Last week was a full one for me here in Moscow. On Monday, I met with a young medical student (I think he is 5th year at age 21), who was willing to add Russian translations to my powerpoint slides. Sergei is a charming young man, both of whose parents are academic physicians, and he wants the practice in English, so he offered to do it without being paid. We talked over coffees at Starbucks (more than $5 each for Americanos). So far, he has done four lectures, and he does a great job, but I think he works very hard at it.
On Thursday, I gave my first two lectures. But first, I followed my incorrectly written directions out of the metro station at Konkovo, so that I wound up at the wrong end of the metro station and had to get rescued by the international office person! I had written myself notes when I was first shown how to get to the university, and they said to exit at the front of the train, but I needed to exit the station at the back. Then there are three turns to get out, and one of two marshrutkas (privately run vans) to take. Exiting at the wrong exit puts you in a place that is invisible from the exit at other end of the station! Perhaps next time I will get it right! Good thing I left myself plenty of time. My lectures were reasonably well attended, I think. Many of the students were foreign ones, whose English was no problem. Some students were Russian, however, and several people took notes furiously. I offered to send my presentation to anyone who emailed me, so they wouldn’t have to worry about taking notes and getting everything down, but so far I have only had one taker. But their interest appears to be there, and a handful of students came up to ask me questions at the end of each lecture. Since it is taking me at least 5 hours to prepare each lecture (and that may not account for all the reading I am doing besides), I am glad that people are showing some interest!
Labor of the Soul
On Saturday, we went to a Progressive Synagogue for Yom Kippur. It has a permanent location, somewhat toward the outskirts of town, on the 4th floor of an office building. There is actually a pleasant sanctuary – kind of a large meeting room-like area, but they have put up some nice wooden screens with Stars of David in them, and the ark is a carved wooden structure, with three torah scrolls in it. Since it is on the fourth floor, the view out of the large windows is of tree branches, still with leaves right now, although they are starting to turn colors and fall off. There was both a rabbi and a cantor, all for about 50 people, I think. Some of those (but not many, apparently) were non-Russians, but most attendees seemed to be Russian. The crowd was by no means all elderly, and some families were there. In fact, many aliyot were done by whole families, which is a hopeful sign, I think. The prayer books were plentiful and new, and there seems to be an active publishing industry of progressive/ reform Jewish books in Russian. In general, the crowd was engaged and felt like they belonged there. And of course, for break-fast, I managed to put together a reasonably good parve noodle kugel with apples and raisins.
Then on Sunday, we got into the car after a late breakfast of sirniki (Russian cheese pancakes that taste like the inside of cheese blintzes) and went to Arkhengelskoye, an old estate turned into a public park.
Arkhengelskoye
It was a beautiful if cool day (high around 55 F), and we walked around for probably 4 hours or more. There were lots of people there, but it still felt very pleasant (once we got through the wait to buy tickets at the gate, which took a half-hour!).
Happiness is a balloon
We bought Elyana a balloon—what sheer joy a child can get from a balloon! Even though the balloon was nearly bigger than she was, she hugged it, flew it from a string tied to a stick (like a kite) and finally fell asleep with it in her arms. She also got to ride a pony at the park, and we all ate shashlik and salad, with hot tea, at an outdoor café in the park.
Then on to Ikea on the way home, to pick up various things we all needed. Of course, we all lost track of each other as we were approaching the cashiers, and it must have taken a half hour to find each other again!
All told, a full week.
MD on the road 