Pictures from the Mayakovsky...

Маяковский

Karoliina and I went the Mayakovsky Museum today. That place was SO not what I expected. I mean, I knew it was going to be interesting. The guy, Vladimir Mayakovsky, was after all into Futurism and so he collected that kind of art. What I wasn't expecting to feel as if I had walked into a Ripley's/Wonder World place....and that's what I felt like. The house almost looked like a playground and no one cared weather of not you touched the art or got close to it. The colors were so bright and vivid. I guess I almost felt like a giant disaster had ripped through the house and no one had bothered to clean it up they just bothered to paint all over the wreckage. SO FREAKING COOL! Lots of pictures! After that Karoliina and I went to Детский Мир (Children's World) and looked at the fun toys and ended up finding knitting needles and yarn. I am now able to knit. Haha. Yay for me. :)

The Bright Stream

Went to a ballet Friday night at the Bolshoi called "The Bright Stream." It was pretty fan-freaking-tastic. Originally the ballet had been written during Stalin's time and was a major propaganda piece for the Communist system. The ballet is about a troupe of artists who visit a collective farm during the harvest. One of the ballerinas is a friend of Zina, a girl on the farm. Her husband begins to wander and make advances on the ballerina but she is happily married. She and her husband convince Zina to play a joke on her husband to ward off his advances along with those of an old dacha dwelling couple who have taken an interest in the ballerina and her husband. Comedy ensues as the ballerina dresses up as her husband and the husband as his wife. When all is revealed Pyotr (Zina's husband) begs her forgiveness, all is well and the harvest is completed. The Soviet theme is or course how wonderful peasant life is and how much peasants love to work. Giant veggies and fruits are rolled across the stage showing how bountiful and productive life is in Soviet Russia. The ballet is so comedic in the fact that it's hard to believe the Communist party actually wanted people to believe that this is how life was in the USSR. Regardless the ballet was amazing, the dancing was beautiful and the set and costumes perfect. LOVE LOVE LOVED IT!

Oh another note...on the way home from the ballet, Chavala and I stopped at Kroshka Kartoshka (a food kiosk) and got a snack. We were on the way home talking about how much we loved cheese (I got toast and cheese and she got a backed potato with cheese) and the next thing I knew I was flat on my ass in the snow and ice. There was no warning, no slipping, no slow motion effect where I could have tried to catch myself. I was just walking one minute and on my back staring up at the polluted Russian sky the next. Chavala, good friend that she is, instead of asking "Are you all right?" instead asked "You didn't drop the cheese did you?" We were cracking up! It was so hysterical. So now I have a bruise the size of a baseball on my hip and the left side of my lower back kind of hurts but I consider it my initiation into snow weather. :)

Opps...

So the electric was out today in my sector while they did renovations in the building and in stead of being bored Karoliina and I decided to go to the mall. She has been needing a new jacket since it's started to get cold. I probably should have left my debit card at home. TopShop was having a HUGE sale. I just couldn't help myself. I found this gorgeous blue dress and matching earrings and this white sweater that was sooo pretty. I bought some new heels...they were like 4000 rubles but I guess it's not that much. I mean everyone knows how much I LOVE to shop. It's all I ever do. In total today I think I spent around 10000 rubles (roughly $400). EEK! Well...really it's not that much, I normally drop that much everytime I go out.

I guess it's a good thing it's MY money and NOBODY can tell me what to do with it! Afterall....WHY SHOULD THEY CARE?

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow :)

The snow has come to stay I believe. All day yesterday it snowed and the wind blew. Karoliina and I went to Ramstore (supermarket) and on the way I home I didn't have my hat on....I seriously looked like a snow woman when I walked back into my sector. My hair looked like icicles and I'm pretty sure if I had tried to touch it...the hair would have broken off. My fingers almost had to amputated I think from lack of blood flow even with my gloves on and hands in my pocket, but such is life in the Motherland. Took some pictures today and threw a couple snowballs at Karoliina, Jim and Johann after class. We had fun. Yay for snow. :D :D

Tip...

If you are going to post a comment and you dont have a blogger account...please tell me who is writing...otherwise I have no idea who you are, and I like to know who is commenting. Thanks. Love you all. See you soon!

I know I haven't been writing as much I did when I first got here but I'm starting to get comfortable with Moscow and I don't find going out to a bar for a glass of wine or taking the 15 minute walk to the market all that interesting anymore. That and along with the cold and sun going down at 4 in the afternoon, we haven't been going out nearly as much as we did in the beginning.
This weekend Jim, Hildagunn and I went to Vladimir and Suzdal and THAT was interesting. In Suzdal we went to the museum of wooden architecture where they had actually managed to save wooden buildings from the 17th C. and had actually recreated a town. It was an outdoor museum so it was REALLY REALLY cold. It's colder in Suzdal then it is in Moscow. I think while we were there the temp was around -8 Celsius which is roughly 18 for us. SO FREAKING COLD! We also saw a lot of monasteries and visited the kremlin in Suzdal. At one monetary that was turned into a museum they actually have bell concerts where 8 times a day a single man goes into the bell tower and plays 19 bells on his own. NINETEEN...AT THE SAME TIME.... ALONE! Craziness! I got part of the bell ringing on video and it is so beautiful!
In Vladimir we only went to the Assumption Cathedral and actually got to watch an Orthodox service. I really enjoyed going to these cities because all of the churches and some of the monasteries that we visited I had actually studied with Dr. Steeves in his Russian Civ class and now I was actually able to SEE them with my own eyes and not just through a picture in a book or on a screen. I was so ridiculously happy Jim and Hildagunn were starting to get annoyed I think but they understood what it must feel like to finally see something that you never dreamed you actually would. Oh it was SUCH a wonderful day. I would write more but my battery is about to die. So I'll leave you with pictures instead. I know you all care about that more then what I'm writing. :)
Oh and I finally set the comment thing so that anyone can post comments even if they dont have an account with blogger. Just in case some of you want to post comments. :)

Pictures