Catching Up

Ok. Catching Up isn't the title of a Russian book, but its what I'm doing, since I haven't written here in a while....

So last Tuesday, Tom and I went to the Mariinsky Theater to see an Opera. How high class of us. We say La Traviata, obviously Italian, and they had subtitles which were obviously in Russian, needless to say, Tom and I had NO idea what was going on at all. I know this much - two lovers cannot be together for some unknown reason, then they are together, then she dies. Nonetheless, it was very pleasant to sit in our little box and listen to the music. Here's a not very good picture:
Obviously, the Mariinsky is known for ballet, but they are closed the last part of July and all of August, so we only made it in time to see an opera. I might try to go to the ballet this weekend if I can find tickets available at another theater.

On Thursday, I intended to go to the Summer Palace, but ironically it's closed this summer. So instead I went to the Marble Palace, which was about a 10 minute walk away. And you can get to like 5 more palaces within 10 more minutes probably. There are a lot of palaces... The Marble Palace now houses some exhibitions for the Russian Museum - mostly contemporary art. And they had a cool section of advertising posters from the 1900-1920s. Out front of the palace is a statue of Alexander III, notable only for how stout the Tsar and the horse look.On Saturday, I didn't do anything particularly interesting. But Sunday, I went to the Museum of Russian Political History. Now, I had marked this off my list of things to do, but boy am I glad I still went. I thought there wouldn't be anything in English, but in each exhibition a museum lady gave me a little booklet that explained everything! The museum was really cool, especially the sections on the revolution and Stalin, obviously. I'm happy to report that the museum was highly critical of Stalin. That may not surprise you, but since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stalin has again risen in popularity. People seem to think it's permissible to starve the Ukraine to have a powerful Russia... There were lots of cool propaganda posters:

I realize you can't see this that well - but at the top it says "We have..." and the bottom says "They have..." It's comparing Soviet life to life under the Nazis. I just thought it was funny how clean and sparkling the Soviet life looks... It could be 1940s America!

This one says "Lenin - Sunshine of the Future"

So far this week I've just been to classes, mostly. There are some French people now staying at my apartment. Which means they are in my room, I'm in Magdalena's room, and Magdalena is sleeping on the tiny sofa thing in the kitchen... I'm trying to stay out of the apartment as much as possible. Less than two weeks!