Yesterday we were out and about for about an hour after lunch at a restaurant in the center of Vladimir. I went wandering with Warner (of Mr. Potato Head fame) and another teacher in the group, Stacie from Detroit. The picture below was taken in front of a big statue of Lenin which Stacie pointed out to be somewhat ironic because it's in front of a huge bank (capitalism). It's also ironic in two other ways-- there is a big Russian Federation seal on top of the bank, behind Lenin's head (same seal as the one used in tsarist Russia) and the spelling of "bank" is five letters long, rather than the usual four (the word bank has the old hard sign letter on it; this letter was one of the ones removed-- it's use on the end of words, actually-- as a result of Lenin's spelling reform). Anyway, it's so east-meets-west-y that we had to take the picture.Then there was the beer break on the way back to the American Home for the next excursion...
