Impressions of Russia's take on Europe - St. Petersburg!

Well I just experienced 3 of the most jam-packed days that i can remember in a long time! I will spare those of you with lives pages and pages of self-indulgent blogging, but remember that I'm always excited to share my journey with anyone who wants to grab a cup of coffee and elaborate when I get back to the states! That being said - wow. St. Petersburg! The most European-like part of this technically Asian country. We started by taking an 8 hour overnight sleeper train from Moscow that felt like a weird spaceship from the 1950's with fold-out everything and compartments to stow our overnight things. Sleeping actually didn't happen naturally for the entire trip, but I was excited about the little things all the way. When we arrived in St. Pete's early Monday morning we were given a guided bus tour that lasted into the afternoon and overwhelmed our tired brains with a wealth of information (and overworked our cameras, too!). The tour included most every site-seeing venture, including the Peter and Paul fortress where Peter the Great first established himself and where all of the tzars and royal family are entombed. We basically had the rest of the day to do with as we pleased and so a few of us ventured out to The Church of Christ on the Spilled Blood which looks familiarly like St. Basil's and was erected on the spot where Alexander II was assassinated. Full of incredible mosaics and gold leaf, it was a giant piece of art in and of itself. Then we wandered into Kazan Cathedral, the largest operating Orthodox church in the city - which had a very different atmosphere as lines of scarf-adorned women were waiting for their turn to pray to a supposedly miraculous icon of Mary. Then the bad decision to be courageous in my menu options happened. Note to anyone planning a future trip to Russia: a plate of traditional pickled stuff + sushi + carbonated water = something equivalent to food poisoning. Either that or I just got food poisoning. Either way, this was on Monday, it's now Wednesday night and I'm still feeling a little gross. No matter - the group embarked on a river cruise that took us through some of the city's Venice-like canal system from 12:30- 2 AM and it was a gorgeous tour, unlike anything I've ever done! We were lucky enough to be there during the White Nights Festival, which basically means that the sun never goes down. It was like vampire land... many hours well into the night of people walking around with no shadows! After a barfy restless night of "sleep", I dragged myself with the group for a tour of the Hermitage museum the next morning, and was glad to have done it! Pictures for days:) After the Hermitage outing I forced some food and set out with Nastya (Anastacia) - our friend and liaison from MXAT - to a tattoo parlor to commemorate my completion of the Month in Moscow training program on a more personal level. Nastya helped me translate with an artist to get a beautiful seagull - the symbol of the MXAT - on my right wrist (*see below:). I'd been wanting to have this done since I stepped on the plane and was so grateful that it happened! We wrapped up our evening with a birthday dinner out for a student on the trip (Greg - happy 20th, friend:) which involved great discussion, including some insight into Nastya's memories of growing up in the USSR. She is about my age and though I found that we had a lot in common, I was hanging on her every word, almost entranced by the foreign stories of a childhood not knowing where her next meal was coming from or when she might get to see family again. The group left early this morning from the hostel towards Pushkin - or tsarskoye selo - to explore Catherine I's summer palace and estate. It was like the Russian answer to Versailles and included the famous "Amber Room"... interesting theories on the legends behind it if anyone ever wants to grab that coffee! To get back to Moscow this evening we took advantage of a new bullet train that got us back in half the time it took us to get to St. Pete's to begin with! I enjoyed the Russian countryside through the big window of the train (which surprisingly reminded me a ton of driving through parts of southern Ohio!) on our way back. Alright folks, I told you it was a lot of info, and that's as condensed as I can manage! Only a few days left, and tomorrow we have our official little ceremony of champagne and awarding certificates of completion in the program! Ahhh!!! Of course, pictures to follow:)

Proof that I existed in St. Pete's for 3 days!

On our late night boat tour of the Neva River

Self portrait (mind the food poisoning) at The Hermitage

Yuri, my artist, and the newest piece in my permanent collection:)

In a gilded great hall at Catherine I's summer palace in Pushkin.

A close up of the MXAT's symbol - a seagull. Going home with me:)

Put down the book and be a tourist!

It's a rainy Sunday morning here in Moscow, and I'm spending the day transitioning from student to tourist. We completed our last classes yesterday, and though it sounds cliche, I can't believe how quickly it all went by! I'm glad that I came here at this point in my career/education, because although it's different for everyone, I really feel like I was able to grasp the majority of the training. I feel very lucky to have had this opportunity to meet the amazing faculty here at the school and get a sense of the training style behind Russian acting. One more chapter of my own training complete and I'm excited to meet the challenge of applying so much of the training technique to my work back in The States. I think I saw my last few shows that I will see here already this week, including the Togonka Theatre's production of Ionesco's "Rhinoceros", and the Satiricon's always impressive production of King Lear. Last night a couple courageous souls joined me to try to brave a student rush line at The Bolshoi to see a ballet of "Don Quixote". Ballet at The Bolshoi! Duh! Unfortunately, we were ill-informed about a lottery list system and missed out on the student prices. When we found out that the cheapest tickets available were 2000 rubles (about $70), we decided to forfeit the endeavor, all dressed up with nowhere to go... except for back to the dorms to have some end of class celebratory drinks!  As for the last week of the trip, I finally get to be a tourist! Tonight I leave on an overnight sleeper train (which is exciting in and of itself for me!) to end up in St. Petersburg early tomorrow morning. We will be visiting The Hermitage - I already bought extra camera batteries-, Pushkin Village and Catherine the Great's summer palace, and we will be taking a bus tour of the city. There will also be extra free time to explore at will, and I think I may look into a boat tour through the Venice-like canals of the city. Also, we will be there during the White Nights Festival, which basically means that it's only dark for maybe 1 or 2 hours at night... charming:) Until I'm sleepy and aggravated:) I also look forward to just having time to take in the wonder of this ancient, history-rich country. Seven days and counting... gotta make the most of it!

Wrapping up classes

Singing with Marina, with accompaniment by Masha

Acting with Sergei, with translation by Tatyana

Chekhov with Mischa, and more translation by Tatyana

Movement with Vladimer, translation by Nastia

"Everything is beautiful at the ballet..."

Here's my attempt to be more communicative; I really wish that I could have danced when I was younger. Here, in our diverse group of 20 American/Canadian students, I was unofficially named the best dancer in a silly acting game today. While this may not be a complete untruth, those who have known me for more than a few years and have some relative knowledge of professional dancing will enjoy a nice giggle over their coffee at this pronouncement. I have found in the last few years what an amazing outlet dancing can be for me, creatively, emotionally, mentally, and physically. Maybe it's being in a group with so many young artists (I keep going, "Crap! My kid brother is older than you! No offense."), but I keep experiencing tiny moments of realizing that I'm not a kid anymore. One of those bigger realizations came sometime halfway in to Act One of the Stanislavski and Nemirovich-Danchenko Moscow Academic Music Theatre Ballet Company's production of "The Little Mermaid" this evening. Again, for those of you who know me, you will realize what a double win this was for me:) It was such a beautiful ballet. You know, I'm not sure if I've ever been to a real professional ballet, at least not that I can remember. This was a take on the depressing but enchanting Hans Christian Anderson original fairytale, so there was no production number of "Under the Sea" before intermission. The lead moved so beautiful, really articulating through each joint from her fingers to her shoulder blades as she moved through the 'water'. The men were so strong and graceful, I hardly heard a footfall. I was in tears as the little mermaid tried in vain to win the love of the prince, but to no avail. She had a stronger objective than some of the professional straight actors I've seen here, and man did she work for it. There was a very heavy modern dance influence to this piece that took me back to my modern dance classes at Kent. There were some very recognizable shapes, and the end (where the poet and the mermaid basically fall away into the abyss together having lost what they yearned for most) was a pretty obvious homage paid to Martha Graham. No dialogue, no language barrier, and such a clear and heartbreaking story. Yeah, a few dancers fell out, or came out of a spin off balance, or had a late grande battement, but I had a wonderfully inspiring time. My realization in watching such incredible athletic feats was in the fact that I am old enough to know that this is something I will never do in this lifetime. And that made me sad, folks. It's a super great possibility that many many things would have gotten in the way of a professional ballet career (like the fact that I love cheese so much, for example), but man I wish I could've taken a shot at it. Ah, hindsight. More dancing and singing when I get back to Detroit. Hold me to it, friends. Missing you in Moscow!

Shakespeare and Public Bathing - Russia Style!

I realize that I have not been keeping everyone up to date as frequently as possible, but let's just attribute it to me spending so much time living in the moment here, alright! Thanks for the empathy:) Speaking of living in the moment - remind me to tell you about the time when I paid to get buck naked with a bunch of strangers; more on that later. I saw Russia's version of Shakespeare three times in the last five days. The Satiricon Theatre's production of "Richard III" was incredible and probably my favorite show I've seen so far. It helped that I have recently been so involved with the play having done it mere months ago, but "Richard" had an incredible physicality and the story was told so clearly, artistically,... it was just great. The next evening we were set to see the MXAT's production of "Hamlet", which I was super stoked for as it had the same director as "Richard III". Oh, and it was "Hamlet". At the MXAT! Anyway, I know this was one of Jordan's favorites so maybe it was too hyped up because I was lost for a good chunk of the show. They really played with switching the scenes around, which is even more confusing when they're doing it in Russian, so I ended up being confused for a lot of the show. Also, I somehow ended up caring for Hamlet less than I did for Claudius (a testament to the actor playing Claudius!), which has never happened before. Nonetheless there were some stunning visuals and a few specific scenes that were very imaginative and intriguing to me. By Thursday, some of us hadn't gotten enough of "Richard III" apparently, and we popped in on the MXAT's student stage to see a kind of cabaret of dramatically cut scenes from the original play. These young actors-in-training are super talented - I noticed some indicating and vocal tension, but over all these artists in their early adulthood were strong and committed and with such a presence! A note on Shakespeare in another language; I would have thought that after all of the time that I've spent analyzing Shakespearean text based on the specific language it was written in (how phrases rhyme in English, if that word is spelled all the way out or abbreviated and what that indicates, etc.), putting it in something other than English would lose a lot of the nuances. I wish I spoke Russian so I could understand the actors, but it sure doesn't seem like much is lost on them! I will finish this nerdy theatre chat with a spot about how we got to go to a preview performance of an opera based on a Pushkin fairytale called "The Golden Cockerel" at THE Bolshoi Theatre! Now mind you, they are doing some work on the original Bolshoi, so they just built an entirely new fully functional grandiose decadent theatre while the original is going through repairs. Oh and the "new" one can fit inside the lobby of the original, or something insane like that. In an absolutely gorgeous theater; a funny opera with subtitles on big screens in English, a brilliant lead soprano, a constantly evolving set that made me feel like I was in Disney World, and at least 100 people on stage at one time. Quadrupole win. :) I should fulfill my promise to get to that part of the blog about me being naked in a room full of other naked Russian strangers in a story about the day when I led a part of our group to the Russian Banya! This traditional bath house is the oldest in Moscow, hosting such greats throughout the years as Pushkin, Chekhov, Stanislavski, and of course, American/Canadian Month in Moscow students. It was a bit tricky to navigate The Sanduny Banya until an empathetic English-speaking manager aided us through much of our stay that day, but man was it worth it. When I get rich and famous, I'm opening one of these - why do they not exist anywhere in the states?! So for about $35-40, we spent 3 hours in and out of a sauna so steamy hot that when they really got it going, only the Russian women were allowed to stay in! Your sweat party was quickly cut short by a dip in a freezing pool or by having buckets of icy cold water thrown on you by your friends, after which we could retreat to the lobby area and enjoy tea or sandwiches (barely clothed of course) until we were ready for another round. It was obvious that us Americans/Canadians were tragically anxietal about the 100% nudity factor of this endeavor, but we gathered our courage and dropped towels on the count of "3". Within an hour I felt more comfortable around my new friends, strangers, and most awesomely - myself - than I ever could have imagined. I felt both rejuvenated and relaxed, almost euphoric and wonderfully centered and confident. Ask me later about getting beat with birch branches;-) And let me squeeze in here that those Canadian friends have been just that, and I shouldn't have been so quick to judge, as it is apparently easy for people to do on this trip. Cheers to positive energy! My day was finished off with a trip out for some shared beers and hookah to celebrate Mr. Chris Ellis's 24th birthday (you're welcome, buddy!) and I can finally say that I feel like I'm in Russia. Last week of classes start tomorrow. Already! I promise I will try to write more often so you don't have a Chekhovian monologue to read all at once. Hope all is well, and Happy Father's Day to all of those in my life, especially the new ones;-)

My name in Russian! On a very expensive Mocha!

On the Moscow River Cruise last Sunday

On the stage of the Moscow Art Theatre! This is what it's all about:)

In front of the famous Bolshoi Theatre

Some social awareness... or lack thereof

For those of you counting at home, classes finally went well today, although I'm pretty sure I pulled a muscle in movement class that I didn't know I had - and happily so! Since I have an evening off, I just wanted to write a bit about some of the things that have impacted me about post-soviet Moscow and how it seems to treat their citizens. I need to take a picture of this first thing, because it's probably hard to believe unless you've been here to see such a thing; behind the MXAT dorms where we're staying (and many other places, I'm sure), there are living quarters for immigrant workers. As far as I understand, these are issued by the government, and they are literally freight cars stacked on top of each other with tin corrugated roofs and a thin wire fence surrounding the small compound. Most don't have any form of a window, and only a small door with a deadbolt lock on it. I see people coming in and out at all times of the day, and I notice them sleeping under the trees that surround the area, most likely to escape the heat of the stifling rooms. I'm positive there is no electricity or any sort of plumbing... I wouldn't like to see a dog in there. Some of our professors and tour guides have talked to us a bit about living through the evolution from the Soviet Union to present-day Russia. While most everyone sees Russia today as a place of freedom and hope, they all admit that it had to get pretty dirty to get to this place. Here there does not seem to be anything the likes of Social Security, and when Communism collapsed, any persons not able to work anymore (the retired, mainly) were considered completely worthless. Unless they had family to care for them, countless senior citizens basically had the rug pulled out from them and ended up homeless. Now, they recieve an average monthly pension of $200 (in one of the most expensive countries in the world) and we see babushkas - Russian for 'old lady' - angry and begging on the streets all over the place. At one point, a tour guide - likely in her 50's - was telling us that in 1980 when the Olympic Games were held in Moscow, she most remembers finally being able to have imported bananas and chocolate to eat at the games - not the games themselves. She said they were very near starving in some places at some points. Some of our male actors on the trip who have become aquainted with other Russian male... er, actors... at you know, Russian,... male, actor clubs were talking about Pride Fest a few weeks ago. From what I understand, there were under 50 actual attendees, over twice as many cops, and countless more protestors. I guess it turned into the cops beating up a lot of people in the end... so sad. Being homosexual in Russia was illegal until 1997, by the way. In general, it seems like human rights are kind of not a thing in Russia. The KGB doesn't technically still exist, but I'm pretty sure you don't get to just call your lawyer if you get taken in for something (ESPECIALLY as a forigner!). The newest observation of surreal Russian societal mores occured yesterday evening when a few of us trecked down to Red Square, as I spoke about a little bit earlier. I'm still just impressed by the immense military presence, and our interpreter/main liason (a lovely lady named Nastia) said that it was primarily because when you get tons of Russians in large crowds, fighting and rioting just tends to happen. Sounds like a stereotype, but she said it - not me. So in a nutshell, those are some of my impressions on how strange it is that a country so big and so proud is still finding it's footing on how to even take care of it's own people. Craziness....

Happy Russia Day... from Russia!

Hi all, sorry it's been a bit longer than I meant since the last post. Let me start by clarifying the new pictures: from the bottom on up, we've got St. Basil's Cathedral in Red Square, the main entrance to The Moscow Art Theatre's main stage, the entrance to the Moscow Art Theatre School where I study pretty much every day, and finally a statue of Anton Chekhov. Russia Day was actually yesterday, but I decided to sleep last night instead of write this, so it's all coming to you a few hours after the fact. After a nice relaxing boat trip down the Moscow River, I spent some time relaxing in my dorm room and around 7 PM, some friends and I decided to head towards Red Square to see what this Russia Day was all about (let's be real, we heard that there would be fireworks). From what I gather, it seems to be sort of equivalent to our Independence Day and it was a madhouse at the center of the city! I've never seen such a strong military presence in one place. Once we got through certain gate checkpoints, we realized that we couldn't even technically get into the square without a ticket. When we went to turn back, it was harder to get out than it was to get in! They were holding people up, checking passports (which of course we didn't have as the school holds on to ours and hasn't given us our copies yet), and passing everyone through metal detectors. This may have been one of the scariest days to not know the language. But we finally figured a round about way out and still enjoyed the adventure, even though we never did see any fireworks. Classes have been pretty intense for the past week. Our group seems to be fullfilling the "lazy American" stereotype pretty well in a country where your worth is only measured by how hard you work. Hopefully we all realize that we need to pick up the pace in order to avoid disappointing every Russian with whom we have a personal relationship! I have also seen some pretty amazing shows such as "Three Penny Opera", "Marat/Sade", and maybe my favorite so far, "K.I. from 'Crime and Punishment'". This last one was an incredible one-woman show elaborating on the life and death of a small character named Katrina Ivanova from the novel "Crime and Punishment", and the woman was an incredible actress... very moving show. Well it's off to a Russian torture... eh, I mean movement class... I promise to write more frequently and more detailed soon:)

A bit of catching up...

Alright, more exciting topics than Russian grocery stores, for sure! It's been 4 days and I feel like I've been here 4 weeks already! Going to bed before 3 AM has not really happened, and that's unfortunate because I'm not lying when I tell you that it is only dark enough for sleeping from about 12-4 AM. No joke. Today was supposedly our day off, but it was still pretty frantic! We got a pretty awesome bus tour from 2-5:30, and then had to be down at the theatre by 6:30 (dinner plus that 40 minute walk was stressful to say the least) to see the MXAT's production of "Cherry Orchard". Worst part about the bus tour? Oh, my camera decided that the batteries were dead right at the very beginning - before the first picture. No batteries to be found so a friend took a few extras for me. So far, I've been to Red Square (with St. Basil's) - twice! By the way, "Red" is synonymus with "beautiful". Also, got a great panaramic shot of 1/3 of the city from this big beautiful high lookout point on the southwest side of the city where the University of Moscow is. We passed Novodevichy Convent where women like "Peter the Great"'s sister was forced to live in solitude until her death (ask me about that story later!) and it's cemetary where many many famous people are buried, including Stanislavski and Chekhov. We will be visiting the cemetary again at the end of the trip to say goodbye and thanks. Oh gosh, there were so many other spots, and I will try to make it back to them on my own with friends. I've seen 3 shows now; "The Seagull" and "The Cherry Orchard" at the MXAT, and a play called "The Blue Monster" at the Satiricon theatre that is adapted from a children's show. I'm not gonna lie, at least for me, Chekhov, in Russian, when you're jet-lagged, can get a little rough. But I'm proud to say I am one of the few and proud that hasn't fallen asleep yet in a show! They have all been great in very different ways, and I'm still adapting gladly. School is crazy, and the Russian instructors are incredible! They are all so full of joy and love and passion but don't let you get away with slacking. The ballet teacher used me as an example more than once in class (and here's where I toot my own horn - I can't help it!), and he said I was doing so well in Russian Folk Dance deportment that I must have Russian blood in me!!!:) As far as personal life goes, I thought I had successfully avoided living in dorms, but here, at age 25, I am living in a dorm. I have made some new friends, and it's no secret that the 18 and 19 year-old Canadian students that are with us on the trip aren't quite fitting in with us... let's just say that they stayed up until 4 AM, drinking too much vodka, inviting Russian MXAT student boys into their rooms, and giving us a bad name all while "testing their boundaries", ha ha! From what I hear, this isn't anything new, and some of us on the "American side" of the hallway are being more forgiving than others. We walk about 1 and 1/2 miles to school/the theatre each day, and of course- stairs everywhere! I accidently ate some hidden chicken the other day - for the first time in almost 4 years - so that was a sad moment, but I'm starting to figure out what I can eat besides granola bars and plain kasha! The latest frustration is in that the outlets sort of work, kind of, sometimes,... and I'm pretty sure my computer charger is dead so I am either on the communal computer or borrowing a charger from a Canadian friend down the hall, depending on the schedules. I'll spare you more for now (plus, this stupid lack of personal laptop means other people want to use the computer!), but I hope this finds everyone well, and I'll get back to you in a few days! Do Svidanyo!

We have arrived!

Well, it's about 2 AM here in Moscow and I'm just getting settled in the dorm before we all meet at 10 AM to start the day. I'm kind of still on Detroit time, which makes it closer to dinner time for me, so sleeping should be a fun attempt:-P The flights were pretty nice, AirFrance treated us real nice on the long flight from Detroit to Paris where we had a four hour lay-over (I naturally watched "A League of Their Own" on my computer and took a nap at the terminal since we had to stay inside the airport)! But we got into Moscow just before 10 PM (here) and after going through passport control, we met our liasons from the MXAT and took a bus to the school. Dorm rooms were handed out, though there weren't enough singles as promised, so I'm sharing with a new friend named Emma from University of Michigan for the night - hopefully I'll have my own space tomorrow. We took a trip to the two local 24 hour grocery stores for some snacks and the neighborhood seems very clean, hip, and quiet... at least at 1 AM on a Wednesday! It feels comfortable but somehow still alien, if that makes sense. It's really hard to tell what kinds of stores or restaurants their signs depict are on the faces of all the buildings since the language is so unfamiliar. But the archetecture already is beautiful and impressive. So that's all for now, I think it'd be a good idea to brush up on my alphabet before bed so I don't feel so clueless walking around from now on. Love to everyone back in the states, I'll get back to you when there are more interesting things to write about than layovers and grocery stores. :)