So, it's now October. Somehow that just seems incomprehensible to me. Time really *does* fly when you're having fun. Months never flew by so fast at my last job! I have successfully completed a full month of teaching, and while not every class goes as smoothly as I would like, things seem to still be going well in the classroom. And, for some strange reason, we have had the most wonderful weather lately. Upper sixties, even lower seventies. I've been walking around outside in a tank top. This is Russia in October, what gives? Nina M says it's a gift (she doesn't say from whom), and has insisted that I enjoy it. She didn't really need to twist my arm or anything; I'm going to enjoy every warm and sunny day that I can, because soon there won't be any.
Today was Saturday. I decided that, since the weather was so unbelievably perfect, I would explore. I chose some of the streets that run perpendicular to Prospekt Lenina and Bolshaya Moscovskaya (the two main east/west streets of the city), and which run to the south. The main streets of the city do not run through the literal "center" of town, but are located in the southern quadrant of the city. Because of this, the small, winding roads running south take you into what seems like a very rural area quite quickly.
The first streets I explored were Sosenskaya Ulitsa and its offshoot, Sosenskaya Perelouk. The latter is about a three minute walk from Prospekt Lenina, and it's a completely different world. The road becomes very narrow, and is overhung with trees. Right now all of the leaves are a beautiful autumnal gold. The street is lined with many old, traditional Russian homes. Before the Soviets decided to mandate the type of housing that would be constructed (otherwise known as the death of Russian architecture: hideous square blocks of apartments, in a perpetual state of decay), traditional Russian homes were built of wood, with intricate carvings around the windows and eaves. Some of the old buildings obviously serve as apartments, but others seem to be single family dwellings. These are pretty rare in Russia; most people live in apartments. The houses on this street are all obviously very old, although I do not know enough about Russian architecture to personally date them. At the very edge of Sosenskaya Perelouk, at a beautiful spot overlooking the countryside, is a brand new home, obviously belonging to a single and very wealthy Russian family. They even had a brand new Volvo parked outside. Talk about rare for Russia!
I retraced my steps back to Prospekt Lenina, and continued east until the road turned into Bolshaya Moscovskaya. After about a block, a explored another perpendicular southern street (this one had no name). It didn't go very far, but it did lead to another very old Russian home, surrounded by leaves golden leaves, falling from the trees. I once again made my way back to Prospekt Lenina, and continued towards the AH. I took Gogol Ulitsa down to Letneperevozinskaya. (Yes, Letneperevozinskaya is the street where the AH is located, but Gogol brings you out about a block and a half south of the AH.) I continued to head south on Letneperevozinskaya. When I had overlooked the countryside from the yard of the wealthy Volvo owner, I had looked to the east, where I had seen several churches in the distance. I am not a religious person, but the architecture of old Russian churches is so spectacular, that I always enjoy finding (and photographing) them. As far as I could tell, the two churches I had seen were located somewhere south of the AH. The first one was located of an unnamed eastward offshoot of Letneperevozinskaya. From the outside, the church seemed impeccably maintained. The lawn was mowed, and the paint seemed reasonably fresh, but there were no signs indicating the name of the church or times of service. I found myself wondering if it was simply an empty building. But some people in the houses (of the old traditional Russian variety) were staring at me in a rather unfriendly way, and I didn't think they would take too kindly to me peering in through the windows.
I decided to make for the second church. As far as I could tell, the second church was further south, but Letneperevozinskaya suddenly descended down a rather steep hill. At the bottom of said hill was the train track (Trans-Siberian, no less), and upon it ran a train. Had there not been a train blocking my path, I might have continued southward, but as I was in no mood to wait, I turned around. And then I saw, on the western side of the street, a crude wooden staircase running into the woods and up the side of a very steep hill. So, I climbed the staircase. It bought me out at the otherwise dead-end of Voznesenskaya ulitsa. And at the very end of Voznesenskaya ulitsa sat the other church I'd been searching for. Woohoo! This one had a metal fence surrounding it. The sign on the fence labeled it as the Svyato-Voznesenskaya (Holy Ascension) Church. Nothing about times of services, and the fence seemed kind of forbidding. However, as the pedestrian gate in the fence was ajar, I popped in and took a picture or two before scurrying out.
(I later checked with my map, which has all sorts of things level in an incredibly helpful manner. The first church I visited was the Svyato-Nikolo-Galeiskaya Church, built in 1732. The second church, the map names as the Khristo-Voznesenskaya (Christ's Ascension) Church, and says that it was built in 1724. It is interesting to me that when tourists come to Vladimir, they visit three things: The Golden Gates, the Cathedral of St. Dmitry and the Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral. Now, granted these incredible pieces of architecture were built in 1164, 1194, and 1158, respectively, and are therefore substantially more historic (and certainly rarer in Russia than 18th century churches), but I find it surprising that other historical (if not so ancient) structures are not, well, marketed to tourists.)
I strolled back up Voznesenskaya ulitsa, yet another narrow road, lined with birches shedding their golden leaves, and played with a few stray cats along the way. The road linked back up with Letneperevozinskaya, which I took back to Gogol and then back to Bolshaya Moscovskaya, where I went to the univermag. "Univermag" is sort of an abbreviation for "universal store" and it's the nearest thing in Vladimir to a mall. It's not really set up to be user friendly though. On each floor are numerous little kiosks. You can peer through the glass to see what they have, but you have to tell the person inside the kiosk what you want in order to buy it. And, while each kiosk generally sells a certain type of item ("electronics" "makeup" "greeting cards" etc) finding the specific kiosk you need is kind of hard. I was on a quest for CD-Rs. I found several kiosks selling CD-RWs and DVD-RWs, and finally I found one selling CD-Rs. Woohoo! I bought two, and felt really successful. Really, buying blank CDs should not have to qualify as a quest.
The univermag is also home to a large and very modern bookstore. By very modern, I mean that it is like a bookstore in the US: you can pick up the books and flip through them and decide what you want to purchase (unlike many others in which the books are kept behind the counter, and when you decide which one you want, you have to ask the person behind the counter to sell it to you). I went in looking for a copy of The Master and Margarita (in Russian, of course), by Mikhail Bulgakov, and I found it. If you have not read this book, you need to. It is translated into English and I have read the English version many times, as this is one of my absolute favorites. I love it, I love it, and I recommend it to everyone. Seriously. Buy the book and read it. Now. Anyhow, under the assumption that it will be easier to read in Russian a story which I already know quite well, I am going to attempt to read The Master and Margarita. We'll see how that goes.
As I left the univermag, someone was shouting, "Devushka! Devushka!" (Devushka means "girl," and is used to address any young woman you don't know: a stranger on the street, a waitress, etc.) I thought, surely, that's not aimed at me, but it turned out to be B. She accompanied me to Grossmart (Grossmart is the western-style supermarket in the univermag. Again, by western-style I mean that it's a place where you can pick up the products yourself, instead of having to ask for them from behind the counter like in most places. I suppose that "Grossmart" is the combination of "grocery" and "market," but nevertheless, I always get quite a chuckle out of the name. Grossmart. Gross. Mart. Heehee.), as it is the easiest place in town to get change for a 500 ruble bill. I needed more conditioner anyway. And then we went to the AH for an hour or so of internet and grading. Oooh, fun, fun.
For dinner, a group of seven of us (six of the AH teachers and one AH student) decided to go out for dinner at a restaurant called Golden Dragon, which we had been told was a Korean restaurant. The restaurant was decorated in a generic Asian motif, and we did spy one Korean-looking woman in the back, but most of the food on the menu seemed to be Russian, or at the very least, not too Korean. There were two dishes that seemed Korean, one called "Korean Meat" and one called "Pulgogi." (I usually transliterate this word from Hangul into Latin as bulgogi, but it was transliterated into Cyrillic with a P.) Bulgogi is one of my favorite Korean dishes. Y and I were excited. Well, this is Russia, so of course it wasn't authentic bulgogi. It did consist of marinated strips of meat, and the dish was incredibly spicy (really, it had the Korean level of spicy-kick to it), although while it tasted good, it did not taste anything like any bulgogi I had in Korea. It also had a lot of cilantro in it. A lot. Now, I am a big fan of cilantro, but it simply does not belong in Korean cooking. So, I was glad we went, and I'm glad to know I can get some spicy food when I'm feeling desperate, but I would not go so far as to call the Golden Dragon a Korean restaurant.
Today was Saturday. I decided that, since the weather was so unbelievably perfect, I would explore. I chose some of the streets that run perpendicular to Prospekt Lenina and Bolshaya Moscovskaya (the two main east/west streets of the city), and which run to the south. The main streets of the city do not run through the literal "center" of town, but are located in the southern quadrant of the city. Because of this, the small, winding roads running south take you into what seems like a very rural area quite quickly.
The first streets I explored were Sosenskaya Ulitsa and its offshoot, Sosenskaya Perelouk. The latter is about a three minute walk from Prospekt Lenina, and it's a completely different world. The road becomes very narrow, and is overhung with trees. Right now all of the leaves are a beautiful autumnal gold. The street is lined with many old, traditional Russian homes. Before the Soviets decided to mandate the type of housing that would be constructed (otherwise known as the death of Russian architecture: hideous square blocks of apartments, in a perpetual state of decay), traditional Russian homes were built of wood, with intricate carvings around the windows and eaves. Some of the old buildings obviously serve as apartments, but others seem to be single family dwellings. These are pretty rare in Russia; most people live in apartments. The houses on this street are all obviously very old, although I do not know enough about Russian architecture to personally date them. At the very edge of Sosenskaya Perelouk, at a beautiful spot overlooking the countryside, is a brand new home, obviously belonging to a single and very wealthy Russian family. They even had a brand new Volvo parked outside. Talk about rare for Russia!
I retraced my steps back to Prospekt Lenina, and continued east until the road turned into Bolshaya Moscovskaya. After about a block, a explored another perpendicular southern street (this one had no name). It didn't go very far, but it did lead to another very old Russian home, surrounded by leaves golden leaves, falling from the trees. I once again made my way back to Prospekt Lenina, and continued towards the AH. I took Gogol Ulitsa down to Letneperevozinskaya. (Yes, Letneperevozinskaya is the street where the AH is located, but Gogol brings you out about a block and a half south of the AH.) I continued to head south on Letneperevozinskaya. When I had overlooked the countryside from the yard of the wealthy Volvo owner, I had looked to the east, where I had seen several churches in the distance. I am not a religious person, but the architecture of old Russian churches is so spectacular, that I always enjoy finding (and photographing) them. As far as I could tell, the two churches I had seen were located somewhere south of the AH. The first one was located of an unnamed eastward offshoot of Letneperevozinskaya. From the outside, the church seemed impeccably maintained. The lawn was mowed, and the paint seemed reasonably fresh, but there were no signs indicating the name of the church or times of service. I found myself wondering if it was simply an empty building. But some people in the houses (of the old traditional Russian variety) were staring at me in a rather unfriendly way, and I didn't think they would take too kindly to me peering in through the windows.
I decided to make for the second church. As far as I could tell, the second church was further south, but Letneperevozinskaya suddenly descended down a rather steep hill. At the bottom of said hill was the train track (Trans-Siberian, no less), and upon it ran a train. Had there not been a train blocking my path, I might have continued southward, but as I was in no mood to wait, I turned around. And then I saw, on the western side of the street, a crude wooden staircase running into the woods and up the side of a very steep hill. So, I climbed the staircase. It bought me out at the otherwise dead-end of Voznesenskaya ulitsa. And at the very end of Voznesenskaya ulitsa sat the other church I'd been searching for. Woohoo! This one had a metal fence surrounding it. The sign on the fence labeled it as the Svyato-Voznesenskaya (Holy Ascension) Church. Nothing about times of services, and the fence seemed kind of forbidding. However, as the pedestrian gate in the fence was ajar, I popped in and took a picture or two before scurrying out.
(I later checked with my map, which has all sorts of things level in an incredibly helpful manner. The first church I visited was the Svyato-Nikolo-Galeiskaya Church, built in 1732. The second church, the map names as the Khristo-Voznesenskaya (Christ's Ascension) Church, and says that it was built in 1724. It is interesting to me that when tourists come to Vladimir, they visit three things: The Golden Gates, the Cathedral of St. Dmitry and the Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral. Now, granted these incredible pieces of architecture were built in 1164, 1194, and 1158, respectively, and are therefore substantially more historic (and certainly rarer in Russia than 18th century churches), but I find it surprising that other historical (if not so ancient) structures are not, well, marketed to tourists.)
I strolled back up Voznesenskaya ulitsa, yet another narrow road, lined with birches shedding their golden leaves, and played with a few stray cats along the way. The road linked back up with Letneperevozinskaya, which I took back to Gogol and then back to Bolshaya Moscovskaya, where I went to the univermag. "Univermag" is sort of an abbreviation for "universal store" and it's the nearest thing in Vladimir to a mall. It's not really set up to be user friendly though. On each floor are numerous little kiosks. You can peer through the glass to see what they have, but you have to tell the person inside the kiosk what you want in order to buy it. And, while each kiosk generally sells a certain type of item ("electronics" "makeup" "greeting cards" etc) finding the specific kiosk you need is kind of hard. I was on a quest for CD-Rs. I found several kiosks selling CD-RWs and DVD-RWs, and finally I found one selling CD-Rs. Woohoo! I bought two, and felt really successful. Really, buying blank CDs should not have to qualify as a quest.
The univermag is also home to a large and very modern bookstore. By very modern, I mean that it is like a bookstore in the US: you can pick up the books and flip through them and decide what you want to purchase (unlike many others in which the books are kept behind the counter, and when you decide which one you want, you have to ask the person behind the counter to sell it to you). I went in looking for a copy of The Master and Margarita (in Russian, of course), by Mikhail Bulgakov, and I found it. If you have not read this book, you need to. It is translated into English and I have read the English version many times, as this is one of my absolute favorites. I love it, I love it, and I recommend it to everyone. Seriously. Buy the book and read it. Now. Anyhow, under the assumption that it will be easier to read in Russian a story which I already know quite well, I am going to attempt to read The Master and Margarita. We'll see how that goes.
As I left the univermag, someone was shouting, "Devushka! Devushka!" (Devushka means "girl," and is used to address any young woman you don't know: a stranger on the street, a waitress, etc.) I thought, surely, that's not aimed at me, but it turned out to be B. She accompanied me to Grossmart (Grossmart is the western-style supermarket in the univermag. Again, by western-style I mean that it's a place where you can pick up the products yourself, instead of having to ask for them from behind the counter like in most places. I suppose that "Grossmart" is the combination of "grocery" and "market," but nevertheless, I always get quite a chuckle out of the name. Grossmart. Gross. Mart. Heehee.), as it is the easiest place in town to get change for a 500 ruble bill. I needed more conditioner anyway. And then we went to the AH for an hour or so of internet and grading. Oooh, fun, fun.
For dinner, a group of seven of us (six of the AH teachers and one AH student) decided to go out for dinner at a restaurant called Golden Dragon, which we had been told was a Korean restaurant. The restaurant was decorated in a generic Asian motif, and we did spy one Korean-looking woman in the back, but most of the food on the menu seemed to be Russian, or at the very least, not too Korean. There were two dishes that seemed Korean, one called "Korean Meat" and one called "Pulgogi." (I usually transliterate this word from Hangul into Latin as bulgogi, but it was transliterated into Cyrillic with a P.) Bulgogi is one of my favorite Korean dishes. Y and I were excited. Well, this is Russia, so of course it wasn't authentic bulgogi. It did consist of marinated strips of meat, and the dish was incredibly spicy (really, it had the Korean level of spicy-kick to it), although while it tasted good, it did not taste anything like any bulgogi I had in Korea. It also had a lot of cilantro in it. A lot. Now, I am a big fan of cilantro, but it simply does not belong in Korean cooking. So, I was glad we went, and I'm glad to know I can get some spicy food when I'm feeling desperate, but I would not go so far as to call the Golden Dragon a Korean restaurant.
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