18 April 2005
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howdy folks! another message from moi in goettingen, germany. it is so nice to be here, so -- well, nostlagia has hit big time, and i am going around and checking out all my old haunts, my cafes, my stores, my streets and parks, and so much want to move back here with my hubby. the city is nice, not la-la palo alto suburbia. the city is clean, is eco-conscious, has charm, has good food, a certain energy -- ah, let me ramble on and on.
seriously, though, i should reflect more on moscow. i am so glad i went, but i have also never been so exhausted in a city as i was in moscow. the city was constantly amove, people rushing across town on the high speed metro (seriously, it toook 45 minutes to get anywhere in moscow, predictably!)...
we saw the galleries (tretyakov and pushkin), saw st. basil#s, had a most miserably hard time getting in the kremlin and thus only saw the armory (catherine the greats coronation dress -- she wasn't a small lady!). we ate georgian food and russian food. the german embassy hosted us for an event, and we listed to 12, 16 and 18 year old children play the flute, the oboe, and the piano. why oh why did my parents not promote my musical abilities? it was just amazing...
but the exhaustion in the city was palpable. we stood out not because of our clothes (though i had a bright red coat and everyone wore black and greys, understandably now because of the dust in the city), but because i swear i was the only woman under 45 wearing glasses. that, and we had what a friend of mine called a 'spark' in our eyes, a lebensfreude that seems to be lacking. also understandable: an academic friend of mine there makes a little under 100$ a month.
we toured the park of fallen monuments, old soviet statues of stalin and lenin and others which had been removed, and now are in a park/museum to be seen and viewed... helter skelter. the whole place is still remarkably soviet, no money to remove soviet symbols, which clash with the new IKEA, and the mcdonalds (largest in the world is in moscow), consumerism and capitalism clash with the symbols of a previous era.
those are my reflections for the moment. time to get my almighurt yoghurt here in germany, i am so excited i am about to do backflips!
dandlioneyes at 10:25 am