Power Outages and a Massive Heat Wave in Moscow

Haha, the past few days have been pretty interesting. I heard that some of the stuff going on here made CNN - the record setting heat and the power outage that affected 4 regions of the country. The heat has been pretty horrible, most of the places here don't have air and it's been getting up to like 31 or 32 celsius. I know we definitely set a record high for one of the days we've been here in Moscow. Add that to the fact that most places don't have air conditioning or any sort of fans or anything, it's been pretty HOT. )= Like sweating at nighttime with the windows open hot. So sleeping at night got even harder, thanks to the loud music from the club that's located 5 floors below us and the 84 degree weather in our rooms AT NIGHT.

But the power outage didn't really affect my group when it happened. We took a bus out of the city at 8 that morning to head towards a famous battle site from the War of 1812 in Russia (we went to the Battlefield of Borrodino). It was actually a pretty cool time, got to see some of the more scenic or rural parts of Russia and got to see a ton of statues dedicated to the Great Patriotic War. We actually had no idea that the power was out in Moscow until we got back and were told we couldn't ride the elevators up to our rooms. So we got upstairs and found everyone else (there were like 16 other people in political science and business at the hotel, my group is normally history and russian/literature). They didn't chance to do anything today because the metros were out, and some people had been stuck in an elevator for a while - so they were just playing Russian charades. This whole power outage thing is pretty interesting though - the head of the Russian Energy Commission or whatever its name is took the blame for the incident (an explosion at the main power plant). They day after the administration charged him with a criminal offense - so a lot of people here think it's an attempt to just get this guy out of office. He's a leftover from the Yeltsin regime, and just last month there was an assassination attempt on the same guy.

But actually later that night was pretty cool too. There are a group of Chechyian (I don't actually know how to spell that) students staying in our hotel who are practicing because they're going to be on this show that's the European equivalent to American Idol. So we all got together and talked to them for a while, and then we got to see the routine they were goign to do for when they're on tv. They were all pretty cool (they were all university students too). And at one point they were going to pull my roommate John up to dance, but he said, in Russian, "No, I don't dance. BUT THIS GUY, HE'S AN AWESOME DANCER" So I got pulled up and danced with them some, haha, definitely made a fool out of myself but it was all in fun.

Then yesterday I think we went on the best tour we have been on yet: we went to the Red October Chocolate Factory. I almost made myself Sick with all the chocolate I had. I probably had like 25 pieces of all sorts of random chocolates they make in their factory within 20 minutes. Then afterwards, they gave us a ton of chocolate as souvenirs - so hopefully I'll be bring some of that home assuming it doesn't melt first (the weather has cooled down after a day's rain, so there's a chance it might not melt). And earlier in the morning we had gone to a art museum that was pretty good, so after the chocolate factory we had a free day and decided to visit Christ the Savior Cathedral - the third biggest cathedral in the world. Holy shit, it was huge. It was intended to be the biggest cathedral in the world at the time it was built to honor those who died in the War of 1812, but resources were rare so it became the 3rd largest. Then in the Stalin years, it was knocked down and planned to be site for the biggest Lenin statue ever built. Those plans got squished too, and it was turned into the largest outdoor swimming pool in the world. Then after the Soviet Union collapsed, they reconstructed the church using the original plans from 1912.

Later that night we ended up going to this 50s style American diner with me, Allyson, Katy, and 3 professors (Steve, Ben, Bill). It was a pretty good time, and I got the first real milk shake I've had in a while here. Haha, and we actually ended up playing euchre afterwards. I was partners with Bill at first, and it was Katy and Allyson (cute girl from mason) and we ended up losing after going 9-9. Pfft, not bad considering I hadn't played euchre in like 4 years. So Bill and Katy decided to head to bed, so Allyson and I looked around for some people to play euchre with. We eventually found them in some of the grad students down the hall, who we DOMINATED at first, but ended up eventually losing to because I got stuck with a farmer's hand 3 times in a row (and we weren't playing farmer's hand). So whatever, then Allyson left because it was getting kind of late and she goes to bed early anyway and then my roommate John came back and we ended up playing again. Haha, John and I got off to the worst start ever... like I don't think either one of us had anything higher than a queen for 4 deals. So whatever, it was still fun. Haha you guys probably don't want to hear about the euchre though, it's not particularly Russian.

Earlier that night though, Judy, the assistant-provost, was leaving and she told me she was really impressed by me and that I showed an incredible amount of maturity and a positive attitude about everything. So that was pretty cool, considering she's really high up in the school adminstration (all the deans and all the offices in the school report to the provost - so as assistant provost, Judy has like 15 school offices reporting directly to her). And then I found out her husband was a formula one race car driver who's raced at Monte Carlo and other big races.

But oh yeah, today we got to take a tour of Mosfilms - a film studio based here in Moscow. It was pretty interesting, but pshhhh we had a tour of a chocolate factory where we just at the whole time the day before... so it wasn't that great. Besides, the lady kept telling us inane things about the sets they built. Like, "These building aren't really old. We actually have artists who come in and paint the sets to make them look like they're old" and "We use some tricks you don't notice in our movies. These sets aren't historically accurate, we normally use plastic instead of metal" - Oh sweet, I had no idea... I thought they bought an area of land in the early 1900s and preserved it until now. But some of the other stuff in the studio was pretty cool.

And yeah, that's pretty much it for now. I don't know when the next time I'll be able to check e-mail or this blog will be. Tonight we're going to a ballet in the Kremlin, and tomorrow is a busy day with a tour of the Kremlin and an opera at the Bolshoi theater. And then we're taking the train back to St. Petersburg - yay, I can live cheaply again. I might not be able to respond again until Sunday night or maybe sometime on Monday.

Anyway, I will talk to you guys later. Take care!