Zhukovsky Museum

Our last stop yesterday, after the appliance factory, blimp works, and brick factory, was the "mansion" once belonging to the "father of Russian aviation," Nikolai (I think) Zhukovsky. It was like a Twilight Zone episode... I'll try to get pictures up tomorrow. The lady who directs the place and who showed us around was happy, peppy, and bursting with love...way too much so for that late in the day. Another woman there and the director's daughter wore turn-of-the-century clothing and treated us with the hospitality of that time. While we were inside, we were offered a shot glass full of what tasted like cough medicine-- it turned out to be ashberry cognac. It went down kind of rough and spread through me like this stuff I used to take for asthma as a kid. (In fact, it cured my lazy eye and I no longer have a tic when I stand up too quickly.) (Okay, it didn't do all that, but some of use were sure we saw ol' Nikolai on the premises after partaking...) We were also offered tea and chocolates (that were melted into the box-- it was hot) and shown a place in the garden where we could make a wish that the director said would be sure to come true (and I think only one of us-- not me-- took her up on it).

Anyway. The word of the day today is agriculture. We're off to Suzdal (again) to visit some more rural areas, then to the village of Pavlovskoe for lunch... Another all day excursion.

One last thought/observation to share before I sign off for now. I find that I understand just about 100% of the Russian I hear (if I hear a word I don't know, I ask about it, and sometimes the context escapes me...), which is good, but all of our visits and lectures are usually given in Russian and then translated into English. Listening to everything twice, first in Russian, then in English (or vice versa) is like watching a movie in which the language and subtitles keep changing... I'm not complaining-- the practice I'm getting is GREAT. When the situation allows, I try to ask our Russian lecturers and guides questions in Russian, even in front of the other Americans (because I know someone will translate it), just for the practice. This is most definitely a unique experience for me!!

(Okay this is the last thought...) The local paper has a write-up today (Molva, issue number 75) of the 4th party and a picture of Ron (Dr. Pope to you) dancing... Only Terry is mentioned (as "a teacher from Seattle).

What they lack in coffee, they make up for in beer...

Here we are having a Siberian Corona (beer) at 7pm at the little beer place next to the American Home. It was a long day, but another interesting and enjoyable one!

A little R&R after today's excursion(s)...

Dr. Pope checking up on his American ambassadors just before 7pm. We were, of course, on our best behavior. :) Terry (from Seattle, not pictured) and I actually logged some time chatting in Russian with the curious locals.

Back of the bus.

On the way home at 6pm...

Another Carol

This is Carol from Indiana, who was next to me on the other side (Galina is on my right)... We spent about 5 hours of quality time bouncing up and down as we chugged along Russia's highways and by-ways... (She's another Carol because I'm married to a Carole.) Not a great photo of me, but that bus was beboppin' while I was trying to take this picture...

Mmm, coffee!

Unbelieveably, we were two-for-two on coffee offers during our first two visits, the first to a Turkish appliance factory (Beko is the company name), then to the blimphouse. At Beko, we were offered REALLY good Turkish coffee and at AeroScan we were, again, offered coffee! This cup wasn't all that great, but when coffee appears seemingly out of nowhere in Russia, you just have to act.

Still doin' the blimp thing...

The big hangar we were in contained two blimps about half the size (I think) of a typical Goodyear-ish sized one in America. They are used in Russia to do geographical research (infrared and laser scans).

How do you say blimp in Russian?

This is Yours Truly at the AeroScan blimp works, our second stop. (Actually, the Russian word for blimp is a cognate of the English word dirigible. Though I think Aleksei may have heard blimp for the first time when I said it...)

Purloined Fruit

This is Galina of the Aleksei-and-Galina husband and wife pair (and two of THE nicest people in Russia-- or any country, for that matter) that run the show at the American Home. She was sitting next to me on the bus, and she extracted this huge bag from her purse-- it was fruit from the table in the restaurant where we stopped for lunch. "It's not stolen," she said after I accused her, "we paid for it." Galya is a hoot!

Sleepless in Vladimir

The night before last I got about 2 or 3 hours of real sleep. The bedroom I'm in faces the alley/courtyard between apartment buildings, and through the open window, I could hear young people sitting on the playground equipment laughing and singing (in fact, the girls-- teenagers, I'm sure-- were singing a song, the lyrics and subject of which would have made their mothers blush) and, inevitably, smoking cigarettes and drinking beer. This was from about 12:30am until almost 2:30am (why no one else in the building I live in complained, I don't know). To make matters worse, Katya had changed the bedding and when I came home that afternoon, the curtains were pulled back. So I had to deal with the one mosquito that got in that I could hear, but could never see...

The next morning, Katya set out a breakfast for me that could have been for a family of four: 3 types of kolbasa-like sausage, 2 types of bread, kasha (hot barley cereal), 2 hot dogs, small croissants with chocolate inside, 2 containers of yogurt, unrefrigerated juice (Russians don't drink cold juice), and boiled coffee (I'm used to it...when I get to where I can see the silt in the bottom of the cup, I stop drinking it). So there I sat, half-awake from the night before, looking at all of this food; Katya was looking at it, too, because she watches me eat (not unlike a hawk, but more like a server in a restaurant)... Oh, but I DID catch sight of that mosquito on the wall before breakfast. Problem solved.

By the time we were released from prison (sidebar... When we returned to the American Home yesterday, I sent the following text message to my wife: "We were just released from prison." The quick response was "What?") and sat through the last lecture, I was dog-tired by the time I go back to Katya's apartment-- hot, sweaty, and about ready for the rack (as we used to say in the Navy). But the rack would have to wait.

Katya is a lawyer of some sort at a big bank down the street. Her boss took us to dinner last night (which was really good and VERY nice of him). His name is Sergei and we met him at 7pm in front of Katya's building, then we got on a bus to go to the popular Azerbaizhanski restaurant in town (where we had already eaten as a group a few days before). Russian meals are a social event and last much longer than American meals. Russians, as a rule, aren't very expediant (however, after being disgorged from whatever mode of public transportaion they were on, they tend to move pretty quickly to whereever it is they go). By the time Sergei finished arguing with the hostess about his reservation, it was 7:45pm by the time we were seated. Through the various courses, I had more than enough opportunity to practice Russian! But around 9pm, some guy named Igor showed up (they told me he had just returned from a business trip) and for an hour the three of them talked about business while I nursed a beer and tried to keep from lapsing into a sleep-deprived coma. (A quick aside-- Katya and Sergei, and Igor, are Russian business people not unlike those in America who have cellphones that go off every 5 minutes.)

We finally finished up around 10:30pm. When we hit the street, Sergei asked if we wanted to go for a walk. I didn't, but when in Rome... So, we meandered back to Katya's (about 3 miles or so), chatting about this and that, though I was so tired I'm not sure what we were talking about, really-- it was mostly smalltalk). 11:30pm now. I finally got into bed and at 2am two cats outside were fighting for what seemed like an hour. But I did get some sleep... Amen.

Today we're off to (I'm not making any of this up): "a Turkish-built factory that produces household appliances, a dirigible-producer, and a brick-producer in the small town of Kirzach..." Of course, I should have the pictures to prove it. :)

Yesterday's journey...

Yesterday's docket included two trips, first to the Vladimir Juridical Institute (sort of a bureau of prisons, but something gets lost in translation and there's not enough time or space here to get into it), where we schmoozed with the staff and a few cadets. (The lady in the white business attire next to the standing officer in the next to the last picture had made a law enforcement exchange program trip to the University of Illinois.) We ate lunch there and then moved on to "Vladimir Central," the (in)famous federal prison where, among others, Gary Powers was imprisoned after his U-2 was shot down in 1960. It was kind of interesting in a God-loves-you-soccerball sort of way (see previous post); VERY cultural-- Paris Hilton has no idea how good she had it!
The first and last photos are of us waiting for the bus in the morning and then on a tramvai (trolley) on the way back in the afternoon... The ride back was crowded and hot, but, I suppose, easier than walking...

In the middle photos, you can see me sitting under an A/C unit blowing a gale upon me (it's either feast or famine) and Audrey (to my right; to her right is Stacie and to my left are Tom, Matt, and Warner). The Russians in the other photo were at the table opposite us.

Hands-free evangelism...

You never know what you're going to find in this country. Yesterday, we were at a juridical (look it up) institute here in Vladimir and I spotted this soccerball in a glass case. It had been given to the institute in 2002 by a soccer team from Liverpool, England. On it is printed in Russian "God loves you." Why, I'm not sure... (I have cogitated over the whole God-is-The-Refree thing some and have a theory...)

Мои (м)учительницы...

Don't let their smiles fool you. ;)

These two ladies are my one-on-one conversation tutors, Nellie (r.) and Tanya (l.). Dr. Pope arranged special pull-out sessions for me while the others are in basic language/culture lectures. It has been GREAT practice! These two women are very patient with me and keep telling me how good my Russian is, but I think they're trying to lull me into a false sense of security. But they won't break me. :)

By the way, the "(м)учительницы" in the title is a tongue-in-cheek stab at them... the word without the letter in parentheses simply means teachers; with the "м" it means torturers...

More of yesterday...

This first picture is of our trip to the Gus-Khrustalny Chrystal and Glass Works. The first stop was the museum in the building, a one-room display through which we were led by a very nice woman who herself had to be in her 80s (and, therefore, probably part of the very exhibit she was showing us!). She spoke with pride about the history of the place and the objets d'art on display. Honestly, to me everything looked like props from the old 60s Star Trek television series... However, to each his or her own.

The second picture is of most of us-- the Americans on hand for the 4th of July fete-- getting ready to sing "America, the Beautiful" for our Russian guests. It was a very good time, with LOTS of food and music, though the magic of the evening was dampened a bit when I got an earful from Katya for showing up at 9:30pm. Most of the Russian host families expected us to be done right at 7pm per the printed schedule. It was a good time, all in all. I remain amazed at this American Home institution here in Vladimir, Russia.

A quick footnoote about yesterday. A new American student (here to study Russian) at the American Home was introduced-- she had just arrived yesterday, before the party-- and we got to chatting... A 20-year old Missouri-Synod Lutheran from Michigan... I used to know a 20-year old Missouri Synod Lutheran from Michigan... ;)

The Russian Bathroom

My Russian students often have difficulty, at first, with the English-Russian cognate "toilet." In American English, bathrooms are everywhere, though in public places without showers or bathtubs, we would say "restroom." In Russia, the toilet is the device, as well as the place where it is located. In public places, it's more euphamistically (and European-ly) called a "water closet." In an apartment, the toilet may be in its own little tiny (and I mean tiny) room, separate from the bathroom. In Katya's apartment, there is an actual bathroom (lexically, I mean)... The picture below doesn't quite to the dimensions justice, but in one room there is a bathtub, water heater, toilet, and small washing machine (and plenty of other odds and ends); in fact, it is so small that I can stand in the center and just about touch all four walls.

Next time you get in your shower and turn on the hot water that you take for granted, be grateful. Not everybody has it so good...

American Independence Day in Vladimir, Russia

Hello, or Привет, from Vladimir, where it is presently 5:45pm (8:45am in Texas). When we returned from Gus around 3:45 this afternoon, a carnival-like atmosphere was building in the backyard of the American Home (see first picture-- the guy in the black shirt and jeans is a reporter who's talking to Terry from Seattle in the picture, but who interviewed us both for a story he said would be out in a local paper on Saturday). Luminaries from the local area were among the 80 or so Russians invited to mark the American celebration of Independence Day, as well as the 15th anniversary of the American Home, established to foster intercultural relations among both Russians and Americans. It is truly a unique and unbelievably worthwhile endeavor! I've benefitted from being here only a week; I can only imagine what they can do in a year here! And Dr. Pope is the keystone... He's unique and unbelievable, too. ;) (I know you're keeping tabs on me and my blog, Ron!) In the second picture, Dr. Pope is addressing the crowd in Russian. The third picture is of a musical group that sang and danced for us-- they were really great! And the last picture is of five of us-- Stacie from Detroit, Deidre from Kansas, Guess Who, Mark from Maryland, and Tom from South Dakota. (Just after this picture was taken, Tom sat down in his chair which had sunk into the ground-- it rained pretty hard as festivities began-- and tipped over backward... His recovery was 10 out of 10, but I was laughing so hard I almost burst a blood vessel!) Anyway. That's it for today. Happy 4th to you all!!

Rebirth

This display is called "Rebirth" in Russian. I'm not sure why, but it caught my eye in the china and glass museum... It looks sort of churchy; however, if you click on the picture, you can see a larger shot and form your own opinion.

P.S. We are back at the American Home now, about to be put on display for about 80 Russian guests for our 4th of July celebration... I will try to post a picture or two just as soon as possible!

The Great Hall of China

This is the inside of what used to be a large cathedral. Now it's a crystal and glass museum... And we spent all day (it seemed) getting there.

Statue-esque...

They named a restaurant after this guy (I know, because we ate there after a very anticlimactic visit to the crystal and glass works-- pictures tomorrow)... As it turns out, this guy, whose name I can't recall (Malzkov, perhaps), and whose head is missing (just mentally transfer mine to his body-- we look alike anyway!), is the guy who started the whole famous (in Russia, anyway) Gus crystal and glass works. This statue was in front of a museum that used to be a church before the commies got ahold of it. It's now the Gus Museum of Crystal.

Still life through a bus window.

I took this picture as we were travelling through Vladimir to the orphanage on Monday. The girl in the red car was having an animated conversation with the woman in the back seat... Besides that, it's kind of a mini-vista. Russian drivers rival Italians in their observance of traffic practices, rather than of traffic laws (including lines on the road, which to Russians are simply suggestions).

I meant to mention a few days ago that the wind blowing through birch trees sounds like rushing water. We walked through a small grove on the way to a small cathedral a mile off the road and the sound was so serene... Another one of those you-had-to-be-there moments, I guess!

And to all you Americans out there, Happy 4th of July! We well be celebrating the 4th here at the American Home tonight after we return from the town of Gus (where we'll be touring a crystal works factory and museum).

С праздником!