Moscow 2008

I uploaded the photos from our trip and have made comments on all the Moscow photos. I'll add comments to the St. Petersburg photos soon. Here are some highlights. Click on any of them to go to the album.

Back In The U.S.S.R.

Well, actually it's the Russian Federation now, which doesn't have quite the same ring to it. The Olympics this year was actually the first time that I had noticed that the flag changed, but the USSR was dismantled in 1991 so it's been a while now. Shows how much I've been paying attention. Veronica and I arrived here over a week ago to visit our friend, Emily, who is teaching at in international school in Moscow. We arrived to wet, rainy weather with the fear that it was going to continue that way for a good portion of our trip. We lucked out, though, and although it has been pretty cold the whole time it hasn't rained again. We were hoping to catch the tail end of summer before things started getting cold but we missed it. It's been in the 40's most days but we did finally see the sun yesterday and today.

Moscow is eleven hours ahead of San Francisco and jet lag kicked our ass for at least half the trip. We did reset any gain we made in the first couple days because we went our for a night in Moscow on the first Saturday night and drank vodka and beer until four in the morning. Mixing vodka and beer is not at all recommended, which everyone seemed to already know but nobody warned us. Vero and I slept off our hangovers for most of Sunday, which in combination with the jet lag had us awake at 3am. Now that we're finally over it we'll have to do it all over again starting tomorrow. People say it's worse going west but from what I remember it was easier. Actually, I just checked and the article in Wikipedia confirms west to east is more disruptive so hopefully things should be easier at home.

Our first weekend here was shared with a Swedish friend of Emily's, Petter, who just flew out Friday and returned the following Monday. After that we entertained ourselves during the day and spent the evenings with Emily. We also went up to St. Petersburg for a couple days (see previous entry). We walked around mostly seeing what there was to see, which seemed to be mostly churches. I still find it surprising how religious Russians are; I was somewhat forewarned after reading Edward Rutherfurd's Russka: The Novel of Russia but it was still amazing to see the quantity of churches and the rituals that people perform in front of the icons. The Russian churches are so unique with their bulbous tower tops, and St. Basil's Cathedral is probably the most famous and recognizable of them with its beautiful variety of colors not generally associated with a church.

I think the thing I was most impressed by in Moscow was the metro. I loved the metro. I've seen a few around the world and this one gets top marks. The trains come every couple of minutes and some of the older stations are just beautiful. One station had stained glass; another had mosaic pictures on the ceilings; another with bronze statues at every opening to the platform; and all of them seemed to have vaulted ornate ceilings. The stations were extremely deep, so much so that they were intended to double as bomb shelters; and the escalator rides seemed to take forever. Rush hour in the metro is madness; I don't think I've ever seen that many people waiting to get on an escalator. You would think with trains running every two minutes that they could keep up with the passenger load but every train was packed at every station it seemed.

I have a ton of other observations that I'd like to comment on but I think I'll stop here so this post doesn't get too long. I'll post our pictures once we return and maybe make some comments and observations with those.

St. Petersburg, Russia

Where to start, where to start... How about the Cyrillic alphabet. It's been an adventure trying to figure things out here in Russia. The alphabet is very different but at the same time the sounds are very similar. It's sort of like substitution cryptography. If you learn what each character sounds like, many words will be familiar once you sound it out. For example, looking for an internet cafe, we had to find the word ИНТЕРНЕТ. And check out these crazy characters: Б, Г, З, Ф, Ж, Э, П, Я, & Ю.

I'll have to write later about Moscow since we're now in St. Petersburg, or St. Petes as it is seems to be called locally. This place reminds me of what the White City might have looked like at the Chicago World's Fair, except more in pastels. Peter the Great definitely had a love for all things Roman and Greek. The buildings here could have come straight out of Rome or Athens and I've seen it aptly called the Venice of the north. There are canals everywhere, minus the gondolas, but it still has that touch of Russia. It's quite a show of opulence but it's a great city to just walk around and see what it has to offer. If only it were a little warmer. We thought we'd still catch the end of summer before the cold really set in but it has been quite cold since we arrived. At least it hasn't rained as much as the weather forecast showed.

We took the overnight train to St. Petersburg from Moscow but today we're taking the express back in the afternoon, which is 5 1/2 hours instead of 8. We'll spend the weekend with our friend, Emily, with whom we're staying in Moscow and then we'll fly out on Tuesday. I'll try to write more about Moscow when we're back there.

Republican Hypocrisy

As I read the news lately, I've been amazed at the hypocrisy of the Republicans in respect to the VP candidate choice. I can only speak in general terms about the hypocrisy because I don't have specific examples. Luckily, The Daily Show has done its research and has some great examples of contradicting commentators. I have to remember to watch this show more; it's entertaining and takes the edge of some of these things that just get you riled up.

But back to the seriousness of it. Here are the top nine reasons to be afraid of Sarah Palin:

Palin recently said that the war in Iraq is "God's task." She's even admitted she hasn't thought about the war much—just last year she was quoted saying, "I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq." 

Palin has actively sought the support of the fringe Alaska Independence Party. Six months ago, Palin told members of the group—who advocate for a vote on secession from the union—to "keep up the good work" and "wished the party luck on what she called its 'inspiring convention.'"

Palin wants to teach creationism in public schools. She hasn't made clear whether she thinks evolution is a fact.

Palin doesn't believe that humans contribute to global warming. Speaking about climate change, she said, "I'm not one though who would attribute it to being manmade."

Palin has close ties to Big Oil. Her inauguration was even sponsored by BP.

Palin is extremely anti-choice. She doesn't even support abortion in the case of rape or incest.

Palin opposes comprehensive sex-ed in public schools. She's said she will only support abstinence-only approaches.

As mayor, Palin tried to ban books from the library. Palin asked the library how she might go about banning books because some had inappropriate language in them—shocking the librarian, Mary Ellen Baker. According to Time, "news reports from the time show that Palin had threatened to fire Baker for not giving "full support" to the mayor."

She DID support the Bridge to Nowhere (before she opposed it). Palin claimed that she said "thanks, but no thanks" to the infamous Bridge to Nowhere. But in 2006, Palin supported the project repeatedly, saying that Alaska should take advantage of earmarks "while our congressional delegation is in a strong position to assist."