A helping hand

As Moscow is a pretty friendly place people often "help" each other on and off the metro. By help I mean compact people into the metro or expend them out like a balloon releasing air. So the other day I did my duty and "helped" a young man onto the train (it wasn't completely my idea to help him as someone was helping me as well). Upon my helping I was met with protest which if I understood correctly was something like "what's with you" and a dirty look. He continued to stare at me and push around a little in protest but it was pretty easy to ignore him as I found the whole thing a little comical besides not really having anything to say to him as I'm still not too quick on my Russian feet.

In other news I celebrated the feast of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker at his church in Pizhakh where there is a Myrrh streaming icon of Tsar martyr Nicholas which you can read about here.

Miyazaki on the metro

So I've been seeing a lot of fur (or otherwise similar) coats lately...the other day when I entered the metro I came upon a rather large woman in a long fur coat bending over to do something for a child or something...well all of the sudden I realized that she looked just like one of Miyazaki's bumbling bears...so now every time that I see such a coat I think of bumbling bears...

In other news I spotted either 4 or 6 deaf people this week...it seems that deaf sightings only come every few months as it was probably October or even September the last time I spotted this rare species. It made me think about how amazing it is that they can communicate so much with just gestures.

Zvenigorod

As my Saturday class was cancelled I went on a little trip to Zvenigorod which is about an hour and a half from Moscow. Outside the town is the monastery of St. Savva Storozhevskii who was a disciple of St. Sergei of Radonezh. On the way to the monastery there is a spring and a little church with mosaics which Andrei Rubloff painted but unfortunately only a few indistinct outlines remain. This is also where his icon of the Saviour which is now in the Tretyakov Gallery was found.

The spring:





View of the monastery from sometime in the late 1800's:

St. Savva:



















Even in Russia they like to park old cars in their yards:







One of the houses at the local Sanitarium:

Singing a new song

So I started some singing lessons yesterday...I found out that I have a "low bass" - maybe one day I can record my very own basso profundo cd...

A Patriarchal Приглашение

I attended recently the annual celebration (this time celebrating 15 years) of St. Tikhon's Orthodox University where various speeches were made, gifts were given and choirs sung. Patriarch Aleksey was present and spoke about the university and various other topics about which you can read here. You can see the official pictures here and view my very own below.







Fr. Vladimir Vorobyov the rector of St. Tikhon's (about whom you can read here) presents Patriarch Aleksey with some gifts.


A few "interesting" pictures:






I believe you will remember this Dostoevsky statue in front of the Lenin Library...

...well now Dostoevsky not only has Lenin to keep him company but wonderful American materialism in the form of a garmongous "Christmas tree" or "New Years tree" as it's called here.


And Lenin himself with his proletariat rushes to greet the New Year's tree...

The latest news

So since the last update I have officially resigned from my position as teacher-intern. My last day of teaching will be the 22 of December after which I'm not quite sure what will happen. I'm looking for a flat and new job at present.

Speaking of Old Believers...a girl in one of the English classes I visited, for whom it was hard to believe that I wasn't Russian, thought that I look like a "raskol" (schism)-the informal name for Old Believers-also where the name Raskolnikov from Crime and Punishment comes from.

At present I can't remember all the exciting things I had planned on saying...

A long overdue update

I would like to say that many exciting things have happened in the last two weeks but I can't... However, I will bring you, my dear readers, up to date with a few select happenings.

As I said I was forced to move to a new apartment and in with two other teachers. I lost the tranquility of living alone as well as my good internet connection and now have to suffer with an inconsistent wi-fi connection. My new apartment is about an hour and 15 minutes from both of the schools I teach at so, obviously, I'm not excited about that; it is a nicer apartment, however.

After my move I finally went to see the Tretyakov Gallery with a friend of mine. We decided not to rush through so we only looked at the icon galleries and the church. I had read that there was a church in the gallery but I though it just meant a part of the gallery that is set up like a church but I was wrong. It turns out that there was a church right next to the gallery which became part of the gallery when it was re-opened. It is a bona-fide church with several priests and daily services (in fact a wedding was taking place when we went in). So we spent about 2 or 3 hours at the gallery and I saw the originals of many icons which I have seen in books and prints, including, of course, the Trinity and Vladimir icon's of Rubloff.

I was put in contact with a man who was looking for an English speaker to tutor his two children so last Saturday I tried that out. This family lives in an exclusive little subdivision outside of Moscow so a car was sent to pick me up for the hour trip. On the way I actually spotted the indoor ski hill which is being built in Moscow (see here). So when I arrived I had breakfast with the children (ages 4 and 7), their father and someone who I had assumed to be their mother (turns out it was their nanny). I was told that I would just be playing with the children and trying to speak English with them so that's what we did while playing with some Lego sets. We next spent some time playing outside in the snow. I was at a loss of what to actually do as I originally thought that there was only one child and that he already spoke English but just needed practice. After a joyous time in the fresh snow we returned to have lunch (where I met the children's real mother) after which I was driven back to Moscow.

Last week was another week of teaching... I started a new class which will be a challenge. That's all I'm going to say about that.

We went again yesterday to the Tretyakov to continue where we left off and saw about 20 rooms (only 30 or 40 more to go). I saw many famous paintings including the ubiquitous ones of Dostoyevsky and Pushkin.

In other news Moscow has been under snow for about 2 weeks but in the last few days it has warmed up a bit so a lot has melted creating many dirty and unattractive streets.

St. Basil's in the snow.

The Kremlin in the snow:















St. Tatiana's, where I have been going to services.

Relocation

I was forced to abandon my apartment last Friday so I just now was reconnected to the interweb so I will soon have a comprehensive update...

Of pizza deliveries and dances

So I came home the other day and when I was entering my building a pizza delivery man yelled at me asking about where the first building was...I told him that it was farther down the road... When I went in I realized that I don't even know where I live...

I bought some cucumbers and tomatoes at my local food market the other day. When the transaction was finished and I took my produce and money and the vendor smiled and said "thank you"...I just looked at her and smiled... I went back to the same place today and the woman talked to me a little more asking me where I was from and what I was doing in Moscow. She then told her fellow vendor how and American has come and bought from her twice...

I went last Sunday to nice little church where an English friend attends called St. Antipas; it even had a trapeza afterwards like good ole American churches.

Today we had the second major snow fall of the year; there is something like an inch or inch and a half on the ground.

On Sunday night MP had its second annual Russian Ball which I attended: (there are not too many pictures as I was "dancing" most of the time) We danced various traditional dances, some waltzes and some other that I don't remember.






Yes, even the whigs were in attendance.

Of hotels and Old believers

Even in Moscow Holiday Inn is leavin' the light on for ya'.




There are also people in Moscow who like such strange decor in/on their car.


So that Gabe would be jealous I stopped by this Old Believer (I say "Old Believer" and not "Old Rite" specifically because they're not in communion.) church today. There happened to be a service going on at the time so we stood for a while. There were about 4 women in attendance and then 3 or 4 women singing at the kliros. The singing (which they didn't do very much of at a canon was being read) sounded like a mix between Russian and Greek chant. The church inside was mostly frescoed but there were a lot of smaller, about 8x10, icons hanging on the walls and there were no electric lights.