventures. I saw my first ballet here...Gisselle. It was beautiful and the orchestra was amazing, but the main character dies before intermission. That kind of tells you that the ballet was leaning towards the downer side ;)
Lindsey and I at the theater
(Side note about the theatre and anything that involves clapping in Russia...they clap in unison. It is really strange especially for things like a ballet. I think you could pull it off in the states for a sporting event, but for a ballet, it would be really weird.)
We went to victory park and walked around (it's beautiful, I've been there many times). The war museum is incredible. We walked through replicas of different battles in their history. One of the replicas was of Hitler's failed attack on Moscow. I think our politics teacher cracked a joke about why Hitler had to retreat and it was because "there were no roads to Moscow." haha. anyway, there was also a huge room that had crystals hanging down for each person that died (I think in just WWII -including due to Stalin- but I have been through so many museums and heard so many thing that it's hard to keep things straight) and it was a very sobering experience to stand under that ceiling.
It was a beautiful day, and we ended up playing in the fountains afterward. The girl I am with (Rachel) is a Dartmouth student who also volunteers at the hospital.
We went to the famous cemetery (I forget the name but it's right next to a monastery), and we saw graves of Chekhov, Gogol, Stalin's wife, and many others. We're standing in front of Yeltsin's grave. Personally, I think the grave marker is a little ostentatious.
Last week I spent lots of time out in the sun watching the international beach volleyball tournament. Lots of different people from different countries, but definitely lots of Brasilians.
We got hot by the end and we ended up jumping into the fountains...this time completely getting soaked! Definitely a nice summer day!
So guess what I got to do on Saturday...I went to Yasnaya Polyana!!!! Tolstoy's estate is incredible. It was a day trip (About 3 hours to the south out of a city called Tula), and it was once again a wonderful time to explore true Russian nature.
Train Station that I arrived at.
Tolstoy's grave. He was an incredible man and wanted to stick to the simplicity of life, admiring the peasant way. He didn't want any type of grave stone...he just wanted to be buried in peace, away from all worldliness.
This video isn't much, but I liked it because I caught a man crossing himself in front of his grave. At first I thought that Tolstoy wouldn't have liked that (considering he didn't particularly like the Orthodox church) but he was a man of God and I liked that this Russian man payed his respects to Tolstoy with a symbol that he related to God.
Absolutely beautiful fields.
I also visited Tolstoy's house right here in Moscow!!! I just can't get enough of Tolstoy lately!
Interesting things about Tolstoy:
-He studied 13 languages in his life and was fluent in most of them. (Including him starting to study Chinese I think at 80?!)
-He had 13 children but 5 died young
-He lifted weights ;) I saw them in both houses!
-He cut the legs on his writing chair because he had poor eyesight and needed to be really close to the paper.
-He started a school that had more subjects than was ever heard of for that time.
-OK, and for those of you mormons who have heard rumors about this, he does have a Book of Mormon! I had to look for it real hard, but alas, I found it in the last room on a book shelf at Yasnaya Polyana!
Took a boat tour of Moscow which was pretty. Probably the most striking view was of one of Stalin's 7 sisters (which was the beginning of "his" city). They are the tallest buildings in Moscow and they definitely mark the city.
And this is Ashley and I being funny because we took a similar picture in Pete.
So what else...oh ya. Harry Potter in Russian! Ya! I enjoyed the movie (though I didn't understand everything ;) ). But you know, I laughed and got scared when I was supposed to, so I thought I did a pretty good job!! haha, but really, it was a great tool to increase my vocab about magic ;)
oh, and the weather. We have had quite the rainy summer that is wet and cold. One of the beautiful gifts about Moscow is that they shut your hot water off for two weeks (which apparently is a gift from 3 weeks during previous years). My water went off during a really cold week which helped me wake up in the mornings I guess. The second week weather was warmer (when we watched volleyball) and now my water's back. Except I don't really want to use it because now when I turn on the hot water it comes out brown. hmm...anyway ;) Well, here's a little vid of one of the many storms that we've had. I think I'm taking this vid at about 4:30/5 in the morning...you can't really capture the shaking feeling of the thunder on camera or the deluge outside.
Well, that's all for now. I love you all and I hope that everyone has been having a great summer! Oh, and one last thing...I don't know if this will sound as funny not being in Russia and talking about Russian politics with a professor with a thick Russian accent in English, but I had to write this quote down in my notes when we talked about regional elections under Putin. He was saying that they were much more controlled under Putin, but that control didn't really affect Moscow and Petersberg. But then he added this basically refuting the claim he had just made, "I will not say they were not democratic in Petersberg and Moscow though there are many questions about that."
You speak HP now, huh. Excited to seeeeee you in less than 2 weeks!
ReplyDeleteOh, and you have 3 languages down...10 more to go. Better get your A in gear.