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2004-04-06
from russia with love

1:51 p.m.

Yes, I know that the title of this entry is clich� but oh well. I like it, and it fits. Russia was a great trip, especially since I was one of a couple students who had a fair command of the language - enough, anyway, to get around, bargain, and understand conversations. I've taken more French and have lived here for a year, and I had an easier time conversing in Russian than I still do in French. A lot of other students expressed interest - I think it was fueled by the fact that they couldn't even read the signs - and I spent a fair amount of time writing down phrases, words, and the alphabet.

We left from Strasbourg at 6:30 Wednesday morning, taking the three-hour Lufthansa bus to Franfurt, then the three-hour flight to Moscow, then the one-hour bus to our hotel. Whew! We arrived around 8 PM (6 PM Strasbourg time), checked in, and went and got some food; there were about 10 or so of us and I ordered for everyone with my mad Russian skills! ;)

Mark, Beth, Ruey under the Star City centrifuge.

Thursday morning we met around 8:30 and headed out to Star City, where we saw the Hydrolab (sans water), the centrifuge (above), and a mock-up of Mir. We then went to the museum at Energia, where they had Gagarin's spacecraft, as well as other actual vehicles, like a Soyuz that we climbed in. There were some mock-ups, too, including the Apollo-Soyuz project and Salyut station.

We headed back to the hotel and many went downtown to Red Square and saw the changing of the guard in front of the eternal flame for fallen Russian soldiers in WWII. Kelly and I took a nap and eventually made it to Red Square. We had dinner, took some pictures in front of St. Basil's, and tried not to freeze our hands off (although, I did come pretty close) before going back to the hotel. It was really, really cold, and pretty much stayed that way the entire trip.

The next morning, thanks to a blizzard the night before, everything was coated in white. We visited the Khrunichev Space Center, where we had some presentations on the history and production of the center, and then were taken on tours of the integration facilities where we saw Zvezda #2 and several Proton rockets in varying stages of completion, including one that was almost done and would be launching sometime in October. We were on the floor with these beauties, and although we weren't allowed to, all we had to do was stick our hand out and we'd be touching them. Awesome!

Check out Nicolas, Chris, and Tyler sporting their new headgear! (The Metro sign says "Arabatskaya".)

We had the afternoon off, so went downtown to the Bolshoi Theater where some people bought tickets for the opera that evening. We then went to the nearby market and bought some souvenirs, including a lot of hats. I didn't buy one, but just about everyone else did! Back at the hotel, we tried to go bowling (our hotel had a bowling alley) but it was all rented out so we bummed around in Ollie's room and ate weird cake in honor of Kevin's (Brooke's friend) birthday.

Saturday we went to the Moscow Aviation Institute where our professor, Nikolai Tolyarenko, used to work. He gave us a tour of several labs, including this one which had the Russian moonlander (right). Nikolai then left us, and we went to the Kremlin, dinner, and then over to the Bolshoi Theater to buy tickets for the ballet that evening: Sparticus. The ballet was incredible, and the theater amazing.

Sunday, we got up, packed our stuff and stored it before heading to the market next door where we all spent the rest of our money. I really enjoyed the haggling - a lot of which I was able to do in Russian. Yay me! Then, we had a two-hour tour of downtown, a class picture in front of St. Basil's, and then off to the airport, another three-hour plane trip and a three-hour bus ride to arrive in Strasbourg at 12:30 AM. Fortunately for me, I live close enough to the station so that I could walk - the trams had stopped for the night - but others had to take a taxi.

All in all, a great trip.

Oh yeah, I do want to mention that the new Harry Potter trailer is out! Man, this movie is looking better and better. And, Harry, Ron, and Hermione are going to stay the same for at least the next movie; there were rumors that they were getting too old and would be replaced for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, and I'm glad to see that that is not true.

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