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.