Random, Incomplete Thoughts...

Moscow is about 860 years old so there are old and therefore beautiful buildings and monuments everywhere. There is a statue of the guy who founded the place on Tverskya street. Actually there are statues of "famous" men everywhere, mostly military heros and the like. I think in every city that is the main attraction, to look at these statues and portraits of famous men relevant to the city politically. OK I take that back... there is a lot of art/literature too. I just read "The Stationmaster" by Pushkin, a beautiful, haunting story with the irony that the victim is the one who needs to understand something.

Many people walk everywhere there, and with good reason. Most of the time they're headed to Moscow and if everyone in Moscow drove, it would be one big traffic jam. So only a small percentage people have cars, to service this huge apartment complex there was no parking garage, just a parking lot- if that. But walking there is not bad... here in Texas I step out of my car and I feel like I'm melting either by heat or by rain- there, I actually enjoyed walking. That's what people do with their mate, they take a walk around one of the countless parks, ponds, with nice benches. Very picturesque places to stroll whether in the city or country. Walking is good for you and it's free too. But it startles me when I'm in a forest- I think I'm alone- but then I'd come across a man just standing in the middle of the snow and trees with his baby carriage, not in any real rush, just standing there. It was like out of a fairy tale. In fact, I see people just standing around doing nothing, or casually walking not in any real rush. There were hundreds of baby carriages everywhere, I don't know why the stats are saying the Russian population is declining. It's either just propoganda so people will reproduce more, or, those carriages are empty or maybe filled with personal effects and not babies. They are the covered kind, not strollers so who knows what's in them.

At first I thought everyone hated me cause I was Asian.. there was no mixing of the races. This guy I dated years ago had a grandmother who was Russian and she automatically hated me on that basis though she had never met me, and since no one smiled at me that was the first hypothesis.. Here in the States it's not even noticable what race I am. In Western Europe people would say, "Hey Chinese girl!" but they could tell I was American. In Russia, however, everyone assumed I was from China. I heard of some Russian skinheads who are racist, but I guess there are some of those everywhere. The only other Asian people I saw were custodians. I think I saw two black people and one Hispanic guy. This is a homogenous group of Eastern Europeans.

Nonetheless I looked overly cheery cause I was on vacation, and I was happy. Everyone I met and actually talked to liked me, or so I think. Who knows. I liked everybody I met. However, my hypothesis is, most Russians don't smile (I've heard that before) until you get to know them, which makes sense. Why bother smiling for a stranger? It is opposite here in the States, or at least I thought they were just smiling freaks till I actually got on the plane and wore a pissed off countenance myself. Still, it is more likely Americans will give you a fake smile but when you actually get to know them or try to, they back away... Russians seem to dislike you till you get to know them. I even started a conversation with a girl on the metro once and she was real nice after I started talking to her. I saw this lady come onto the train and she was smiling and sat right next to me- immediately I knew there was something wrong with her so I asked her where she was from. She was from Germany. Of course! If you want to blend in, don't smile. If you want to be bitten by a dog, don't forget to smile and bare your teeth.

I asked Yulia where Russians meet each other. She said at school, work- not at the metro. Understandable, there are just too many people rushing around, and when you're commuting the last thing you want to do is lenghten your commute. You want to get the horrid business over with. That's good because then it's not a beauty contest- there's always going to be a more beautiful bird, and relationships are based upon more of a common interest type of deal, which always works out better. I never went to a club there so I can't write about that.

They drink tea often and always have a little cake with their tea. When I drank some coffee without a cake Yulia wondered how I could do that, have my coffee with no cake. Later when I ate some cake with no tea Rom wondered how I could eat that cake with no tea. They take a break mid-afternoon sometimes for a bit of tea and cake. They like to have their own garden in which they grow their own select vegetables. Even well-off people re-use juice containers, etc for that sort of thing, they're not wasteful. You may know I don't approve of a disposable lifestyle. I suspect they live in apartments because otherwise there is too much snow to shovel if they lived in a house year round. But Some people have a country house, where they go to to relax and keep a garden. 75% of the residences I saw have two refrigerators to keep their food.

Things look sort of crummy on the outside but are always nice on the inside. I like it better this way, the inside is for me to enjoy, the outside is for passerby. I hate the way things like apartments look good on the outside in the US but it's just a facade, you feel jipped when you see the cheap, uncomfortable interior. Russians use wallpaper, which I like-- I don't like these Off White bumpy painted walls in the US these days, when I touch them it leaves a mark, and if I try to wash that mark off, the paint erodes. Things are not made to last anymore here.

The toilet is in a different room than the sink area. I felt like a Loony Tunes character going in and out of doors- to the toilet getting out, going into the sink room to wash my hands finally going back to the bedroom. They also tend to have a washer only (to save space) and hang their clothes. The apartments remind me a bit of the kind in Taiwan, tall buildings with cute interiors, not like the ones here in Texas. People tend to live with their parents till they get married, even if they are able to support themselves. Not all, of course, but many. And when they do leave, they don't live very far away... they typically only have one or two children, and have them far apart.

There are churches everywhere, of the same Russian Orthodox style, but with different roofs. There are so many it doesn't seem like they were built, but instead grew there. Just like when you go to China there are billions of "ancient" chinese temples, there are billions of churches. Except in these, there aren't gaudy tourists wearing fanny packs taking pictures like the ones in China. It's all very solemn. They are much better looking than the churches here, I can't believe the huge jail-like monstrosities (ie Champions Forest Baptist, Lakewood Church) they call churches here in Houston. Shapeless, formless, and haphazardly created in the name of God.

The roads, especially in suburbs aren't as well paved as in the US. Strange too, considering the roads get that much worse in the abundant snowy days, and plus, people are on foot.. They're often one lane in the suburbs, and not paved that well. I don't know how those people drive there... wait, I take that back. The place is littered with accidents- not bad ones, but you see a fender bender every few miles and two puzzled looking guys inspecting the damage. On the 4 lane highway the stripes have been rubbed off by the snow, things to get rid of the ice, and water. There are also lots of policemen waving people down and randomly checking ID. Everyone needs to carry their passport.

The TV programs are in Russian... of course... but there are a lot of American movies and English shows with bad dubbing. BAD dubbing, like a child would be dubbed over by an adult imitating a child. I couldn't even tell who was speaking sometimes. Or they'd not completely erase the English soundtrack, so you can hear at as a ghost sound. But of course there were a lot of Russian shows too. There was a Russian version of American Idol and like in every country, cheesy shows where people would be dancing and singing and trying to make it big. Russian MTV has a lot of US celebrities and music on it too. The radio has a mix of English and Russian songs. Makes me wonder why not more people speak English, even in tourist spots most people speak Russian.. I guess no one likes to have another country invade, and that's basically what the US is doing with their wares.

One note on the English words they use... I wonder what dictionary they are using because I think when they mean "smart" they say "clever." To me, "clever" connotates a certain slyness, like a fox setting a trap, and not intelligence. Also, they like the word, "lovely", I wonder what the translation is. Things never translate perfectly. I know this because I was taught 2 languages as a child. By the way, I just remembered that "potato" in Chinese sounds like, "Mah Ling Su"

I think as a whole they are more patriotic for their country than Americans. I can understand. We all like America cause it's comfortable, but none of us are from here, not even Native Americans because this is not the America they had.

I am sure there is a lot more I can write about but I'm tired of writing and I'm sure you're tired of reading....