apologies that i have not written lately!! work has really taken off. i work at least 10 hours/day, and at least half the weekend. so, by the end of the evening, kind of the last thing i want to do is stare at a screen again! i'm sorry. it's not that i don't want to share, it's just that there also hasn't been too much to share, what with all the working. AND it has been raining practically every day. so not a lot of motivation to get out and discover new places. they keep saying there is this phenomenon called бабалето, which means "woman summer," the russian version of indian summer. but we have yet to experience it. only rain and clouds.
ANYWAY. so, to back up a bit...on 7 september, moscow celebrated it 866th birthday. so of COURSE there was a festival! street fairs, parades, music, dancing, and...surprise, surprise...FIREWORKS! it was a cold, grey, dreary day, but i was determined to join in the celebrations. i headed down to red square, as there was some kind of military parade down tverskaya, (the broadway of moscow), culminating in red square. it wasn't the same kind of military parade as on 9 May, with tanks and things. this time, it was all military marching bands! was kinda fun to watch, and remember my good ol' marchmaster days. i swear we kept better lines that some of these military bands. here are photos from the day:
i LOVE the little kid on the right in this photo. could have been taken 50 years ago. (except for the United Colors of Benetton in the backgound...)
and i love this guy. he doesn't care about no stinkin' parade!
i think this is the russian band. they were last.
distracted trombone player.
oh yeah! this is the band representing the pan-arab nations. the flag differs only slightly from the flag of the pan-arab revolt. was really interesting to see this group in the parade given the current political climate esp btwn america and russia over syria. it is hard for me to imagine that the US would have a parade that included representation from the pan-arab nations....but maybe i'm being unfair?
i met some friends at a pretty classic soviet diner...we had to chuckle at the first two options on this page of the menu. not quite sure what the difference is...
this is luba, with a doll/toy from back in the USSR days. it is like a weeble - it doesn't fall over. and it plays a little chime when you rock it. all the russians were cooing over it as it reminded them of their childhoods (well, or stories their parents would tell of their childhoods)
one of the boulevards in the city center had a long strip of tents set up of only board games. yes, it was a kind of trade show thing riding on the back of the city celebrations, but still, it was pretty cool cuz you could play ANY game you wanted. great for families!
this is an old abandoned building that our russian friend zheniya showed us. it once was occupied, during soviet times, but is now officially abandoned...but people clearly still live there, just illegally.
this is a beautiful neighborhood church. a service was about to start, so a man went up to the bell tower and literally rang all of the bells himself. they were all tied together with a series of intricately woven ropes, and he run them by pulling one by one, or all together. it was lovely and stunning to watch.
jason and i LOVE moscow!
flags up for city day.
i like that this photo shows juxtaposition of old (the seven sister building on the left, built by stalin) and new (moscow city, on the left...it looks like a cartoon...i call it gotham city)
and of course, fireworks!!! I went outside to the bridge near my house to see if i could get a good view, but the best view happened to be from my bedroom window. this weekend was the finale showing of a month-long firework contest or something. i'm not quite sure exactly. but i do know i could hear/see fireworks near nightly during the summer.
so that was a fun day! a day of no work. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment