More of Moscow and a Short Research Update

Here are some more pictures of Moscow that I have collected. The temperature hovers around 0 degrees Celsius, and we could have snow any day. This coming Friday, we are going to a hockey championship game, which should be amazing.

My bedroom


Chase sitting on my bed

Chase and Susan at the Garden of the Fallen Monuments


Lenin in marble at the Garden of the Fallen Monuments
(he looks better in marble than he does in his mausoleum - yuck)


One of the fountains near Red Square


Inside the Goom super-luxury mall


Inside the substitute theater for the actual Bolshoi theater (which is under construction)

My translation of the Russian phage therapy papers is coming along and I am halfway through my first translation. I'll have it up on the blog by the middle of November. The paper is about phage-typing of Staphylococcus Aureus, which is an out-dated technique, but I'll finish the translation anyways since I'm halfway done already. I am also digging up English, Polish, and even Finnish papers on Staph Aureus phage technology that are very interesting.

The First Snow! (But no pictures of it, sorry)

Today (Sunday the 14th) was the first day of snow in Moscow! Thank goodness I bought those outrageously expensive Finnish boots.

Chase and I have been working out our holiday itinerary. It is starting to look something like this: We'll begin in Prague during the middle of December and Christmas and move south to Budapest and east to Bucharest. From there we will visit Kiev, go northwest to Minsk, Belarus (if we get visas), north through the Baltic Republics, and end in Helsinki, Finland. We'll return to Moscow through St. Petersburg.

This week, our study abroad group visited the P.I. Tchaikovsky theater near Mayakovsky Street to watch the Don Cossacks dance. You probably know what the Cossack dances look like: guys with tall black wool hats, their arms crossed, crouching down on their thighs while kicking their legs out. While I was watching them spin on their heads and flip around on the stage, I realized that Cossack dancing is like break dancing.

Here, Kyle and I are standing in front of a statue of the poet, Mayakovsky.

Yesterday, I spent the day wandering around in Moscow looking for the Biological Museum. I never found it, because I lost myself in the city just looking at the buildings, parks, and the U.S. Embassy. Sometimes just walking along the streets can be like visiting a museum. Here are some pictures from my stroll:

One of the Seven Sisters: this one is the Kudrinskaya Square Building.

I'm a big fan of that building. This is the top.

The US Embassy, down Novinsky Street from the Kudrinskaya Square Building

A park in front of the stunning Patriarch Hotel.

This picture is for my Aunt Sara and Grandpa Cy: a dentist's office (Stomatologicheskaya Klinika).

I also walked around Red Square to take pictures. Here are some pictures, and a video of Red Square. It's hard to visualize what Red Square is like. You can't really appreciate it unless you've been there. I hope the video helps you to orient the buildings relative to each each other in your mind.

And the pictures of the Red Square:


The Kremlin Clock Tower

St. Basil's Cathedral


Lenin's Tomb

The "Goom"

Inside the Goom (which is a gigantic luxury mall)

The State Historical Museum (where my host sister works)

I don't want to editorialize too much, since these pictures are pretty cool on their own, but I did notice one thing. If you stand in the middle of Red Square and turn around, you see a cathedral (representing the Church), the Kremlin (representing the State), the Goom department store (representing the Market), and the State Historical Museum (representing Academia). It is kind of a neat symbolism of the Russian world, and I think that their size is a pretty good estimation of each institution's relative importance in modern Russia. State > Market > Academia > Church. Hehe, maybe not. It's pretty hare-brained, but fun to think about.

Soon We'll Have Snow!

The view out of my bedroom window, a couple weeks ago (it's been raining lately):

This week, I went shopping with my host sister, Natalia, for snow boots. I ended up buying a $240 pair of fur-lined, real-leather, waterproof Finnish-made snow boots with handy flip-out ice spikes on the undersole. I could have bought a cheaper pair, but Natalia insisted that I buy those particular boots. As insistent as she was, I can't imagine what shopping with a Russian wife would be like. Actually, all of the boots were pretty expensive anyways. I've experienced why Moscow is one of the most expensive cities in the world.

In the end, it's good that I bought them because the temperature keeps dropping steadily and on Sunday the forecast is snow. In the meantime, the weather is like Oregon in late November.

Our study abroad group has had some fun excursions lately. On Saturday, we visited the Tretyakov Gallery, where I saw Ivanov's Appearance of Christ to the People. The painting measures 18' x 25' and took Ivanov twenty years to finish. Surrounding the main painting are smaller details of the people in the painting (each a masterpiece of their own) that he prepared before incorporating them to the main work. The Siege of Pskov by Briullov was also impressively huge. My personal favorites, though, were the Italian landscapes painted by S.F. Shchedrin.

Last Monday, we saw the Bolshoi Ballet Company perform Swan Lake at the Stanislavsky Theater. Although I was skeptical at first, I think that Russian ballet is incredible now. The sheer scale of the performance, like the size of some of the paintings in the Tretyakov Gallery, is impressive. Add to that the athleticism and synchronization of each dancer and by the end of the show it doesn't matter what kind of tights they are wearing.

In class, we are working on Russian motion verbs, which are a special class of verbs with their own rules, and we always practice speaking. Learning Russian is a long-term commitment, and I expect to spend a couple years of actually practicing speaking before I'll be able to hold a fluid conversation.

Here are some more recent photos.

Another one of the Seven Sisters that Stalin built:

They should turn Stalin's buildings into little plastic Happy Meal toys at McDonald's, so that you can "Collect all 7!". Speaking of McDonald's, the original Moscow McDonald's at the Pushkinskaya metro stop is bigger than the one in Times Square, NY and way busier. In fact, it's so happening there on Friday night, that some people just hang out in one of the ten register lines and make out with each other. So, if you want a burger, your appetite will have to survive some face-sucking. I'll try to get a picture of the original McDonald's later.

A (thirty-foot-tall) monument to Russian-Georgian frienship:


The entrance to the Tretyakov Gallery and a statue of Pavel Tretyakov:

Moscow Estates

On Saturday, our study abroad group visited the Kolomenskoye Estate. Moscow has converted most of their old aristocratic estates into humongous city parks with a variety of attractions. For example, Kolomenskoye has apple orchards, old tsarist buildings, lime trees, fish ponds, ancient oak groves, cemeteries, a beautiful view of the city, and an outdoor architectural museum started by Peter the Great.

There were lots of children practicing their painting when we visited, which was fun to watch. We also saw at least three or four weddings taking place. Russians take a small group of their closest friends to the different city parks, along with a photographer, to celebrate their weddings. The weather in Moscow has been stunning lately, which made the excursion pleasant.

Nearer to the university where we study is the Kuskovo Estate, which is similar to, but smaller than, the Kolomenskoye Estate. You can find people fly fishing in the man-made lake and if you pay a fee, you can visit the estate building. Since the weather has been so pleasant lately, Chase and I always visit the estate to study.

These pictures were taken at dusk, with a soft breeze and a pleasant temp of 60-70 F. This is not at all what I expected in Moscow.