A Tremendous Spark

Hey there everyone!! I've been away for awhile, but I really have a desire to write something down after today's adventures. You know where you have an experience that just impacts you in the best way possible, where you have so much positive energy that you're not entirely sure what to do with it? In short: that's what I'm feeling right now. I've been gleaming with positivity and I thought the best way to channel it was through a blog post.
A few hours ago my classmates and I returned from a show called: A Modern Concert performed by the Meyerhold Center. Side note, I haven't really kept up on reviewing the shows we've seen, but I will write an entire post dedicated to detailing the shows we've seen. Continuing on, this show was about 2 hours worth of musical review from the 1920's-present day; and it was phenomenal. Most songs were in English, some were in Russian, French, and Italian. Each and everyone was beautiful and different. They preformed Elvis Presley, an emotional acapella version of "Yesterday" by the Beatles, Abba, Queen, a jazz version of "Billie Jean", Adele and many more. All the while a young man dressed in each sort of military uniform in the given era, until finally he marries the woman he loves. It was a powerful message to me about music's influence and the transition of youth and separation cause by foreign conflicts.
One big thing I've noticed in Moscow is that most music I hear is American or music in English. I asked a few of my Russian friends and they responded that they like the way it sounds. I thought it was odd, because in my head I was thinking that since it's in English, some people wouldn't understand the point of the song. I told myself it doesn't really matter if you understand something or not, when you like something you like something. I've felt that way with songs that I hear what they're talking about, but I don't know what it is they're saying till I look it up. A few hours ago, I had a revelation: music is the one thing that will always bring unity to different cultures of people.
I sat in an audience with people I did not know, most of whom spoke an entirely different language as me. But they were the ones I was able light wave with to "Hotel California". They were also the ones I was able to rock out with to a Russian song I didn't know the name of; and that was an amazing thing. Being able to to feel like having a community with unknown faces for one common event was a beautiful moment.
Recently, a lot has changed for me, my friends and my home country of America. No matter how different people are, music can always bring people together. It was the way we first communicated: just by creating sounds and rhythms to try and evoke emotion in ourselves and others. Music is a beautiful gift that has a mighty power.

Listening to the rhythm of a beat,
and the movement of the feet,
inspires a tremendous spark
That unities our separated hearts.

Closer to the End Than the Beginning

It's been a while since my last blog post here. It's been about...a month since my trip to St. Petersburg, and I've been busy with classes for most of that time. My only time I have free is only on Sunday's, which is the day I use to recuperate, relax and catch up on any homework that might be due for the next week. So here is my current status of where I am at in Moscow.

Entrance to the Flea Market

Last weekend some of my classmates and I went to the Flea Market, that was a really fun experience, besides for the fact it was snowing. Oh yeah...IT'S SNOWING!!! Previous students that went on this trip said that it would barely snow, they hardly saw it; it's been snowing for two weeks straight - and it's only the beginning of November.

Wolverine stood guard at the Flea Market

Back to the flea market, while there I looked around and saw hundreds of little trinkets and memorabilia that people found from all over to sell at some price or another. I didn't really buy anything, but a man really wanted to sell me a hat. His original price was was 3,300 rubles (which is around $50), I walked away and he followed me, dropping his price lower and lower till it got to 1,300. My cut off was 1,000 so I said no. It got to a good price, but that wasn't enough for me to buy the hat. There is something about people who keep trying to sell you something I don't trust, whether it's the authenticity of the merchandise or them as a person; I don't trust someone who's begging me to buy something, so they drop down to less than half their original price. I know the rules of the game is haggling is to get the lowest price possible, but, morally, I can't handle trying to deceive people to get a product at a cheaper cost. I would want to deal with a person who has confidence on what they're selling and knows that their price is right and someone will buy it for it's authenticity. There's my rant about haggling.

Besides that, we saw a few shows - don't worry, I'm going to post an entire post on my opinion on all the shows we've seen. We also "celebrated" Halloween, nobody in Russia celebrates Halloween, so it was kind of a dead holiday for myself. Some people in our studio put on a Halloween dance, where they invited some Russian students as well, so it was good to socialize.

On this trip, I've been exploring, trying to figure out what to make of this entire trip: I only have one more month in front of me, I'm half way through this trip and I'm struggling to figure out what to make of all this. I fight to find the meaning and the take-aways of this trip, but that might be my fault in it's self: I try too hard, that's what my acting teachers always have told me. It's the same situation here. I'll let you know when I figure it out.