Musique à mes oreilles - Music to my ears!

Hello all!

Doing this program reminds me of the Teachers Institute I did last November in Ottawa – it’s relevant, engaging and exhausting!  Québec is beautiful and for the most part, people are really friendly.

I say “for the most part” because they must be used to kookie nutbars running around trying to speak to them and striking up inane conversations for no reason at all.  Our program leaders have even prepared us with phrases so that we can strike up conversations with strangers.  For example, here in Québec, the streetlights take forever to change for pedestrians but when they eventually do, you can walk in all directions because ALL the traffic stops.  They told us to say “ces feux sont si longs a passer au rouge!” as if any local would welcome us with open arms if we told them something they already knew.  I’ll keep my nutbar status to myself, thankyouverymuch.  It gets loose too much as it is.  J

Thursday was the opening of the Summer Festival (a.k.a. Festival d’Été) here.  It is a crazy-amazing outdoor music festival with multiple stages.  Downtown Québec turns into one big beautiful outdoor patio party.  As you can imagine, it’s really, really crowded.  But it is worth it to see such acts as Tegan & Sara, Lady Gaga, Serena Ryder, Steve Miller Band, Journey, Snoop Dogg, Local Natives, Three Days Grace, The Killers, The Crystal Method, Deadmau5, Queens of the Stone Age, Cypress Hill, Blondie, Billy Joel, Sam Roberts Band, Soundgarden and Bryan Adams.  And those are just the acts I recognize!  There are over 250 performances, including up-and-coming French artists and international acts.  There’s also a selection of free performances every day, but I (and most of my program participants) bought the festival pass in advance.  $75 if I remember correctly?

I’ve already seen Tegan & Sara and Lady Gaga – the pass was worth it right there.  Dang that Gaga girl sure puts on a show!  I’d never be able to afford to see her in Vancouver.  I’m looking forward to many more shows, but I can’t see myself going every night since I really have to mentally gear myself up for those crowds.  Haha.

This program is turning out to be quite musical – in addition to having us sing French songs every morning, they show us French music videos from artists around the world.  I have already found some new favourites!

We did a workshop a few days ago that also gave me some favourites – for the computer lab.  They showed us a plethora of FSL and Immersion resources that we can use for ourselves or for our students.  Much of it was très cool – and I’ll be coming home with a package of ideas and website links.

Another activity they had us put together was a skit that we performed in front of the group.  Sheesh, doing things like scavenger hunts and performing skits certainly gives me insight into what I ask my own students to do.  Especially my poor ESL students, haha.

We went shopping!  There are 3 huge malls here in Québec, and we figured out how to take the bus there without much difficulty.  Simons is my dream store!  I bought some stuff… a bunch of stuff.  Good cheap stuff!  And, I had to talk to people half a dozen times and most of the time there was no problem and no clarification needed.  And nobody tried to speak English to me, which made me feel great.  J

Today we had a field trip to la Grosse Île in the middle of the St. Lawrence (and we had the choice to do the tour in English, thank goodness, or it would have been such a wasted experience!).  It was used as a quarantine station in the 1800’s for immigrants to Canada or the US.  During the Great Irish Famine, the island received a huge influx of Irish peoples, more than the island could handle.  They were lured with promises for a better life, but instead thousands of people died from cholera, typhus, etc.  It was fascinating, and sad.  At times the conditions described/recreated echoed what it was like in concentration camps in Germany – except it felt more helpless without anyone to “blame.”

Aside from la Grosse Île, I have been trying very hard to speak French as much as possible (although I must admit that when with my débutante roommates, we give ourselves a little break haha).  When we have gone to get groceries or gone out to eat, I don’t let anyone speak English to me.  Well, almost.  If there is a big lineup behind me or something, I might cave.  But for the most part I have been doing my best: I hand back the English menus and ask for French ones, continue speaking French if they change to English, and if necessary, tell them not to speak to me in English.  Having said that, the conversations I’ve had are pretty limited and mainly involve the French verbs that I know.  I have, I want, I eat…. Sounds good enough, right?

I should get to sleep now – but I’ll write again with more I’m sure.  The week ahead contains a chocolaterie, more summer festival shows, and another field trip – this time to Île d’Orleans.  Stay tuned!

Cheers and love,
E!

p.s. – watch this totally cool music video from a Belgian musician!  You don’t need to know what the lyrics mean (I don’t), and it’s totally catchy and the video is neato.  The chorus says, “Where are you Papa?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiKj0Z_Xnjc

J'ai chaud? Je suis chaude!

Hello all!

So things have begun in full force here on campus.  We are in full immersion mode now, so it's kind of nice to think and write in English for a little bit.  My brain is tired.  Heh!

My roommates are Deborah from Comox, Kirsten from Vancouver (I knew her already from teaching ESL at Tamwood years ago), and Paula from Fort St. John.  We are all in our later thirties or forties (in fact, I'm the youngest), which is good because we are all pretty fun and relaxed.  Kirsten is pretty bilingual, so she helps us out all the time - and doesn't even seem to mind.

Yesterday we had our placement interviews and it turns out that I am way worse at French than I thought.  Turns out my enthusiasm doesn't mean that I'm good (you have all been lying to me!).  I think the instructors knew right away though, especially when they asked me if I knew any other languages and I thought that they were asking if I could drive a car.  I said yes, they asked which languages, and... yeah.  I'm in the "debutante" class.  :)

Every day they provide us with lunch at the cafeteria, but we do our own breakfast and dinners.  After our tests yesterday, we headed out to the local grocery store and did a big shop.  They drove our groceries home for us while we walked in the humid sun.  We always talk about having several showers a day.  Having a cold shower at night helps me get to sleep since it cools my core temperature down to a comfortable state so I can relax.  

Our cultural activity yesterday was learning some Quebecois dances and we all learned how to play the spoons.  We also listen to and sing songs every day (some traditional, some modern).  After that we watched a French movie called The Intouchables.  And much to my chagrin, no English subtitles (of course).  But that's okay, I was able to get the synopsis off the web and follow along.  :)  Good movie!

Today our classes began and our beginner class practiced a lot of basics like introducing ourselves and saying where we are from.  We're also learning teaching strategies at the same time, and we recognize lots of what's going on.  It's interesting to be on the other side of the coin. Our group activity today was to do a scavenger hunt, and they placed us in groups with one person from each level.  So yah, I was the dummy running behind everyone listening to them chatter in French and not having a clue what was going on.  I have way more sympathy for my ESL kids now.

My (our) reward for going through that redonkulous exercise was to relax at a local establishment for 5a7, which is the saying for "happy hour" here in Quebec.  And it was definitely happy: our leaders had arranged for all of us to have a free drink and appetizers.  Plus we played a few games and more free drinks were up for the taking, if you were up for the talking.

And homework!  We get homework every day.  HA HA.  Today's homework was to pronounce some vowel sounds (blah), and write a poem with a particular framework.  I'll share mine with you:

A L'interieur de Moi

C'est une chambre,

dans mon coeur.

Il y a un poid

sur mes memoires.

Il y a un desir

sous mes pensees.

Il y a une intention

entre mes questions.

Tu me manques,

mais tu habites ici.

Dans mon coeur.

Can you guess what our framework was?  That's right, prepositions!  Good to see that my ability to write sappy predictable crap hasn't waned since highschool.  It's finally coming in handy.  Ha ha.

Hope you're all doing well!  I miss (speaking English with) every single one of you.

Cheers,

E! 

Bonsoir from Quebec!

Hello all,

I write this to you from my humid & sweaty dorm room, in the amazing location of Quebec City!  It's so beautiful here.  

I spent most of my Saturday night packing and as it happens, having another car-related adventure with Soni!  This time it involved Soni's car being towed (hey, it's a step up from being stolen, right?), and subsequently being propositioned by an 18-year old boy.  Gross.  I'll let her give you the details on that one.  :P

Early morning drive to YVR meant only 2 hours of sleep!  This of course resulted in my zombie-like behaviour and leaving items behind at security by accident.  I think if they had required that I take off my shoes, I would had left them there too.  No problem, got everything back.  But I was (am) still in a fog.

When Ryan Gosling starting walking down the aisle towards where I was sitting on the plane, I knew I was hallucinating for sure.  It wasn't him, but it was a dead ringer.  Kinda threw me for a loop, but why would he be sitting in coach, right?  Hey Girl... I just wanted to be closer to you.  Haha.

When I finally made it to QC after a short layover in TO (aka Ta-ronnah), the taxi driver seemed to speak neither French nor English.  Not helpful.  Although it's SO intimidating to speak when you know you're going to sound like you're mentally compromised (which I don't tend to mind on the days I speak English, haha) but, sometimes you gotta take the plunge.  Right?

I found my way to my dorm room by the college.  It's pretty bad (as dorms tend to be), but the location can't be beat.  I was checking it all out, pleased to be the first person here (they are quad dorms - 4 bedrooms each with a lock) and talking to myself about this and that, when a lady comes out of one of the bedrooms.  I guess I wasn't first.  And now, the mentally compromised thing just might end up being my rep.  Ha.  Thought I could get away from that on the East Coast but alas.

We went and got a few groceries.  We went the wrong way.  We tried asking someone in French where the grocery store was, and they helped us out (yay!).  But turns out we went way, way, out of our way.  Next time we'll go a little closer.

I'm exhausted.  It's 6:25pm your time but here it's 9:25pm and on two hours of sleep I'm gonna pass out now.

I'll happily pass along any further stories of my mental state... :)

Cheers,

Elaan

ps - I have a mailing address!  I feel like a student living in a dorm (oh wait, I am) waiting for a care package!  Yeah, if any of you want to send me a large portable air conditioning unit, that'd be great... I'm here until July 18th!

yah I know there's a bunch of accents missing from the French words...

The Emerald Isle

Ahhhh, Ireland. So beautiful. Green and lush, and the people are SO welcoming and friendly. One person said that you never really get lost in Ireland (at least for long) because you just stop and ask someone. I guess whoever said that didn't mean in the bar district at 2am haha! No but really, people have been very helpful. 

We did a ton of walking around in Dublin when we were there. We saw the Famine Memorial, the Ha'penny Bridge, St. Patrick's Cathedral, Christ Church Cathedral, Dublin Castle, and more. The pedestrian walkways are excellent. All cobblestones and shops and pubs. Many, many pubs. B&B's are my favourite type of accommodation (although I think S prefers hotels) because I like meeting the people and I like the home cookin'!  Dragging your bags up and down stairs is a bit of a chore, though. 

Our first driving destination was to visit Newgrange in the Boyne Valley. It's a huge stone-age tomb that is older than the Pyramid of Giza in Egypt! Pretty cool. Then we were off to Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland. It's quite a sight! Hexagonal columns all around the bay. Not sure the science behind it, but the interpretive centre has a whole giant-fable to go with your exploration of the area. I posted photos of both Newgrange and Giant's Causeway on FB if you want a look.

The next day we drove from Bundoran (a cute little coastal town) to Galway (a cute large coastal town).  Our B&B was right on the water: Galway Bay/Atlantic Ocean! Just a short swim and we'd hit the Maritimes. ;)  Another great pedestrian area in Galway with wonderful buskers, shops, pubs, and ice cream parlours. S and I enjoyed people-watching and drinking from the outdoor patio and walking around the city square. Nice!

The landscape reminds me quite a bit of when I visited Scotland in 2008 with C. Rocky areas, fields, hills and small mountains are all over the place. We've been lucky to have fairly cooperative weather. The mildness has been a welcome change from the hot & sticky, and the occasional rain shower is, dare I say, pleasant!

After leaving Galway, the next stop would be at The Cliffs of Moher. Ireland certainly has impressive natural formations! I was dismayed to see that people could walk right along the edge of the cliffs with no railing or anything to keep them from plummeting.  We didn't try it. From where we were, the view was fantastic and we had the pleasure of listening to a harpist.  Excellent. 

After a quick stop in Shannon, we headed to Limerick for the night. It was a pleasant enough city, although for us it was pretty much a stopover. S walked around a little and saw the local cathedral and castle, and I opted for a massage at the spa! It was pretty decadent. In fact, the best food I'd had in Ireland so far was at the restaurant adjoining our hotel. SO GOOD. Of course that may be partially due to the fact that we have been eating a lot of the same food, over and over.  We are both looking forward to peanut butter when we get home!

From Limerick, we headed to Killarney.  What's the difference between a "twinned city" and a "sister city"? Whatever it is, Killarney has plenty of both.  It also has a National Park, and it is the starting point for the Ring of Kerry, which is an all-day drive around a southwest peninsula (kind of like the Road to Hana in Maui).  We didn't have time to do it all, but we did see Killarney, Ladies' View, Ross Castle, Torc Waterfall and the town of Kenmare. Next time we'll plan our time better and do more!

Our last night in Ireland would be spent in Cork.  We drove around and saw much of the city while locating our B&B, and we walked down the street to have dinner at the aptly named Serendipity Cafe. Electric guitar serenaded us while we had yet another fantastic meal; we listened to Clapton, Metallica, Cash, and others. It was pretty cool, gotta say. 

Before leaving the Cork area the next day, we had to go to Blarney Castle and kiss the stone. I was convinced it was an overpriced gimmick but when we got there, there was actually quite a lot to do there, which made it more worth it. We walked through the beautiful gardens, and even one called "poison garden" which had all poisonous plants, including the marijuana plant, which had a cage all around it as to discourage samplers. There was a waterfall, and lovely trails all over. Oh yeah, and the castle too. And the stone. 

Last bit of Ireland was spent driving back to Dublin for a short flight to London, and then we'd have two separate flights back to Vancouver (I had a direct flight and S was via Amsterdam).  

Random bits about driving in Ireland:
- we rented a Toyota Auris at first. It was a standard transmission and it actually indicated when you were supposed to shift up or down. I thought that was cute!
- driving with a stick shift was fine and all, but I soon realized that my fine manual dexterity isn't as good with my left hand.
- the rural roads in Ireland are crazy. They are super narrow, there's usually no shoulder whatsoever, and the speed limits are unbelievably high. For example, the posted limit of 100km/hr was two feet in front of another sign that said, "Be careful of walkers on the road."  There are regularly trucks and semis coming the other way, and let's just say it gets hairy. 

- the roundabouts here are excellent, but I'm not a fan of the double-lane. Makes it confusing for where you think someone beside you is exiting and I don't like guessing about where other cars are going. So, I pretty much stayed in the outside lane in the roundabouts.
- no passing while in the slow lane. I knew this and was respecting it, but somehow without my even realizing it, I messed up. Right in front of a cop. Just my luck, eh? He made sure I was clear about that particular rule. 

- we changed over to a Skoda Octavia with automatic transmission after three days, so that S could drive too. I needed a break.

- they have "traffic calming areas" here. At home this would mean speed bumps, but here it means no passing and narrower lanes (as if they aren't narrow enough!)

Random bits about travel/this trip:

- a suitcase with four wheels on the bottom is awesome!!

- I think I need to be a little less efficient with my packing. I had tons of space in my suitcase, and about a week before the end, I got thoroughly sick of wearing all the same clothes. 

- if we could do it over, I'd plan the Ireland portion of this trip differently. Definitely less driving and more time spent enjoying locations. As it was, we were pretty go-go-go, which was like our tour (except we didn't have someone else doing all the "work" for us!).

- maybe I'm getting old, but a month is a long time to be away from home.  I think I'll prefer to do shorter trips in the future. Maybe. 

Our big adventure has come to an end!  Thanks for reading along and travelling with us!

xo

E!

Berlin and Westward Bound

Berlin. What a city. So much character and history. We saw The Wall, the Wannsee villa where the senior officials of the Nazi regime met to determine the "Final Solution," the Cecilienhof Palace (where Truman, Churchill, & Stalin met to decide the future of Germany/Europe after the end of WWII), Alexanderplatz, Brandenberg Gate, the Holocaust memorial, and more.

It was ridiculously hot, and we were in a constant state of stickiness. I tried currywurst, which is basically a hot dog covered with ketchup and curry powder. We had Starbucks, and some of our group went to McDonalds. Despite that though, the food in Germany is pretty good.

The last night in Berlin was a farewell dinner for the end of our tour. We were taken to a local place for food and all the drinks we could drink. There was singing (again with the volunteers and volun-tolds) and dancing. It is amazing how close you can become to people who you share these kinds of experiences with! I do hope that I'll cross paths with many of them again. The next day people left Germany for various destinations. S and I had most of the day to sightsee, and then we had a late flight to Dublin!

Abridged list of things I will never do again:

- schedule a flight to a foreign country that arrives after dark, especially when I have to find my own way to the accommodation

- rent a car wherein I am the only driver

- forget to get a list of detailed directions and maps of the area

Well, we had the directions, but they were printed in German. And anyways, one missed turn and those directions are useless in a city of one-way streets. After our own (many) attempts failed, and after we had asked countless people for directions, we actually paid a taxi driver to take us to our B&B while we followed behind. Brilliant idea, no? Well turns out that he got our street mixed up with another street (one was a St. and one was a Rd.) and left us in the completely wrong part of town, stranded. This was at about 2am.

Good thing/bad thing was we saw a lot of downtown Dublin. Well, S did anyways. I was too busy being stressed about driving stick and staying on the correct side of the road (S saved us from a near significant-mistake at one point). The street signs, if they are even there, are so far up and difficult to read. Even though it was a Sunday night, the bars were hopping and there were drunks everywhere, stumbling across the road and into the path of our car (they had no idea how perilous this would be).  I think we were the only non-taxi on the road.

It was a disaster. There was much colourful language (not at each other, just at Dublin in general). There was talk of sleeping in the car, and doing "business" in the alleys. I almost cried and/or threw a tantrum, but (barely) managed to keep it together. By the time we made it to our place and woke up the owners, it was 3:30am. We were still on Berlin time so it felt like 4:30am. Our flight had landed at 11:15pm and the B&B was 20 minutes from the airport. Not a great start.

The next day would prove to be much, much better. It is amazing what a good sleep, a good meal, a shower, and fresh cool air can do for an individual. :D

Xo

E!

Minsk & Warsaw

Leaving Russia and heading into Belarus, we noticed an immediate change in landscape and housing.  Much less disrepair and abandonment.  As we got closer to the city, it was noticeably clean and beautiful.  I don't know what I expected from Minsk, but I didn't think I would be so impressed!

Goran said that Belarus does not have a good reputation, and he tried to explain why. Specifically, the government is a dictatorship, and the leader of it does not have completely positive relationships with other countries in Europe. The value of their money is so weak that one Canadian dollar equals about 8570 Belarusian rubles. It is apparently the only country (in Europe?) that uses no coins whatsoever.

However, despite all of that, Belarus is one of the nicest places we've seen thus far. It did not seem to me that people were destitute; there was nice housing and no beggars and people seemed happy (although that's a pretty big assumption I suppose). Indeed, Goran says that the reputation "doesn't add up" to what we see in the country. And Goran also knows people who live there as well. So... perhaps Belarus is one of Europe's best-kept secrets!

Our free time in Minsk had us walking along the river.  The evening was warm and perfect. There were ducks swimming and couples in rowboats. Garden sculptures (different themes - perhaps a competition?) lined the park. Statues, flowers, benches and ahhhhhh.  Very nice. I would go back to Minsk and spend more time if I could.

Warsaw was something different altogether. It was easier to communicate with people, but there was tons of graffiti everywhere, and it was dirtier. On our city tour, the buildings were beautiful and ornate, but we were reminded that they are mostly not originals as nearly the whole city was destroyed in WWII.  But like Goran said, it truly is a city that "rose from the ashes." The Old Town was excellent (and quite a tourist haven) and we enjoyed sitting outside, on the patio, having lunch and people-watching (and being regularly bothered by the best-dressed gypsy children I have ever seen).

One of the optional excursions we chose to do was to attend a private piano recital given by a professor at the music department at Warsaw University. Warsaw was home to Chopin, and so we listened to his music, closed our eyes, and were transported away to another time, place and feeling. It was transcendental, truly. What a privilege to be able to experience that!

Our dinner was at a Polish specialty place and it included traditional Polish singers and dancers (not to mention all the wine we could drink). It was great fun, and even more so when they took volunteers (and volun-tolds) to learn dance routines and fun competitions like cracking whips and laying eggs. I'll just let you imagine it. :)

Then, off to Berlin!

xo

Elaan

Novgorod and Moscow

Velikiy Novgorod was an enjoyable little town. Smaller than either St. Petersburg or Moscow, Novgorod still holds an important place in Russia's history: it was the cradle of Russia. It was where the country began. We did a tour of the Kremlin (fortress) and learned much from our local guide, Irina.  I could see myself living there. It was a quiet, attractive town with several things to see and do.

Worst sleep in Novgorod, though. We accidentally left the windows open and there were mosquitoes in our room. Did they bother S? Nope, just me. I was covered in bites when I woke up. No air conditioning in our room and the blanket was scratchy, but I had tried to stay covered up. Obviously to no avail. I had even woken up several times in the night because they were buzzing around my ears. Ahhhh! No sleep made for a very long day.

Although the drivers are crazy, driving in Russia is relatively peaceful because nobody uses their horns. Although many people do use their cell phones - Goran says that it is not allowed, but obviously they are still working on that. :)

The first night we arrived in Moscow, we had dinner at our hotel and then went out for our first excursion: to tour the metro. During Soviet rule, the metro was designed to be the "working man's paradise," and you can see how.  Elaborate chandeliers for lighting, sculptures, mosaics and paintings. It makes you feel as if you are in a museum (but like anywhere with crowds, when you are standing around staring up at things, you have to keep your bags secure to avoid pickpockets).

We ended our excursion by walking to Red Square. As we walked along, we saw the department stores lit up in lights (Gum {pronounced Goom} being the most dominant and extravagant), the new pedestrian walkway, the towers of the Kremlin, and the church with the golden "flames" on top. So beautiful!

But then we turned the corner.

St. Basil's Cathedral is simply amazing. I was totally dumbstruck by the sight of it down at the far end of Red Square, and I think I ceased to hear anything that the guide was saying at that point.  I just kept walking forward. The colours, the shapes, the design and patterns are so unique and distinctive. So many of our group said that THIS is what they came to see. It was so exciting, and our group celebrated with, yes, you guessed it, champagne and vodka. I took a lot of photos and I'm pretty sure that I had a grin on my face for the rest of the day (maybe that celebration helped a little, ha!).

Lenin's tomb is in Red Square too, but you cannot see it anymore. You used to be able to go in and look at him because he was embalmed, but supposedly he's being moved to the family plot soon.

The next day was a full day in Moscow with our local guide, Vera. She was born and raised in Moscow and had so much information about the city and the rest of Russia; I learned so much and came away with a different impression altogether (as I thought I would). All of the stories I'd heard about Russia were generally negative. Now, seeing it from another insider's point of view, I was impressed and enlightened again. 

Moscow is pretty awesome! Despite not being able to drink the water (as with anywhere in Russia), it is very clean.  There is only 1% of unemployment (compared to 15-20% in the rest of Russia) and there are 250 McDonalds! That's a true measure of success, no? ;) Some of the main streets had eight lanes on each side! Talk about busy. Traffic is a problem in Moscow, but not one that we experienced, luckily.

Before the trip, I didn't know much about Russia's history, politics, relations with other countries, government, or standard of living. We are given so much information and it's pretty fascinating! There are many perspectives that I was surprised to hear. For example, apparently the Russians did not like Gorbachev very much. We were told 3 reasons for this:

1) When changing from a communist system to a market economy, people suffered because they could not buy food. They would have to line up from 6am at a store just to get any food they could. People didn't care about democracy, they just wanted to eat. People were starving under this poorly effected changeover.

2) Gorbachev put an anti-alcohol law in place that limited the amount a family could buy in a month to a ridiculously small amount. So people went from buying and drinking freely (which apparently was quite common during Soviet rule), to having almost nothing, overnight. Again, the consequences of this poor transition were dire; people suffered and in the worst cases, died from ingesting toxic substitutes. Viktor in St. Petersburg told us that after Gorbachev closed bars and liquor stores, there were more casualties in lineups for alcohol than there were in the Russian troops sent to Afghanistan in 1979 (perhaps an exaggerated remark, but still, it was significant).

3) Gorbechev's wife, Raisa, appeared with him everywhere. This had never happened before in Russia. No former leaders' wives made any public appearances. The Russian people felt as if it was inappropriate and "showing off."

Something else I learned was that many Russians are quite liberal, but due to the size of the country and the population, they struggle to make change. For example, the populations of St. Petersburg and Moscow are apparently quite liberal, but the rest of the country are not. The people who live in the country and in remote villages are quite orthodox and conservative (in both their religion and politics).  And the country is so large that even though Moscow and St. Petersburg have a combined population of about 20 million, it is still outweighed by the rest (another 120 million).

When we went to the armoury section of the Kremlin, I was pretty blown away. There are so many authentic artifacts in there it is mind-boggling. Most amazing were the ten Faberge Eggs, and the actual carriages used hundreds of years ago to transport Catherine the Great and other leaders. There were also dishes, elaborate coronation outfits, crowns, costumes and thrones. All original, hundreds of years old, and in wonderful condition. In times of invasion, these items were moved to Siberia so that they escaped destruction and plundering.

We also did a tour of the famous Novodevichi convent and cemetery. The cemetery was run by the government who decided which people would be interred there. There were many famous Russians in there, like Boris Yeltsin, Raisa Gorbachev, government ministers, military leaders, scientists, artists, and the like. What is different about this cemetery is that it was basically a sculpture park. Each tombstone was a work of art, most of which were sculptures or images of the person's face or body. It was very different. I enjoyed it very much, though. 

Russia has so many beautiful buildings, museums, artifacts, parks and special attractions. I can't forget, however, that all of it came at a cost. Most of this beauty came off the backs of the people, by taxing or withholding or punishing. And sometimes it cost human lives too, as in the example Goran told us: There is a tower on St. Isaac's Cathedral in St. Petersburg which is gilded with gold, and the method of infusing the gold was deadly (it used mercury) and killed over 60 workers before it was finished.  But, if the leader in the 1830's wanted a gold tower, so be it.

I don't pretend that this only happens in Russia (indeed it has happened every place in history, and still happens today!) but when you find yourself surrounded by so much extravagance and opulence, you can't help but think about it. I can see why communist theory was such an attractive one.

Dinner was rushed, and the clutz in me came out when I was going up stairs in my flip-flops and tripped on the top step.  I literally fell into the arms of the woman leaving the restaurant (to everyone's delight) but not before I had bashed my foot (to my dismay). I went to the washroom to clean off my foot but there were no paper towels and only a Dyson airblade hand dryer - you know, the kind where you put your hands in vertically, up and down, and it dries them in 10 seconds? Well let me tell you, it is rather difficult to get a foot in there!  Yup, that was me in the WC, with my foot in the dryer.  :) I think I surprised the next woman that came in.

Our last evening in Moscow took us to the circus, which was quite different than I was expecting. It was a show of acrobatics, clowns, and animals. At first I thought the animal shows would be like seeing Superdogs at the PNE (which is my favourite!) but alas it was not. The stunts they had the animals doing were certainly impressive from a training point of view, but some of them looked unsafe, and as the evening went on, the "wow" feeling quickly turned sad.

They had all these animals in the lobby and were charging $30 to have your picture taken with a tiger cub, an elephant, Dalmatian dogs, a young jaguar, a muzzled bear tied to a chair, a kangaroo/wallaby (don't know which), exotic birds, a monkey, and more. Just seemed wrong. Not my kinda entertainment. (Although, I do try to suspend judgement where I don't know all the facts and conditions. I remember visiting a zoo in Chicago where I spoke to an employee who gave me much more information than I knew about zoos and it totally changed my perspective.)

Next we are off to Belarus, and as far as I can tell, it's mainly a stop on our travels. We travel all day from Moscow to Minsk (Belarus), and the next day we travel all day from Minsk to Warsaw (Poland). Two long travel days!

Cheers, 

Xo

Elaan