sorry for the absence! i went to paris a couple weekends ago (wheeeee!) so i didn't do a blog post for that weekend. it was a friend's 40th, so she invited a group of her friends from all parts of her life to meet in paris. none of us really knew each other, which made it more fun. we all got along really well and basically shopped and ate our way through le marais. it was fantastic. i let myself do some fun shopping, and buy some proper clothes - like, well-made clothes, not just t-shirts from H&M!! mom would be so proud. :)
this past weekend i had a very soviet day. i'm counting down the days now until i move out of moscow. and as much as i'm excited to get to sochi and into rehearsals, i'm sad to leave moscow! there's SO much to see and do here. i feel like i've barely scratched the surface! so i've made my "to do before leaving moscow" list and have started to tick things off. so, back to the soviet day. on sunday morning, i met my friend and colleague julie-ann at red square. we wanted to see lenin. i figured i've seen mao, so i might as well see the other embalmed leader in the world. it was mighty creepy, actually, and kind of made me sick to my stomach. i remember reading about the fact that you could see lenin in an article in the des moines register when i was an early teenager, and thinking "wow. that is really amazing that the russians thought to do that!" and i've kind of been fascinated by it ever since. so i went! it's a surreal experience. first of all, you have to stand in line way outside of red square, you would NEVER know where to go (julie-ann had seen him before, so she knew what to do). and then you check your bags, you're not allowed to bring anything in. i stuffed my wallet and my passport in my pockets and handed over my bag. then you go through a metal detector. then you are directed into basically a big, dark monument, hardly any lighting anywhere. and stoic russian soldiers are there at every turn to guide you. they either do nothing, or if you look lost, solemnly and sternly point in the direction you need to go. you wind your way down and into a room that has a glass sarcophagus, and there he is. lying inside the glass box. what is really strange, is that his arms are on lying on top of his chest, one hand clenched, the other open, as if he just fell asleep reading a novel before bed. he looks wax, but somehow, you know it's probably real. you can't linger, you have to keep moving around the case, so you get a 360 degree view. and then you are ushered out into the daylight blinking and squinting and feeling slightly ill. i was recently thinking to myself how lucky i am to have never seen a dead body. and then i had to correct myself that i've seen 2 now. 2 more than i ever wish to see.
so after lenin, we went to brunch (that sounds wierd and horrible, i know!!!) at a russian friend's very soviet apartment. small, and cramped, with faded flowery wallpaper and some cheapy chandelier in every room to try to make the shabiness seem elegant. it's really no different than a cheap, rundown apartment in the east village, or boston's north end. except for the chandeliers, and the doors to every room. there are so many doors in that apartment! i think so that you heat only the room you are in. anyway, so that was lovely, and a good taste of how young russians live in the center of moscow. and a taste for how soviet families lived in the 70's in the center of moscow. here are some photos. (we are trying to be a traditional soviet family and not smile. however, the russians couldn't hold it in.)
and then julie-ann and i continued our soviet walk thru history by going to see the sculpture of the peasant and the worker. (rabochi y kokhoznitsa in russian). it was made in 1937 by vera mukhina for the world's fair in paris. then it was moved to moscow. it's incredible. HUGE steel sculpture of a man with a hammer (worker) and woman with a sickle (peasant). just put that whole icon (the hammer and sickle) into context for me. here are some photos:
this past weekend i had a very soviet day. i'm counting down the days now until i move out of moscow. and as much as i'm excited to get to sochi and into rehearsals, i'm sad to leave moscow! there's SO much to see and do here. i feel like i've barely scratched the surface! so i've made my "to do before leaving moscow" list and have started to tick things off. so, back to the soviet day. on sunday morning, i met my friend and colleague julie-ann at red square. we wanted to see lenin. i figured i've seen mao, so i might as well see the other embalmed leader in the world. it was mighty creepy, actually, and kind of made me sick to my stomach. i remember reading about the fact that you could see lenin in an article in the des moines register when i was an early teenager, and thinking "wow. that is really amazing that the russians thought to do that!" and i've kind of been fascinated by it ever since. so i went! it's a surreal experience. first of all, you have to stand in line way outside of red square, you would NEVER know where to go (julie-ann had seen him before, so she knew what to do). and then you check your bags, you're not allowed to bring anything in. i stuffed my wallet and my passport in my pockets and handed over my bag. then you go through a metal detector. then you are directed into basically a big, dark monument, hardly any lighting anywhere. and stoic russian soldiers are there at every turn to guide you. they either do nothing, or if you look lost, solemnly and sternly point in the direction you need to go. you wind your way down and into a room that has a glass sarcophagus, and there he is. lying inside the glass box. what is really strange, is that his arms are on lying on top of his chest, one hand clenched, the other open, as if he just fell asleep reading a novel before bed. he looks wax, but somehow, you know it's probably real. you can't linger, you have to keep moving around the case, so you get a 360 degree view. and then you are ushered out into the daylight blinking and squinting and feeling slightly ill. i was recently thinking to myself how lucky i am to have never seen a dead body. and then i had to correct myself that i've seen 2 now. 2 more than i ever wish to see.
so after lenin, we went to brunch (that sounds wierd and horrible, i know!!!) at a russian friend's very soviet apartment. small, and cramped, with faded flowery wallpaper and some cheapy chandelier in every room to try to make the shabiness seem elegant. it's really no different than a cheap, rundown apartment in the east village, or boston's north end. except for the chandeliers, and the doors to every room. there are so many doors in that apartment! i think so that you heat only the room you are in. anyway, so that was lovely, and a good taste of how young russians live in the center of moscow. and a taste for how soviet families lived in the 70's in the center of moscow. here are some photos. (we are trying to be a traditional soviet family and not smile. however, the russians couldn't hold it in.)
and then julie-ann and i continued our soviet walk thru history by going to see the sculpture of the peasant and the worker. (rabochi y kokhoznitsa in russian). it was made in 1937 by vera mukhina for the world's fair in paris. then it was moved to moscow. it's incredible. HUGE steel sculpture of a man with a hammer (worker) and woman with a sickle (peasant). just put that whole icon (the hammer and sickle) into context for me. here are some photos:
so it was a pretty amazing day for me. i wanted to try to get to the museum of contemporary history, but that was just too much for one day. that will have to wait for next weekend...and i can check out all the soviet propaganda and more history from the 20th century.
i'll leave you with photos of the amazing moscow skies. these were taken in the past few weeks. you can see that just a few weeks ago, the sun was rising with me. now, i unfortunately get up before it does!
the two above photos are sunrise from my kitchen window.
the two above photos are sunset, from my office window, on the seven sister building that is closest to my office.
the above photos are sunset from my bedroom window.
stunning skies here!! will definitely miss this place.
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