5/31: 19th Century Literature, The Old Tretchikov Gallery, and Meeting Ambassador McFaul

We had our fourth lecture with Professor Valshenko today. We covered Tolstoy, Dostoyevsky and Chekov. At the end of the lecture, I asked the professor what the communists thought of and did with the old Russian literature after the Bolshevik Revolution. His response was interesting. He said that some were in the avant-garde mindset and believed that anything old should be dismissed. Communism was the wave of the future. It was the dawn of a new era, and we cannot learn anything from our past. Others, such as Lenin, used authors from Russia's Golden Age to legitimize communism. Tolstoy, for example, was an aristocrat who found virtue in the peasantry. Lenin would have said that Tolstoy would have been a communist if he were alive during the Revolution, because his work appealed to the proletariat.

Ambassador Michael McFaul

The night before, we learned that we had been invited to a reception at the home of US Ambassador Michael McFaul. McFaul is famous for being a loose cannon in his role as ambassador to Russia. He is not a career diplomat, but rather a college professor, who has written numerous papers on how Russia is not a true democracy and how the United States should play a more active role in reforming the Russian political system. On Wednesday he faced criticism from the Putin administration for accusing Russia of having bribed Kyrgyzstan in 2009 to close down its US military airbase. The Russian government called his remarks "unprofessional" and "undiplomatic."


 Having forgotten to pack black pants and a belt, I went shopping that night to purchase the necessary items in the last thirty minutes before the shopping mall's closing. So excited about my new purchase, I wore dress pants to class today, assuming that we wouldn't have enough time to change before the reception. Apparently, I was mistaken, as I was the only one who looked as if I was going to see an opera as I sat in class. 


Before the reception, our group went in fancy clothes to the Old Tretchikov Gallery, where we saw neoclassic, naturalist, and impressionist art. There were portraits of Catherine the Great, Anna I, Elizabeth, Ivan the Terrible, and Peter the Great. Some of the paintings were gargantuan. Some had whole rooms dedicated to a single piece of art. One painting was so large and detailed that it took the artist thirty years to complete. The room not only had the painting in it, but also framed sketches of parts of the painting that the artist had to make before completing the final project. There were also a lot of paintings about nature. One painting that struck me showed a beaten path going into the distance as a storm formed from above. It seemed to be about fate and how free will is nothing compared to the powers of nature. 


After a quick stop at McDonald's in our nicest clothing, we were off to the ambassador's house. We took the metro one stop, walked down Arbat Street, took a left down an alley, passed the Spanish Embassy, and arrived at McFaul's residence. Entering his house, I saw a statue of JFK, and several pictures of McFaul with the Obama's. There were also older pictures of previous ambassadors with presidents as we walked up the stairs. The political science and international relations majors among us were completely starstruck to be in the house of an ambassador. We proceeded to the main reception room, where there was a large circular table of food below the largest chandelier I have ever seen. We schmoozed a while with some lady who apparently lived in Geneseo and moved to Russia to raise her child in the Anglo-Russian school. I should mention that the reception was meant to be for Russian high school students who were interested in going to American colleges. We were invited because Dr. Goeckel spoke to someone at the American Center a couple days ago. As we were speaking to the lady, I spotted Dr. Goeckel speaking to the ambassador. Isaac and I went over and awkwardly made our way into the conversation and introduced ourselves. I was too starstruck to speak to McFaul, but Isaac had a bunch of questions already lined up. He asked him about Mitt Romney, campaigning with Obama, and his interest in Russia. One thing he said that interested me was that if he got fired, his salary would increase tenfold and he would be doing significantly less work, because he had a guaranteed professorship at Stanford University (his alma mater). Because this incentive was in place, he must not have been afraid to speak truth to power when it came to calling on Russia to reform. Time and again, he has gotten in trouble over supporting the protestors and having a generally anti-Kremlin mantra. Putin himself has told McFaul to act more diplomatic, but McFaul isn't afraid of getting fired, so he does what he wants and thinks is right, rather than what he thinks will keep him in his position.

Our group with Ambassador McFaul (center back)

Slowly but surely, the rest of our group crept up and formed a circle with the ambassador to shake hands with the political equivalent of Rocky Balboa (maybe Rocky was a bit more famous) . He was good-spirited about everything. He spoke with us for a good ten minutes, probably because this wasn't a political event and he didn't have government officials trying to get his attention every time he took a step. I think Dr. Goeckel mentioned to him that I wanted to take a picture with him, because when he invited us into the other room for the presentation, he pointed to me and said that we'll take a picture later. The presentation involved six admissions representatives from Stanford, Mount Holoyoke, University of North  Carolina, New York University, and Carnegie Mellon (I forgot the last one). They each made a pitch about how their respective institutions would be the most appealing to a student from Russia. A lot of it was the same mantra that I was given two years ago when I was searching for schools. When one parent asked about the financial burden that these colleges gave to their students, they gave the same response of need-based aid and scholarships, ignoring the fact that private colleges are still incredibly unaffordable despite these reductions. Although the presentation wasn't applicable to us, it got me thinking about graduate school. I spoke to a representative about what colleges are looking for the most for someone applying to a business school. They said that they put heavy weight on work experience. That's why internships are so incredibly important.

After the presentation, we posed with the ambassador and took twenty million pictures of the ambassador's residence like the weird little political science nerds that we were. All in all, it was a very fun night. 

5/30: Soviet Architecture, Journalism, and Tretyakov Museum

Olga (the tall and skinny one) gave us a lecture on Soviet Architecture this morning. I was excited, because I had been looking forward to a lesson like this since we arrived in Moscow. Most of the buildings around us were built in the Soviet period and it would be much more beneficial to know more about the thought that went into constructing them. This lectures was one of the most interesting thus far, just because of how applicable the material was. Lenin supported a form of constructivist architecture that relied on cheap materials, simplistic construction, and geometrical structures. Constructivist architecture celebrated industrialization and often had more of a practical purpose, serving as workers' clubs, nurseries, and areas of communal living. Stalin made Socialist Realism the sole form of architecture of the USSR. This involved a regression back to imperial classic, baring symmetrical, powerful buildings that often served as political propaganda. Stalin used obvious symbols such as the ruby star, the hammer and sickle, sunflowers, wheat, and happy mothers and children to convey to the populous the glory that lay in the future with hard work and obedience to the state. The epitome of Stalinist architecture is found in his Seven Sisters. Stalin ordered the contraction of seven imperialistic buildings, two of which were hotels, two were ministries, two were apartment buildings, and the last one was Moscow State University (the cream of the crop). He built these to replicate the Kremlin towers. It was meant to convey to Muscovites that wherever you go, the state is ever present (as you can usually see one of the seven sisters from anywhere in Moscow).


One quick anecdote about the metro system: The metro system is widely used in Moscow and is extremely fast and convenient. A map of the system can be seen on the right. Rumor has it that the men planning the metro station had drawn up the lines and all of the major areas they wanted to build stations; however, they were left with the problem of how to connect all of the rail lines. When they showed the map to Stalin, he allegedly put down his coffee mug on the map and picked it up, leaving a brownish circular stain that just so happened to connect all of the lines. The planners thought this was ingenious and built the rail system in that form. The Moscow metro system remains the only system in the world to have a ring line connecting all of the other lines.

That afternoon, we went to the MSU Faculty of Journalism to meet the dean. She gave us a long and thorough PowerPoint presentation on Russian media, but it was honestly not the most interesting info session in the world. She presented to us a history of censorship from tsarist times to the present and then went through each media outlet and discussed the current status of journalism in Russia. The one thing that interested me was how the internet can be used as a form of counter-information. As Putin has control of the three major TV news channels (from which most Russians get their new), the internet as provided young bloggers an opportunity to protest the government and provide information that is not censored by the Kremlin (as of yet).

Lastly, we traveled to the new Tretyakov museum. Being the wonderful student that I am, I took a look at my Art History notes from my first semester at Geneseo and re-read Professor Valshenko's notes from the previous day. It was neat to see so many of the art pieces that Professor Valshenko showed us in class. Some of the most fascinating art was in the 1930's-1950's, when Socialist Realist became the official art form of the Soviet Union. Typically, art was used to express the general mood and overtones of society. It was a product of emotion. With Socialist Realism, however, the roles switched. Art was meant to make you feel a certain emotion. Commissioned by the state, it often conveyed what people were supposed to think rather than what was actually thought. This could be seen in the Tretyakov. As we moved through the museum chronologically, you could tell that early, there was more focus on the working man. Peasants were often at the center of artwork and as well as a general optimism towards the future. Moving forward in time, focus turned from the working man to the state. There were giant portraits of Stalin consulting with his generals as he looked angelic in his white uniform. The optimism appeared to be forced, as people appeared to be overly happy in a time that history holds to be one of the worst in Russian history.

At the end of the museum was a collection of modern art. Walking down the stairs, I saw what looked to be a guy sleeping in the middle of the floor. I turned to the people behind me and asked if I should wake him up. It turns out that the person wasn't real. It was just a creepily realistic dummy that looked like it would come to life and grab your leg at any second. I made sure to go through the rest of the modern art rather quickly, as most of it freaked me out. Pieces included a sanctuary for a toy doll, boots that came to life and walked up a wall, and 3-D images that would hypnotize you if you stared at them for too long.

5/29: Russian Literature and Jewish Moscow

Alexander Pushkin

We had Professor Valshenko again today. I really enjoy having him teach us, because he is always so passionate in his lectures. He gets tears in his eyes when he talks about how literature is no longer the center of cultural life and he stands up and clenches his fists when he speaks of the great masterpieces Alexander Pushkin gave to Russia in his thirty-seven years of life. Today was a lecture on Russian literature. He told us that Russia is unique in that it was always behind Western Europe in its literary movements, but it always wanted to catch up, causing a synthetic blend of ideas. Pushkin, for example, was one of the only writers to create novels in poetic verse. He developed his own genre of literature simply by mixing two different categories.

Valshenko had given us short stories to read the day before, and they were a lot better than many of the American classics. While we had to read about how much Holden Caulfield was pissed off at the world in tenth grade, Russian students were reading stories about a ghost who steals people's overcoats. (The two stories were JD Salinger's Catcher in the Rye and Nikolai Gogol's "The Overcoat" if you didn't catch the references). The meanings and metaphors in Russian works seem to be much more clear and understandable (probably rooted in the fact that Russia has a large literacy rate, but few highly educated people). The works are meant more for the commoners than the English majors and book critics.

After and quick lunch break and internet session, we took the metro to Jewish Moscow. We were greeted by Felix, a large and animated middle-aged man, who told us that we have one more stop on the metro to go "which is easy to remember, because it's not zero, not three, not two. One!" At the start of the tour he said, "I have a stupid, but important question: Should I speak in English or Russian." The decision was obvious and unanimous.

Felix gave us an hour-long info session on the history of Russian Judaism. In 1861, Tsar Alexander II gave all ethnicities and religions equal rights, but unofficial discrimination began as a result. The Pale of Jewish Settlements was pillaged by pogroms and 1893-1906 saw a large emigration of Jews from Russia to the US. Jews were still very active in the Communist Party (Trotsky and Marx were both Jewish, after all). The Jewish Social Democratic Party (800,000 members) was the larges communist bloc in Russia, and eventually merged with Lenin's party, which was mostly Russians. Trotsky and Lenin decided to have a politburo of three Jews, three Russians and a non-Jew and non-Russian as a tie-breaker. It was Stalin's lucky day (he was Georgian-born). Stalin had an Orthodox Christian education and was raised severely anti-Semitic. His purges reduced the Jewish population in Russia down from a peak of 11% to 0.3%.

Leon Trotsky - Early Jewish Communist

What interested me was how Judaism was considered an ethnicity in Russia. I wouldn't be able to call myself Russian during that time period, even though I lived in Russia. Judaism was your identity and the bureaucracy  even traced it through your father's genealogy (Judaism, the religion, runs through the mother's blood), so you would oftentimes have self-proclaimed non-Jews being given a Jewish identity card. This happened to Boris Pasternak (author of Dr. Zhivago).

Felix was very entertaining, but also a bit provocative. He referred to the rabbi of the synagogue we were in as "very nice, but very boring" and said the word bullshit a couple of times when were were in the synagogue. When he told us that the last census said there were 400,000 Jews in Moscow, but 100,000 also said they were "elves" and 5,000 said they were "mother fuckers," I was taken aback by his crude language on the balcony of the country's largest synagogue. When someone thought they misheard him, he said it even louder and began laughing at his own joke.

After the briefing, Felix took us on a tour of other Jewish sites. We saw the house of the poet Isaac Babel, a statue of Shalom Alechem, a very wealthy synagogue (which apparently got its money by falsely claiming reparations for the Holocaust from the German government), and the National Jewish Theater. The tour was very interesting to me and the rest of the Jewish Caucus (Sam and Isaac), but I felt like the remaining member of the group found it boring and tedious. But I guess that's what having a caucus is for. 

5/28: 20th Century Art Lecture and St. Basil's Cathedral

Professor Vashenko gave us another lecture on Art History. He went over the major artistic movements of the 20th century. He said that Russia had undergone a greater catastrophe than any other country at the turn of the century. It started with three revolutions, a civil war, and two world wars. Because of this great  upheaval so early on, Vashenko said that there was a militant break with artistic traditions. Russian art was able to survive because the old was thrown out and the new was glorified. There was a movement of optimism for the future. The dawn of a new and wonderful era. Art was also made more pragmatic. An agitprop movement in the 1930's that spoke to the common man, who was often uneducated and illiterate. It provided obvious symbolism and encouraged hard work and the advancement of women.

At 4:00 we were able to gain access to the inside of St. Basil's Cathedral. The Cathedral was built by Tsar Ivan the Terrible as a monument to the defeat of the Kazans. Stepping into the monstrosity was like taking a giant leap into a birthday cake. The walls and floor had bright and mismatching colors. It was painted head to toe with something (usually a holy figure or just a twisting pattern). It felt like Alice's Wonderland, with a winding staircase, doors and rooms of varying shapes and sizes, and cubicle walls with a different pattern for each room one came across. It was easy to get lost in the cathedral, as one room appeared to lead to five more. There was a chorus of five men in the center of the second floor, blasting hymns around the building. Several travelers have criticized St. Basil's for being hideous, but I think it's ugliness is what makes it so profound. It is unlike any church that anyone else has seen, but it is still beautiful and mystique.

Our group in front of St. Basil's Cathedral

When we were done with St. Basil's we ended up having to wait around for Dr. Goeckel to buy tickets for Jewish Moscow, the excursion we are going on tomorrow. While we were waiting, we decided to sit on one of the curbs in Red Square. After about ten minutes, two large Russian security guards came over and motioned for us to stand up. Apparently, sitting is not allowed in Red Square. Instead, Isaac started playing hopscotch on the pathway between St. Basil's and Lenin's tomb. I decided to follow (and eventually outlast him) in hopscotch. Goeckel rejoined us, but as he was talking to us, the two security guards came over to our group. One asked "Does any man speak Russian?" After about ten seconds of awkward silence, Goeckel said, "Let's go." The guards were laughing at us as we walked away. Life lesson: sitting and playing hopscotch is strictly forbidden in Red Square. Such unusual rules!

5/27: Tour of Tsarist Architecture and Sailing the Moscow River

On Sunday, Olga took us on a tour of the Zamoskorechie historical district, which was an area home to several merchants and textile workers in the 18th and 19th centuries. We toured plenty of cathedrals and even got to go inside a couple of them as they were doing their Sunday morning services. We went into St. George's Church and the Church of Mercy. It was amazing to go into St. George's Cathedral. It was as if everything I had ever thought about what a Russian Orthodox service would be was coming to life. The church was illuminated mostly by incense candelas (with the exception of a large candelabra above the alter). Men were chanting melodiously in the corner. A woman in the back was at a table of bread and tea (for what I figured was transubstantiation). The walls and ceilings were covered head to toe with dioramas of saints and holy figures. It was an uplifting experience for sure and made me miss temple at home. The Church of Mercy was memorable for its history. It was founded by Grand Duchess Elizabeth (sister Alexandra, the last Empress of Russia). After her husband, Sergeii Alexandrovich, was assassinated, Elizabeth sold all of her belongings and founded the Church to celebrate the teachings of saints Martha and Mary. Inside were pictures of Tsar Nicholas II and his family, Anastasia, and Elizabeth herself. The most memorable part of the church was the priest drenching everyone in holy water as they stood in a circle. While most of the people in our group went towards the circle, our groups Jewish caucus (Sam, Isaac, and myself) stood back. It wasn't until a tiny old lady covered in a black robe came up to us and pushed us towards the crowd that we finally moved forward. Prodded further by the lady, we ended up within footsteps of the priest. Sure enough, he splashed a least sixteen ounces of holy water on all of us. I think this was God's way of telling us that we have been touring too many churches. Oh well, you live for the experience.

Beef Gelatin 

For lunch, we went to an all-you-can-eat buffet type restaurant. A lot of it contained ethnic Russian food. I attempted to try a little bit of all of it, but most of the food I disliked. Olga insisted that I try this dish that looked like ground beef trapped in clear gelatin. I took a bite, but didn't try anything more than that, because it tasted more grotesque than the century-old duck egg that I once at for an Iron Stomach competition. Apparently, the dish is very traditional. We asked the MSU students about it, and they said that they always have it on New Years and everyone finds it delicious. I decided to stick with carrots, potatoes and rice after that. I suppose beef jello is an acquired taste.

The rest of the day was a bit rushed. We walked a while to go to the October Revolution Chocolate Store, wandered around a bit, and then went back to Gorky Park to rest our feet. Next we boarded a boat that provided us an hour-long cruise down the Moscow River. It was nice and relaxing, but more of a photo opportunity than an educational experience. For dinner we went to a mall near the Kiev Train Station. Everything was extremely expensive (Moscow is the most expensive city on earth after all). Instead I tried borscht for the first time. I never thought I would like the taste of beet soup, but it was actually pretty good. The borscht was a pink soup with beef, cabbage, celery, potatoes and probably some other vegetables. It was salty, but the beet taste was cooked out of the soup, probably improving the quality in my opinion. 

5/26: The Kremlin and Tour of the Subway Stations

Today was the day I have been waiting for. We were finally going to visit the Kremlin. The White House of Russia. The capitol of the capitol. The location of the all the important government offices. Unbeknownst to me and several other people, the Kremlin is not actually a building. It is more of a fortress. It is a walled area of several cathedrals, armories, and government offices. Billions of dollars in valuables are stored within the Kremlin walls.

Because of the importance of the location, I was surprised to notice the lack of security measures that were taken when we entered the Kremlin gates. All we had to do was walk through a metal detector. They did not scan or even check our bags. They did not ask for our passports or student identification cards. Astoundingly, when someone was beeped passing through the metal detector, the guard in attendance just said "Go" without a further care in the world. Compared to security elsewhere in Russia, this is nothing. We have to provide identification every time we enter the MSU campus and must pass through two metal detectors and another identification check to get to our rooms. There is a guard on each floor of the building of MSU and usually two at every entrance. They also have the power to stop you in the halls and ask for your passport if need be. For a tour of our state capitol, you had to go through a background check and register through a senator or congressman.

The Kremlin

Once inside the Kremlin, our tour guide showed us some of the buildings from the outside, mentioning that the yellow buildings were government offices (to my disgruntlement, we never stepped foot inside one). We also saw the largest cannon in the world (which was never used because the it was too heavy to move) and the largest bell in the world (which cracked because it was too heavy to be used). I feel like Russian history is just a long line of attempting to look really good, but failing in reality. Much of it is based on a facade of elegance and grandiose ideas that hide the practical realities of earth. Our dormitory, for example, appears large and intimidating on the outside, but on the inside, you realize that the Soviets didn't have a large enough budget to make the living situation very practical. The Soviet Union as a whole was based on an illusion of strength (as seen in the strong military building following World War II and Stalin's rapid industrialization), but many people were just lying to meet Stalin's quotas, leading to an extremely inefficient economy and creating a veil that was eventually uncovered with glasnost and perestroika. Several people were lied to. They thought that their standard of living was superior to that of any other country in the world, but that is because people were rarely allowed to travel overseas to experience consumer products for themselves.

Anyways, we went to Cathedral Square, where the tour guide explained to us that there were cathedrals for different purposes. These uses ranged from baptism, everyday prayer, tourist visitation, important ceremonies, and funeral ceremonies for great leaders. We then saw a touristy ceremony for the changing of the guard. There were horses in it and guys with swords! I enjoyed it. We then went to the armory, which was a magnificent building (this time more beautiful on the inside, than on the outside) that housed several of the Kremlin's royal gifts and jewels. We were shown the dresses and carriages of Elizabeth I of Russia and Catherine the Great. Elizabeth lived quite lavishly from what I could tell by all of the carriages she owned. Continuing with the facade theme, one of her last carriages was actually made of wood, but painted gold because she was running out of money in the treasury. Random fact: I read on Wikipedia today that Tsarina Anna enjoyed practical jokes and once hand the warning bells of Moscow rung to see how people would react to a panic. It wouldn't be Russia without it's random stories.

Also in the armory were several gifts that were given to tzars as gifts from other countries and thrones of tzars (including the famous dual-seated throne for Peter I and his half-brother Ivan V with a hole in the back of Peter's seat for his older sister, Sophia, to listen and feed him information as he spoke with diplomats). Many of the items were divided into pre-Peter the Great and post-Peter the Great, because of the difference in Asian and European style items. Peter was known as the great Westernizer, and adopted European clothing and styles in his kingdom that continued until the Bolshevik Revolution.

One of the students who was with us, Marina, took us on a tour of the subway stations. At lunch, she was telling us about how several of the Central Asian immigrants from Russia (those who were waiters at the restaurant we were at) were rude and like to cheat you out of your money. It was interesting she said that, because the last time we ate at the restaurant, the waiter billed us for more than our dish cost. It was a good thing we caught it, or else I would be left paying 35 more rubles than I had to. I think a large part of this is because we are foreigners. It is difficult for us to dispute the charges, because we can't speak Russian very well. We had a student with us that one time, but there was another time that I was buying a candy bar which was labeled for 12 rubles. The cashier charged me 14. I put down twelve coins and pointed to the price, but the cashier simply pointed to the calculator. I was left paying two more rubles that I needed. It was really the equivalent of 7.5 cents, but is the principle that matters.

Marina also told us that she was a communist sympathizer and that she voted for Putin in the next election, because he appeared to have a plan that would bring Russia forward. It is interesting how a communist could be attracted to Putin. Marina was nostalgic of the Soviet times and must have appreciated a powerful leader when she saw one. She said that the Yeltsin years were some of the worst years of Russia and that was because of capitalism. It shows how Putin is attractive to several different groups.

Moscow Subway Station

The tour of the subways was pretty cool. It was neat because it was like taking a step into the Soviet past. Almost every subway was built during the reign of Stalin and Khrushchev and the architecture, monuments, and statues definitely show it. Although most of the communist perophanalia was either destroyed during perestroika or uprooted and placed in an area next to Gorky Park, but this could not be done in the subways, because much of the destruction would involve destroying the subway station as a whole. On the ceilings of the stations, there were tiled portraits of Lenin giving speeches to the masses hammer and sickles galore. One station had dozens of statues of working men and women (and dogs for some reason). The ruby star was a common symbol as well (the five points represent the five hand of the working man). Marina also showed us where statues of Stalin had been taken down. You could tell her Soviet sympathies in the way she gave her presentation. She mentioned that there have been no great subway stations built since Stalin. She also went so far as to say that Stalin was modest enough to delay the finishing of a subway station by two years so that people wouldn't think that it was on his 50th anniversary and thus a tribute to him. My projection is that Stalin probably realized it was going to take longer to build the station than originally planned and told everyone that he was delaying it out of modesty. Instead, he just put a statue of himself in the center of the entrance to the station. What a nice guy.

5/25: Russian Architecture and the American Center of Moscow

The lecture today was entitled "From a Russian Country Estate to a Soviet Dacha," and was given by Professor Olga Zinovieva, an old friend of Dr. Goeckel's. I had been waiting a while to receive a lecture on architecture, because we are shown so many buildings in Moscow and I would love to be able to tell the time period and style in which they were built. A dacha was a summer home that was located outside of a city or town that several Muscovites owned before 1917. After the revolution, dachas were considered a possession of the bourgeoisie and were often either burned or divided into apartment complexes. They were strongly regulated during the Soviet period. Olga was telling us how it took weeks to go through all of the bureaucracy in order to receive permission to remove a dead tree from "your" home. She said that several dachas would have one side colored green and the other blue because they would be unable to decide collectively how they wanted it to look. After perestroika, dachas came back into existence and many Muscovites now own two homes.

After lunch we were given time to look on the website of the American Center of Moscow. It is part of the Library of Foreign Literature, which used to be a way to read Marxist literature in the Soviet Union. During perestroika, Gorbachev gave Western countries an opportunity to donate to the library and the United States took advantage of it, creating an American Center that held everything from Frost Nixon DVD's to The Cat in the Hat. There is a class offered every day to teenagers who are interested in going to college in America. We were invited to sit and answer questions about American colleges and anything else on their minds.

Going in, we had uncertain expectations given the description of the program on their website. It said: "Please join us on Friday, May 25 at 4 p.m. for the amazing opportunity to meet with TWELVE students from State University of New York (SUNY) – Geneseo! These students will be in Moscow for a week to participate in community service projects throughout the city. The students are majoring in International Relations, Political Science, Anthropology, Biology and more! This will be an interactive and fun activity, where audience members will attend “stations” with students to learn more about different aspects of life in the U.S. (such as food, music, sports, religion, fashion and other topics) in addition to learning more about SUNY-Geneseo itself. Please join us for a fun and informative afternoon!"

1) I love how TWELVE was capitalized, as if the number was the number of Americans was not large enough that they felt they needed to make it bigger in text.
2) We are actually in Moscow for a month. I'm not sure where they were getting their information from when they wrote "for a week"
3) The only "community service projects" that we could come up with was the fact that all of the money we are spending on food is helping to stimulate the Russian economy. I guess I also gave up my seat on the bus once to an old lady, but I don't think it's equivalent to cleaning up the Russian national parks or teaching children how to read. Still, I don't mind the credit.
4) Judging from my experience here, Russians have a lot more to say about fashion than us. What they wear to school is fancier than what some of the girls in America where to Junior Prom. I'm not sure if Russian teenagers would want fashion advice from a kid who wears jeans and a sweatshirt to class every day.

We were pleasantly surprised to find out that the discussion was nothing like the description on the website. The director of the Center gave us snacks (I believe the first time we received free food in Russia) and separated us into four groups of three. A group of about twelve Russian students and one 65 year-old woman sat at a table with me, Sam, and Katie. The students started off by asking basic questions (How hard are the SAT's? What do colleges look for in a student? Do they look at grades?). After about ten minutes, the conversation began to get really weird.

The old lady at our table started to ask us some weird questions. She asked us about the criminality in America, which was slightly off topic. She then asked, "If someone believes in God and said that they stole something or killed someone because God told them to, do they get in trouble?" We assumed she was talking about Islamic terrorism, but steered away from the topic and told her that the police will arrest anyone, no matter their motive. She then asked us who "the computer guy that died" was. We figured she was referring to Steve Jobs. She asked why he died even though he was so rich. We were baffled by the question and gave her the obvious answer that everyone dies and that America hasn't discovered a cure for cancer. She then asked if women wrote books in America. We looked at each other and began listing the names of American female authors. It was at this point that the other students started to look at each other and giggle. Everyone finally lost it when she said, "For example, suppose there is a situation in which you see a snake." Everyone held in their breaths in befuddlement. "Would you be afraid?," she finished. We all burst out laughing at the sheer randomness of the inquiry. My face turned red, some people were crying, and only Katie had enough strength to put herself together and give a three minute spiel about how she sees snakes in her garden sometimes and she is afraid of them. Sam and I couldn't keep ourselves together through her other questions, which included, "If an American dog has a muzzle and bites someone, can that person sue?";"What makes you happy?";"If you were president, what is the first thing you would do?";"How do you bring healthcare to the simple people?"; (looking at me) "Are you a soldier?";"Have you ever seen the movie 'Fighting?'" (after which she told us that she didn't like it when people kill each other); and my personal favorite "Why are there so many plane crashes?" I don't know why she thought that we were an expert on these topics, but she told our professor that we were really good at answering her questions.

Between Crazy Lady's questions, we were able to extract some really interesting information from the Russian students. They were telling us how corrupt the Russian school system is as well as the day-to-day institutions in general. One girl told us a story about how one of her friends wanted to be a doctor, but she wasn't doing well enough in school to be a pre-med major in college. However, her father was wealthy and paid her teachers a lot of money to raise her grade. To get a doctor's appointment at a decent time, it is almost implied that you must bribe the secretaries and the doctor to fit you into their schedule. The students said that they really didn't enjoy living in Moscow (which is why there were in a class devoted to helping them study in the US). The weather is cold, people are angry and mean, everything is expensive. Those in the group who visited the US said that everyone smiles there and that they are much more free to do what they want. It looks like America still holds the reputation of being the land of the free. Score one for the stars and stripes!

Garbage

One thing that amazes me is the lack of places to throw out your stuff. In Geneseo, the garbage room was ten steps away from my suite. I could take out the garbage five times in a minute if I really wanted to. Recycling was readily available, usually next to every garbage bin. They even provided a recycling bucket in each room. In Russia, I feel bad about not recycling. It pains me to throw away paper and I am keeping empty five-liter jugs of water on my desk, hoping that the recycling fairy will magically appear to whisk away my plastic disposables. And the Russian students thought they were more environmentally friendly for signing the Kyoto Protocol. If only they practiced what they preached...

5/24: The American Chamber of Commerce and Diplomatic Academy Roundtable

We woke up at the atrocious hour of 7:30 AM this morning, dressed up in our finest business-like attire, to meet Mr. Andrew Somers, CEO of American Chamber of Commerce. It's difficult to describe how good it felt to meet another American in Russia. You  feel as though they understand all of the different language and cultural problems that you are going through. You can speak with them without having to worry about breaking any cultural norms or trying to make sense of their heavy accent. It helped me to understand why several of the international students lump together in Geneseo. They relate with one another and it is difficult to make friends with other people when you have a group of friends with the same background at your feet.

Even walking into the building felt like I was stepping into a portal back to America. The floor was polished, there was public seatings and restrooms, the guards and secretaries spoke English (and smiled at you!), the signs didn't have the Cyrillic alphabet, and there was even a Starbucks connected to the building. It's funny how patriotic you become when you leave your country. You tend to forget how privileged you are.

Andrew Somers

Mr. Somers' office was on the top floor of the fourteen story building. We were offered coffee and tea for free (a rarity in Russia) and sat down at an oversized conference room table meant for thirty people. The briefing he gave us of US business relations in Russia was incredibly informative. I learned more about US-Russian relations in a half-hour than from Professor Asatiani in an hour and a half. He spoke about the drivers of Russia's economy, corruption in the state procurement programs, and relations with the US under Obama. I asked him about his thoughts on Mitt Romney as a presidential candidate and how his views on Russia would impact business relations between the two countries. He said that most of Romney's criticism of Russia as an economic threat to the US is just campaign rhetoric, which will be moderated if he is elected president. Several of the students (including myself) really enjoyed the briefing. It made me seriously consider a position in some kind of chamber of commerce (after all, it has a healthy blend of both political science and economics). It basically involves representing the business interests in a particular situation. For example, Somers was saying that "localization" was a big issue that he dealt with. If John Deere, for example, wanted to build a factory in Russia, but the Russian government says the company must use Russian labor and supplies within five years, the Chamber of Commerce is responsible for the negotiation of the time limit (Somers may try to work it up to ten years).

Mr. Somers was so nice that he allowed for us to ask him questions a half-hour later than we expected. The only downside to this is that we would be late for lunch if we didn't move our tushies fast enough. We sprinted to the metro and crammed (and by "crammed" I mean there was barely enough room to breathe) into a public bus like the clothing we tried to fit into our suitcases. We arrived at 12:45 to the faculty building and were forced to scarf down our lunch in fifteen minutes. I don't think I've ever gone through a five-course meal so quickly. Our stomachs hurt after lunch, so we were given small break until our next trip to the Diplomatic Academy.

We were shown upstairs by one of the professors (Dr. Oleg Ignatikin), who brought us to the gallery of all the famous people who visited the Academy. Mary McAleese (President of Ireland), Hugo Chaves (President of Venezuela), Farouk al-Sharaa (Vice President of Syria) and Sergei Stanishev (Prime Minister of Bulgaria) were among those on the wall. We were then taken to a large conference room where eight Russian students sat. Dr. Ignatikin told us that most of the students were earning their Masters Degrees at the Academy, making me feel academically inferior to the students at the other end of the table. I opened the discussion by asking why Russia continues to supply the Syrian president with weapons, despite cries from Western powers that it is just infighting more violence. The Russian students spoke with a strong accent and it was difficult to understand their responses. What it came down to was that they believed that an armed government would contribute to stability in the region because it would give Bashar al-Assad an ability to crack down on protestors. I'm sure that the families of those who lost their lives to the oppressive Syrian regime would have loved to hear that answer.

Students of the Diplomatic Academy Ready to Debate

When they began to press us on issues, it was clear that they were intent on starting a debate. The students  pointed out US military bases around the world, US-based multinational in Africa, the drone strikes on Pakistan, and our "repressive" sanctions on North Korea. Isaac and I did the most defending of US foreign policy, but it was difficult given he difference in education, expertise, and preparation. We pointed out the refusal of Russia to go along with the US-EU sanctions on Iran, the incredibly low Freedom House rating that Russia has, and the high corruption level in Russia. After two hours, we ended the discussion (which turned out to be really interesting) and went to dinner with the students.

We decided to eat at My My (pronounced) "Moo Moo" for the second time on the trip. We enjoyed it because it was a cafeteria-style restaurant. This meant that everything was a la carte (thus, good for a low budget) and easy to point to in case we couldn't read the menu in Russian. 

5/23: Economics Lecture and World War II Museum

Our schedule is beginning to look a little bit more routine. Every weekday, we get up and meet downstairs at 10:00 AM. We then walk to the Faculty of Foreign Languages as a group and sit through a lecture. At 12:00 we stop the lecture to listen and discuss oral presentations from those in our group about the places that we went to the previous day. This is good, because it gives us a chance to think and reflect on all of the different things that we've been doing. At 12:30, we eat a hardy lunch in the faculty cafeteria (the lunch ladies get angry if we're late). Around 1:30 we go on some kind of excursion, either a museum or a tour of some kind. By 5:00 PM, we have time to rest and eat dinner. We may have a night trip at some point (like the opera) but this schedule is pretty regular.

Dr. Goeckel gave us a lecture on Soviet and Post-Soviet Economic Policy this morning. While I don't wish to give a general outline of the notes, I found it interesting that Putin became so popular in his first term because he helped Russia recover from the economic catastrophe during the Yeltsin years. Putin lowered and simplified taxes, reformed the land and labor code, balanced the budget, and challenged the oligarchs during his first eight years as president. Exports and oil prices increased under Putin, and Russians were able to become more confident about having a capitalist economy. Russians associated Putin with prosperity, which is why his approval rating was in the 70's. He was a capitalist who people could feel comfortable with.

That afternoon, we took a bus to the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, which is located in Victory Park. It was probably the largest museum we've been to, but also the most interesting to date. The bottom floor gave a general outline of the major battles between the Nazis and Soviets. Interesting fact that I learned today: Moscow was never renamed Stalingrad. Stalingrad was actually located eight hours southeast of Moscow in what is now called Volgograd (named after the Volga River which passes through the town). For some reason, I thought that because St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad, that Stalin would be pompous enough to name the capital after himself. I guess I never gave Stalin's ego enough credit. Tangent over.

Museum of the Great Patriotic War

When we went up the stairs of the museum to the second floor, our group could hear several marching drums being played. As we walked up, we could see at least one hundred Russians all in uniform marching down the stairway. Jane, one of the Russian students, explained to us that the older men in the front were veterans who served in the Soviet navy. Behind them were about eighty children and young adults, who were apparently pupils in the naval academy. The students couldn't be over the age of fifteen (some as young as twelve), yet they had already chosen their career path. And here I am, a twenty year-old college student, still wondering what field I want to go into. Being the camera-happy young tourists that we are, we took a picture with the navy cadets.

There was a section dedicated to the German occupation of the Soviet Union on the third floor. I found it particularly interesting because the exhibit gave mention to Jewish members of the USSR that were exterminated during the occupation, despite anti-Semitic undertones in Russia. On display was a Hebrew prayer book, a torah handle, a star that marked people "Jude" ("Jewish") in the ghettos, Jewish-German ghetto currency, and, most gruesomely, teeth and toenails from Holocaust victims. The Holocaust imagery was more graphic than what I had seen in Hebrew school. A video, for example, showed the emaciated lifeless bodies of exterminated Jews stacked up on top of each other and being incinerated in a giant oven. Not the type of imagery that I would have liked to see, but something that I kind of had to see.

On May 9th, Russians celebrate Victory Day to commemorate the Soviet Victory over the Germans in 1945. It is usually a lot more popular and emotional than our Veterans' Day, especially since the fall of the Soviet Union, when International Workers' Day (May Day) was a day on the communist calendar, which occurred a week earlier. People usually wear orange and black ribbons (I guess the veterans are Syracuse basketball fans). Jane was able to get us ribbons for free. I tied mine on my backpack.

5/22: Art History Lecture, Modern History Museum, and My Adventures Doing Laundry

It's kind of funny to hear all of disfigurements with peoples' rooms. One student had their a glass frame in the bathroom fall down and shatter while they were gone. Katrina has no curtains over her window, forcing her to deal with the 20-hour day in Moscow when she sleeps at night.  Dan and Isaac's room has no shower curtain, causing the bathroom to flood every time they need to bathe. Kailey has no lights above her head. My room has a door handle that I am forced to use as a wrench, because it falls off every time I pull too hard. All of the beds are basically leopard skin couches from the 1950's. We are given a pillow with the softness of a baseball mitt that has yet to be broken in. I heard from one student that the rooms were supposed to fall in line with communist ideology. You were not supposed to have lavish living quarters. What you got is what you got, and you should be happy that the state is providing you with a quality education. Personally, I think that Stalin was trying to be cheap (but that may just be my inner-capitalist talking).

Today, we were given a lecture by Professor Alexander Vashenko. He spoke about Russian Art History. I found the material very interesting, and despite the fact that he had a heavy Russian accent (which I usually find difficult to understand) he was very clear in the way he taught. It was neat to be able to trace the gradual transition to the communist revolution in Russian artwork. He first described Orthodox Christian art, which focused on Virgin Mary, who they refer to as "Mother." The idol of the mother was exemplified in Russian culture with the term "Mother Russia," which refers to their country as a protector that forgives struggle. In the 18th Century, the Age of Reason brought a greater focus on leaders, especially Catherine the Great. By the 19th Century, art focused on social issues such as the exploitation of workers and women's suffrage, a movement that came to be called "Realism." Art gradually became democratized until the Soviet Revolution, which is what will be discussed the next time we see him. The lecture reminded me of the interest I had in my Neoclassic to Contemporary Art History class in Geneseo. It was so fascinating how art is a such a clear representation of the general temperament during the time period

We also went to the Contemporary History Museum in Moscow. Despite this bland name, the museum was actually very engaging. Funny side story: Michelle (a group member) dropped her sunglasses over the gift shop counter when it was closed. When Alona asked an attendant if she could open it to get the sunglasses, the lady told us that it was locked and closed forever. It wasn't until Dr. Goeckel told the director that he wouldn't pay until she got her sunglasses back that he finally got the key and angrily opened up the shop. In America, a worker wouldn't hesitate to do something nice for the customer. The mentality is different in Russia. Instead of "the customer is always right" it seems as though low-level workers are taught that "the boss is always right." They are told to follow rules and that the rules are inflexible unless their higher-up says otherwise.

Goeckel told us that the museum used to be a propaganda display to celebrate the October Revolution. I can only imagine the Soviets contrasting the oppressive and unequal rule under the tsars with the communist utopia they are currently living in with the help of Vladamir Lenin. It seemed as though the museum was still trying to put a positive spin on Russia under Soviet leadership. The tour guide was very interesting and informative. It had to be the best museum we visited so far, but she left out major parts of Soviet history. For example, the tour guide mentioned that Tsar Nicholas II and his family were "put in jail" after the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, neglecting to say that he was shot dead with his wife, his son, and four daughters in July 1918. She made little mention of the Gulag, the purges,  and said that the death of Stalin was a time of sorrow for all except for the political prisoners that were released when Khrushchev took the reigns.  She emphasized several Soviet accomplishments such as the New Economic Policy, Sputnik (the museum actually stuffed and put on display the dog that the USSR put into space), free universal education, and the industrialization under Stalin. I think this was a great opportunity for me to learn how the Communist Party tried to convince their citizens of their own success. In high school, we were taught "United States good; Soviets bad." It was easy to see how someone who went through the Russian education system would walk out of that museum thinking just the opposite. 

Going back to MSU, I realized (and reminded myself several times) that I needed to do laundry. I was on my last pair of underwear and the amount of t-shirts I packed was disproportional to the unexpectedly warm weather in Moscow. Buying detergent was a difficult accomplishment in and of itself. I had to search along the counters of the MSU cleaning supply shop, only to realize that there was only powdered detergent available to use. I had to consult with Dr. Goeckel about which one to buy, as the one I had originally purchased was apparently not laundry machine safe (only in Russia can you buy laundry detergent that doesn't work in laundry machines). I eventually went down to the basement with my garbage bag full of clothing only to face the wrath of a 60 year-old lady who only spoke Russian. She was apparently the laundry room attendant and between her pointing and screaming I could gather that there was a laundry line that I had unintentionally cut. Running out of the room, garbage bag in hand, I went to eat dinner and checked back periodically to see if the line had gotten any shorter. After my fourth time checking, I finally received the golden opportunity to do my laundry. I noticed that the washers and dryers were basically the same model as in Geneseo (the signs were even in English). There were two differences, however: 1) To use both a washer and dryer, it costs 160 Rubbles (about $6) 2) Instead of the dryer lasting for 60 minutes, the Russian dryer had a time limit of 40 minutes. The result: being overcharged for a load of moistened laundry. Once again, this brings to mind another joke (queue corny Russian accent): "In Soviet Russia, you don't wash laundry. Laundry washes you."

Week One

5/16-5/17

To start off, my Dad was with me to notice that my Amtrak train was 25 minutes late upon arrival. When I got into Albany, it was delayed by 2 hours. I'm not really sure why it was. They had to change engines for some reason, because the train was so slow that it was going 10 mph for the first five hours of the trip. I could literally run faster than the train! However, the inefficiency is not a surprise given how the fact that Amtrak is a basically a government-owned operation. Anyways, Sam was there to meet me in Albany at around 5:00.

Upon arriving in JFK, we met up with our group at the terminal. Our AirFrance flight was running late, and ended up departing an hour past the time it was scheduled to do so. Keeping with the theme of inefficient government transportation, we arrived in Paris twenty minutes before our transfer flight was taking off. Having to go outside, ride a bus for ten minutes to get to the next terminal, and then go through security all over again didn't stop us from making it to the desk at 3:14 (the plane departs at 3:15). However, what did stop us were the flight attendants, who wouldn't let us board the plane. We ended up having to wait for six more hours for the next flight to Moscow. But don't worry, AirFrance gave us a free breakfast for our troubles, which consisted of a croissant and a hot beverage that was smaller than my fist. I ended up falling asleep on the floor of Charles de Gaulle Airport.

When we arrived in Moscow Airport, we were greeted by students from the Foreign Language office of Moscow University. I confused them for professors at first, because they call all of the students in the Foreign Language Office "faculty." I went a good hour thinking that they were experts on Russian politics and culture, when they were in fact American Studies and Foreign Language majors. Going out to load our luggage into the van that was to drive us to MSU (Moscow State University), we noticed that the driver parked in the lane that was meant to keep traffic flowing. While loading our suitcases, he effectively blocked about fifty Russian vehicles from passing through the airport terminal before getting into a honking and shouting match with the cars behind him and eventually moving the van to the other lane. It was then that I knew that I was in Russia! 

When the van pulled up to MSU, we were all in awe at its beauty. The building we were to be staying in was gargantuan. It looked like a castle, with five towers, three clock towers, a gated entrance, a huge garden, and complete with an axe and chisel in the center of the highest tower. It was what some call "Birthday Cake Architecture." The building was built during the 1950's and meant to impress visitors and show the power of the Soviet Union at the time. The outsides of these buildings were extremely decadent, but like many things in the USSR, it looked better on the surface than it actually was. The rooms in MSU are nothing to be proud of. The floors are splintered, the shower leaks, the toilet drips, the door handle broken, and the building structure nonsensical (you have to go down five stories and walk a quarter mile to get from room 539 to room 540, as we found out when we got lost in the wrong part of the building at one point) . The Soviets spent most of their money to make the outside and lobby look impressive to foreigners, but they cut corners any way they could when it came to the practicality of the building. MSU is the Harvard of Russia. It provides the best education in the country, has a low acceptance rate. It is absolutely free to the lucky 5,000 that get accepted each year (the population totals 25,000).

The next day was meant to be a "familiarizing" day. We had no classes, but were shone how to get to class, how to buy cell phones (I got a phone and unlimited plan for $50), where the laundry room and stores were, and where to exchange money. Regarding the last point, the Russian banks were extremely picky with exchanging American dollars for Rubles. The bills had to be in prime condition without any marks, rips, crinkles, or folds in order to be accepted. I gave the bank teller $200 to exchange and she rejected $140. Luckily, an ATM machine is nearby. 

The classrooms in the Foreign Language Building were small. They seat about 15 people max. The building used to be a dormitory, but was eventually converted into an academic building. Classes average seven people (80% girls and 20% boys, which is directly proportional to the number of bathrooms in the building - 8 girls and 2 boys). Did I mention that the bathrooms have no toilet paper? 

Anyways, I'm enjoying myself and have class tomorrow. I could have written a fifty page dissertation on all that I'm learning about Russian culture/history/politics/language, but I guess I will save that for a later date.

5/18

Today we had our first lecture from a professor in the Foreign Language Department. His name was Professor Jumber Asatiani (try saying that five times fast). We were supposed to learn about Russia and the World Economic Crisis and Russian-American Relations in the 21st Century, but it turned into tangent-upon-tangent time. His tangents were interesting - he told us about how he had worked with Gorbachev and Yeltsin - but it was difficult to take notes from him. He gave us a really interesting presentation on Iran's nuclear program and I asked him about Russia's support of nuclear armament in Iran. We also learned about Russia's reserve fund and how it helped Russia to make it through the economic crisis. Dr. Asatiani was a really nice professor and it would be great to sit down with him and have a discussion some time.

After the lecture, Goeckel told us to meet him at 3:00 to go to the Russian History Museum in Red Square. Going down, we got stuck in the elevator. It was not a pleasant experience. Luckily, one person in our group (Alona) was fluent in Russian and managed to ask the security guard to reset the elevator. However, it still lays credence to the joke, "In Soviet Russia, you don't take elevators. Elevators take you!"

The History Museum was very decadent, but the descriptions were all in Russian. This left us to look at a bunch of really old rocks that we couldn't read about. Also, in a subway, we found a huge chorus singing at one of the stops. Russia has little surprises at every corner. Some frustrate you (like when it took three hours to go through the bureaucracy to check into our rooms) and some will leave you smiling (such as a random 70 year-old lady who had earbuds on and was waltzing with an invisible partner on the subway platform).

One more random observation: Russia has SO MUCH sunlight. Moscow gets twenty hours and St. Petersburg gets a full twenty-four. It's always surprising to look at my watch and see that it's 10:00 PM and still sunny. Several people wear sleeping masks, because it is difficult to sleep when it is so bright outside.

5/19

On Saturday, we were given a tour of the city by Professor Olga Oralova. The tour was nice in that we were able to see all of Moscow in a span of three hours, but it seemed like we just didn’t go in depth enough. Olga took us to a bridge that goes over the Moscow River. On the bridge were trees that bore locks on their branches. Legend has it that when two Russians are married, they are to place a lock on one of the trees and throw the key into the river to symbolize their marriage vows to one another.

She also took us to the site of the 2011 Russian protests. The area seemed so desolate for having once been a space for the cries of democracy. Olga showed us a set of statues called “Children are the Victims of Adults’ Vices” and explained to us that the protests occurred there because Indifference was one of the vices portrayed in the display. She said that the Russian people wanted to send the government a message by showing that they are not politically indifferent, and care for the future of their country.

We also toured several different Orthodox Christian cathedral. The most memorable one was called Cathedral of Chris the Savior. It was huge (maybe the size of two White Houses stacked on top of each other), had golden arches, and impeccable symmetry. Walking inside was like wandering into a dream. The cathedral was lit by scented candles, bore several gothic-style paintings, and was topped by a painting of God staring down at us from the center of the ceiling. It was the epitome of an awe-inspired ambiance. We only had thirty minutes to explore the outside and inside of the cathedral, but it felt like five. I was enraptured in the dreamy aura of the place.

I am currently running out of t-shirts at the moment. Laundry costs four dollars here (160 rubbles for washing and drying). I may have to buy some more t-shirts at the MSU store, as I only packed five. I thought Moscow was going to be colder, even in the summer, compared to Geneseo, but glancing at each city’s weather report, Moscow has been in the upper 70’s every day with a clear forecast, while Geneseo has been cloudy and in the lower 60’s. One stereotype that I have had of Russia has been conquered.

In terms of the language, I am learning some basic survival words, but nothing more than that. The biggest one for me is “Spasiba” (Thank You). I also use “Angluski?” to ask if anyone speaks English. It is frustrating not understand Russian. A lot of the store clerks tend to ask me something in Russian and I have to give them blank stares until they roll their eyes and show me the money that I owe on the calculator. One of the security guards on our floor stopped me to tell me something in Russian. After telling him I couldn’t understand him, he tried speaking to me in Germany, of which I remembered very little. He tried to tell me something about the entrance to the stairs, but I really couldn’t understand what he was getting across. It is frustrating not being able to speak or understand anything that strangers are saying to you.

It makes me appreciate several of the international students that come to Geneseo, not knowing very much English. They are not with a group, and must learn English quickly. On top of that, there are several cultural barriers that must be crossed before they can be fully immersed in American culture. For me it feels that same. I feel like I stick out like a sore thumb half the time. I feel a bit stupid when I have to give blank stares when someone speaks to me. It is a bit annoying not being able to tell which food has pork in it and being force to have someone ask for me. Hopefully, the feeling of being an invalid will lessen as time goes on.

At lunch, Olga scolded students for drinking Pepsi and passed around this delicious Russian drink called “Blank Current.” It was a red fruit drink that tasted like a healthier version of Kool-Aid. I really enjoyed it, but I stuck to my water because beverages are expensive in Moscow.

That night, the Russian students took us to some free art shows. The first art studio was more child-oriented. We were given a tour by a 50 year-old Russian lady, wearing a costume consisting of scarecrow-like patched sleeves, a blue and green dress with golden snick-looking buttons going down the middle and mop string hair with blue goat horns attached. After the tour, we were able to paint pictures of a traditional Russian goat picture. Despite the ridiculousness, it felt good just to get a chance to sit down. It seems as though we have been standing or walking every minute of every day. Seats on the metro are coveted, the bottoms of our feet are always sore from all of the walking we do around the tremendous MSU campus. I can’t imagine how the students do this every day (of course, they probably take the bus more often than we do).

Next, we went to a park that had several statues from the Soviet period. I got pictures with Lenin, Stalin, and Brezhnev to name a few. Strangely, there were several umbrellas in the park. They were on the lamps, in the trees, and above some of the statues. I’m not sure if the designers of the park had some kind of umbrella fetish, but I found that quite odd.  As some of us were leaving to go home for the night (feet still sore) there was an art show. We heard very loud Star Wars-like music coming from a stage nearby. Walking past the stage, we saw a knight walking out with a hammer. He banged his hammer on the gavel and said a word in Russian. Alona (who speaks Russian fluently) said that he shouted “cheese.” He spoke again, which was translated into, “The Kingdom of Cheese.” Weirded out, we decided to go on our merry ways.

5/20

Today we took a bus to Leninskie Gorki, Vladamir Lenin’s home and estate. We first went into his house that was originally in the Kremlin, but reconstructed in the outskirts of Moscow after his death. Arriving in the house, we had to put on slippers that looked as though they were extracted from the Soviet period. They were meant to prevent the floor from being exposed to the friction from our sneakers. It was a bit awkward having to walk around in peasant shoes, especially when I nearly tripped down Lenin’s staircase during the tour. A professor from MSU gave us a tour of Lenin’s Kremlin house. It was interesting to learn that he came from a lower class background. His grandfather was a serf, and his father was a peasant turned army general. Lenin himself was a lawyer. You would think that someone who came from humble beginnings and worked his way up to prosperity (while relying on his father’s inheritance) would have capitalism to thank for it. But like Marx and Engels, this bad boy didn’t give a damn.

When we went to Lenin’s estate, we had a tour guide who only spoke in Russian. We gave one of the MSU students an opportunity to translate the tour for us, but he did it slowly and simply, so it was difficult to understand the information being presented to us. The tour guide was also getting frustrated with how slow the student was translating that she often corrected him and cut him off. She clearly wasn't happy with giving a tour of Lenin to foreign tourists who didn't understand Russian. Professor Goeckel showed us Lenin’s staircase and how he installed his own set of railing to thrust his body up the stairs as he got older. It made me think of how people who are handicapped got around a century ago, when there were no means of access that we have today. In the metro the other day, I saw an old lady in her 80’s being assisted down the stairs, at a sloths pace by a stranger who was kind enough to help. People have to rely on the kindness of others here, because civil society doesn’t have their back as it does in most developed countries.

5/21

Today, Professor Goeckel gave us a very engaging lecture on the history of religious institutions in Russia going from the Tsarist period, to the Soviets, and up until Putin. In some sense, the Orthodox Church did better under the Soviets, because they made concessions to the Church as to prevent it from wielding its full power. With the competition in the 1990’s, smaller sects of Christianity were able to make their way into Russia and Orthodox Christianity suffered as a result.

Lunch today was also very good. Russian lunch seems to keep with a pattern. Like in Germany, lunch is the largest meal of the day in Russia. It usually consists of oily but delicious soup, some kind of salad, wheat and white bread, a meat, a starch, and a cup of tea with cookies to dip in it. These courses are very particularly ordered, as we were served a meal in virtually the same style everywhere we ate lunch. Food in Russia tends to be very good, but unhealthy. There is a lot of oil and mayonnaise. Meat is a large part of the Russian diet. We have a vegetarian with us on the trip and it is difficult for her to keep within her dietary restrictions, because meat is their main source of protein. According to Alona, Russians hate vegetarians. They consider it a part of a bourgeois lifestyle, and see them as snobby Westerners.

Next, we took the bus to the Novodevichy Convent. This was where Peter the Great exiled his sister (Sophia). It was home to many famous Russian women. Interestingly, they allowed photography of the Convent, but you had to pay to take pictures. We decided to give Isaac the opportunity to be group photographer for us. The Cathedral’s were beautiful, but like all Russian museums, the descriptions were only in Russian. In one of our textbooks, it said that Vladamir the Great chose to convert Russia to Orthodox Christianity because he thought that the architecture was pretty. While I agree with him on that point, I think it’s kind of silly to judge a religion based on its architecture. But that’s Russia: bringing simple solutions to complex problems. Of course, that wouldn’t be the stupidest reason to for choosing a religion. If I remember correctly, the King of England converted his country to Christianity because he thought Jesus healed him from a disease. It's not a wonder as to why the Soviets did away with religion.  Ideologically speaking, they thought it was a form of false consciousness, distracting the working class from full productivity.

Anyways, Novodevichy also had a cemetery that would be the equivalent of Arlington National Cemetery in the US. We got to see the graves of Stalin’s wife, Khrushchev, Yeltsin, Gorbachev’s wife and many other famous Russian leaders. It was kind of my star struck moment. I don’t know what turns normal people on, but seeing a bunch of the gravestones of dead Russians was pretty exciting for me. I’m not sure why, but it felt amazing to think that Yeltsin’s dead carcass was once where I was standing. Everyone else was star struck too. So much so, that we took a group picture in front of Khrushchev’s tombstone. I’m sure he would have love to know that a group of American tourists were taking a picture on top of his dead body 20 years after the collapse of his country. There were a bunch of Germans getting a tour, and I wanted to ask someone, “Koennen Sie ein Photograph machen?” I just feel so stupid not knowing Russian, and I have an inner urge to show off my sub-par proficiency in another language.

After a brief stop to get changed, we dressed up and went to a Russian opera in the Bolshoi Theatre. It was called the “Queen of Spades.” It was about this poor man named Herman. Herman was a gambler who was down on his luck. He falls in love with this woman (Liza), whose mother (the Countess) happens to know the secret to becoming wealthy in cards. Even though Liza is engaged, Herman says he will kill himself if she doesn’t renounce her marriage vows and engage him instead. Out of good will, Liza does this. Despite this, Herman accidentally kills her mother when trying to find out the secret, and blatantly tells his fiancé that he did it. Liza ends up committing suicide out of despair and Herman does the same when he realizes that he has been cursed and loses all of his money in cards. Yeah,  Herman was kind of a dick. The opera was very good. It’s staging was beautiful (there was a nice white backdrop that gave way to shadow figures on stage), the singing was in Russian with English subtitles, but still very good, and the plot was entertaining to say the least. It was my first time going to an opera. I thought I would hate it, but it was surprisingly good.

On the way out of the theatre, Dan thought he saw the US Ambassador to Russia speaking with some of his comrades. I took a picture of him, but when I told Dr. Goeckel, he walked over and told me that it wasn’t him. Now I have a photograph of a random white guy in a suit on my camera. I think I’ll save it.