My last post from Russia

Wow. This is really hard to comprehend. It's not really sinking in that tomorrow I'll be in the US. Weird. I will continue to blog over at my other blog, and I hope that those of you who have followed my adventures across Russia will continue to follow me through the American swamplands and across the Pacific to the Land of the Morning Calm (that being South Korea). I figured it up, and between the fact that I'll be leaving Vladimir tomorrow at 4:30 in the morning and the fact that it takes about four hours to get from Atlanta to home, I'm going to be traveling for approximately 26 hours or so. That means I'm going to be essentially unconscious for several days upon my arrival. I will blog as soon as I can, although I can't promise exactly *when* that's going to be. In the meanwhile, here are some pictures from yesterday's final party with all of the AH teachers and staff.

The party was held in the backyard under red, white and blue umbrellas.
(Keep in mind, these are the colors of the Russian flag, too.
The US doesn't have a monopoly on the red, white and blue.)

There were lots of toasts.

Galya gives a speech while Vanya and Tatiana laugh.

No, there's nothing wrong with your monitor...
the salad really was this color.

It was delicious though. I'm going to miss Russian salads.

G, me and M
We always sat together at AH parties.

B, Alyona and Male B

Misha the Dog

(I realized that while I have *tons* of Gosha the Cat pics, I had no shots of Misha the Dog. Misha's a stray to whom the AH feeds generous portions of scraps on a daily basis. He did quite well at yesterday's party, as he got the bulk of the leftovers.)

Male B and Alyona brought their young son, Alex.
While we had all seen photos of Alex,
this was the first time we saw him in the flesh :-)

My last day of class at the AH

It's strange to think that my teaching days at the AH are finally over. Yesterday was the final day of class, which normally consists of returning final exams, discussing common exam mistakes and having a party. Yesterday was no different. My first class brought cake, candy, two bottles of champagne, a box of Georgian wine (as in the country, not the state), and a bottle of vodka. They also gave me a lovely set of crystal shot glasses from the town of Gus Khrustalny, renowned for its crystal. We spent the bulk of the class having wonderful Ruslish conversations, and it was really a lovely way to end the semester.

Me, with my 4:00pm class

They taught me the proper way to make a Bloody Mary:
You have to make sure the vodka and tomato juice don't mix
That way you shoot the vodka and have a built in chaser.

Gus Khrustalny crystal shot glasses.

My second class brought less booze (luckily for me!), and we spent the class time sipping champagne, eating chocolate and chatting. They gave me a traditional Russian cutting board set, which will look nice in my kitchen, once I get the place painted. After class, two of my students invited me to a cafe where we split a bottle of wine amongst the three of us, nibbled salads and chatted some more. The whole evening was really wonderful.

Me with my 7:00pm class

My Russian cutting board

Masha and Lily at the cafe

This is what my memory of last night is like!

Of course, when I returned home I was completely trashed, and Nina M got a great laugh out of it. I went straight to bed and expected to sleep straight through until morning. Sadly, that was not to be. Now, being from the swamplands of the Southeastern US, I'm accustomed to mosquitoes. I don't like them, but they rarely disturb my slumber. Let me just say that the mosquitoes here in Vladimir are of an entirely worse variety. Once I get stung by one of these creatures, I immediately awaken and spend the next hour or so rubbing hydrocortisone cream on the itchy and enflamed areas. These guys are potent, and I swear their one goal in life is to bite my hands and feet as I sleep. Sadly, I didn't sleep as well as I would have liked....

Today we're having a big going away party here at the AH. All of the Russian staff is currently in the midst of some sort of cooking marathon, and soon we shall have a feast.... I will try to post pics of said event, assuming I don't pass out from lack of sleep or from further consumption of alcohol (which is destined to happen, I'm sure!)

A Great American Home Tradition

Today was hot. Now, I know there are a lot of uninformed people out there who think that all of Russia is covered by many feet of snow all year round... In case you're one of them, let me just go ahead and kill off that myth. Granted, only a few short months ago the streets were covered in mountains of snow, and the temperature dropped to -40. But it's June folks, almost July... and today it was in the 90s. None of us really had any plans (except for B, who is off on an adventure with her host mom this weekend), so as per usual we all gravitated towards the American Home. And, as the AH is one of the few air conditioned places in the city, we stayed here for the remainder of the day. Around 4:00 the sky suddenly grew dark and the wind began to blow... We scurried to Grossmart for provisions and raced back to the AH. Of course once we returned, we realized that we should have gotten the goods to make garlic bread. M and Y raced off to the store, but almost as soon as they left a whopping thunderstorm (of the sort frequently seen in the southeastern US) whipped up and poured out. K, Asya and I were glad to have stayed inside the AH. M and Ye got drenched, but it was worth it as we roasted a baguette stuffed with butter and garlic to accompany the fresh veggies we stir-fried up to top off some pasta. Yes the Great American Home Tradition is that of eating well.

M did most of the cooking

Doesn't it look scrumptious?

Before popping it into the oven,
K stuffed the cracks with butter and pressed garlic.

Gosha the carnivore had his own feast.

Randomness

Last night after administering final exams (always somewhat frustrating, given the blatant and rampant cheating attempts of our students) we went to one of the many beer tents that have sprung up across the city with the arrival of summer, where we consumed yummy shashlik and even yummier beer. I'm going to miss the land of the beer tent.

Y, L, me, Asya

M, G, B, Vova

I would just like to mention that this new haircut of mine rocks. See, my hair is notoriously uncooperative. After most nice (or not so nice...) haircuts, the hairdresser fixes my hair and it looks great, but then when I try and fix it myself, it takes a lot of effort not to look like absolute crap. I must say that this is the first short haircut I've had that requires almost no work whatsoever. I get up and I brush it and it does what it's supposed to do. I'm quite impressed. (For anyone who might be interested in such a magical haircut, it was done by Sveta who works at the Vasilisa hair salon on Bolshaya Moscovskaya, Vladimir)

For those of you who enjoy reading mysteries and/or for those of you who are interested in Tibet, I have a book recommendation for you. As you may or may not know, I've been slowly working my way through the rather large collection of paperback mysteries in the AH library. There's one that's been sitting there for a while that I'd been ignoring due to its horribly cheezy title. I finally picked it up the other day and read the back of the book and decided to give it a try. The book is The Skull Mantra by Eliot Pattison. It's too bad that it has such a cheezy name (although after reading it, I discovered that there's a legitimate reason for this absurd title) because the book is fabulous. Not only is it a well written and engaging mystery, but it gives a clear and fascinating look into life in Tibet, life in the Tibetan prison systems, and Tibetan Buddhism. Now granted, I know remarkably little about Tibet or Tibetan Buddhism, so I have no way of knowing whether or not Pattison's depictions are accurate; however, while reading it I felt such a strong sense of place - so beautiful and magical - that I now find myself wanting to learn more about both Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. The description on the back of the book says that it "will change the way you think about Tibet - and freedom - forever." I read that and thought what a crock of shit... but whaddyaknow. You should all definitely check it out.

Vladimir: 1912 and today

(Thanks to M for sharing this with me!) In the early 1900's, photographer Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii developed a new and cutting edge technique for shooting color photographs. You can read about his work by clicking here, and you can see many of his color photos of turn of the century Tsarist Russia by clicking here. However, I want to point out the contrast (or lack there of) between his pictures, taken almost a century ago, and my photos, taken on June 22, 2006:

Cathedral of St. Dmitry
Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1912

Cathedral of St. Dmitry
Photo by me, June 22, 2006

Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral
Photo by Sergei Mikhailovich Prokudin-Gorskii, 1912

Uspensky (Assumption) Cathedral
Photo by me, June 22, 2006
(Although the lighting wasn't as good
as I would have liked when I took this)

On one hand, I realize that these cathedrals were built in 1194 and 1158, respectively... and if something's been around that long, you shouldn't really expect it to change much over the space of 94 years, but just looking at the photos made me feel like I was living inside some sort of strange time warp. Hope you enjoy them. Anyway, I had decided to run down to Cathedral Square to snap some recent pics of the cathedrals, and I caught a glimpse of the Bogoroditse-Pozhdestvensky monastery, and it occurred to me that in my eleven months in Vladimir I hadn't been inside it. So, I popped on in. To be honest, it wasn't really all that interesting, although there were some intricately carved bells which I photographed...

Bogoroditse-Pozhdestvensky monastery

Bell close-up #1

Bell close-up #2

Of Solstices and Short Hair

Yesterday was essentially my last class at the American Home! Yes, I do officially have two more days of classes (Friday and Monday), but Friday we administer final exams and Monday we have our end of the semester parties... so for all intents and purposes I'm done!! Woohoo! Yesterday after classes, we all arrived at this realization and decided that since we were essentially finished (and since it was the Summer Solstice after all) we should break out some beer, salty beer-cheese and vodka. This may have turned into a rather insane dance party in our office, during which B and I may or may not have demonstrated some scandalous belly-dancing moves to our compatriots. Sorry, I don't have any pics of this to share (we did however make a lot of absurd short videos... but out of respect for all included - myself foremost - I'm not posting any of them!) I did however go home and play around with making self-portraits of me and my new hair. I will share them with you. I can't believe I'll be home in a week. Weird.

Sleepy Cat, Sunsets, and a New Haircut

Gosha continues his obsession with napping in the paper-cutter.

Last night when I left the American Home,
there was a spectacular sunset.

I took lots of pictures.

I even got some from Studyonaya Gora
(where there's a slightly better view than Theater Square)

Did I mention this was around 10:00pm?

Notice how my hair starts off one color,
then transforms several times on its way down...

Well, not any more!
I am 100% my natural hair color for the first time in 10 years!

Bogolyubovo

So I finally went to Bogolyubovo yesterday. Bogolyubovo is a small (but ancient) town located just to the east of Vladimir. I've wanted to go ever since my arrival in Russia... I even knew what bus I needed to take, but I was worried that I'd get there and I wouldn't be able to figure out where to go and would therefore end up missing stuff. Well, I needn't have worried, and now I feel kind of silly that I put off going until shortly before my departure. But, at least I have now been. For anyone who might be interested in visiting Bogolyubovo: From the center of Vladimir, take Bus #152 east until you see a very large cathedral on the side of the road. Seriously, you can't miss it. Once you're in Bogolyubov, you'll want to see the Bogolyuvsky Monastyr and the Church of the Intercesion on the Nerl. Bogolyuvsky Monastyr is the complex located right next to the road. The other church is off in the distance. You can see it and follow the paths (and tourists) or simply ask someone. Like I said, I feel silly for having put this off for so long, as the place was easy to navigate.

Thus, yesterday afternoon (following belly dancing, of course!) Brooke, Youngmee, Asya and I set off for Bogolyubovo. The town of Bogolyubovo was originally founded as a fortress in the 12th century by Prince Andrei Bogolyubsky ("Bogolyubsky" means "loved by god"). He was murdered there in 1174, after which his fortress was sacked and destroyed. Our first stop was the Bogolyubsky Monastyr, built in the 13th century on the grounds of Bogolyubsky's former fortress. As a tip for visitors to the monastary: While anyone may enter the grounds, if you are a woman and are interested in entering the churches, you need to have something to cover your head (and shoulders if wearing a tank-top), and you need to be wearing either a skirt of a dress. We, being frightfully unequipped, only explored the grounds.

The booming metropolis of Bogolyubovo. (Er...)


Obviously this archway leading into the monastery is hardly historical,
but I really loved the colors.


Domes of the Bogolybsky Cathedral


The Church of the Annunciation


A full shot of the Church of the Annunciation.
The discolored part to the lower left is all that remains
from the time of Prince Bogolyubsky.
It is in there where he was killed.

We walked behind the monastery on our way to the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl. Quite a scenic route - great for photography. Of course, I was pretty much overwhelmed by the pookh. Pookh (fluff) comes from cottonwood trees, and is all over the place these days. I know there are places in the US where cottonwood trees grow - but they certainly don't grow in the south. Thus the fact that it seems to be snowing pookh at times is fascinating to me. (Although my sinuses are less fascinated and more pissed off, I must admit.)

A view of the monastery from the rear.
If you click here to see the large view,
you can see all of the pookh in the air!

Pookh in its natural habitat
(before it detaches and makes for my sinuses)

There is somewhat of a marshy lake behind the monastery.

I loved this house.
If I paint my house this color, will people think I'm crazy?

I liked this house too.

I also thought that this dilapidated old Russian car
was quite picturesque.

We crossed the railroad tracks and walked across a vast field (this will bring you past women selling very nice shawls if you're interested in that sort of thing - I got myself a pink one - or if you're lacking something to cover your head). The field was filled with flowers and bumblebees (I didn't get any good macro shots, unfortunately) and the fresh aroma of flowers. When we approached the Church of the Intercession on the Nerl, we sat in the grass and had a small picnic of grapes and apricots. Yum.

Asya, B, Y

This was the view to the north of our picnic spot.
(That's the Bogolyubsky Monastyr, if you can't tell)

And this was our view to the south:
The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl

The Church of the Intercession on the Nerl is quite picturesque
(although if you go when it's warm, there may be plenty
of Russian dudes in Speedos.)

If you come in the spring after the snow melts
you can get the full reflection of the church in the water.

Up-close corner shot.

The reliefs on the walls were pretty incredible.