Moscow Brought to Life
Sunday February 20th is a day that I don't think I'll ever forget. I woke up in the morning feelin' like P Diddy- ok I'm done, I promise...*Cough* anyway, I woke up in the morning knowing that I was supposed to meet a man named Josh W. a member of SRAS for a walking tour of Moscow. Everyone else, the night before was out partying, so I honestly did not know who was awake/alive at the time, and I had been given instructions to meet him at a specific metro stop. Not growing up in a big city, but a simply small town, I was totally new to the idea of public transportation, and the metro completely overwhelmed me. I emailed Josh, telling him that I would love to come on his tour, but there is no way that I could possibly get to him by myself. He promptly replied and gave me his interns phone number, and said that David would meet me at the school and make sure I would get there no problem. After sending out multiple text messages, facebook messages, and emails to my American friends, I assumed that the only people going were me and Spencer. To my surprise, they were all waiting for me in the meeting location David told us to go to.
We met Josh outside of the McDonald's by the metro station Tret'yakovskaya. I learned that Josh had been living in Moscow for the past 7 years, got married, and has a half Russian child. At first he made all of us go around and introduce ourselves saying how long we have studied Russian and why we were here. I told him just how long I had been studying Russian and said that I came here because I'm not fluent, and I need to do something about that. He said that even though he has lived in Russia, in complete immersion, he still doesn't consider himself fluent. Big confidence booster there, lol.
Before we began the tour, he wanted to test our political knowledge and asked us who the four political parties were, and who in fact was really in control of the country. Chris and I being the most familiar with Russian history and politics were almost competing for answers. We both won! Josh was impressed, brought out a bag full of goodies, asked us how good our Russian was, and gave us both books! I received: "ВВедение в Политологию" by В. П. Пугачев, А. И. Соловьев. It's basically a textbook on Russian politics. Later on, when I got back to my dorm, I opened it up, and thought, "Dang, no pictures. Then, as if I had spoken to the book itself, a small comic called "Рубашка" popped out. Yay pictures!
After a political brief, the tour began. He took us near the Tretyakov Gallery, in which we stopped, and he told us about the progression of Russian art over the years and a little bit about Russian culture and mentality. At this point, we started walking again, and crossed the street. This was my ultimate favorite part of the tour. There was this bridge, but on it was art of a type I had never seen before. It was of romance and marriage. In front of the bridge was this bench. Looking at the picture below, you see the two rings, those represent marriage. The bench itself is called Reconciliation. It is arched the way it is, because when a bride and groom sit on it, they can no longer fight, they have to work things out together.
Then on the bridge itself, it had many of these metal trees, and the leaves were all made out of locks! This tradition was originally Italian, but the Russians learned of it, and fell in love with it. Whenever a couple gets married, they buy a lock, paint their names on it, lock it onto a tree, and throw the keys over into the river. What a beautiful image of an everlasting love. *sigh* Maybe I'll get to do that someday.
My other favorite part about this tradition, is that bridges for a groom and his bride are bad luck. If they were to cross it alone, or together, an evil spirit would come and swoop up the bride, tearing apart their love. In order to prevent this, the groom must sweep his love off her feet, and carry her across the entirety of the bridge with his family and friends present. This could of course just be another way for the man to show off how strong he is, but it's also incredibly romantic for the girl. I think this is a win-win situation. Better start working out boys, these bridges are long!
While I was standing on the bridge, I looked out over the horizon, and saw a statue of Peter the Great on his boat. My heart fluttered with excitement when I remembered that when I was in Moscow last May, the hostile where I stayed at was right next to that statue. Originally, the artist made it in the image of Christopher Columbus and tried to sell it to America.
The President at the time refused saying it was too ugly.
They then chopped the head off, and put Napoleon's face on it. The French didn't like it either. Once again, the poor man was beheaded, and Peter's head was put atop the sailor. The Russians, said, "Wow, it's huge! That's awesome! We'll take it!"
Our next stop was Red Square. Along the way, however we ran into multiple statues and very interesting sculptures. One included Ilya Repin, a famous painter who was part of a group called The Wanderers. They were artists who believed in realism. What they painted reflected the real world, just not the charm and luxurious life of the tsars. The ruling powers at the time were against the idea, but they grew in popularity from traveling to many different towns and cities over the years selling their work, and getting new members. Ilya was one out of over 300 who joined.
At this point in the tour, we were all freezing our toes, hands, every part of our bodies off, and were almost begging to go inside to defrost. Josh took us into a little Asian cafe. They served really good food. You had the choice of lamb, chicken, beef, or mushrooms and cheese, to be stuffed into something that looked like a Hot Pocket, but tastier. If I ever remember the Russian word for them, I'll be sure to put that here. After that scrumptious meal and hot cup of tea, we headed back out onto the streets. After walking for a little while, Saint Basil's was looming out in the distance. We were in the middle of crossing a bridge, where we found a look out spot. It was most definitely "Mommy Picture Time." Everyone one by one, gave their camera to the person next to them and made sure they got their picture taken all bundled up with St. Basil's in the background. That would be my lovely profile picture. We continued walking and yet again, found another look out spot. This time, Christ the Savior Cathedral is what caught our attention.
Christ the Savior Cathedral has a special place in my heart. Alexander I had it built in 1817 in honor of Christ, hence the name. When Lenin died, the site of the cathedral was chosen by the Soviets, in which they wanted to make a monument to socialism known as the Palace of Soviets. So they demolished the cathedral with the idea of making an Abraham Lincoln pose of Lenin, however that never happened. The site was turned into a public swimming pool. After the fall of communism, the cathedral was rebuilt.
To understand Russians, an understanding of Orthodoxy must be kept in mind. Orthodoxy is the biggest and most withstanding religion among the Russians. It has been tested time and time again, and it has never fallen. Perhaps that is why I love it so much. I was inside the cathedral last May 2010, and as an Orthodox Christian myself, I could truthfully say, that I felt no spiritual connection there. I felt it was way over the top, much to distracting for praying, and that it was simply big and beautiful. Nothing more. As we were approaching the entrance to Red Square, Josh stopped us again, and pointed below us. There was a building under construction, it had maybe 1 and a half floors already made. There was something strange about it though, it had metal prongs sticking far out from the cemented pillars, and was covered in snow, nothing to protect it from the harsh Russian winter. Josh went on to explain that this building was started in 1990. The people who began the project ran out of funding, and it's just been sitting there for the past 20 years. Getting a building permit in Russia, is almost impossible. If you wait for it, you won't get it. The solution, start construction. Once the government sees you are committed to the project, they will get the permits to you much quicker. Josh then pointed out to the other side of the street. A billboard, about a mile long, and continuing on both sides of it, forming a V. Josh explained that billboards like that are illegal, but Russians do it anyway.
Our next stop while passing by the front of St. Basil's was ГУМ. It is more of a museum than a mall, because honestly, you need to be very wealthy to afford much of anything inside. We were all very happy to go inside nonetheless, because we all had started to feel the pangs of frostbite gnawing at our joints. Inside we saw not only Чебурашка, but a blue one! Чебурашка is an all time cartoon favorite of Russian children. Heck, I'm not even Russian, and I love him.
He says cute things in a high pitched voice like: "Я люблю молоко!" (I love milk!) "Ты настоящий друг." (You are a real friend.) Try to picture this cute character as a Winnie the Poo, or Russia's version of Mickey Mouse. Oh, and yes, that is a bride hugging our little friend. ГУМ has some great places and backgrounds for picture taking on that special big day!
We also saw an old fashioned Soviet soda fountain! Everyone in the group was very excited. We bought two flavors and shared it, (yes I know, ew, germs, but hey, I'm not sick yet!) We tried the green flavor and the red one which was easy to define as cherry. As for the green one, no one had a clue, but it was tasty. The texture of this drink is more syrupy than anything else, so imagine those ice pops you had as a kid without the ice, and just the flavor. Not a bad deal if you like sugar and corn syrup!
Once again, defrosted and piling layers of warm clothing back on, we headed out to continue our tour. We left Red Square and head straight for Theater Square where the Bolshoi was located in all of it's grandeur.
The theater is actually closed right now and won't be open until Fall 2011. The foundation of the Bolshoi is sinking. The Duma (government of Russia) was trying to decide what to do about it. They had considered just destroying it and building a new one, however, it is considered a national symbol, and tearing it down would be most painful. So, they are putting millions of dollars into raising the Bolshoi upon pillars, so they can build a new foundation under it. It is because of projects like this and malls like ГУМ that the Russian people suffer. Prices on food, clothing, living in general sky rocket. That is the reason why there is so much corruption and average people are barely getting by. Russia is so focused on making their country look beautiful and want it to be comparable to the US and other countries, that they forget about taking care of themselves. This however, is the mentality of the Russian people, it's not something that can be easily changed.
Unfortunately, our tour had to be cut short. As you can see from the picture of the Bolshoi, it was getting dark, and the temperature was rapidly dropping. Josh took us down a street where there were quite a few restaurants. If you are a sushi fanatic, and are afraid that going to Russia is going to take it off your diet, well, you're mistaken. Russians are crazy about Sushi, and restaurants could be found all over. There was a particular one on this street called Дай Суши pronounced Die Sushi! Which means Give me Sushi...that always me chuckle. Unfortunately, we didn't go there, but went to a Russian buffet in which many of us bought a little something extra to help us warm up and hopefully stay warm for the trip back home. We had to separate into 3 different tables, because the place was pretty busy, but we were still in close proximity to each other.
When we had just about finished eating, Josh came up to us asking us for our emails so we can stay in touch and receive a newsletter from SRAS. I was curious to ask Josh if all teachers of Russian language joined SRAS. He gave me a lengthy answer saying not all the time, and basically explained how it worked. The reason for this question was, because SUNY Albany, my home university, was shutting down the Russian program as well as many other languages. I had alerted my Russian teacher from high school the moment I heard about this, and she immediately called SRAS, and before I knew it a petition against the cuts for the Russian program was out. When I finished, Josh looked at me and said, "Yeh, that was me." My heart was overwhelmed with thanks, and I couldn't help but think that it really IS a small world. He made the petition all the way from Russia. I had made it my personal goal to get as many people to sign it as possible through social networking groups like Facebook. God works in some really awesome ways in bringing people together.
By the time we made it back to the dorms, it was pretty late. The group was already discussing plans for Fun-Day Monday at a local club, but I just wanted a shower and sleep...mostly sleep.
We met Josh outside of the McDonald's by the metro station Tret'yakovskaya. I learned that Josh had been living in Moscow for the past 7 years, got married, and has a half Russian child. At first he made all of us go around and introduce ourselves saying how long we have studied Russian and why we were here. I told him just how long I had been studying Russian and said that I came here because I'm not fluent, and I need to do something about that. He said that even though he has lived in Russia, in complete immersion, he still doesn't consider himself fluent. Big confidence booster there, lol.
Before we began the tour, he wanted to test our political knowledge and asked us who the four political parties were, and who in fact was really in control of the country. Chris and I being the most familiar with Russian history and politics were almost competing for answers. We both won! Josh was impressed, brought out a bag full of goodies, asked us how good our Russian was, and gave us both books! I received: "ВВедение в Политологию" by В. П. Пугачев, А. И. Соловьев. It's basically a textbook on Russian politics. Later on, when I got back to my dorm, I opened it up, and thought, "Dang, no pictures. Then, as if I had spoken to the book itself, a small comic called "Рубашка" popped out. Yay pictures!
After a political brief, the tour began. He took us near the Tretyakov Gallery, in which we stopped, and he told us about the progression of Russian art over the years and a little bit about Russian culture and mentality. At this point, we started walking again, and crossed the street. This was my ultimate favorite part of the tour. There was this bridge, but on it was art of a type I had never seen before. It was of romance and marriage. In front of the bridge was this bench. Looking at the picture below, you see the two rings, those represent marriage. The bench itself is called Reconciliation. It is arched the way it is, because when a bride and groom sit on it, they can no longer fight, they have to work things out together.
Then on the bridge itself, it had many of these metal trees, and the leaves were all made out of locks! This tradition was originally Italian, but the Russians learned of it, and fell in love with it. Whenever a couple gets married, they buy a lock, paint their names on it, lock it onto a tree, and throw the keys over into the river. What a beautiful image of an everlasting love. *sigh* Maybe I'll get to do that someday.
My other favorite part about this tradition, is that bridges for a groom and his bride are bad luck. If they were to cross it alone, or together, an evil spirit would come and swoop up the bride, tearing apart their love. In order to prevent this, the groom must sweep his love off her feet, and carry her across the entirety of the bridge with his family and friends present. This could of course just be another way for the man to show off how strong he is, but it's also incredibly romantic for the girl. I think this is a win-win situation. Better start working out boys, these bridges are long!While I was standing on the bridge, I looked out over the horizon, and saw a statue of Peter the Great on his boat. My heart fluttered with excitement when I remembered that when I was in Moscow last May, the hostile where I stayed at was right next to that statue. Originally, the artist made it in the image of Christopher Columbus and tried to sell it to America.
The President at the time refused saying it was too ugly.
They then chopped the head off, and put Napoleon's face on it. The French didn't like it either. Once again, the poor man was beheaded, and Peter's head was put atop the sailor. The Russians, said, "Wow, it's huge! That's awesome! We'll take it!"
Our next stop was Red Square. Along the way, however we ran into multiple statues and very interesting sculptures. One included Ilya Repin, a famous painter who was part of a group called The Wanderers. They were artists who believed in realism. What they painted reflected the real world, just not the charm and luxurious life of the tsars. The ruling powers at the time were against the idea, but they grew in popularity from traveling to many different towns and cities over the years selling their work, and getting new members. Ilya was one out of over 300 who joined.
At this point in the tour, we were all freezing our toes, hands, every part of our bodies off, and were almost begging to go inside to defrost. Josh took us into a little Asian cafe. They served really good food. You had the choice of lamb, chicken, beef, or mushrooms and cheese, to be stuffed into something that looked like a Hot Pocket, but tastier. If I ever remember the Russian word for them, I'll be sure to put that here. After that scrumptious meal and hot cup of tea, we headed back out onto the streets. After walking for a little while, Saint Basil's was looming out in the distance. We were in the middle of crossing a bridge, where we found a look out spot. It was most definitely "Mommy Picture Time." Everyone one by one, gave their camera to the person next to them and made sure they got their picture taken all bundled up with St. Basil's in the background. That would be my lovely profile picture. We continued walking and yet again, found another look out spot. This time, Christ the Savior Cathedral is what caught our attention.
Christ the Savior Cathedral has a special place in my heart. Alexander I had it built in 1817 in honor of Christ, hence the name. When Lenin died, the site of the cathedral was chosen by the Soviets, in which they wanted to make a monument to socialism known as the Palace of Soviets. So they demolished the cathedral with the idea of making an Abraham Lincoln pose of Lenin, however that never happened. The site was turned into a public swimming pool. After the fall of communism, the cathedral was rebuilt.
To understand Russians, an understanding of Orthodoxy must be kept in mind. Orthodoxy is the biggest and most withstanding religion among the Russians. It has been tested time and time again, and it has never fallen. Perhaps that is why I love it so much. I was inside the cathedral last May 2010, and as an Orthodox Christian myself, I could truthfully say, that I felt no spiritual connection there. I felt it was way over the top, much to distracting for praying, and that it was simply big and beautiful. Nothing more. As we were approaching the entrance to Red Square, Josh stopped us again, and pointed below us. There was a building under construction, it had maybe 1 and a half floors already made. There was something strange about it though, it had metal prongs sticking far out from the cemented pillars, and was covered in snow, nothing to protect it from the harsh Russian winter. Josh went on to explain that this building was started in 1990. The people who began the project ran out of funding, and it's just been sitting there for the past 20 years. Getting a building permit in Russia, is almost impossible. If you wait for it, you won't get it. The solution, start construction. Once the government sees you are committed to the project, they will get the permits to you much quicker. Josh then pointed out to the other side of the street. A billboard, about a mile long, and continuing on both sides of it, forming a V. Josh explained that billboards like that are illegal, but Russians do it anyway.
Our next stop while passing by the front of St. Basil's was ГУМ. It is more of a museum than a mall, because honestly, you need to be very wealthy to afford much of anything inside. We were all very happy to go inside nonetheless, because we all had started to feel the pangs of frostbite gnawing at our joints. Inside we saw not only Чебурашка, but a blue one! Чебурашка is an all time cartoon favorite of Russian children. Heck, I'm not even Russian, and I love him.
We also saw an old fashioned Soviet soda fountain! Everyone in the group was very excited. We bought two flavors and shared it, (yes I know, ew, germs, but hey, I'm not sick yet!) We tried the green flavor and the red one which was easy to define as cherry. As for the green one, no one had a clue, but it was tasty. The texture of this drink is more syrupy than anything else, so imagine those ice pops you had as a kid without the ice, and just the flavor. Not a bad deal if you like sugar and corn syrup!Once again, defrosted and piling layers of warm clothing back on, we headed out to continue our tour. We left Red Square and head straight for Theater Square where the Bolshoi was located in all of it's grandeur.
Unfortunately, our tour had to be cut short. As you can see from the picture of the Bolshoi, it was getting dark, and the temperature was rapidly dropping. Josh took us down a street where there were quite a few restaurants. If you are a sushi fanatic, and are afraid that going to Russia is going to take it off your diet, well, you're mistaken. Russians are crazy about Sushi, and restaurants could be found all over. There was a particular one on this street called Дай Суши pronounced Die Sushi! Which means Give me Sushi...that always me chuckle. Unfortunately, we didn't go there, but went to a Russian buffet in which many of us bought a little something extra to help us warm up and hopefully stay warm for the trip back home. We had to separate into 3 different tables, because the place was pretty busy, but we were still in close proximity to each other.
When we had just about finished eating, Josh came up to us asking us for our emails so we can stay in touch and receive a newsletter from SRAS. I was curious to ask Josh if all teachers of Russian language joined SRAS. He gave me a lengthy answer saying not all the time, and basically explained how it worked. The reason for this question was, because SUNY Albany, my home university, was shutting down the Russian program as well as many other languages. I had alerted my Russian teacher from high school the moment I heard about this, and she immediately called SRAS, and before I knew it a petition against the cuts for the Russian program was out. When I finished, Josh looked at me and said, "Yeh, that was me." My heart was overwhelmed with thanks, and I couldn't help but think that it really IS a small world. He made the petition all the way from Russia. I had made it my personal goal to get as many people to sign it as possible through social networking groups like Facebook. God works in some really awesome ways in bringing people together.
By the time we made it back to the dorms, it was pretty late. The group was already discussing plans for Fun-Day Monday at a local club, but I just wanted a shower and sleep...mostly sleep.
Kesha! You know me, I always notice music first. I'll read the rest now, lol.
ReplyDeleteLol, I couldn't help myself, song lyrics always come up like that when I'm talking too. :p
ReplyDeleteYeah, someone will just say something, and if even just one word is in the lyrics of a song, it starts playing in my head. And, then, of course, I probably start singing. xD
ReplyDeleteNot to stop and comment in the middle of a post, but MAYBE you will get to experience true love? I'll carry you away from any danger, any time, and you're going to like it! :P Я тебя люблю!
ReplyDelete