Punks and Girly-Girls vs. Sloppy Dressers, Hot Topic and The GAP

I received numerous comments about the punk rock show the other day, with one comment in particular comparing the punk movement in Russia to the commercialized punk image sold at stores like Hot Topic. I also received an email from my friend C (which, sadly, I accidentally deleted) in reference to the notion of Punks in Russia. His comment was that perhaps Russian "punks" are simply the sloppily-dressed kids, as opposed to those who put time and care into their appearance.

I suppose now would be a good time to remind everyone first off that I am not one of those people who takes photos of people she doesn't know, no matter how interesting looking or otherwise photogenic they might be. I wish I could do this, but every time I see someone I don't know, but whom I would love to photograph, I get all shy. I can't bring myself to just snap a picture and hope they don't yell at me (seriously, what would you do if some random person you didn't know started photographing you?). Of course, the other way to deal with this type of scenario is to simply ask for permission to take the photo... but that leads us into the whole issue I have with talking to people I don't know. What issue? Well, I don't talk to people I don't know. Yes, I'm a bit of a nut-ball, but that's just way the cookie crumbles and the genes align.

That being said, let's return to the punk rock show. The only clear-shot I got of anyone was the shot of Elena and Nika (re-posted below), who are the students G and I had accompanied to the show. We know them, we're friends with them, and I don't mind asking them to pose for a picture. Based on appearance alone, these two girls are highly unusual for Russian teenage females. They're wearing very little makeup (Nika might not be wearing any), they haven't fixed their hair, they're wearing plain, simple shirts. (You can't see the homemade Sex Pistols tags and other punkish stuff that Elena in particular has used to decorate her pants and her backpack.) Now, in the States, no one would give these two a second glance. They're just normal teenagers. But in Russia, this isn't just a case of being a little sloppily dressed, this is a huge statement.

As I mentioned above, I don't take pics of people I don't know, and to be honest, the only Russian chic I spend much of my free time with is L, and she's totally an exception to every norm possible (this is meant as a compliment), and as such she doesn't make for a good example of your typical Russian female. I found a pic from last semester of me with Natasha, one of my former students (posted below). I think you'll get the point, although even she isn't as dolled up as many Russian ladies frequently are. (I am *so* dumpy and unattractive next to this girl!)

Russian women are hot. And damn sexy. And no, it isn't because we American ladies are fat, ugly lard balls (as certain people have told me). Granted a lot of it is nature (who'd-a-thunk this frigid weather would breed such beauties?), but a lot of it is the packaging. Russian females spend a lot of time on their appearance: Dyeing and styling their hair, appliying make-up, squeezing into impossibly tight and often highly revealing clothes, and finally slipping into ridiculous spiked heels that make my new boots look tame by comparison. Now don't get me wrong; I don't disapprove of this style (and I've bought a lot of really cool clothes here). I do, however, think the pressure to dress as a hyper-feminine sex-pot might be a bit too strong. I know there's been a lot of talk in the media in the States in recent years about teens dressing "too sexy" - let's just say it's nothing like they do here.

But back to Elena and Nika. They have chosen to be different. Even though the picture of them doesn't show them to be all that different from the average American teen, they are vastly different from average Russian girls their age. As a result, they are shunned and mistreated by their peers (G and I have witnessed this in their classes at the AH), and by strangers on the street (I witnessed this the other day). They have chosen the punk music scene as an outlet for their difference, and as a place where they fit in. This is far more punk, more defiant, than strolling down to Hot Topic and buying a commercial, pre-packaged, punk image.

Sorry, this post is kinda rambling and jumping all over the place, but.... back to the way most Russian women dress, and why most American women don't dress that way. My co-workers and I have talked about this a lot. For one thing (and men - you might not be aware of the following, but it's true), in the US, there's a lot of value attached to the idea of "natural beauty" - you might dye your hair, apply a ton of makeup and wear a push-up bra, but the end result is such that you look "naturally beautiful." The idea is for people to think your hair is naturally that color, you boobs are naturally that big and your face is naturally fresh and makeupless. Of course, people who do things like dye their hair pink or purple or black or wear funky makeup and whatnot are not (usually) shunned, they're not considered by, shall we say, fashion mags, to be beautiful. In the US, there's also this idea of "dressing your age." My mom often tells me that I shouldn't dress quite so much like a teenager. She has also been known to make derisive comments about women above a certain age who sport what she considers to be a "young" woman's hairdo. Of course, considering how short my mom's skirts always are.... ;-)

Anyway, in Russia, it's pretty much the opposite. It seems that most women dye their hair. How do I know this? Well (aside from the rootlines...) they dye their hair all sorts of colors. Black. Purple. Blue. Red. Colors that are blatantly fake. And the idea of makeup isn't "natural beauty" it seems instead to be the "Look! I'm wearing makeup! Therefore I'm pretty!" concept. Women of all ages (well, until they become the mythical babushka) dress all sexpot. It's nothing unusual to see middle aged women in short skirts, tight, see-through shirts, and knee-high leather boots on stiletto heels.

Let's take shopping in Russia. Dobryak, the biggest warehouse/market/shopping center in Vladimir, is filled to the brim with clothes. I love shopping there, even though I continually come out of there with things I don't need. Clothes in Dobryak tend to fall into two different categories: Sexpot or Babushka. Meanwhile, US malls are littered with the GAP and GAP knock-offs.

Is there a point to this post? Probably not. I don't dress like typical-anything anyway. But it's interesting to think about.

Punk Show and Scenery Pics

As promised, I have some photos for you from last night's punk rock show, followed by some sights-of-Vladimir pics taken this afternoon.

I don't know what the Dom Kulturi Molodyozh was originally used for, but I find it amusing beyond measure that there was a screaming-crazy-punk concert underneath the hammer and sickle. (It's hard to tell from this pic, but it's that red-seal-thing in between the lights at the top.

I'm afraid none of my pics are of the best quality, but on the black wall behind the singers, it says ПАНКИ В ГОРОДЕ, or "Punks in the City" with an anarchy symbol for the letter A. (The way Russians transliterate the word "punk" it's spelled "pank" in Cyrillic.)

You can't really tell what's going on here, but I thought it was a cool shot.

I'm hiding behind G looking scared.

Elena and Nika, our punk rock students

All last week the weather was incredible. As soon as Saturday rolled around, the weather turned to shit: just barely above freezing, no sun and freezing ice-rain. It stayed that way until Monday morning. Damn you evil weather gods! Anyhow, I took some time and went for a rather lengthy walk this afternoon. I went south from the AH on Letneperevozinskaya, until I came to the road that parallels the railway (yes, the trans-Siberian). This road changes names numerous times (it started out as Nikolo-Galeiskaya St, and became Karl Marx St, Workers St, and Railroad St, among others as I walked. This area is a fairly poor area, home to a lot of old wooden, traditional-style houses. And a couple of churches.

Some cats hanging out on their front porch

Svyato-Nikolo-Galeiskaya Church (built 1732)

Again, Svyato-Nikolo-Galeiskaya Church

Svyato-Nikolo-Galeiskaya Church as seen from a distance

Spires of the Khristo-Voznesenskaya Church,
as seen from the grounds of the Svyato-Nikolo-Galeiskaya Church

Mailboxes.

Nikolo-Galeiskaya St

I'm not sure what the name of the street was at this point...

The spires of the Old Believers' Uspensky Church, as seen from a distance


Old Believers' Uspensky Church (built 1644)

All punks, and not a fascist in sight

Remind me to smack L for scaring the piss out of me before I left. Anyway, the concert was interesting (I'll have some pics for you tomorrow). G and I met Nika (one of the punk rock girls) at the AH at 4:30, and accompanied her to Dom Kulturny Molodyozh (House of Culture for Youth), where we met up with Elena. We arrived an hour before the doors opened, and there were tons of Russian punks everywhere. Now, for someone who was weaned on the early days of emo, let's just say there wasn't an emo kid in sight of this crowd. Russian punks are total hardcore and rather intimidating. But not nearly as intimidating as the large police presence at DKM, and the fact that they kept carting off people and chucking them into the back of police vans for no visibly discernible reason. That had me really freaked out, despite the absolute lack of scary skinheads. G realized that he didn't have his passport on him. Now, Russian police are notorious for asking for one's documents, so we decided that since G lives a 5 minute walk from DKM, we'd pop over to his house and get the passport. We considered not coming back, although having promised our students that we'd attend, we decided to return. At 6:00 we went inside, and the concert began. We only saw the first 4 bands (not the headlining acts, and each group only played 3-4 songs). There was a great atmosphere inside DKM, and everyone seemed to be having a great time... although tiny as I am, I was terrified that I might get pummeled accidentally by a jumping/thrashing/moshing type or twenty. I was continually hiding behind G (for whatever good that did me!). I saw a couple other students of the AH there (they are always SO surprised to see me out of context), and Nika and Elena definitely were having a blast. I didn't really like three of the bands at all: lots of screaming and noise and not much in the way of music. However, the second band to play (unfortunately I don't know it's name!) was *excellent* and they sounded a lot like early Nirvana. I think G and I were the only ones who really dug them, though. We cut out at 8:30, partially to save our hearing and partially because there was the promise of freshly baked cookies at the AH. I wonder where all these hardcore punks of Vladimir go during the day? I had no idea there were so many in this city!

Fascism and Punk Rock?

I don't know if there's actually a connection between the two... but perhaps I should give you the full story first.

I had these two students last semester who were (and still are) Punk Rock Girls. Now unlike in the States, where at least half of teens belong to some sort of "alternative lifestyle" and "punks" are pretty common.... they're pretty rare in Russia, especially for girls. For females in Russia, there is a lot of pressure to be hyper-feminine and incredibly prissy-pretty all the time. Women who dress "unusually" (such as punks) are often considered outcasts. (When I had these girls in my class, they were shunned by the other students, who often talked trash about them.) These girls are in G's class this semester, and they invited the two of us to go to a concert of their favorite Russian punk groups this evening.

I mentioned this to L, and she seems to think it's a horrible idea, that the concert will be full of fascists who will try to kill us. (No physical harm!) Actually what she said was, "These punk concerts usually attract skinheads, so you really don't want to go there." Great. Our punk rock girls will be here in about 20 minutes to escort us to the concert.... I promised L that if there were skinheads we'd cut out.

She also emailed me some links about fascists in St. Petersburg, which I thought I'd share:

Racist Attacks Plague St. Petersburg

Rights Groups Say fascism, Racism Flourishing

Sentences in Tajik Girl's Slaying Spark Public Outcry

Alright, time to go rock. No physical harm.

My ESL Conversation Class Rocks!

I always enjoy my Wednesday night conversation classes. Tonight we talked about war. At the end of our last class, I gave them the lyrics to Bob Dylan's Blowin' in the Wind, and the lyrics to an anti-war song written by my friend C to the tune of "Oh Suzanna." (The lyrics to both are at the bottom of this post.) We started off by discussing the 1960's and the different events going on during that time, particularly in the year of 1962, when Blowin' in the Wind was written. We discussed and analyzed possible meanings of the song, and then we listened to it. Then we did the same with my friend C's song.

We discussed the reasons why people protest things in general, and the reasons why there are few protests/demonstrations in Russia. The general consensus of the class was that Russians are afraid that the government will react strongly in opposition to them if they protest, so therefore they remain passive, although they did all say that if Russians began to protest various issues, the country might improve.

One of the students mentioned that she is a member of Nashi (НАШИ - it means "ours") a Russian youth movement, about which I had heard a lot of negative things. However, my student said a lot of good things about the organization: that it's against fascism, and they she has assisted in painting over pro-fascist and pro-nazi grafitti as part of her Nashi activities. She said that they also work actively against racism, by providing a support network for Africans and members of other races living in Vladimir. Immediately, another woman countered by saying that Nashi is a fascist organization, although she didn't back that statement up with anything. I must admit, I know almost nothing about Nashi, although I had heard that it was fascist. (I found some links, that were interesting to me, so perhaps they will be interesting to you, on this topic, so here you go: Wikipedia, Official Nashi Website, and Analysis of Putin's New Youth Movement)

We discussed the war in Iraq and the war in Chechnya - both of which my students opposed, although they all seemed to think that governments make decisions entirely independent of their citizens, so governments decide to go to war, and then the people have to suffer. It was certainly an interesting discussion.

At the end of the class, one of the women asked "Can we please talk about something positive next time?" Whoops. Unfortunately, I don't think that's really going to happen. After everything that's been going on with my student who plans to go to Egypt, I decided that it would be a good idea to give them some of the text from the Angel Coalition's website. Useful, helpful, but not exactly light-n-happy conversation.

Song written by my friend C:

Well I come from ol’ America

And Iraq I’m gonna free,

But Bush said it would be alright

If I killed me two or three

My parents cried the day I left

The weather it was dry

An Iraqi shot me dead that day

And in the streets I died

Oh America, don’t forget to cry for me;

I’ll be coming back from Bush’s Nam

With a flag draped over me.

Well Iraq is free but all I see

Is fighting all around

We’ll teach those Iraqis how to vote

If we have to shoot them to the ground.

‘Cause Bush he needs more oil to sell

And Cheney construction ties

But the rest of us are damned to hell

’Cause Bush you fuckin’ lied.

Oh America, don’t forget to cry for me;

I’ll be coming back from Bush’s Nam

With a flag draped over me.

Rocks, Islands, Babies and Jack White

Well, I gave my lesson about Simon and Garfunkel's "I am a Rock" this evening, and it went pretty well. I actually tried to set it up in such a way that we could avoid the bitter-love-is-bad angle of discussion, although it did wind up there eventually. Anyway, I started them off by giving them the first half of the lyrics to the White Stripes song "The Hardest Button to Button" as follows:

We started living in an old house
My ma gave birth
And we were checking it out
It was a baby boy
So we bought him a toy
It was a ray gun
And it was 1981
We named him 'Baby'
He had a toothache
He started crying
It sounded like an earthquake
It didn't last long
Because I stopped it
I grabbed a rag doll
And stuck some little pins in it
Now we're a family
And we're all right now
We got money
And a little place to fight now
We don't know you
And we don't owe you
But if you see us around
I got something else to show you

We discussed the themes of this segment of the lyrics... family, babies, children, the types of problems that come with having children, whether or not it was a happy song. Then we talked about what kind of music should accompany a song about family. Let's just say they weren't expecting Jack White. (Why didn't I bring Elephant with me? I mean, Get Behind Me Satan - which I have - is a a better album, but Elephant is still freakin' fantastic... and yet it's in the US somewhere. I only have two songs off it on my music-for-class CDs, and right now I'm craving the whole album... What was I thinking? But I digress.)

When we got to the discussion of the meaning behind "I am a Rock" they all agreed that the song was by someone who had been hurt and love, and who was bitter... We also got into a discussion about how men and women can't be just friends (!) and how you can't be friends with someone you love (!) - their opinions, not mine. I brought up the old, "It is better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all" quote, and everyone agreed with it. I have a class full of optimists, and to be honest, I felt a lot better about the world, life and humanity when I left.

A Few Days in St. Petersburg: Tales and Photos

I returned to Vladimir at 5:00 Sunday morning, and I am still in the process of trying to recover from lack of sleep, so if there are some bizarre anomalies in this post, please forgive a tired Annie. St. Petersburg was wonderful, even if I am exhausted and suffering from a damaged knee and blistery feet. I took nearly 200 photos, over 40 of which are (in my estimation) internet-worthy. However, as I have limited space for posting photos while I am overseas (not to mention an unforgivably slow internet connection), I am limiting the number of images I'll be posting to around 9 or 10. No worries, the rest will all be online eventually, just not right now. That being said, let's hear about the trip:

On Tuesday night, after classes finished, J, Y, G, M and I made our way to the Vladimir train station, and caught the night train to St. Petersburg. It was a long (nearly 12 hours) and rather uninteresting train ride, although watching the early morning sunrise was nice, and not really something I often find myself doing, being so big on sleep and all.

Y, me, J

Morning view from the train

Returning to St. Petersburg for the first time since my seven-month stint there back in 2000, was both strange and wonderful. It really was like running into an old, close friend, whom I had not seen in many years. True, there have been some changes: Dom Knigi is in a new location, there are more giant advertisements covering the beautiful facades along Nevsky, some pedestrian-archways (including those into the courtyard of my old apartment) are now blocked by locked, wrought-iron gates, and while the buildings that were hidden away by scaffolding back in 2000 were now uncovered for all to see, different buildings are now shrouded in scaffolds. But these changes were merely superficial. The soul of St. Petersburg has remained the same, rich and vibrant, ready to pull me in and welcome me home.

Anyway, we arrived in St. Pete a little before 10:00am, and made our way to the hostel. We had arranged to stay at Hostel Zimmer Freie, and I am glad we did. The hostel is a reasonably short walk from the center of town, and (in the winter season at least) costs $12/night/person, which was wonderful for those of us on very tight budgets. Our rooms were large and clean, and we had access to a communal kitchen and bathroom. We could come and go as we pleased, and there were no restrictions on in-hostel imbibing as there are in some hostels in which I've stayed. The main office of the hostel also has a large and inexpensive internet cafe (I only used it once... talk about restraint!), and the staff was great. I highly recommend this place to anyone looking for a cheap spot to crash while in St. Petersburg.

After checking in to our hostel, M called Ina. (M's sister has some Russian friends who live in St. Pete. Even though M had never met any of these people, they were quite willing to meet up with us and show us around the city. Ina was one of these people.) We met Ina and her friends Vika and Natasha in front of the Gostiniy Dvor Metro Station, and began our walk around the city. Ina was phenomenal: she gave us a tour of the historical center that was as good as, if not better than, some of the paid city-tours I've been on in the past. As only J and I had been in Petersburg before, this was definitely the best way to start out the trip. And the day was beautiful: cold but sunny, and perfect for taking all sorts of photos.

Palace Square: Military General Staff Building

After Ina and her friends left us, we spent some quality time in Dom Knigi (a huge bookstore called House of Books, for you non-Russian-speakers), and then explored some CD shops as well. (I desperately must reconfigure my miniscule CD collection. I carefully selected my twenty-four favorite CDs to bring to Russia; however, due to recent events, I have found that I can only listen to 12 of those 24 without totally losing my cool, and even those 12 to which I can still listen have been tainted somewhat. This is why opposites really should attract: after the relationship is over, you can sit back and wonder, "How the hell could I have been with someone who liked to do/watch/listen to *that*?" Instead, everything I am/have/do reminds me of things about which I don't want to think right now. So maybe I'll stop typing about them.) I purchased a total of six CDs: two Zdob si Zdub albums (one with two disks) - they're a group out of Moldova whom I saw last time I was here, and they rock. I brought their first CD with me (it being one of the "safe" twelve), and I hope these three are as good as Tabara Noastra. I'll let you know. I also snagged a double-disk Chemical Brothers set, and the new Gorillaz album, which is, at the least, a start.

After leaving the last of several CD and book stores, we made our way to a Chinese restaurant. One of the things we had all been looking forward to was the opportunity to have good ethnic food while in St. Pete. Traditional Russian food is somewhat bland, and after a while, one's taste buds begin aching for something stimulating. I do not remember the name of the Chinese restaurant, but it's on Nevsky, in between Liteiny and Mayakovskogo Prospekts. The food, while priced by Western standards, was delicious, and we all ate an incredible amount, savoring every mouthful, and enjoying the sensation of spices, in all their intoxicating goodness.

After leaving the restaurant, we walked back to our hostel, purchased some vodka and pomegranate juice, and began preparing for the night out. After becoming rather silly, we headed off towards Griboedev, a dance club located underground in a bomb shelter, where I spent many an evening back in 1999 and 2000. (It was along the rather lengthy walk to Griboedev that I discovered that some of the cross-courtyard shortcuts had now been gated off: slightly disappointing. It was also along the rather lengthy walk to Griboedev, or so I suspect, that I managed to somehow damage my knees. Didn't notice it at the time though...) Anyhow, Griboedev is essentially the same, although the entrance fee seems to have gone up exponentially, and they seem to be building some sort of annex topside. It was strange being there without any of the people I had always gone to Griboedev with. Same place, same types of people, no one I knew other than the Americans I came with. Weird. Russian dance parties tend to start late, and as we had arrived around 10:00pm or so, we were there fairly early. The girls and I got some dancing in just as people were beginning to make their way to the dance floor, but then we had to head out. The boys, having imbibed a bit too much, needed to return home.

The next morning, my feet and knees really hurt. A few days before leaving Vladimir, I had purchased a pair of Russian winter boots. They’re leather, lined on the inside with fur, and have the ubiquitous Russian high-heel, albeit a reasonably short one. These were the only pair of shoes I brought with me, which probably wasn't the wisest decision as I had not yet had time to break them in fully. But, I bandaged up my blisters, popped some Excedrin, and ignored the odd twinges in my knees as we headed out for day two of our city-exploration. It was another nice day, weather wise, although a little cloudier than the day before. We walked down Nevsky to the Church of the Savior on the Spilled Blood (Lovely name, isn't it? The church was built on the site of the assassination of Tsar Alexander II, hence the appellation.), and took a bunch of pictures both outside and inside. I had never been inside of the CSSB before, and it was definitely impressive. Yet again I feel the need to state that if I were a religious person, so many of these places would mean so much more to me, although agnostic that I am, this cathedral was impressive. The interior is completely decorated in the most intricate and beautiful mosaic I have ever seen. We all pretty much stood there with our mouths open for a while, stunned. Any other church or cathedral interior tends to pale in comparison. Wow.

Cathedral of the Savior on the Spilled Blood

Mosaics inside the cathedral

After leaving the CSSB, we lunched at Teremok (a Russian fast-food establishment serving the most delicious bliny (like a pancake or a crepe) that I've ever tasted. I got one with caramel and apples. Yum, yum. I do not understand how McDonald's can stay in business over here when it has to compete with Teremok. I kind of want to open a Teremok franchise in the States. It would pummel the competition.

From there we decided to go to the Hermitage (for those who don't know, this is one of the best art museums in the world, and it is located in the old Winter Palace of the Tsars), although that didn't quite go as planned. Apparently, the Hermitage offers free entry on the first Thursday of each month. This seemed great - free entry, woohoo! - but that meant the place was packed. You aren't allowed to enter the museum without checking your coat as the coat-check, and the coat check was full. We would have to wait in line with hundreds of other people until enough free spaces opened in the coat checks for all five of us to enter the museum. We decided to give up and come back the next day. We left the Hermitage and walked across the Neva to the Peter and Paul Fortress, the original settlement at Petersburg. Historically, this is quite an important place, although it is not the most exciting. We toured the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul (impressive, but not as much so after having spent the morning in the CSSB), and I dragged the group to the space museum, being that I am somewhat obsessed with the history of space flight. The first time I came to the Peter and Paul Fortress in 1999, I was able to get my picture taken inside a genuine Soyuz space capsule for the cost of a mere five rubles. The space capsule is still there, although the entry-hatch is sealed off with Plexiglas, and you can only get your photo taken next to it. So I did, of course.

J, G, Y, me - along the bank of the Neva

Me next to the space capsule.

By the time we left the Peter and Paul Fortress, I was hobbling like an old woman. Whatever I had done to my knees the night before had gotten far worse, especially in my left knee, and the blisters on my feet weren't helping matters. As much as I had been looking forward to four straight days of raucous partying, I instead found myself looking forward to a long hot shower and my bed. We walked/hobbled back down to Gostiniy Dvor, where we met up with Ina, and offered to take her to dinner, as repayment for the day before. We took her to the Kavkaz Bar, a wonderful Georgian (as in Eastern European Georgia, not the American South) restaurant I first discovered back in 1999 (it's a block off Nevsky on Karavannaya ulitsa). I am so happy this place is still around as I love, love, love it. The food is absolutely incredible. After a few glasses of dry Georgian wine, some orgasmically delicious eggplant stuffed with Georgian cheese, and some hachapuri (Georgian cheese-bread), I was perfectly willing to hobble my aged self back to the hostel and crash for the evening, which I did.

Friday morning, feet and knees still aching, the gang and I met up with Ina and made a second attempt to hit the Hermitage, and this time we were successful. Now, I must admit that I am a bit of a philistine. I can appreciate good art, but I tend to appreciate it quickly. I know there are many people out there who can spend hours in front of one painting, but I am not that kind of person. And I tend to mainly appreciate art with which I can form some sort of personal connection... and as I am rather a weird person, I tend to like weird and random things. And whenever I have visited the Hermitage, I have always been far more in awe of the architecture of the Winter Palace than the masterpieces contained therein. As this was the first time I'd ever been inside the Hermitage with a digital camera (for which read unlimited photo-taking capacity), I was very excited. The rooms are so incredible and the sheer opulence is simply overwhelming. I was excited that this time I was able to tour not just the art-rooms, but some of the rooms decorated as they were during the time of the Tsars.

Me on the staircase in the Winter Palace

Inside the Winter Palace

Inside the Winter Palace

The luxurious sumptuousness is simply astounding. Room upon room of vast halls, all covered in gold leaf - I cannot even comprehend how people lived like this. Such wealth is mystifying.

The title of this painting is something along the lines of Christian Martyr Drowned in the Tiber. You would thing that with me not being a Christian, this painting wouldn't have done much for me... although I know there are several of you out there who will completely understand why I had to take this picture.

After leaving the Hermitage, we went to Tandoor, and Indian restaurant on Voznisensky, near St. Isaacs Cathedral. The food was excellent. I had another eggplant dish, and while its taste was wholly different from that of the Georgian eggplant dish from the previous evening, it was equally pleasing to the palate. The staff at the restaurant was incredibly helpful and friendly, and come to find out... Vladimir Putin has eaten there! (We saw pictures - we sat at the same table as he did!)

Again, following dinner, I hobbled back to the apartment, while the rest of the gang went off to enjoy the Petersburg nightlife. Luckily, I'd had the foresight to bring along an escapist Robert Ludlum book, which kept me pretty occupied. Besides, I've had plenty of St. P. nightlife fun in my day.

My last day in St. Pete was incredibly uneventful. As the knees were still a wreck, I figured that I should probably take it easy. Besides, it was raining, and I did not really want to be out hobbling in the rain. So, while the rest of the group went out to spend their last day in St. Pete sampling sushi and shopping for souvenirs, I spent some quality time on the internet and then camped out in a cafe near the train station with Robert Ludlum. Uneventful, but relaxing.

dresden dolls

I am so very glad I brought this CD with me. Check out some of the lyrics. I'm not really sure what it means when psychotic punk cabaret fits one's mood, but I'm glad I have it with me. Must go try and cancel a plane ticket. Wish me luck!

Ground Control to Major Tom

So David Bowie works really well in class. I used Space Oddity, two classes in a row (we did half the first day, and then finished the song out on day two), and the students really enjoyed it. I would definitely recommend this to other ESL teachers out there. As you know, my groups are all lower-level, so I had to translate a lot of the words for them, but the song tells a story that is easy to understand. Additionally, the slow tempo of the song and the clearness of Bowie's voice helped with comprehension. On the first day, after we had listened to and read through the lyrics, I asked them, "So what is Major Tom? What does he do?" and both classes immediately said "cosmonaut" without a second of hesitation. Usually they have to spend time pondering basic meanings. I like songs that work clearly. Of course, when I asked them what "cosmonaut" was in English, both classes told me "spaceman." I found that interesting... As a kid growing up during the latter years of the cold war, I knew that we (the US) had astronauts and they (the USSR) had cosmonauts. I thought everyone (in the US, at least) knew that. Or maybe it's just those geeky ones of us who had an over-dorkified interest in spaceflight. Anyhow, none of my students, neither the post-soviet generation nor the soviet/perestroika generation knew the word astronaut. I don't know about you, but I found that interesting. On the second day, several of my students seemed genuinely disturbed by the ending of the song, and we talked about different reasons why it might have ended the way it did. Definite recommendation!

Of Koshki and Jimmy Eat World

Today in two of my classes we listened to Jimmy Eat World’s Praise Chorus. I was teaching "going to" and that song is full of "gonna" this and "gonna" that. No, don't worry; I did not teach them that "gonna" was proper speech. I told them that it was slang for "going to" and that if they ever listen to Americans talking, they'll hear "gonna" a lot. (Likewise I explained "gotta" "wanna" and "whatcha.") And I got to show them my remarkably dorky pictures from the time I met Jimmy Eat World. It was in the spring of 1999, shortly before the release of their first major label record. I was in college, and I helped out at WUTS, the campus radio station. WUTS got Jimmy Eat World to come and play at our small music festival (WUTSfest), right before they became "famous" and out of the WUTS price range. They stayed in my house (home to several WUTS staffers) after the show, and we all had a really great time. At some point during the evening, we managed to convince the bass player to put one of the Koshki on his head. I wrote about the Koshki a while back, in particular the one my friend lost on the train to St. Petersburg in the summer of 1999. I showed my pictures to the class with Ludmila, the girl I hypothesized might be the Keeper of the Koshka. While she (like the other students) found the picture amusing, she did not make any comment about the Koshka. Now, if you had some random contact with a group of strange Americans with Koshki (which for some reason they liked to place on their heads...), and one of them gave you said Koshka, wouldn't you comment on this upon seeing the photo? Well she didn't. I'm guessing she's not THAT Ludmila after all.

Linguistics, Denny's, Garbage and Yoshimi

This is going to be full of teacher geekery. Sorry. I just can't help myself.

I have office hours on Wednesday evenings for an hour and a half, for students with questions, students who simply want extra practice, and students who need to make up missed quizzes. I had several students come in for office hours today. One did not understand part of what we discussed in her class last time: This, That, These and Those. What it boiled down to was a simple linguistics problem. The Russian letter that looks like a backwards N sounds like "eee" and it is transliterated into the Latin alphabet as the letter "i". Because of this transliteration, words containing the letter "i" are often mispronounced (ex: the word "give" often ends up sounding like "geeev"; "him" "heeem" etc.) Conversely, words with the double-e are often misspelled (even the most advanced of our students often write "slip" when they mean "sleep"). Anyhow, in class, we discussed This v. That before moving on to These v. Those. My student had written "this" on her paper, but somehow neglected to write "these" (yes, I did write them on the board, and yes, these words are in her book, but this was one of my sickly students, so probably all pistons weren't firing...). Anyhow, when I began the discussion on These v. That, she simply assumed that when I said "These" I meant the word "this" which she had written on her paper. No wonder she was confused!

Students seem to really enjoy it when I bring real American things into class. I have had a lot of success with songs and with photographs. The AH is also full of various American items, collected over the years for use in class, including a set of ten Denny’s menus. Now, I like Denny’s and despite the fact that it's essentially an unhealthy grease-pit, I rather frequently find myself craving Denny’s fare. Looking at the full color photographs of Denny’s food featured in the menu definitely sets the mouth a-watering. These menus are also very different from the usual Russian menus, which are, in general, mere lists of foods and prices, sometimes with descriptions, sometimes without. Anyhow, I have decided that even though my VEMZ class is a business English class, they are going to learn about going to Denny’s. Well, okay... they are going to learn about going to restaurants in general, with Denny’s as the example. The way I see it, if they are ever traveling in the States on business, they may very well get asked out to dinner by a colleague, and are going to need to know what to do. Of course, as these students are at a very low level of English, I have to keep it simple. The grammar points I'm focusing on are "do you like" and "would you like to". I wrote up a nifty little dialog exercise, although once I finished, I realized it could make for a totally cheesy Denny’s commercial. What do you think? I think my VEMZ class is about to learn why so many Americans are so overweight.

1. Ed: Sarah, ________ you _______ to go to Denny’s after work?

Sarah: I _________ like to, but I have to work late.

2. Ed: Anne, ________ you want to go to Denny’s after work?

Anne: I don’t know. What type of food do they serve?

Ed: Everything! _______ you ______ eggs?

3. Anne: No, I _________. I ___________ like breakfast food.

Ed: ________ you ______ to eat hamburgers?

Anne: They have hamburgers? I ________ love to come!

4. Anne: Hey, Tom, _____ you _______ to come to Denny’s with us?

Tom: I ________ love to! Denny’s is my favorite restaurant.

5. Sue: Why ______ you want to go to Denny’s? I can’t stand that place!

Tom: Why ________ you like Denny’s?

Sue: I ________ like the food, because it is very greasy.

6. Tom: Well, I love greasy food! What kinds of food _____ you _____?

Sue: I ______ healthy food. I love salads.

Tom: ________ you like a Garden Chicken Salad?

Sue: Denny’s serves Garden Chicken Salads? I __________ love one!

Songs used in class so far this week: The World is Not Enough (hereinafter abbreviated as TWINE) by Garbage and Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots by the Flaming Lips.

TWINE did not work very well. My students did recognize that it came from a James Bond movie, which did lead to a very short discussion of the film (namely which JB film was it, did they see it and did they like it); however, as far as discussion of the lyrics or introduction into grammar it was not that great. The main problem was that there simply is not a coherent plot or storyline within the lyrics. I wanted to introduce "not enough," but how do you explain what the song *means* by "the world is not enough"?

I was disappointed in the reception of Yoshimi. This is another of my favorite songs and it is simply so weird! (Perhaps it was too weird??) It is sung slowly and clearly, and most of the words are familiar to the students (and the strange words and the meaning of the song are easily explained). The class seemed disinterested. Of course, this class contained my sickest students, so that might be one reason why no one got ecstatic over Yoshimi karate chopping some evil, man-eating robots. I do think it worked for introducing "those" though: "You won't let those robots eat me, Yoshimi..."

Sleeping With The Gulag

Thus far, I have not graded the tests from my second set of classes, so I do not yet know if they have caught on as successfully as my VEMZ class. (As the success of my students reflects on my success as a teacher, I cannot yet fully evaluate my performance.) I can say that the White Stripes did not work so well in the classroom. I only used the first few lines from Red Rain (I wanted to emphasize the phrase "in the morning") but I do not know if it served to do anything other than confuse my students. Up until yesterday, I had been making my students sing along with each song, but I did not bother with this one. Did I really expect them to keep up with Jack White? What was I thinking? And only one of the students seemed to appreciate the style of music. (This is too bad, as Get Behind Me Satan is starting to compete with In The Aeroplane Over The Sea for first place in my CD collection.) I only used Red Rain in my ZII (lower level) class. In the other classes I used the Dionne Warwick song, "Do you know the way to San Jose?" We were discussing how to ask polite questions, and the song led up perfectly to the lesson. And the students all seemed to appreciate the meaning of the song, and we got to talk about pollution in Los Angeles and how so many people go to L.A. to become movie stars and end up getting their dreams shattered. (Cheery, I know.)

I have finished reading Alexandra: The Last Tsarina by Carrolly Erickson. I have mixed feelings about this book. When I blogged about the Anastasia book, I said it read like a novel. Let me clarify. The Anastasia book was a well researched work, written in a literary style that made for good bedtime reading. Alexandra, reads like a Danielle Steele novel. It's an entertaining book, but not exactly profound. And a tad over-flowery with the prose. Erickson seems to have essentially taken the already researched story of the last Tsarina, and prettied it up for consumption by the layman. But while the flowery style of the book irritated me nearly every page along the way, I do feel that I learned a good bit about Alexandra and Tsar Nicholas, and the goings on during their reign. If I were still in college, working on a paper, this would not be the book to use, but if you are simply interested in some light historical reading, go for it.

One of the most interesting things in to book (to me) was this one sentence: "The vast blue and white Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo was made into a hospital for officers, its beautiful amber-, lapis-, and malachite-decorated reception rooms filled with beds, its ornate ballroom converted to an operating theater." See, I have toured the Catherine Palace at Tsarskoe Selo, and I have seen the "beautiful amber-, lapis-, and malachite-decorated reception rooms" and the gorgeous formal ballroom. I had no idea that during WWI the palace had served as a hospital. (Was I not paying attention, or did the guides leave this info out of the tour for some reason?) It is also interesting to note that Erickson states unequivocally that all four daughters of Alexandra (yes, including Anastasia), were killed in Ekaterinburg in 1917. She does not mention a hint of controversy on the subject. Hmm.

On a different, although slightly related note, I rummaged through the AH library looking for the next book to occupy me in my free time. The AH has a fairly large library, although since its purpose is to educate Russians about America, there are very few books in the library about Russia. (The ones that are there have, for the most part, been donated by previous teachers; I have donated Anastasia.) I did find another book on Russian history, although I can't imagine it will be very cheery: Gulag by Anne Applebaum. Is this really the book I want to curl up to every night before I fall asleep? Well, I have to admit I snagged some fiction too. There was one Dick Francis book in the library, and I have not read it before!! Dick Francis is one of my favorite mystery authors (all his books involve horse-racing to some extent, and most are set in Britain), and I was sure I had read all of them. The book is entitled Forfeit, and its discovery was quite a pleasant surprise. So, I'm off to bed, and I shall be curling up with Mr. Francis. I can sleep with the Gulag another day.

Classes - music and films

My classes went much better today than yesterday. I had enough time to rewrite my lesson (the one that was the same level as the one I botched yesterday), and, for the most part, that class ended up going very well. The song I chose for class did not work as well as I had hoped. I used one of my favorite songs, Here Come the Martian Martians by Jonathan Richman. Grammar-wise, it tied in with our last lesson (nationalities), so when we did our review, I added in: A person from Russia is Russian; a person from Mars is Martian. The students got it, and laughed. Also, we were able to discuss the lyrics, and I think they understood them, although the lyrics are so weird in English that it is hard to tell if they could be translated very well. The main problem came when we tried to sing. I had never thought about how incredibly FAST the tempo of that song really is, and my poor low-level students were simply not able to keep up. Things to keep in mind for next time, I guess. In my other two classes today I used Walking After Midnight by Patsy Cline, and it worked fabulously. The song is slow enough for the students to listen to, understand, and sing along with, and they lyrics were very easy to explain. AND the grammar topic of the day was that nasty phrase "used to." But I got to explain the story behind "I go walking after midnight, out in the moonlight, just like we USED TO do" (which is really depressing, actually), and it made a great introduction to the topic. I also used some of my photos from home (I used to have blonde hair. A used to have a beard. M used to be single. I used to live in Florida.), which the students seem to enjoy looking at. I have to admit that I got choked up, not once, but in both classes, in the middle of the damn Patsy Cline song. I am turning into such a sap in my old age!

In the Patsy Cline classes, we are watching Forrest Gump. The plan is to watch approximately five minutes of the movie every class. I have mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I hate Forrest Gump. The first time I saw the movie, I thought it was neat how they managed to edit together real historical footage with the image of Tom Hanks, but that was all I really liked about it. In high school, I had some friends who loved this movie, and who insisted that we watch it at nearly every sleepover. I grew to detest that film, and I still do. Plus, I really do not enjoy sad, sappy movies. I may get all teary eyed at Patsy Cline, but I haven't yet degenerated to the point where I enjoy sobbing my way through tear-jerker films. Especially when it's a film I have already been tricked into sobbing my way through more than once. Life can be sad enough. Why should I choose to inflict extra sadness upon myself? Give me a comedy, or an action flick with a happy ending any day. Or Team America, which has both. But back to Forrest Gump. The reason why Forrest Gump is shown to the lower levels is because of the fact that Tom Hanks's character speaks so damn slowly, making it easy for others to understand. I was not looking forward to watching Forrest Gump; however, now that we are watching it, I have decided that it will be a very educational movie. After all, we are the American Home, and we are supposed to be teaching our students about American language and culture. The movie focuses on many of the important events of American cultural and political history. Today in my classes we talked about the Civil War, slavery and the Ku Klux Klan (in case you are wondering, Forrest Gump was named after Nathan Bedford Forrest). It was not a very in depth discussion (they are at a low level, after all), but they knew about the Civil War, and agreed that slavery was bad, and that you should not name your children after jackasses who found racist organizations. I also got to explain the phrase "His back is as crooked as a politician," which was simply an amusing thing to explain in and of itself.

Desert Island Disks

If you've read (or seen) High Fidelity, or if you listen to any decent radio stations, you've probably, at one time or another contemplated your Top Ten Desert Island Disks. If for some reason you have no clue as to what I mean, these would be the ten albums you would pick if you were to be stuck on a desert island for all eternity with only ten cds. I'm not going to any desert islands, nor am I in a position to be forced to select a mere ten cds from my collection. However, with my upcoming trip out of the US, there is no way that I could possibly bring my entire cd collection and still have room for clothes. So, I limited myself to a small CD case which holds twenty-three disks. Then I had to go through the arduous task of triaging my cds and deciding which ones made the cut. First, I decided to eliminate nearly all of the cds that made the trip to Russia with me back in 2000. I had a great time on that adventure, but I'm a different person now, and this is going to be a very different trip. Only two cds from my previous trip are accompanying me on this journey.

(1) The first of these two is In the Aeroplane Over the Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel. This is my favorite album, although if you compare it to the albums on the rest of the list, you might wonder. It has a very different sound. A friend of mine gave me this album when I was in Russia. He told me that it was possibly the greatest album of all time. This was a friend who had very similar tastes in music to myself, so when he hit play, I was confused. I actually didn't like it in the slightest! Yet somehow, it grew on me, and within the week, I found myself needing to listen to it several times a day. Additionally, I was living in St. Petersburg, a city which suffered greatly during World War Two, and which is home to a fantastic museum on the St. Petersburg blockade, and where I studied the blockade in depth in one of my courses. Jeff Mangum, the singer/songwriter of NMH has somewhat of an obsession with World War Two, and this shines through clearly in this album. Then there's the Kunstkamera, a rather creepy museum in St. Pete containing (in addition to other, non-creepy exhibits) Peter the Great's collection of human oddities. People with weak stomachs should really not visit this place.... I believe I've described it in the past as an exhibit of deformed babies in jars. I somehow ended up visiting the Kunstkamera at least three times. I also read essentially any English language book I could find. I do a lot of reading in general, and it's something I miss when I'm overseas. Translating my way through a Russian novel, while in some ways satisfying, is never as pleasing as a good old read in my native tongue. I acquired a book called Geek Love, which I read cover to cover. It was an interesting, although rather disturbing book about circus geeks (circus freaks). The parents in the book had decided to create the highest quality circus freaks, by having the mother ingest an abominable combination of illegal substances while pregnant. The children who died in childbirth (including at least one with two heads) we placed in formaldehyde and put on display. I know, this is completely gross and disturbing - that's not why I bring it up. You see, at the time I was reading Geek Love and visiting the Kunstkamera, I was introduced to In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which contains the ever so memorable song Two Headed Boy. I don't know; I guess it was just a combination of things, but somehow that album seemed to fit so perfectly with the life I was living at the time. I love it. Jeff Mangum is a genius. And I couldn't imagine returning to Russia without it.

Don't worry - I don't intend to give that lengthy of a review for all twenty-four cds! Here are the rest:

(2) Tabera Noastra by the band Zdob si Zdub. I discovered this group while in St. Petersburg (and even got to see them live - they were incredible!), and I fell in love. They're not Russian (although some of their songs are in Russian). They're out of Moldova, and most of their songs are in Romanian. It doesn't matter that I can't understand a good lot of what they're saying... Zdob si Zdub produces a riotous folk-punk (a la Flogging Molly, but with Eastern European folk instruments instead of Irish) and they rock. If you can find this cd, buy it.

The remainder of the albums I selected either fell into the category of favorites, or hold the status of newbies (of which I have not yet grown tired - a huge thank you to A. for letting me burn so many of his cds!). Some of the newbies have already earned spots in the favorites category. Anyhow, in no particular order:

(3) Get Behind Me Satan by The White Stripes
(4) I'm Wide Awake It's Morning and (5) Digital Ash in a Digital Urn by Bright Eyes
(6) You are the Quarry by Morrissey
(7) Mer de Noms by A Perfect Circle
(8) This is a Long Drive with Nothing to Think About (9) Good News for People Who Love Bad News and (10) The Moon & Antarctica by Modest Mouse (To be honest, Lonesome Crowded West is my favorite Modest Mouse album... but it accompanied me on my last trip to Russia, so I'm leaving it behind this time.)
(11) London Calling and (12) The Clash by The Clash, in addition to (13) a mix CD I made of my favorite Clash songs from various other albums
(14) Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables by the Dead Kennedys
(15) Mezmerize by System of a Down
(16) Relationship of Command by At The Drive In
(17) Swagger and (18) Drunken Lullabies by Flogging Molly
(19) Doolitle by the Pixies
(20) Dry by PJ Harvey
(21) Le Tigre by Le Tigre
(22) I Megaphone by Imogen Heap
(23) The Dresden Dolls by The Dresden Dolls

Of course, I'm also bringing six cds with selected songs (some from the cds above, many from a wide variety of sources) which I'm planning to use in the classroom. However, that's work related, so I won't bother writing about it until I get over there. Anyhow, A. is flying in this evening. He'll be here until midday Monday, so don't expect to hear from me until Monday evening!