My Journey So Far

     Man oh man, oh man! Where has the time gone! I would have posted earlier but I have been crazy busy with monuments, tours, and classes. I’ve been here for almost 3 weeks, but I feel like I’ve been here for months. It’s crazy how taking in new information and how it affects our perception of time. I have so much to fill you guys in on after such a long period. I guess I should start at the beginning.

Touchdown in Moscow!

     Well, we flew out on the 16th on an 8-hour flight to Frankfurt. Time moves fast when you have a myriad of films at your selection to watch (Shout out to Lufthansa). Then we had a short layover in Frankfurt till our 3 hour flight to Moscow. I literally mean short: they started to board the minute we got to the gate. Since I didn’t sleep on our last flight I took a nice nap on this flight. Everything was great except for one thing: My classmate failed to wake me for breakfast. They were serving pancakes and eggs…I was very upset. Continuing on: we arrived in Moscow, thus started my first steps on the Russian turf.
When we arrived at the dorms we got settled in and took a tour of nearby locations, thus began my first test of Moscow life: Grocery shopping. My classmates and I chose to shop at a store that was the furthest from the dorm and started our search trying to understand Russian language and culture. I discovered, for produce, they have a scale where it prints a receipt so that the cashier will easily know how much it was. I then started checking out my groceries, and the cashier spoke something really fast in Russian. I didn’t understand, and she tried again, making hand signals and pointing at the bags. I later realized she was asking me how many bags I wanted, because I didn’t know Russian I stressed out about the whole situation. I tried so hard the first few days I was in Russia to try and act and be Russian. I finally figured that I need to bring myself to Russia; just being yourself in a different circumstance. Once I realized that things became calmer and I was much more open and receptive to new interactions.

Stanislavski's Grave

Later that day Alex Gelman, the director of our program, took us to Novodevichy Cemetery, where Konstantin Stanislavski and Anton Chekhov are buried. I have to say, that it was a powerful experience to visit the grave of two men who contributed so much to the theatre world and without their contribution to the theatre world we wouldn’t have any sort of modern day techniques in acting. I just realized I never explained who these two great men were:
     Stanislavski was one of the founders of the Moscow Art Theatre (we call it MXAT in Moscow) who also created the Stanislavski System: An acting technique which talks about how an actor should more closely represent characters’ lives to that of living-breathing humans who have their own thoughts, dreams and fears.

Chekhov's Grave

Chekhov was a playwright that considered one of the fathers of the birth of early modernism Theatre (basically it means he started the movement of acting being a reflection of real-life interactions between people). Stanislavski staged a majority of his plays and they helped become a centerpiece to help translate the Stanislavski System into the acting world.
Sorry, I got a little off topic, but I just wanted say that without these two inspiring men, I wouldn’t be in Moscow studying the legacy that they left behind.
After visiting Stanislavski, we then explored Red Square: which has Saint Basil’s Cathedral, the Kremlin, Lenin’s Mausoleum (which has Lenin in it) and right across from that is GUM (a large shopping mall, a little ironic right?) It was amazing to be able to see so much history in one compact spot. I wasn’t able to go into Saint Basil’s or Lenin’s Mausoleum at the time or since, but I plan to soon!
After that we started classes at MXAT. Our class schedule consists of us leaving the dorm to get to class at 11 am (10 am on Saturday’s) and have classes till 6 pm in the evening. Within that schedule we have Fencing, Russian, Stage Combat, Singing, Movement, Theatre History, Scenic Design, and Acting (Acting is every day for two and half hours). So, we have a pretty rigorous schedule that doesn’t allow a lot of flexibility to go out and explore the city, except on Sunday. But even then that day is filled with catching up on laundry, grocery shopping, homework and relaxing. When we find time we try to go exploring when we can.

Alex's last night with in Russia with us

This last Sunday a few of my classmates and I found time to be able to go to the Moscow Zoo. It was interesting to see the difference between seeing zoo’s in America and how they compare and contrast to this zoo in Moscow. Obviously they’ll have some different animals, but the way people interacted with animals was very contrasting. In America we were told never to feed animals and not to touch them. As we walked around we saw people throwing small snacks to the animals here and there. I stood and watched a woman feed a camel an apple, that was two feet away from my face. I also watched as people threw carrot pieces to a sloth bear. I at first thought it odd but then I realized that it’s just part of what they do, and I have to respect.

The Camel that ate the apple

While I’m on the topic of Russian culture I need to share my impressions on the people and the culture so far:
• They know if you’re American! There are tell-tale signs to suggest if you are American or not, and one of the biggest is smiling! It’s not that Russians don’t smile, they just seem like a more reserved people, because of that they are a lot less big and expressive as American are and come across off as.
• Everyone dresses really nice, like extremely nice! I walk down the street everyday seeing as men walk in suits and dress clothing and the women in heels and skirts. What’s even more interesting is that they’re always so clean, their clothing is always lovely; especially their shoes. I walk into the theatre and they have a dress shoe cleaner!
• They always know what they’re doing. Whenever I walk down the street I always see them with their heads up and walking directly to what they’re about to do. If there’s no room to move, they make room: they squeeze past or find a way through.

Well, as of right now that’s all I have to say for this blog entry. I’m going to be away till Sunday going on a trip to St. Petersburg! When I get back I will write about my adventures in a different part of Russia. Till next time!