A funny thing happened on the way to the Conservatory...

No really, it did. I was stopping home after work yesterday, before Meeting. My land lady neglected to inform me that she was going out to the dacha for the day and therefore arming the alarm to the apartment. So I stop home to get the ticked and throw slightly nicer clothes on for the show, and about two minutes later there is a knock on the door. I go to the door and look at the video camera security screen Irina has installed. Standing there are two angry security guards with semi-automatic hand guns. I almost had to change my pants again at this point in the story.

Now these security guards aren't exactly pleasantly standing outside the door patiently waiting for an answer, they are banging and screaming like hell that someone better open the door before they have too. I call Irina, she calls security for the building, life should be ok. It wasn't. Because I didn't answer the door, and Irina didn't get a hold of security quickly enough, they called the police. I hear a bull horn out side the door letting me know that they are planning on breaking the door down if I don't come out. I am literally a criminal who has locked himself up in an apartment and won't come out at this point, they are planning on bringing up the SWAT team....this is bad.

Passport in one hand, residential registration in the other, both hands in the air I slowly open the door. They stare blankly at the frightened American, I stare blankly at the armed Russian guards and police. They ask me what I'm doing I slowly explain I live here, about then the call came in from the security office that I do in fact live here and that they do not need to take me down to the station. The Russians all laugh.... I do not. I survive to see another day not involving a Russian prison (incidentally, the rate of drug resistant Tuberculosis in Russian prisons is well over 90 percent).

I post stories like that because they are fun to read. But all in all, life here is very normal. I have a routine and more or less the days are similar. Get up in the mornings, go running, go to work, go home, go out. I don't go out every night, but between Euro 2008, the Richter Competition, and going out with my Russian friends, there has been a lot to do recently.

I spent all of Saturday looking at souvenirs and shopping. I only bought one thing because I wound up on an epic search for the perfect gift for my friend Peter Williams. I found a perfect gift, which I can neither reveal to the public, nor find anywhere in Moscow. I can't bring myself to give up the search though because this gift is worth a life time of jokes.

While searching for said gift on Old Arbat (sweet street for souvenir shopping) I stumbled upon an impromptu concert of Russian rap/rock group Noize MC. It was really sweet and I got some awesome video of the concert and of an old drunk guy trying to take the mic from the band. I guess Noize MC is really political and the man wasn't a huge fan. Its being able to see random stuff like this that makes me love being in a big foreign city.

This may come as a shock to many of you, but I am often somewhat oblivious to what is going on around me. Needless to say adding in a foreign language doesn't help. I'm fairly certain I've agreed to go to a three day religious festival on the outskirts of Moscow later this week, to help Sergei present on the work of DD/FHM and Quakerism in general. This isn't to say I wouldn't have wanted to do this if I had known what was going on, but not being sure what I'm doing only adds to the suspense of the joys that I'm sure Russian camping has in store for me. This gives me something to look forward to towards the end of the week.

Some Links to Check Out:
Evgeni Bozhanov- My Favorite Pianist and Winner of the Richter Competition

Live timing of U.S. Olympic Trials (Eric Ress is swimming in the morning on July 3rd)

Wimbledon? (All of the American med are already out)


(Photos are, from Top: Red Square, the Sky over the Bolshoi Theater, the Kremlin walls, Noize MC concert, Tverskaya St.)

-Craig

This Post Lacks a Witty or Relevant Title

I am having a hard time finding the motivation to blog right now. I broke the blog every five days pattern this week, spacing a week between my last post and this one. Its odd because the fact that I'm doing and seeing more is what is preventing me from blogging. I shall recap as best as possible what I have been up to.

WORK:
Work has been crazy lately. They have been throwing more and more stuff at me as it gets closer and closer to the Executive Committee meeting (this weekend). Lots of stuff needs to be translated and prepared for this, which is mostly my job. I haven't yet found a way to host documents on my blog so you guys can see what I'm doing and be proud of my mediocre work. I'm getting faster at translating, which I think is do in part to the fact that I'm learning some... its an odd feeling really, I'm not used to the whole learning thing just yet.
With the EC coming to town through out this week it also means that I have to play tour guide and translator for them, this isn't easy. Its not hard to translate documents because you are sitting in a relaxed office with a dictionary and a computer. Translating for Quakers on the streets of Moscow tends to be less relaxed. (If you don't believe me, as me to tell you the Free Ticket/ Airport/ Flag story some time.)So I'm spending a good bit of time playing tour guide and luggage boy these days which is much less fun than the office, but its only for the week.

Play:
If you ask my land lady, she'll tell you I've been doing far too much of it recently. Last week I made some Russian friends, so I've been going out with them a lot. One of them is studying English, so she and I get together and practice speaking every few days. Its not a bad system really, we walk around down town Moscow and play the "describe what you see in your non-native language game" its really fun.
I also I have been working on that whole getting "cultured" thing. Turns out its really easy here. I skipped work this morning because I decided that I just couldn't resist spending the two dollars and going to the the opening round of the Richter International Piano Competition. The music was amazing and it was nice to just sit and listen. I met one of the pianists outside and talked with him briefly, however the conversation was some kind of english, russian, bulgarian mix which wasn't easy to work with. His performance of Wagner's Death of Isolde was simply amazing, I was really impressed. I hope he and my Greek friend (we met at the Russian consulate in NY, I had no idea he was in the competition until I looked at the website) make it on to the next round of competition so I can see them again.
Went to the Tretyakov Gallery of Russian art with Pat Stewart, another volunteer at FHM. No biggie, shes just a professor of Art history and former writer for numerous art journals. Needless to say it was educational. Got to see the pretty pictures on the wall... Craig happy. There is some really great art there, however my favorite painting were on tour somewhere, so I didn't get to the the Three Bears or Repin's Barge Haulers on the Volga.

Russia is moving on to the next round of Euro 2008. Considering how poorly they played in the first match of group play this is some what of a miracle. They have a tough match against Netherlands on saturday, should be interesting to watch. Allin in all this means more soccer watching for me.

(Pictures are , from top: Concert Hall at Moscow Conservatory, Statue of Tchaikovsky outside the Conservatory, me with Bulgarian Pianist Julian Gorus, kids way to big to be riding scooters around Moscow...who does that, the Rolls Royce I saw on the way to work)


From Russia with Love,
-Крейг

... The Transformation Begins

I knew this was going to happen to me. It can happen to anyone, I just wasn't expecting it to hit me this fast. The first step is admitting you have a problem, so here goes nothing: I Am Becoming European. I feel so much better just having that off my chest. I say that partially in jest, but in all actuality I am truly becoming more European by the day. Don't believe me? I mean a 225lb meat loving, football playing, pig roasting, loud mouth American just all the sudden blends in with the French and Russians? Believe it!

For starters I no longer smile or otherwise emote while on the street or in public. Russians just don't do that. It appears as though while in public here, one tries to maximize time with their mouth closed. This means no smiling, yawning, laughing, coughing, mouthing words to the tunes bumping on you iPod, or otherwise acting alive. (An obvious exception is when with a significant other, in which case the goal is to break the world record for time with a vacuum-seal between two peoples mouth) Given that I want to fit it I am working on this. For those of you who know me well, this is a struggle. I am notorious for talking to my self, singing along poorly to any available tuneage, or just sitting some where with my mouth agape and a dumb look on my face. So to pass the time I have been working on my "Russian face". There is a certain face all sober Russians put on when they enter the metro. It can only be described as "the Russian face". I have been practicing and improving, but its surprisingly difficult to look simultaneously a tiny bit sad and generally bored with the world around you.

My clothing. Imagine EuroTrash... now imagine me wearing that... now banish that heinous thought from your mind because that would never happen. I have however been trying to make my clothes fit it with those around me. I'm wearing slightly tighter jeans and my normal t-shirts (they are tight enough... thanks). Every day I slip into a pair of jeans from high school and think to my self "craig you would never wear that in Аmerica" but I wear them out anyways to feel cool. So I leave the house most days wearing euro shoes, tighter than normal jeans, a polo, and my Lauren jacket... very Euro, very plain, very much not me. (not for nothing, note the egregious brand drop I just pulled... very euro)

Social life. Not Euro. My house and apartment has no laundry machines. I need to do laundry occasionally. Those of you who entered my dorm room may not believe it, but its true. So my social life consists of going over to my friend Bryn's apartment, throwing my laundry in her machine, grabbing a beer and watching...oh god... futbol. Yup the one with the round ball that they kick around. Yeah I guess we don't have it in America, or its really obscure or something because I had never heard of it. Well, we watch it, I get my laundry done and have a beer, life is good.

The worst part. In America, when watching sports when something sweet happens you have literally thousands of options as to verbal responses. We have swears, catch phrases, applicable noises, chants, insults, and series's of grunts and clicks. Its fun, its American, its good. In Russia, they have essentially one noise. And when I uttered it yesterday, watching Russia disappointingly get shellacked by Spain, I was aghast. It went something like this, Russia turns over the ball again, after a bad pass on a slow counter attack, Spain strikes quickly and makes a great cross Villa takes an open shot, Craig say "OY!" Thats right OY. My response to something exciting in sports was OY. I was sad.

Any ways, enough about my Eurofication. I have a fun adventure coming up. Its more like a job that I got pinned with, but calling it an adventure makes it seem more fun. Next weekend, not this upcoming one, is the FHM Executive Committee meeting. One of the EC members is flying in tomorrow so I have to pick her up from the airport and take her to a metro stop, from which she claims she can get to the apartment she is staying in. I got this task because no one else wants to do it because tomorrow is Russia Day. Think fourth of July with 20 Million Russians, thats what Moscow will be like tomorrow. So while everyone is out partying I will be picking some one up from the airport. Its ok though I'll just go out after... and probably before too.

(Pictures are, from top: Moscow police on horses, the site where Lomonosov founded Moscow University, the Kremlin walls, Red square with St. Basil's in the distances)

From Russia, with love
-Крейг

What I Do

I'm figuring there are at least a few people out there who are wondering exactly what it is that I'm doing here. I am currently employed as an intern at Friends House Moscow or Дом Друзей if you are linguistically inclined. FHM is a non-profit organization that acts as a conduit for British and American Friends to donate money to Quaker-value based initiatives and programs in Russia. FHM basically acts as a way for Friends internationally to donate money to Russian programs in an effective and reliable manner.
FHM helps coordinate and support projects in a number of areas including Alternative to Violence Programs, work with orphanages, creating school conflict mediation programs, and conscientious objection to Russia's mandatory conscription, among other things. We are currently support AVP and school conflict management programs in Moscow, Kazan, and Odessa (Ukraine). Work in Odessa includes work done in prisons for youth offenders. As you can see FHM is very active in a lot of areas, which often stretches the full time staff, Сергей (Sergei) and Наташа (Natasha), rather thin. My hope as an intern is to relieve some of the pressure from them and increase the efficiency of the office.

One of my major tasks so far has been translating. It is often difficult to have Russian speaking staff and English speaking donors and board members. Board members live as close as in Moscow to as far away as California. The Executive Board of FHM is made of of Friends in Britain and America who meet once a year. All other contact is through newsletters, reports, and emails. Having a Russian speaking American (thats me believe it or not) allows for easier reporting from Moscow to our board and donors. The better idea the donors have of what we are doing, theoretically, the more donations we receive. This is a rather shameless plug, but the only thing holding FHM from supporting additional worthwhile projects is a lack of funding. So I have spent time so far translating reports, translating articles to send to interested parties, and organizing the FHM library (Think one library, two languages, and the Dewey decimal system).

In theory as I get more settled here and get into the flow of work I will get to do more hands on work with project coordination and completion. There are AVP workshops help in our office space almost weekly, so eventually I will hopefully be working in those as well as other projects. While this job isn't exactly stacking up the bills in my bank account, as you can see this is very rewarding work. It hard to feel bad about yourself when you are working to bring money to orphanages.

(Pictures Which Can Be Clicked On and Enlarged are, from top: the view from my bedroom at 11 last night, my bedroom, the offince, and my desk/workspace at the office)



More Info on FHM Can Be Found At the Following Links
Friends House Moscow
Friends House Moscow (Britain)

-Крейг

Settling In

I'm settling in fairly well now. I've got a fairly good routine going on with work and such. I had Thursday off from work, so I went out to Red Square and took some touristy photos and what not. It's still a beautiful place, but it loses some of its allure after the first time (I'm such a jaded, experienced world traveler). The photos are mediocre at best because my camera is some what temperamental and mostly broken thanks to a certain Katerine Muto who shall remain nameless.

I finished my first project at work. Every six months we (Dom Druzei or Friends House Moscow depending on your language of choice) produces a newsletter to be sent out to potential donors. I had to translate and produce a synopsis of a long report on the groups work setting up school reconciliation services in Moscow and Kazan. I was able to follow most of the report in Russian, however I have no vocabulary in relation to peer mediation work. That should come quickly though, and google has a fairly good online translator for words I don't get. As a form of shameless self promotion I'll probably have the report up on here as a link or something so that any interested parties can read it. Maybe squeeze some donations out of you guys!

A story for Colby students...if any of you are actually reading this. On Red Square there is a place called Lobnoe Mesto (translates to Forehead Place...its where the tsar's beheaded important people). Its a large round, raised stone area but the entrance is fenced off. Inside the area is a large circular stone in the middle, with about a foot wide circle cut out of the middle of it. It's considered good luck to throw coins in there and great luck if you get it in the middle circle. So I watch some people throw coins and have a great idea. I walk up to the fence, pull out my five ruble piece, tap it twice on the top of the fence, and give my coin a back hand, overhand toss at least as high as it was tall. All of the Russians stare in amazement as I sink it perfectly in the middle. A man offered me a hundred rubles to do it again. I laughed, pulled out a two ruble piece and repeated the procedure, sinking the coin in the hole again. Shocked, he asked how I did it. I responed "Its way bigger than a solo cup." I refused the man's money...its too easy being a Colby kid.

I would be lying if I said I didn't miss home a bit, but I'm getting used to the flow of things here. I found out yesterday when I went out running that my house is quite close to the Moscow River. There is a great path along the river which I can run on, and a great hill to run up. I try my best to avoid the drunk Russian who tend to picnic along the river because my Russian isn't quite good enough to translate drunk-toothless-Russian just yet (think of a foreign kid coming to America and trying to translate for Larry the Cableguy...its a recipe for disaster.) I'm going bring my camera up there at sunset at one point because the view of the city and the river is spectacular. Makes running just a little more bearable for a fat kid.

My landlady is much nicer now. I guess Russians are just naturally suspicious people, so I had to deal with the breaking in period. Now she makes me tea when ever I come home and tells me stories. The communications isn't always perfect but we get our points across most of the time. That of course wasn't the case yesterday when I made myself a protein shake. Not only did I get a lecture about how steroids are going to kill me by forty, but I also went back into the kitchen to find her eating some of the protein powder. She told me not only is it bad for me, it tastes bad. Some times all you can do it laugh.

(Pictures are, from top: St Basil's Cathedral, Kremlin Entrance(the star on top is bigger than a car), the plaque on Lobnoe Mesto, GUM the worlds best mall, and a drunk guys passed out in the trash out side of the McDonalds on Red Square)

From Russia with love,
-Kрейг