From Russia to America

My last full day in Russia was, in many ways, a normal day. I went to the AH, spent some quality time on the internet, and hung out with B, Y, K, M, L and Asya. We ate leftovers from the previous day’s party and (for the most part) just sat around listening to music, talking and enjoying each other's company. At the end of the day (after K and L had gone home) the rest of us took one final walk together down Bolshaya Moscovskaya to Pushkin Park, around the cathedrals and then back to the AH, at which point it was time to say goodbye. The others were going off in a different direction from me, so I waved them goodbye from the sidewalk as their marshrutka drove away. While I know that I *will* see these people again, it is so unfathomably strange to think about not seeing them on a daily basis and no knowing when I will actually see them again in the flesh.

M, me, Y, B

B, Y, M me
My last evening at home with Nina M was no different than normal – other than the fact that all of my possessions were packed into two giant suitcases and one large carry-on. And I set my alarm for 3:00am instead of my usual 10:00am. Luckily for me, Nina M. set her alarm as well, as I managed to turn mine off in my sleep without waking up. I was awakened at 4:00am by Nina M. The AH had arranged for my ride to the airport to pick me up at 4:30am. I was already feeling stressed about my lack of time to make my final preparations when my ride arrived at 4:10! Ahh well – I made it out of there alright, and I don’t *think* I forgot anything. K rode with me to the airport, as her sister was flying into Sheremetyevo about an hour after I took off. Unlike my last trip to the airport (which took something like six hours and had me checking in while my plane was boarding...) this trip was uneventful and we made it to the airport in record time. Of course, this meant that I got to stand around for two and a half hours before they let me check in, but better early than late!

I flew from Moscow to Paris on an Air France flight operated by Aeroflot. I was a little leery of traveling with them again after the last time, but what could I do? It turned out that the plane from Moscow to Paris was a much nicer plane than the one I flew in from Poland to Moscow back in August. Definitely newer, cleaner and classier. The French influence, perhaps? Anyhow, I’d heard some horror stories about transfers in the Charles du Galle airport in Paris, and I was glad that I had a three hour layover. While I do admit that the airport was confusing to navigate (I’m sure it’s impossible to do so quickly, although supposedly they’re installing a new transit-train which should improve things) I actually enjoyed my time in the airport. All of the staff were incredibly friendly. It wasn’t just that I’d come from eleven months in surly Russia. These people were far more outgoing, friendly and helpful than pretty much anyone I’ve ever encountered in a service industry. And it didn’t hurt that a lot of these friendly and outgoing people were also hot, flirty French fellows with sexy French accents.

By the time I got on the plane I was feeling pretty exhausted, and as soon as we boarded I passed out. As such, I didn’t realize until we were approaching Atlanta that we had taken off from Paris an hour late (which is kind of odd, considering that we boarded on time). Every one around me seemed to be feeling frantic, worrying about whether or not they’d be able to make their connecting flights in Atlanta. Meanwhile, I felt calm and relaxed, and took a bunch of pictures of clouds. (I would just like to mention that the food on Air France was DELICIOUS. I usually tolerate airplane food just fine, but I’ve never in my life considered any of it to be delicious. Well, this stuff certainly was a tasty treat – two incredibly yummy meals.)


This was my view.
The splotchy discolorations are from ice crystals on the window.

Again, my view.
When the plane landed in Atlanta, before they let us off, there was an announcement. “Passenger Annie Nimity, please see a Delta Ground Staff representative for a message.” Great. (Delta is partners with Air France, BTW) As soon as I stepped off the plane, there was a man waiting at the gate with a sign bearing my name and my message: “Your mother is going to be late. Please wait for her.” Um, okay. Where would I go, anyway? I went through passport control and then to baggage claim. My big ass green suitcase arrived promptly... and then I stood and waited and waited and waited for my black one. You know, the one that didn’t make it to Moscow on my way *to* Russia. Just as I was getting ready to go look for someone for some assistance, there was another announcement. “Annie Nimity, please see a Delta Ground Staff representative for a message.” Of course, my thought was yes, yes, I know; my mother is going to be late. But it turned out that this message was, “You black suitcase is still in Paris.” WTF?! I had a three hour layover! How did the bag not make it on the plane? But, they told me exactly where to go and what to do in order to get the bag tracked down and shipped to me. (Yes, unlike LOT Polish / Aeroflot, Air France / Delta delivers.) Anyway, I emerged from the pit of the airport and found my mother, who had actually arrived before me anyway due to the delay of my flight. Then we stood in an interminably long line at the lost luggage counter so I could file my claim. Supposedly my suitcase will be delivered tomorrow. I hope!

At that point it was after 9:30pm Atlanta time (5:00am Vladimir time!) and both my mom and I were feeling pretty wiped out, although we began our trek home nonetheless. We drove for about an hour and a half, and stopped to eat at the one thing in south Georgia that’s open at 11:00pm: Waffle House! Our first attempt to eat at a Waffle House was thwarted by the fact that the first one we stopped at was closed. WTF? Waffle Houses never close! But apparently something was being done to the floor, and it was closed for the next two hours. But never fear, there was a Waffle House at the next exit. Thus, my first meal upon returning to the States was an incredibly greasy grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of grits with cheese. No wonder so many Americans are obese. Even though it was pretty late, the restaurant was packed, probably due to the fact that the other one was closed. As a result we were in there for an hour. So, two cups of coffee and way too much grease later, we got back on the road and drove for something like three more hours; it was shortly after 3:00am when we pulled into my mom’s driveway. I dragged myself inside and promptly collapsed into bed. That’s 31 hours after I was awakened in Vladimir by Nina Mikhailovna, folks. And with that, my Russian adventure ends.

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!

Crankiness

I'm sick. I feel pretty miserable, and that makes me feel pretty cranky mentally. But that fact aside, I feel I have some legitimate gripes here. This semester, all of my students are adults. For the most part, this is a lot better than teaching teens and youngsters who are only there because their parents want them to be there: Adults tend to be better-behaved, motivated, quiet and interested in learning. For the most part. But seriously, if you're going to spend the entire new grammar explanation out in the hallway talking on your cell phone... don't complain about how you don't understand the worksheets that use the new grammar. If you show up to class 30 minutes late, don't complain about not knowing the words taught during the first 30 minutes. Also, in the level I teach, we use Forrest Gump. We watch about 5 or 10 minutes at the end of each class. As much as I personally hate this film, it is actually a great movie for lower level English instruction and lessons in American culture and history. If you have to leave class 5-10 minutes early because you have something you have to do, fine. You're paying for the class, if you need to leave, that's cool. But don't say "Can I go home?" when I ask you to take out your Forrest Gump worksheets because you "don't like Forrest Gump." Well, I guess you can go home if you want, but Forrest Gump is going to be on the final exam, so if you want to pass you should probably stay. Who knew all-adult classes would be such a handful?

Bye, bye, J!

J went home today. We're all going to miss her.
I took this picture last night at our final beer and beer-cheese gathering.

No, I'm not hiding in a hole.

Well, while I was really freaked out by what happened Friday night, I haven't let it stop me from enjoying my remaining days here in Russia. Yesterday afternoon, B, Asya and I went to our belly dancing lesson at the sports club. Again, it was quite a workout. Belly dancing is something that is a LOT harder than it looks. It requires a lot of muscle strength, use of muscles that people rarely ever use - even if they work out all the time - and an insane amount of coordination. As I'm kind of lacking in these areas, belly dancing is pretty tough on me - and I'm very much in pain today. Of course, this isn't to say that belly dancing wasn't a lot of fun - on the contrary, it was fabulous! We got to dance with canes. Hot. Well, it was hotter when the instructor did it, as opposed to the rest of us, but we're getting there.

After belly dancing and a stint at the AH fooling around on the internet, we went to Shesh Besh for the first of two Farewell to J dinners. J is the only teacher that the AH who is going to come back and teach here next year. Because of this, she isn't teaching during the summer semester and is going home to the States on Tuesday. Our farewell dinner at Shesh-Besh wasn't as fantastic as our forays into Shesh-Besh usually are. Now, we're all used to the fact that customer service in Russia (for the most part) is pretty much non-existant... but the service at S-B is usually excellent. That, coupled with the food, is why we go there so often. Sadly, while the food was definitely up to par last night, the service was terrible, and I wasn't really in the best of moods when we left. We took a long walk around the cathedrals after dinner, which was nice, although at that point I developed a splitting headache, and figured I should head home.

In theory, this afternoon we're heading back out into the nature for the second in our series of Farewell to J parties... I hope so!

Y bought a hot new dress at the Vladimir thrift store.


Left: B, Y, K, M
Right: Me, J, Vova
Farewell to J party


Cathedral of St. Dmitry at night


Uspensky Cathedral at night

Something scary.

Something really scary happened to me last night. I was riding the bus home from work. It was about 9:45pm, although as the sun doesn’t set until around 11:00pm these days, it was still light outside. For some reason the bus was unusually crowded. I found myself squished up against a whole bunch of people, one of whom was a young man roughly my age. He asked me what my name was, which inevitably led to the “Where are you from?” set of questions. I answered him - no harm in that, right? I mean, I often have short, random conversations with people I don’t know while riding public transport. Granted, those conversations are usually along the lines of, “What time is it?” or “Can you tell me where such-and-such stop is?” although just yesterday morning I’d had a long conversation with a babushka about how poorly the bus driver was driving. 

Anyway, the young man asked me where I was going, and I told him “home” and then he suggested that he accompany me. I could tell that he had been drinking, so I told him no, and figured it was best to stop the conversation there. But then he started pressing the issue, insisting that he accompany me and asking why not when I told him “no” (er, нет) unequivocally. I started to get an unpleasant vibe from him, especially when he followed me as I tried to move away from him to another part of the bus. He asked me where my stop was, and I told him it was one further than my actual stop. When we reached my stop, I waited until everyone had exited/entered the bus, then jumped out the door as it was closing. Seriously, the door actually hit me on the ass on my way out. 

I was congratulating myself on my escape and scurrying towards home when I heard footsteps of someone running up behind me. The dude had apparently gotten the bus to stop and let him out. He ran up to me and grabbed my arm and said that he was going to come with me. I told him no and yanked my arm away - at which point the scene was repeated several times, each time growing rougher and scarier. Now, like I said, it was daylight. In public. We were  surrounded by people. But did they respond when I cried out (in Russian), “Please help me! I do not know this man!”? Some looked. Some laughed. Some ignored us all together. No one made any move to help. 

I noticed that there were two traffic cops parked alongside the road. I started moving towards them as quickly as I could, even though the guy was hindering my progress by continuing to grab at me, my clothes, my purse, my body. All the time I was shouting at him to stop and yelling “Please help!” The policemen started laughing. Now, I’ve been told many times that Russian policemen can rarely be turned to reliably in times of crisis, but what the fuck? I’m being assaulted by some strange drunk dude and they think it’s funny? At that point I was able to pull myself free of his grasp and ran for home (which was then less than half a block away). He ran after me, and stopped me two more times, but each time I pulled away and kept running. The door to our apartment building has a coded lock. You have to press a certain combination of buttons in order to unlock the door. I ran inside and slammed the door closed just as he was reaching out to grab it. Whew! 

At first I was very relieved to be inside the locked building... but then I heard him trying different combinations in order to get the door open! I ran up the stairs to my door, and began to worry that Nina M. might not be home. The door to our apartment has four locks. They can be easily opened from the inside, but take forever to unlock from the outside. I was digging in my purse for my keys even before I made it all the way up the stairs. Nina M. was slow in coming to the door, and I was already trying to unlock it by the time she ambled over and did it for me. I nipped inside and shut and locked the door. 

I didn’t want to tell Nina M. as I didn’t want her to worry. Instead I went and sat in my room and shook like a leaf and felt like I wanted to go home to America. This was the first time since coming to Russia in August that I truly wanted to go home. And it was also the first time I felt in danger here. I mean, I’ve been accosted by drunken dudes on the streets here before, but all I had to do was ignore them and walk away. Last night felt a lot like that night in Korea with the crazy masturbator, but at least I wasn’t alone then - M was with me - and at least that dude ran away when we yelled at him. With the guy last night, yelling just seemed to encourage him. 

I’d been in my room, literally hiding under the covers for about five minutes when the doorbell rang. Nina M. went to the door and guess who? Luckily babushki are formidable and this one wasn’t about to let some strange drunk fellow looking for “the girl” into the apartment. She shut and locked the door and came and asked me if anyone had bothered me on the street, so I told her the story. The doorbell rang two more times, and each time she sent him away, the last time she threatened to call the police. (Although would that really do us any good?) He stood in the yard behind the building for about 15 minutes before finally giving up and going away. I was really upset... but the thing was, Nina M. wasn’t. She just laughed and said, “Oh, he just liked you! He was just too drunk to realize that he was bothering you.” WTF? I mean, it’s one thing when you’re in 3rd grade and the teacher tells you that little Jimmy who pulled your hair did so because he likes you... but that was the same tone Nina M used to describe the drunkard who was grabbing and groping me in the street!

Last night I was really freaked out about this. It still bothers me today, although I’m not feeling the need to pack my bags and run for home like I was when I got home yesterday. Plus, it’s such a beautiful day, it’s hard not to feel great. I took some cool bee photos on my way in this morning...

Shoe Shopping, Inflation, and the Demise of Dobryak

The last time I was in Russia was in 2000. One of the things that stood out to me was how cheap and affordable everything was to me, as an American accustomed to American prices. At the time I was living in St. Petersburg (with St. Pete and Moscow being substantially more expensive than smaller Russian cities). Six years later, something that has struck me is how expensive things are in Vladimir. I have a bit of a weakness for shoes. For years now I have been perfectly willing to buy the bulk of my clothes from yardsales and thrift stores. This isn’t to say that I don’t occasionally splurge and buy something new, but it has to be something pretty incredible. But shoes…. I’m always willing to shell out for shoes. I’ve written a good bit about how Russians dress, but in case you’ve forgotten my Russian-shoe-assessments, let me just reiterate: Russian women’s shoes are incredible in a hot and sexy kinda way. Not necessarily comfortable or practical, but definitely hot. I bought a lot of shoes when I lived in St. Petersburg. The most expensive pair I bought cost me 900 rubles, and I agonized over whether or not it was worth it to shell out that much dough. I bought a pair of kickass, fur-lined winter boots and a pair of fur-lined winter shoes, each for around 450 rubles. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find said shoes when I was getting ready to come back to Russia, but I figured that in rural Vladimir they wouldn’t cost me too much. Well, the cheapest fur-lined winter boots in my size that I could run down in rural, cheaper-than-Peter Vladimir cost me 1800 rubles. My foolish gothic-bondage-porusskie boots were over 2000. (Okay granted, I bought some lime green sneakers for 330, but they are so *not* Russian-looking that they were probably on sale for being “uncool” even though I think they are awesome.) I’ve noticed that there’s been an increase of prices across the board here in Russia, and from what I’ve heard, salaries haven’t been keeping pace with inflation.

Dobryak is a huge shopping complex where (alas) I have spent far too much money. While in the States I’m all about thrift stores and yardsales, you simply can’t find the kind of clothing in malls in the States that you can find in Russia. It’s so unusual and absolutely awesome that I can justify buying the stuff by calling it a souvenir. Dobryak is generally my downfall, as it has a huge selection and is cheaper than most stores in the city. We were there last Saturday, and I saw two very cheap sweaters that I planned to come back and purchase after payday. Payday was yesterday, so this morning I swung by Dobryak on my way to work. It was empty. I don’t mean empty of customers, or even empty of goods… even the stalls which had been erected to display said goods were missing. Dobryak is undergoing a huge renovation. Soon it will be a fancier, more up-scale place to shop. This leaves me wondering where those who used to shop at Dobryak will now shop. Can they really afford the increase in prices that will inevitably accompany this renovation? And what happens to those who worked there?

Short walk after dinner

J's friend Joe from the States is visiting her this week, so after American Lunch we took him for a walk. We discovered a playground and some nice views....

Me and Y on the see-saw, B on the swing


J and B on the see-saw


Y, Vova, B, J, me


Back: Vova, J, B
Front: me and Y
In front of the Golden Gates (built 1164)


J and Joe in front of the Golden Gates


Svyato-Nikolo-Galeiskaya Church (built 1732)


In the fore: Svyato-Nikolo-Galeiskaya Church (built 1732)
In the rear: Khristo-Voznesenskaya Church (built 1724)