I had an absolutely fantastic week here in Moscow. Classes this week started at 10 instead of 9, and it was really nice to have the extra hour of sleep in the morning! We also started learning the tango in our dance class, which has been an absolute ball (I could not resist the pun…) one of the hardest parts about speaking more in Russian is having to change how I communicate my sense of humor. I love making puns, jokes, and word play in English. But, my Russian isn’t good enough (yet) to banter like I do in English. I tried telling a joke to my host family in Russian, and it did not translate at all!
We also got our first test back in our speech development class. The task was to write a composition using key vocabulary words in context. The teacher said that written exams were the best for finding mistakes and misunderstandings with the language. Due to the phonetics of Russian, you could get by making mistakes in speech that would be completely revealed in writing. I wrote a silly story about a town that sold hand-woven blankets from goat wool, and was proud to get a good mark on the exam! In Russia, grades are given 1 through 5, with 5 being the best grade. If you are a “straight-A student” in America, you would be a “pyatorochka” in Russia!
Outside of class, I loved visiting the Ostankino TV tower (telebashnaya). It’s the tallest building in Moscow (and Europe), standing at 1,772 feet tall, and was constructed to honor the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution. We visited the observation deck at about the 1,100 foot mark. The view was stupendous! I couldn’t see the university or my host family’s house (Moscow is huge, after all, and it was a bit hazy), but I quickly picked out the iconic Museum of Cosmonautics. I even got to sit in a rotating cafe and enjoy the view over a cup of coffee and some homework. It was definitely my favorite place to work so far, both for the view and the light Russian conversations in the background.
That evening, I treated myself to a show at the Moscow Planetarium. The Planetarium was huge, and included a neat museum with exhibits about the Planetarium itself, the solar system, and space exploration. The show was fantastic. It was a two-part show. In the first part, we went on a “tour” of the night sky (the typical Planetarium show with the beautiful stars!). The second part was a show about the development of our current model of our solar system. Both shows were in Russian, but with a pre-recorded voice rather than the live narrator that I’ve commonly seen at planetariums in the US. I loved listening to the Russian, and picked up some awesome vocab. Fortunately, most of the planets and stars in Russian are cognates, meaning that the Russian word is very similar phonetically to the English word. I especially enjoyed reviewing Venus’ retrograde orbit in Russian!
On Saturday, I finally made it to the Museum of Russian Impressionism! There is an American graduate student here studying modern museology, and she organized a fascinating outing for us to the Museum. Beforehand, we learned some Russian art and analysis vocabulary, and discussed some strategies for better engaging with the art. At the museum, we discussed what strategies the museum used to make its exhibits more interactive and engaging. This museum in particular was a small private collection of art from Russian Impressionism. Many art pieces were accompanied with a little glass jar containing an associated “scent” of the painting. For example, a still life of fruit was accompanied by the scent of apricots (a very popular fruit here in Russia). Other paintings featured a 2D carved rendition, for people to interact with the art in a tactile manner. The museum also did a great job of having both Russian and English texts available. They had some neat technology exhibits to learn about different tools for creating art, and their audio guide was even an app that you downloaded onto your phone. All in all, I really enjoyed the trip to the museum, and I’m glad that I had the chance to learn more about the academic approach to museums, with a focus on language learning.
That evening, I went with some friends to see the new Spider-Man movie, at the outdoor theater in Gorky Park! The movie was fun, and I really loved the outdoor theater. The weather was fantastic, too. (Moscow weather in the summer is very unpredictable. You cannot trust the forecast! It’s been cold and rainy recently.) normally, when you see an international movie in Russia, you can see it in the original language with Russian subtitles, or dubbed into Russian language. There is a whole huge industry behind dubbing movies into Russian, and just like the same actors are hired for a movie series in Hollywood, the same Russian actors are usually hired to dub movies in the same series. This movie was shown dubbed in Russian. While I didn’t get a lot of the jokes and nuances of conversation, I was able to follow the main plot easily enough! Fun fact, in Russian, Peter Parker is called Chelovek-Pauk, Man-Spider!
Sunday was very relaxed. I got to go to the zoo with my host mom and my younger host brother! It was so fantastic! The zoo was very popular, decent-sized, and clean. They had all the classic animals (lion, tiger, giraffe, elephant), plus some fun ones I’d never seen before (musk ox, tapir, and a vulture with the largest wingspan I have ever seen). We got lunch at a fun cafe in an old brick building nearby. Then, I spent the rest of the day at home with my family, doing homework and hanging out.
My host mom even taught me how to boil chicken. I’ve never boiled chicken before, and was a bit skeptical at first, but it was very tasty, and seems to be a popular way to cook chicken here. I was excited the other morning to cook “eggs, American style” for my host mom and brother. It was pretty simple for me – an egg fried hard with some cheese on top – but my host brother had never had cheesy eggs before! I’ll have to make scrambled eggs with cheese next time, or some classic American Mac ‘n cheese!
Do svidaniya,
Piper
P.S. title credit goes to the inimitable Bill Watterson, creative mind behind Calvin and Hobbes. I’ve even found a Russian translated version of Calvin and Hobbes here!
Ostankino Tower 
The view from the observation deck. Can you spot the Monument to the Conquerors of Space, at the Museum of Cosmonautics? 
Don’t look down! 
Antique star projectors at the Planetarium. 
An exhibit about the solar system at the Planetarium. 
Multi-sensory art at the Museum of Impressionism. 
This dessert milkshake was almost as tall as Ostankino! 
The outdoor theater at Gorky Park. 
The main pond at the Moscow Zoo! 
The zoo is very popular. 
Me, my host brother Andrei, and my host mom Eva at the zoo! 
One of the newer metro cars. Not too busy at this hour!
RLASP in Moscow 