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March 22, 2005
public speaking contest, lots of photos, too much snow
Got back from St. Pete on Sunday. The conference was worthwhile, and I had a good time visiting "Peter" (as the Russians call the city).
I have a whole lot of photos and anecdotes since last posting, but I'll break them into a few postings so that I have time to compose all my thoughts. So in this posting, just a few stories and pictures from before I left town.
On March 12 I was a judge in a public speaking contest for high school students of English sponsored by the Moscow English Language Teachers Association. I was impressed by all they had learned. You could tell that a few of them had just returned from a year in the US through the FLEX program. They peppered their speech with "well" and "um" a lot.
I've at long last received some photos I was promised by Аня. They're included below. And on Tuesday, before leaving town, I saw the Tretyakov and then took some pictures I've been meaning to take. So see below:
At last a shot of Red Square that turned out.
The world's largest ad? It's across from the Duma.
Me in front of Christ the Savio(ur) Cathedral. Picture taken by Аня.
Me with possibly the world's largest ashtray. Sorry I squinted. Picture taken by Аня.
The first McDonald's in the Soviet Union and still the busiest in the world. See a recent New York Times article about international companies and Moscow real estate. The second photo says MakDonalds is an "enterprise of fast service", with an ad in the window for "BigTeisti", which I believe is called "Big & Tasty" back at home.
Around the corner, also near Pushkin Square, is a collection of international brand names. Above, to the left, and to the right of the yellow Lipton ad, there are ads for T. Zh. I. Fraideis. (T.G.I. Friday's). Don't know if the servers have to wear flare.
Not far from Pushkin Square is this quiet park in the middle of the Boulevard Ring in Moscow.
A view of the Garden Ring (which has no gardens) from a pedestrian bridge.
Two pictures of the entrance to the Tretyakov.
As you can see, there's still plenty of snow on the ground around here. We're still well below freezing. In fact, word has gotten out that with more snow than in the past ten years, the Ministry of Emergency Situations has prepared a plan to evacuate Moscow in case of flooding caused by rapidly rising temperatures. But the head of the Russian national weather service is telling everyone to calm down -- that there won't be flooding unless we have massive rainfall.
Posted by kshawkin at March 22, 2005 04:47 PM