Grind

Moscow is not an easy town for tourism. As wonderful as our hosts have been this is a bit of a daily grind here. Many reasons for this:

1. Cyrillic: Graphically a beautiful alphabet and it adds a definite mystery to the place; it is fun to run across a Ctarpuk3 (or something like that) and find its really a Starbucks – but it can be dangerously inconvenient. This is because place names are pretty important in getting ones bearing in a new place. Even in unfamiliar languages you can pretty easily retain the idea that your metro stop is Marienplatz or Pont Neuf, but with Cyrillic you either remember a string of unfamiliar symbols (or a few of them) but there is always enough confusion and doubt to make you miserable wondering. Occasionally you will find transliteration into our alphabet, but that is pretty rare. Knowing the Greek alphabet helps, but really doesn’t make it. If you come to Russia, study Cyrillic on the plane ride in.

2. Signage: Not there. For example, after the ballet we went into the metro with Irena (one of our hosts) who knows but rarely uses the metro. We go into one of the larger downtown metro stops, likely one most frequently used by tourists because three or four of the lines come together in this station. So you enter and go down the usual impressive escalator and there is a platform – but not the correct line for us. Then there is a stairway to a lower platform; still not the right line. Irena is confused and asks the man in the box. Down the lower platform is a tunnel leading further on to another junction of several tunnels, and down some more stairs to another platform and up, through another tunnel to what actually turns out to be our desires line “3”. Absolutely none of this is marked. Had I been alone there would be absolutely no way I would have figured this out for myself. I would know (by staring at the Cyrillic) that this is the right train station; my map would have promised me line #3 but it would simply appear to be not there. You need to hope the man in the box (a) speaks English (highly unlikely) and (b) wants to help (not very likely). This brings us to the next difficulty:

3. Demeanor. The Russians I have met have been wonderful, kind, polite and friendly in every way. The street demeanor is a very different thing. Interestingly enough, during Kerry’s presentation yesterday she got the Russian students talking about stereotypes and one of the main points about Americans is how we go around grinning and nodding and smiling all the time and for absolutely no reason at all. So, we are as different from them as they are the other way. In crowds they do not speak – even crowded subways can be totally silent – and they tend to push on ahead (or through or cut into a line) with a kind of determined push. It does not send off any kind of a comforting vibe to the stranger, and one gets the impression they are ok with that. This might be one thing out in the districts, but it is equally the case in Red Square or Arbat Street or even with the staff in the tourist hotel.

4. Papers and Officials in Boxes: There is a great deal of official paper here. In some places you might be tempted to simply lose that extra form from behind your declaration form when you land at the airport. Better not do that here. There are additional pieces of paper certifying your residency at your hotel. Papers attesting the fact that you applied for and received your visa which you must keep with your actual visa (go figure….), pieces of paper that must be presented to the hotel staff along with your room key to get breakfast (more on breakfast – see below), papers to get you into the school. It is quite extraordinary. They are equally given to controllers who sit in boxes or behind little windows or turnstyles who will then dispute the efficacy of this paper. This happens even to Russians. For example, our host had to argue with the guard at the school to allows us to use one entrance to the school building rather than another (but later relented); the students with us at the Pushkin exhibit yesterday were turned away by the lady at the turnstyle because they should know better than to wear their jackets inside a building. There is a lot of paper; it all counts; its validity can always be rejected in which case one is plumb out of luck unless you are prepared to argue about things in Russian. There are people in boxes everywhere here, checking to make sure things are in official order and you can never assume their cooperation (even if your paper is in fact in good order). It is a place that like paper and likes bureaucracy.

On Friday, we are having a little ceremony for students here who have participated in Global Modules. Our hosts suggested that presenting students with a little certificate attesting to their participation and completion would be a nice thing. Scudder eagerly complies with this; inkjets and heavy paper make this an easy request to satisfy. But it puzzled me why this would be desired. The GMs are fine things, but they are really on the order of a class exercise and activity. Now I understand exactly where they are coming from; this culture likes official paper. If there is such a certificate at the end it does a great deal to legitimize most anything.

5. Food: I have known from some experience that Russian food can be quite good. I’ve had a few excellent bowls of borscht, the appetizers and dumplings that first night were very good. So, good stuff is out there – but not that reliably available. The food we have gotten at the hotel has been really dreadful – greasy, overcooked, dry – reliably bad. Out of an entire banquet running across and down two walls of the breakfast ball room, the only palatable breakfast items I can find are orange halves, and a kind of deep fried English muffin patty, perhaps a rather greasy crepe. The milk is warm; the vegetables boiled or heavily vinegared/pickled, the salami is greasy and tasteless; the bread is cheap and dry; the cheese is flavorless and has been left out too long. They proffer hot dogs as a kind of breakfast meat, and if you get one of the omelets it is unlikely to be fully cooked (see (3) above). Don’t hope for coffee – but the tea is good.

On the other hand, we have had some very good meals in restaurants – and I expect you will find they cook excellent things at home. They have some great recipes. I have become a fan of borscht. I understand their breads are exquisite. So, I suspect this really is a product of a reliable lack of quality in cheaper or medium priced public eateries. Much of what is proffered to the public as a prepared meal is pretty poor stuff. The best solution is to get back to basics. The orange half at breakfast is ok. Tea is a nice drink and it is hard to mess it up (although watch out for some of the cheaper fruited teas they set out). Sliced carrots, sliced cabbage or a bit of cucumber is what it is – and if you can find it reasonably fresh on the buffet, go for it. They also make a simple cooked wheat (or is it bulgur) which is fine and filling. Keep it simple and you are ok.

I’ve been at plenty of hotels with a breakfast bar that isn’t even trying – you see this as much in the States as anywhere. Still, usually a look around will find you a Starbucks or some bakery or shop that will proffer something decent and easy at a fair price; I don’t get the impression that is a reasonable expectation here.

6. Smoking. Nearly everywhere. Sitting in the hotel lobby checking email, your eyes begin to sting after about ten minutes. Tobacco smoke comes through the wall of the hotel – you can even distinguish between rooms with people smoking cigars and cigarettes. Even at the nicer restaurant people are likely to light up at the table next to you. It’s strange to think how far the US has come on this. Oddy enough, school is the one place where I do not see this; just the reverse of the States where campus is the one place that I see lots of smoking.

One of my travel mates has a friend who lives here. He says that Moscow is a great city, but points out there are a few things you need to work through - knowing a bit of cyrillic, getting used to a few different patterns of human interaction - and the city itself really is amazing.

Photo: This is one of the long long down escalators into the metro, which really does live up to its reputation as without a doubt the finest one you are ever likely to encounter. Every station is done up in a different architectural style and decoration. The trains run every two or three minutes. Police patrol it regularly and it is meticulously swept clean. Very nice.