Am in Moscow, teaching American Studies at Russian State Humanitarian University until March, have to use an internet cafe, since the free internet concept for students and faculty hasn't yet arrived here, so blogging will probably be more hit-and-miss. It costs about $2.00/hour.
With the falling dollar, and rising ruble, Moscow is much more expensive than Washington, DC, at least so far. There are lots of shops, but there still seems to be a strong Soviet legacy. A film about Stalin was on TV the night we arrived. Karl Marx's statue is still in Revolution Square. Marx, Engels and Lenin's bas-reliefs are still on buildings. And there is a familiar Soviet quality recognizable from Tashkent. We went to Red Square. It was depressing, as was the GUM, which is now modernized and full of empty boutiques with high-fashion clothes and shoes. We walked by Lubyanka prision, still forbidding.
On the other hand, there are lots of shops, newspapers, people seem very free and open, lots of laughter, fashion, noise and about a million casinos and strip clubs. Robert Venturi's "Learning from Las Vegas" seems to have been the inspiration for many "New Russians." Many restaurants, some like theme parks,including one near our university split between an Uzbek theme and a Jewish shtetl theme (downstairs Uzbek, upstairs, Jewish). Big supermarkets,department stores, even an IKEA...
We arrived on Revolution Day (still a holiday) and yesterday was Militia Day (celebrating the police). Spectacles on TV, of course.
More later...
