We dined at an Uzbek restaurant "Kish Mish," and we all ordered different dishes and tried all of them: plov, lagman, manty, shorpo, borsh', golubcy, samsa, lepyoshka (nan), and Oriental Sweets assortment. mm...

Then, we went to see a Russian movie called "Na Krayu Stoyu" in Hudozhestvennyi movie theater. And we played around taking pictures while waiting for the movie to start. A pleasant surpise was the beautiful snow when we came out of the theater, and the New Arbat looked very pretty.

Last Sunday, Carly, Abby, Vika, Polina and I made it to the Bolshoi Theatre's final seasonal performance  of Tchaikovsky's famous ballet "The Nutcracker." Our student tickets ended up costing 50 rubles each, which is less than 2 dollars--not bad. It was Abby's first time seeing a ballet, and the rest of us grew up with the music and love it, so it was pretty exciting all around. The rat king wasn't as terrifying as Carly and I remembered him, but that's probably for the best. The costumes were really great, especially for the Spanish, Arab, Chinese and Russian pieces when the dancers were dressed in national costumes. After the Russian dance, the whole crowd went crazy.

Another particularly Russian moment that we experienced was when we went downstairs and the "smoking room" was the entire hallway leading to the bathroom. You could hardly see through the smoke and there was no ventilation in the room at all, so probably not the best location but it was amusing.

At any rate, we all enjoyed the performance and I know that some other students are seeing the ballet at the Kremlin this weekend so hopefully they will have a great time as well.

Malina (and Abby)




 
Malina, Polina and Vika at the Nutcracker


Carly and Abby at the Nutcracker

After Tsaritsyno, four of us decided to go to the Moscow Contemporary Art Museum. Outside the museum is a courtyard that is full of enormous bronze statues on a variety of subjects from Christ to historical figures to peasants. There was one that we thought looked like the Russian version of Don Quixote. The museum was incredibly interesting with a large variety of types of art. There was one installation piece that consisted of huge metal bars in serpentine shapes with speakers all along them and a microphone. There was electronic music playing and if you spoke into the microphone your words came out fragmented and kind of incorporated into the music. There was one particularly fascinating exhibit that was a series of photographs of people from all over Russia that included every ethnicity found in Russia. The subjects were in their habitual surroundings and often standing stiffly and staring at the camera so that it felt like there was a room full of people staring at you. Several of them were proudly showing off some skill or possession. There were also abstract sculptures made out of faience as well as more paintings and installation pieces. It is really too difficult to explain contemporary art so I'm going to give up trying. I will just conclude by saying it was a very good museum, if a little bit stiflingly quiet and empty.

Today, we decided to take a look at the panoramic view of Moscow from the top of Sparrow Hills.
We were not very luck y with the weather: it was very cold, it rained, and the road was very icy. We had to walk up the hill in order to reach the viewing point called Smotrovaya Plosh'adka. It was an adventurous walk through the woods: for some, it was loads of fun to slide or sort of ice-skate as they walked up the icy hill, for others, it was a lot of concentration and body control in order not to fall. Thankfully, everyone made it up to the top of the hill without ever falling!
From the Smotrovaya Plosh'adka, we saw Moscow at night with lots of little lights spread over the earth. One of the biggest building we could see was the Olimpic Center Luzhniki. We could also see a skiing school with a very high jumping slide, we were curious to see if someone actually learns or practices to ski on that really high, narrow and steep metal slope.

Right across from the viewing point, new building of the Moscow State University stood. It was a very large and beautiful building. We could not see the very top of its tower though because it was so foggy and rainy.
Most of us were really frozen by the end of the journey, and they hurried back to the dormitory. brr....


Hannah and Kelima however decided to go to the Tchaikovsky Convervatory where there was an organ concert in honor of a Russian musician and composer Yankovsky. The hall was packed and we had to sit separately. The department of organ and piano performed works of Yankovksy, Bach, and Vivaldi. They played a beautiful Aria with a cello, then another beautiful Ave Maria with a pipe, a choir and a leading signer. All performers were participants and recipients of awards of international organ and vocal competitions. We never heard this much organ playing, and it was a great cultural experience.  

-Kelima
 

Jessica, Kelima, Mihaela, and Caroline (January 7, 2009)

Caroline and Irina (a tour-guide from Russian Institute of Tourism) on the Red Square in front of G.U.M.

Caroline and Kelima in front of the Pokrovsky Sobor at the Red Square

-Kelima

Sovetskaja Street which lead from the Volga Pearl hotel to the center of Yaroslavl'. On both sides of the street, we saw beautiful buildings from XVI to XIX centuries.
(January 7, 2009)


On the way back from Yaroslavl', we stopped in Sergiyev Posad's Museum of Matryoshka. 
We learned the histrory of Matryoshka: this doll is very young, dates back to 1890, and was first made as a story of Matryoshka on a matryoshka. In 1900, it was presented on an exhibition in Paris, and became famous in one day. Many people wanted to buy it, and there were 14000 orders taken then. Since then, many different regions of Russia make matryoshkas and they all have specific details which are unique to different areas. 
We had a master - class on how to decorate matryoshkas, and each of us created and signed our unique matryoshkas.

-Kelima