A Georgia Girl in Germany

Zachary received his copy of the SHOWCASE anthology this week. More than 4,000 student entries (original art and literature) were submitted from all of DoDDS-Europe (Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Europe), from pre-school to 12th grade.

Zachary was the only student from Patch Elementary School who had his artwork selected. This particular assignment was to draw a sport. He didn’t want to draw a traditional sport, so he opted instead to illustrate a skydiver using colored pencils and watercolors. I think it’s a great perspective, with lots of wonderful detail, especially for someone who’s never been skydiving! If you look closely, you can see the pockets, belt loops and shoelaces, as well as the "Height Meter" in the bottom right corner indicating an altitude of 40,000 feet! Whew, that's a high-altitude jump!

Labels: Zachary

On Friday evening, MacKenzie and I headed out for a Girl Scout Bonfire and Song Fest to honor Juliet Gordon Low’s birthday. Juliet is the founder of Girl Scouts, and her birthday is October 31. The girls had fun singing a variety of traditional and newer Girl Scout songs.

Here are some of the girls in MacKenzie’s troop singing one of the more movement-involved songs: the Jellyfish song.

Every troop had an opportunity to get in front of the bonfire and lead a song. MacKenzie’s troop decided to lead “If You’re Cheering for the Boy Scouts…” Yes, I’m up there with them. Once again, I’m MacKenzie’s co-leader. Her leader couldn’t make it to the bonfire this evening, so I kept watch over them. They didn’t really need me to help lead everyone in song, especially since everyone in attendance seemed to know this song as well. I suppose it’s one of the newer favorites...especially since it’s a dig on Boy Scouts.

We also sang “Happy Birthday” to Juliet Gordon Low and shared cupcakes in her honor.

Labels: Girl Scouts, MacKenzie

Although though we stayed busy with the Moscow Air Show, we managed to see quite a few of Moscow’s sights, even if some of them came to us through the bus windows.

During our one day off, we headed to the Izmaylovo crafts market (stay tuned for a future post on that shopping experience), but only after stopping by some street vendors overlooking the city. While they had relatively decent offerings, we mostly just looked at their merchandise to get an idea of prices and wares. It was also nice to get a panoramic view of the city, including the Grand Sports Arena of Luzhniki Olympic Complex, or simply the Luzhniki Stadium. In 1980, it was known as the Central Lenin Stadium and was the chief venue for the U.S.-boycotted Summer Olympics.

We regularly passed the Moscow State University. It’s the largest and oldest university in Russia. It was founded in 1755, and has more than 38,000 students (undergraduate and graduate) in attendance. It was the tallest building in the world outside of New York City at the time of its construction, and it remained the tallest building in Europe until 1988. The star on the top of the tower is large enough to include a small room and a viewing platform, and weighs 12 tons.

We also walked past the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building several times. In fact, it was one of my landmark buildings on my walk from the hotel to the Stary Arbat shopping street. Near the top of the building was the Soviet hammer and sickle, which I thought was interesting. It was a rather large, imposing building that was clearly visible from the nearby streets, especially since it seemed to perch at the end of a street at the top of a hill. Even the three large front doors were imposing. I caught myself standing and marveling at the architecture a while, until I realized that just accentuated the fact that I was a tourist (as if my big camera didn't give it away).







I really enjoyed walking down Stary Arbat. I made my first trek there the night I arrived in Moscow, and had wonderful dinner several times on this street. I also perused the wares of the vendors selling various items, from matryoshka dolls (the stackable dolls), palekhs (black lacquered boxes) and military items (based on the prices, I figured most of them were replicas). At least doing so gave me an opportunity to scout out what I wanted to purchase before I went to the Izmaylovo crafts market.

I even found Dobby the house elf as well as Shrek, Fiona and Donkey watching passersby during my regular walks down this street. Dobby even obliged taking a photo with me. The girl riding the pony behind me just added to the character of the street. However, I didn’t see many ponies up and down Stary Arbat -- this encounter was a one-time event.



This ballerina statue caught my eye, but I don’t know if it held any special significance.

Window shopping was one activity I enjoyed while strolling along Stary Arbat. I was enamored by this intricately-decorated matryoshka set with 29 dolls! Yes, it was rather pricey with all the gold inlay, but beautiful nonetheless. I even saw some very nice replica Faberge eggs. As much as I contemplated purchasing a stunning red and gold musical one, I couldn’t quite talk myself into that big of a splurge.

I’m not sure what this building was, but I liked the geometrically-designed flowers on the lawn overlooking the Moscow River. We regularly passed this building since it was literally across the river from our hotel.

And, when I needed to cross the Moscow River, I often walked across the Rostovsky Most bridge, which was just outside the hotel’s parking lot entrance. The view inside the bridge was also rather geometric with an odd mix of wood, metal and globe light fixtures, but the outside (below) was rather stunning.



Another of several large, stoic buildings dotting the skyline during our travels. I’m not sure what building this is, but since it looks very similar to the Kotelnicheskaya Tower, I wouldn’t be surprised if it shared the same architects -- Dmitry Chechylin (then chief architect of Moscow) and Andrei Rostkovsky.

The Cathedral of Christ the Saviour is the tallest Eastern Orthodox Church in the world, and just a few blocks away from the Kremlin. The original cathedral was completed in 1860, but was, unfortunately, demolished in 1931 to make room for construction of the Palace of Soviets. With the end of Soviet rule, the Russian Orthodox Church received permission to rebuild the cathedral in 1990. The newly-completed, although not an exact replica of the original, church was consecrated in August 2000, and former president Boris Yeltsin laid in state there before his funeral in April 2007.

We also passed the Russian White House, otherwise known as the Russian Government Building, several times. I was often turned around on our travels to and from the airfield since we never seemed to take the same route twice. One day, we’d come upon a particular building from one side, then another time I’d only recognize the same building when we were nearly past it from a different approach. There were even some buildings that I know we only passed a few days, rather than every day.

We even passed right near some of Moscow’s nuclear reactors during our travels. Again, we didn’t pass them every day, but when we did they were literally a stone’s throw away (not so in this photo though)! I was amazed that they were in the middle of the city, in and amongst the busy traffic and buildings.

We also passed Moscow’s casino district several times. We walked through the area when we were searching for the ballet one evening, sped past them during our gypsy cab experience and drove past them at a more acceptable pace during at least one bus ride. One evening, our Russian-fluent speaker misread one of the signs and thought we were entering the red light district. He mistranslated “easy slots” by substituting a “u” for the “o.” Yes, Moscow has a red light district, but this wasn’t it (and we didn’t search it out!).



The mall next to our hotel was rather large. This is the view of one of the elevator banks from the food court area. It’s not obvious in this photo, but there were seven levels!

Even with all its differences, there were a few easily-recognizable sights. The Hard Rock Café – Moscow was on Stary Arbat.

This McDonald’s was just past the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Building as we crossed the last street before coming to Stary Arbat. We saw several McDonald’s restaurants in the city, although I didn’t venture inside any of them to compare the menu offerings.

I saw at least two TGI Friday’s restaurants, and did eat at one. It was good to have a Chicken Caesar Salad after more than a week in Moscow.

This Sbarro Pizza restaurant was also near our hotel, although there was another in the food court at the seven-story mall, right next to Baskin Robbins.

Yes, this is the back of a seat, but look closely and you'll see that my taxi driver subscribed to the same philosophy of buckling his seatbelt as Irakli did: it’s buckled behind his seat, and not over his shoulder and lap. I still preferred having mine buckled the traditional way, even on my last ride in Moscow, heading to the airport.

Labels: Russia, Travel

Well, he’s not totally toothless, but Zachary does have the fewest number of teeth in his mouth of anyone in our house now. Yes, it’s all part of his orthodontic treatment: pull some teeth to make room for others. He was scheduled to have six teeth pulled this morning -- four baby teeth and two permanent teeth. Two baby teeth popped right out with no roots. The other two baby teeth came out relatively easy with small roots. Then came the first permanent tooth -- which was still in the gum, above where two of the baby teeth were. Back in January, according to an x-ray, this particular one was sideways. Fortunately, by September it had pretty much straightened out, which made it “easier” to extract. Unfortunately, pulling that tooth was traumatic enough that the dentist decided to wait and get the sixth one (also in still in the gum) later. Zachary was holding an assistant’s hand during the ordeal, and claimed he could hear the bones in her thumb pop from squeezing her hand so hard.

After all that’s said and done, he’s doing very well tonight. He stayed home from school, watched “Lord of the Rings,” took a nap this afternoon and ate a decent lunch and supper. He surprised me and even took a Motrin tablet without hiding it in applesauce.

He’s even been pontificating about how much he expects the Tooth Fairy to leave him overnight since these teeth should be worth more than the average tooth -- pulled by the dentist, including one permanent tooth. At least he was a good sport when I asked him if he thought he needed dentures.

Labels: Zachary

It was a real adventure heading to Moscow for the Moscow International Air Show. It was also a real adventure traveling from our hotel to Ramenskoye Airfield in Zhukovsky (just outside Moscow).

Each day, we piled into our convoy vehicles (busses, vans and an embassy-plated car) and were escorted by two police cars in front and another bringing up the rear during the hour-plus drive during Moscow’s rush hour traffic.

Russian traffic jams are something else. Moscow has more than 13 million inhabitants, and many of them were on the road with us each day. Many of them also seemed to want to own the road, as evident by the many “Saudi Sweeps” that I saw during our travels. For those of you who have not been to Southwest Asia and are unaware of the Saudi Sweep, it’s when drivers sweep across all lanes of traffic to change lanes, cutting off other drivers in the process. I witnessed it occasionally in Kuwait several years ago, but the roads weren’t as congested there as they were in Moscow. Yikes!

The two police cars in front of our convoy had their lights constantly flashing as they aggressively forced other drivers out of our way. Oftentimes, there wasn’t anywhere for the other drivers to move to as they cleared out of the left lane for our convoy, which made it interesting to watch traffic in the other lanes compress to make room for the cars forced out of our way.

When traffic was especially congested, we’d go around the traffic in front of us by moving into the oncoming lanes. Fortunately, we only did so when there were sufficient traffic cops lining the streets to help keep traffic out of our way to ensure our safety.

I got a kick out of how the cops in the cars in front of us used their batons to move traffic out of the lane in front of us.

I was very glad we didn’t have to sit in the miles and miles of traffic en route to the airfield. Our hair-raising escorted ride certainly cut quite a bit of time off our commute!

One day, we counted more than 100 cops lining the streets on our route to the show! I doubt they were all there exclusively for us, but they certainly helped keep us moving along our route.



One day, we had the unfortunate experience of having hot brakes during our ride, which meant we had to stop a while before resuming our travels. Another day, our bus overheated, which necessitated all of us piling onto the other bus for the rest of our travel. Fortunately, we found room along the highway to switch busses in front of a gathering of a handful of police cars.

Another fortunate aspect of our travels was that we were escorted by newer police cars, instead of the Lada variety like this one at the air field. I’m sure our trek would have taken at least twice as long if we’d had to follow the smaller version of the police cars.

I was also very impressed by the techniques the policemen displayed with their batons. They twirled them with such skill and grace. It was almost as if they had to pass a baton-twirling exam before being allowed to don their uniforms.

As hair-raising as our rides were, I’d hate to think how long our drive would have taken each day without our hair-raising police-escorted ride.

Labels: Russia, Travel

A few nights after our original adventure with Erkin, we joined him for dinner again. This time, his colleague Irakli joined us...and drove so we wouldn’t have to contend with the gypsy cabs again. I had to chuckle, though, when Irakli and Erkin simultaneously turned around from the front seat to look at the three of us buckled up in the backseat and said something that I didn’t understand. I’m sure they got a kick out of how us Americans were adamant about using the seatbelts. That said, Irakli’s front seat belts were buckled...behind the seats! I got a kick out of that!

This evening’s dinner choice was an Uzbek restaurant, for traditional Uzbek food. Russia has a variety of ethnicities, and this evening’s dinner was a perfect example of that -- Erkin is of Kyrg decent, and Irakli is Georgian, so combined with the restaurant, we covered three different ethnicities (not counting our own) in one evening.

Again, the food was absolutely delicious. Erkin suggested a lamb and noodle dish that he claimed was “traditional” fare. However, he said I shouldn’t take photos of the restaurant. It was very nicely decorated though...oversized pillows in beautifully upholstered booths, very bright colors throughout.

From there, we headed out on the town, and, despite what the Cyrillic sign above says (“stop”), we kept going.

Our next stop was to the GQ Bar. I don’t think Erkin and Irakli understood why Brian and the colonel were staring off into space for this photo. Silly Americans! It seemed like a perfectly acceptable pose to me!

Inside was very posh and upscale. VERY upscale. Erkin asked if we wanted to sit at the bar or at a table, then quickly added that if we sat at a table, at a minimum, we’d have to purchase a bottle of champagne. We opted for the bar. Even there, it was pricey. We only stayed long enough for one round of drinks...two beers and three glasses of orange juice, which brought our tab to roughly $40! Ouch!!

And, yes, I do have a suntan in this photo. I never imagined I’d get tan in Moscow!

Next stop: Red Square! Words cannot describe how beautiful Red Square is. I was in awe. I was speechless. I was nearly gasping for breath. I stood there, taking it all in...and taking as many photos as I could to help me remember its beauty. I was in utter disbelief that I was actually roaming through Red Square.

Erkin told me that Red Square got its name, not from the color of bricks used in most of the buildings or from the symbolic red of communism, but rather because the color red implies beauty...and Red Square certainly is beautiful! The Russian word “krasnaya” can mean either “red” or “beautiful.” The word was originally applied, with the meaning “beautiful,” to Saint Basil’s Cathedral, and was subsequently transferred to the entire square.


Saint Basil’s Cathedral was absolutely stunning. The cathedral was commissioned by Ivan the Terrible, built between 1555 and 1561, and consists of nine chapels built on a single foundation. In 1588 Tsar Fedor Ivanovich had a chapel added on the eastern side above the grave of Basil Fool for Christ, a Russian Orthodox saint after whom the cathedral was popularly named.

As we walked further into Red Square, we came to the mausoleum of Vladimir Lenin, the founder of the Soviet Union, with the Kremlin in the background. The mausoleum is only open a few hours each weekday, and we were not there at the right time to go inside and see Lenin’s preserved body on display.

Opposite Lenin’s Mausoleum is the Main Universal Store or GUM department store, which was built between 1890 and 1893. Apparently, it’s very pricey to purchase anything inside there, but it certainly was beautiful lit up at night.

Directly across from Saint Basil’s Cathedral, on the opposite end of Red Square, is the State Historical Museum. The museum was founded in 1872, built between 1875 and 1881, and officially opened in 1894. Its architecture matches that of the nearby Kremlin Towers.

Kazan Cathedral is a Russian Orthodox church on the northeast corner of Red Square (between the State Historical Museum and the GUM department store). The current building is a reconstruction of the original church, which was destroyed at the direction of Joseph Stalin in 1936, when Red Square was being prepared for holding Soviet military parades and cleared of churches. After the fall of the Soviet Union, the Kazan Cathedral was the first church completely rebuilt, with its 1990-93 restoration based on the detailed measurements and photographs of the original church made before its destruction. (Fortunately, Saint Basil’s Cathedral was spared destruction during this time.)

On several occasions, Erkin would look at us like he was about to ask us if we wanted to go somewhere, then he’d get a look on his face that told me we had no choice -- he was going to show us something whether we wanted him to or not. I didn’t mind at all, since it meant we had a personal tour of the many sides of Red Square. Erkin is blurred in this photo in front of the Resurrection Gate shortly after having one of those looks.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
After following Erkin and his thoughtful look, we walked toward the Resurrection Gate. The gate connects Red Square with Manege Square (or Manezhnaya Square) and adjoins the State Historical Museum with the Moscow City Hall. I liked this mosaic between the two archways on the gate. The gate was also demolished in 1931 to make room for heavy military vehicles driving through Red Square during military parades, and was rebuilt in the 1990s.

On the other side of the Resurrection Gate is a bronze plaque marking the center of Moscow -- kilometer zero of the Russian highway system. Erkin told us it was good luck to throw money -- kopecks -- over our shoulder while standing on the plaque...so we all did.

Next we walked around the back side of the State Historical Museum through Manege Square to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Alexander Garden. The eternal flame here was brought from the Field of Mars in Leningrad.

From there, we began to wrap up our tour of Red Square, circling around the State Historical Museum back toward Saint Basil’s Cathedral. The Kremlin wall is to the right (not visible).

Here are a few more shots of Saint Basil’s Cathedral from the middle of Red Square. In the photo below, you can see the bronze statue commemorating Dmitry Pozharsky and Kuzma Minin, who rallied Russia’s volunteer army against Polish invaders in the late 16th and early 17th centuries. The statue was originally constructed in the center of Red Square, but the Soviet government felt it obstructed parades and moved the statue in front of the cathedral in 1936.



Spasskaya Tower is to the left of Saint Basil’s Cathedral, and the GUM department store is to the right.

By the end of the evening, Erkin and Irakli were calling me “paparazzi” because of all the photos I kept snapping off. I suppose I did take quite a few, but it was necessary since I don’t know when (or if) I’ll ever return to Moscow.

We also stopped by Saint Basil’s Cathedral during our one free day off, and I snapped this shot of the cathedral by daylight -- it’s just as beautiful by day.

This is the back of the State Historical Museum from Manege Square. The glass cupola in front is actually the top of a four-story underground parking lot that symbolizes the northern hemisphere.

Labels: Russia, Travel