The Developments of Spring

Spring has progressed and is almost on the verge of summer. I wish that it felt like the verge of summer but the temperature remains at a cool 65 degrees. I have always looked forward to the change in the seasons and now I long for a climate where I don't have to wear a jacket outside. There may be global warming in the rest of the world but in Moscow, it refuses to get hot.

This is the dacha.

But nonetheless I have been busy. Last month one of my students invited me to her dacha (see previous blog to see what it means) and I got to see first hand what it was like. The weather was a warm 4o degrees, so we stayed indoors most of the time, which only made the time there better. It was great to be in a home. By that, I mean a place with a comfortable couch, a dinning room table, good company, and a person who cooks. Living the single life has left me wanting some of these creature comforts. And I got to try a Russian banya for the first time, I was even beaten with tree branches! It was great. Behind my friend's house she has her own banya where she can sit and sweat. It was an interesting experience but I'm not going to lie, I prefer onsens to banyas.

This is the banya (sauna).

Spring also produced an unexpected surprise. For the last two weeks, when you walked outside, your person was pelted with white balls of fluff, somtimes so thick that you had to put your head down to keep them out of your eyes. Apparently there are trees all over Moscow that produce these seeds and they infest everything. Luckily we have some ingenious youths running around with lighters, now don't be afraid, they are doing their civic duty. They make big balls of the fluff and light it on fire and it goes up in a flash. It is cool to watch.

Here is the white fluff. It is resting on a wet spot on the curb.

One of the best aspects of spring has been on the foliage. Russians love their trees and they all love the untamed forests that fill their lands, so it is no wonder that if there is a place to plant a tree, they plant it! Our neighborhood is now all green and leafy, struggling to combat all the pollution. I like walking down our green street, so I figured I would take some pictures.

This is our claim to fame in my neighborhood, a monument to Ho Chi Min, and you should feel ashamed if you don't know who he is! This is the street where I live. Isn't it green!
This is the side of my apartment building from the street. It has five stories.

And this is the entrance to my building.

With a couple of friends I revisited Novodevichy Convent but this time toured the cemetary. We saw some pretty famous tomestones. I am always a bit amazed to see pictures on graves here. It is very interesting to look at faces but at the same time off putting. Perhaps I don't like thinking there is actually a person below that slab of rock. Nevertheless, I took some photos of the most famous ones.

This is the entrance to different sections of the cemetary.

This is the monument just put up for Boris Yeltsin. Here is a famous clown.


This is the tombstone of Anton Chekov, a famous author.

And unlike most of you slackers out there, Sandra (a friend I met at OU) came to visit me for five days. It was a good time and I got to do some stuff that I hadn't yet done in Moscow. One of the best things we did was take a boat ride down the Moscow River. I really enjoyed it and will probably do it again. But prepare yourself, I was utterly exhausted after four days!

Sandra and I on the boat.