The More Things Change . . . May 6, 2010

The More Things Change . . . May 6, 2010

Wishing You Joy, Peace and Love . . . Now and Always!

Dear One –

Today I want to reflect a little on the changes I have seen here in Russia from the first time I came here on December 27, 1993 until now. But before I do that, remembering that a picture is worth a thousand words, I will save you thousands of words by just directing you to some photos from some walks around the neighborhood here in the southwest part of Moscow not that far from the Kremlin and Red Square – a long walk along the river, but do-able! (You can also take a river boat. For 800 rubles you can get on and off the river boats that are just for touring. There are other dinner cruise boats and even one with big red paddle wheels on each side of the boat two thirds of the way towards the stern.)

Many of the photos were taken by Artur, one of the students you have heard about and seen in photos earlier if you have had a chance to look at them. When we went to Sergeev Posad I gave him my camera to use and we jokingly called him our “paprazzio”. Here is the designation for the web site with the photos.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=23070&id=100000104723008&l=6da1f8167e
I hope you enjoy them!

Back to what has changed. In the mid-winter of 1994, there were only two MacDonalds restaurants in Moscow . . . and one Pizza Hut. Now I don’t know how many MacDonalds there are, but suffice it to say that we even found one in Sergeev Posad which is not a big place. At the same time I haven’t noticed any Pizza Hut restaurants – haven’t been back to the part of Moscow where I saw the one in 1994, so maybe it is still there. Nevertheless, there are TGI Fridays, and Sbarros . . . and a cafeteria style restaurant with a black and white cow theme called “Moo-Moo”. (I can’t explain why that would seem like a good idea, I just call ‘em like I see ‘em . . . it’s just there, near the Frunzhskaya Metro station – and the food is very good.)

Riding on a bus on the way out of Sheremetyevo Airport in 1993, there were only a few billboards and they all seemed to be advertising banks. Now as you can see from the photos of the walk down Komsomolskiy Prospect, there are many billboards advertising a variety of products and services as well as some that express joy in the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the victory in WW II, or in the celebration of the Moscow (which is over 800 years old. There are also billboards that have what I think of as “public service announcements.”

If you received my e-mail journal from the last time I was in Moscow in 2007, you might remember when I told you about a billboard that had a little cartoon car on it, crushed like an accordion. The text on the billboard read, “Cars are not toys.” In the three years since then I think there are so many more cars and so many more experienced drivers than even three years ago that I didn’t see any evidence of that kind of billboard this year. Nevertheless, this morning I saw a new one along Komsomolskiy prospect that had a photo of an electric commuter train on it.

I was glad that Artur was with me, because the words on the billboard didn’t make sense to me. They read, “Good guys pay for the train.” Again, it didn’t make sense until Artur reminded me of something I noticed and asked about when we took the train back from Sergeev Posad. We happened to be in the last car with very few other people in it since it was rush hour and we were going back into the city instead of leaving it. However, sometime into the journey the car started filling up with a bunch more folks. Then a woman conductor came into the car and started checking tickets (although the train was packed on the way out to Sergeev Posad and I don’t remember seeing a conductor. . . oh, wait . . . that’s because in order to get onto the platform to take a train, we had to put our tickets into a receptacle in the side of a turn style.

O.K. Anyway, a little while after the conductor started asking to see people’s tickets, many of the people who had come into the car quickly made their way to the exit door. At the next stop they all got off and many of them ran toward the front of the train. One of the students explained that they were riding the train without tickets. So after Artur reminded me of that, he said that the phenomenon of people riding without tickets was being addressed by the public service billboard. I saw that the conductor could not possibly have done anything about the people who moved from car to car as she moved through the train, got off when they got to the last car and quickly got on the train again. As a matter of fact, once she got to the end car where we were, she sat down and stayed in our car until the train reached the Yaroslavl station in Moscow.

That reminded me of something a friend of mine who was also studying Russian when we were in college said to me after coming back from a school year at Moscow University on an exchange program. She noted that instead of the general rules of society being enforced by uniformed officials, if someone was acting in an unacceptable way, anyone might correct them. The example she gave was that if someone was waiting at a bus stop and threw litter on the ground, an older woman who was also waiting for the bus would scold the litter bug. It seems like the “public service” billboards are kind of an extension of that, maybe.

So what else has changed? I had a strange experience when I was walking back from the medical clinic I visited because of some problems I was having (feel fine now – it was a very modern clinic called “Bud’ Zdorov!” which is what people say to you when you sneeze instead of “God bless you.” It means “Be healthy!” Since there are so many luxury cars everywhere in this part of town, as well as the fact that most cars seem to be new models—the older ones, and especially those that are not either from Japan, Germany, Korea, or the US stand out—I found myself kind of shocked to her myself thinking as I walked through a lovely neighborhood of mostly new apartment buildings, “This looks like Chicago.”

Now the reason that surprised me is that I know very well I am in Moscow, and if you walk down a street where there are Soviet era buildings, you really can’t mistake it for Chicago. But more than just the buildings, I think it had something to do with the kinds of cars. Moscow has become a city that looks like many cities in the US and in Europe. The traces of the earlier eras are visible when you look for them, certainly. But even three years ago I don’t remember seeing big signs on the top of buildings in English that touted brand names like SAMSUNG and TOSHIBO. I don’t remember seeing advertisements for European beer at the bus stops three years ago either.

And guess what! Rod Stewart is coming to give a concert here in June! Big signs near the bus stops at ground level proclaim this, and I’m kind of sorry I will miss him.

As a matter of fact, I feel sad in a way that I will be leaving Moscow on Saturday night to fly to Vladivostok. I will miss my old and new friends, and I really love this city and seeing the people walking, riding bikes, roller blading while pushing strollers, taking buses, metro trains, electric commuter trains, buses, trams and marshutki (the little vans that travel the bus routes), and river boats. I will miss seeing the golden dome of Kristos Spacitel’ Khram (Christ the Savior Cathedral) in the distance when I head up Komsomolskiy Prospect. And I will miss being able to walk over to Tolstoy’s Moscow home and St. Nicholas Khamnovicheskoy Church.

At the same, I am very excited to be able to go to Vladivostok, happy to be able to visit my friend there and hopefully to meet with some of the pastors and parishioners of the UMC in the Russian Far East. When we lived in Alaska, I used to joke that it was the Russian Far, Far East . . . although since it is in the Western Hemisphere, maybe you could also think of it as the former Russian Far, Far West. O.K. East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet. But actually in Russia, they do. And one of the most fascinating things about Russian culture is that it is influenced by both the East and the West, and has been for centuries.

Watch out, any minute I will start giving you a lecture from my days teaching Western Humanities! Better let you go.

May the Lord continue to bless and keep you and all those you love.

Please stay in touch!

Blessings and Love -- Kathy

Great is Thy Faithfulness
It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The LORD is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the LORD.
Lamentations 3:22-26


Kathleen Ware Harris  © 2012
kwharris777@gmail.com