first stop, the mall! as you know, i do hate malls. but it was necessary. i needed a few practical items, and i wanted to do some shopping around for a new computer bag. my EMS backpack system is not cutting it. WAY too outdoorsy for this gig. got to be more polished. so here we are waiting for the subway on our way to shop til we drop! and it's only 3 stops away, very easy to get there. and tho there are lots of western stores (including 2 starbucks) hardly anyone speaks english, and there are few signs in english, so it does still feel pretty foreign, despite being in one of america's largest gifts to the world.
this is mike (prod coord), john (props manager), trish (operations guru), david (wardrobe manager), gerri (accommodations whiz), anne (also a segment producer) and keith (production executive, which means he keeps guys like david and john in check :) ). a lovely group of folks. and the mall was fun...i went to marks and spencer (undies), H&M (a bag and some fun tops...tho about 2-3x what i'd pay in the states!), and tried to buy a skin for my computer, but my card got denied...this is the second time in a week. even tho i called chase to tell them i was traveling, they have denied my card twice in a row when i have made purchases at stores here. so i had to sort that out when i got back to the hotel. for now, i'll just take a bunch of cash out at a time, and keep it in my safe or something, and use the card sparingly.
after a nice nap, we went out again on a guided tour of the communist history of moscow. saw buildings where the KGB made it's headquarters (above), and the hotel metropoli, which was also used by the communists as a govt HQ while they built their own buildings. the hotel (below) is gorgeous. designed and built by a british team in the early 20th century i think. this city is gorgeous in it's architecture...i had NO idea. so fun to discover it all!
we saw an exhibit of old original propaganda posters used by the communist party to brainwash the citizens of the USSR. here are some choice ones...and really, i have to question whether they should be considered "propaganda"...some messages do hit a little too close to the truth...
the image to the left is of uncle sam hugging a british guy, whilst simultaneously robbing him.
the poster above and on the left says that life in america is pretty horrible...it states how often a bank is robbed (ie every 2 minutes, etc), a car is stolen, someone is mugged, or children have died per month. and it also says it got these facts from the american media itself! the one on the right shows what life is like as a musician in a democratic country (you are poor, in BW and playing on the streets) and what your musician's life is like in a communist country (you are well-off, adored, play in the largest music halls, and are in sepia tone!)
above and to the left, i am mimicking the "thinking worker". this was a sculptural piece of propaganda, one of few that are still left in moscow. this was created in the 1920's, when workers were still allowed to think. then along came stalin and he decided that was a bad idea. the pic on the right is for melissa soltesz...nesting cat dolls!! with chickens!!
these two pics are from the fanciest grocery store i have ever been in in the world. dean and deluca has NOTHING on this one. it was built for the richest russians, before the communists took over. the architect wanted to make a place for shopping for rich people. he knew they would have no idea what things ACTUALLY cost, so he could charge whatever he wanted, and make a fortune! he was right. and then, it was still a grocery during the soviet era, but only the gov't employees could shop there/had enough $ to shop there. the pic on the right is inside the store, too...they have a souvenir section...i'm guessing tourists are the main source of income for this store...but i took this pic because i remembered that my dad's friend tom shillinglaw (who sometimes reads this blog - hi tom!) brought back one of these types of boxes for me one year as a gift from his travels. it's beautiful and i'll probably have to get another one while i'm here!
below is a pic of me with mr marx in the background. (sorry i didn't change the orientation before i imported it...). when the communists fell out of power, many of their sculptures and things were destroyed. however, this one remained. and the only reason why is because it was too heavy and would cost too much to destroy. this city is incredible. it has weathered regime changes every 70 years for the past several hundred years. each one trying to wipe out all traces of the ones before. but some lucky few remain...like st basil's and this sculpture of marx in revolution square. what layers of history are here!!
hockey night in russia!! we went to a hockey game today. i was exhausted from the touring and shopping yesterday, and wanted to be lazy today. but then we got offered last-minute tickets. and i at first said no. then i thought about it, and thought, you know, sara, sometimes you just have to say yes. that is what this trip is all about. saying yes to the chances, the opportunities, the challenges. being open to it all. so i went. it was the last home-game of the season for spartak moscow, against their cross-town rivals svska (i think that's how you write it...). was quite a fun game. the pic on the left is the spartak home fans waving flags and shouting incessantly thru the whole game (spartak won!). you can maybe see the cheerleaders behind the flags...they had a different outfit for each period, and danced their little russian hearts out the whole time, pretty much. and their last outfit was basically a tight red t-shirt, over high-cut red panties. was like they were at a sorority slumber party. i was quite shocked, actually. was also quite shocking to even SEE cheerleaders at a hockey game! to the right are beckie, anne, simon, and mike. some of the group that went. oh yeah, and the russian president has changed the national anthem back to being the soviet one...has changed some lyrics, but the melody is the same. it was chilling, actually, to hear it sung at the top of the hockey game...raise goosebumps all over us westerners...we've been so programmed to think of that as an evil, depressing song...incredible to be here, when that period of history is over...sort of...and to hear it played. going to have to get used to it in my line of work for the next year i suppose.
and this is a little kitty in the window of a pet shop in the shopping center attached to the hotel. seeing them makes me miss my kitties...and i thought it was amazing that this one has the exact coloring of my cat BC! even down to the white spot on his back. so cute.
so that was some of my weekend. got lost a couple of times, ate some nice italian food, learned a TON about russian soviet history...and that was just the tip of the iceberg. saw a russian hockey game, took a dip in the pool/hot tub/sauna/steam room they have in our fitness center (amazing...), cooked some pasta, skyped with my folks. all in all, a pretty good one i'd say.
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