Moving on....

I know this blog is far from the idea I had when I started it, but I promise to complete it with periodic posts on my Moscow sightseeing trips as I try to be more active on my new blog, monicainsofia.blogspot.com, while I am in Sofia, Bulgaria for another State Department Internship. Please follow the link above to the new site and continue to visit this one for new posts about old adventures!

Thanks!
~Monica

Happy Pi Day! (and Belated International Women's Day!)

It feels slightly odd to be celebrating this academic holiday - one I remember from middle and high school that is marked by memorization and recitation of that famous variable, pi, as well as delicious feasting on a wide assortment of pies brought in by classmates. Unfortunately there is little Pi day festivities here at the Embassy, but maybe not that surprising considering that last weekend was filled with flowers and chocolates honoring women all over the world - International Women's Day was March 8th. The marketing and saturation of advertising billboards in not just Moscow, but St. Petersburg - reminding everyone of this important holiday - reminded me of the sugary infiltration of Valentine's Day into daily life beginning on January 2nd of each year. There was no escaping the flowery posters or ignoring the intricately arranged bouquets of flowers being carried around by men and women. Since this day also usually marks the end of winter and the beginning of spring, the stubbornly lingering "snow" (that is, the pollution-blackened remains) contrasted with the colorful flowers - fake and real - decorating the streets of the city. If only winter would get the hint....

Last week I was kept busy by the arrival of my sister, Julia, who wanted to visit me in Moscow during her University's Spring Break. In addition to taking her to the Kremlin and Ismaylova and the Maslenitsa Festival, we decided to take a mini-trip to St. Petersburg this past weekend before her return flight on Sunday. We spent a short day-and-a-half sightseeing in the city and a combined 16 hours on the train rides there and back. But we had fun, learned a lot about the city of the tsars, and made many many memories (not to mention, photos!). But all in good time - I've been recuperating from a week's worth of frenzied sightseeing and kilometers of "frugal" walking (instead of taking taxies or gypsy cabs) across two very large cities. Photos of St. Petersburg and a video of St. Petersburg's main square should be popping up shortly in the sidebar of the site.

До Свидания!

Maslenitsa!

I can't even begin to describe the giddiness I had last night at the Maslenitsa Festival, held right next to the colorful St. Basil's Cathedral and just a few steps below the Red Square. It was dark by the time my sister and I passed through the gates, but the party was in full swing. The first thing that I saw was the giant effigy of Lady Maslenitsa watching over the Russians enjoying their Blinis (Russian pancakes/crepes) and the folk songs and dances on the main stage of the Festival.

We purchased our hot blinis filled with berries and cream and warm honey-mead to drink, and warmed up after our trek from the Tretyakov Gallery. Suddenly, the group on stage, dressed in traditional Russian winter costume, breaks out into a song I recognize! "Oi Maroz, maroz! Nie maroz menya!" (O frost, frost! Do not freeze me!) This was a song I had learned while learning Russian last summer - except then it was comical singing about frost in the heat of summer. Now, as I sang along, I felt myself beg the frost to stay away - Moscow has cooled considerably since I arrived and there is usually a light dusting of snow/frost when I wake up in the morning. I didn't catch all the words in the verses, but I reflected on my time so far here in Russia and realized that last year at this time I had no idea I would be here in Moscow! In March of 2007 I didn't even know any Russian! And last night I was standing in the Russian cold, with St. Basil's cathedral on my right and a giant Lady Maslenitsa on my left and singing along in Russian! I am greatly amazed to be here and feel honored to have been selected for this internship and this opportunity to live and experience Moscow. Pictures and video will be posted soon!

The Weekend I Visit the Seven Sisters and the Kremlin

So another week has ended and I decided to embark on a weekend filled with sightseeing. Saturday was a guided tour of the Seven Sisters - the nickname given to the seven Stalin-era skyscrapers built in and around Moscow. Sunday I traveled by metro to visit the Kremlin and its armory. More details (and pictures) to follow...

The Day I Visited Gzhel

Russian Pottery Barn
It might be unfair to use those three adjectives to describe this trip. First of all, I have never been to an official Pottery Barn store and so am basing this description on probably biased second hand opinions. Secondly, none of the seven stores we ventured into were barns – some were warehouses, others the front offices of the factory itself, one was nestled in a gasoline station convenience store while the last two were converted living spaces – one showroom filled a former ground floor apartment in a soviet-style apartment bloc and the other packed its goods into every available nook and cranny of a former living room.

Traffic? What Traffic?
We left the Embassy compound fairly early and traveled a speedy two hours to the outskirts of the city. If I haven’t mentioned it yet, traffic in Moscow is awful. But this morning it was light and the door of the van sliding open at our first destination woke me from my pleasant nap. I had been warned by previous participants that the first and the last stops were usually the priciest – best to look and then make a purchase half way through the trip, once you had an idea of what you wanted and what the price range was for the item. But this message was not passed on to the eleven other eager ladies in the van, and they promptly oohed and aahed over each salt and pepper shaker as well as each samovar and teapot, crowding the counter and pointing at plates with the accompanying “Da” or “Niet” (yes or no). Because the next store was around the corner, I and a few others left the growing crowd and proceeded onto the next showroom. It was as I took my third picture of the wall to wall display of Russian handiwork that my camera batteries, exhausted from my photo taking spree on the plane(s) and in my new abode called it quits. Luckily I had a new friend who made the trip with me - a fellow intern named Bethanne – and she snapped a few more pictures at the end of the trip. All I have are the blurred-together displays of blue and white, covering a vast assortment of kitchenware I didn’t even know I needed until a member of the group proudly displayed in the van “It’s a fish platter [wait for it - ] in the shape and glaze of a fish!” Or a giant samovar (a Russian teapot, to describe it succinctly) with little children playing on the handles. The formality of entering a store and a register meant that haggling for a lower price didn’t even surface during this trip. I’m not saying any of us got ripped off with our purchases, but every few minutes a voice would declare a purchase and its price, followed by “I know it might be a little on the high end, but I am helping the Russian economy.” By the end of the trip I was able to stow my souvenirs under my seat, while bags of boxed porcelain spilled down the aisle and between seats and feet.



The handiwork was beautiful to look at – in the first three or so showrooms – so that after a while I went in, tried to find something new or unusual, and promptly returned to the van, where our smiling chauffer kept the heat and the conversation going. I got to practice my Russian while inside the stores, the Russians were able to practice their English. “One more?” he asked us as we piled back in with bags full. “YES!” the ladies replied in chorus, anticipating an even better selection and even lower price at the next stop. Maybe they would finally find those hedgehog-shaped salt and pepper shakers that everyone at the embassy had but no store had yet revealed their whereabouts.





Every Monday and Wednesday except during Lent
A short nap later and we were back at the Embassy, all the ladies joking with each other about ways to sneak in their purchases past unsuspecting spouses. Some even haggled over borrowing rights and managed to arrange a custody schedule for fish platter over the remainder of the year. I haven’t included any pictures of my specific purchases only because one or two of these items will be gifts and I don’t want to spoil the fun. But I have included the three to four photos I managed to take and the several Bethanne was kind enough to take for me. Enjoy!