billboard

I walk by this Benetton ad on Prospekt Kirova. An Italian company but the imagery is perfectly Russian.

 

 

In for the evening and as I have Russian TV on w/o sound,  I notice that on almost every sitcom, there is at least one scene where some guy is cluelessly doing something in the street... when soldier or police officer comes up and watches him amused. Mirth then ensues. 

Comrade Lenin

Ulitza Moskovskaya evening.

Mural on the ceiling of the opera.

Opera Chandelier

Russian Opera

Russian Opera interior

Russian Opera House

Russian Opera, Saratov, Pushkin's "The Mermaid"

The office bought opera tickets for me Saturday night. I met Courtney(An American English teacher here on a Fulbright---a wonderful, brave young woman from upstate New York who is in the International office here for a year) and Valentina from the office outside the opera house around 5:45. We had awesome seats. The opera house is a work of art....beautiful.
It was a full production, with an orchestra, and was very entertaining. Very high quality. The story was begun by Pushkin and finished by Alexander Dargomyzhky.

Valia patiently explained the plot to Courtney and I before the show began.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusalka_(Dargomyzhsky)

Very tragic. In the end a little girl leads her father to drown in a river. Very Russian.

In a twist, one of the male leads was the same guy I saw last year perform Sinatra songs(with my friends Stepan, Kamiel, and Maxim). He still had a mullet to die for, but was a superb tenor.

Photos to follow.

Russian Faces

Miguel B. Corrigan
Assistant Dean for BUS/FIN/MKT, NVCC-Loudoun
Associate Professor of  BUS/FIN/MKT, NVCC-Loudoun

2014 Fulbright Teaching Scholar, SVRIA, Saratov, Russia

mcorrigan@nvcc.edu

703-450-2615

Russian Faces

Russian Faces

Russian Faces!

Miguel B. Corrigan
Assistant Dean for BUS/FIN/MKT, NVCC-Loudoun
Associate Professor of  BUS/FIN/MKT, NVCC-Loudoun

2014 Fulbright Teaching Scholar, SVRIA, Saratov, Russia

mcorrigan@nvcc.edu

703-450-2615

The view north from Natalia's beautiful 9th floor kvartira(flat).

Green Men

Earlier this week I had a discussion with a very well educated young man, a professional. He wanted to know what America thought of Vladimir Vladimirovitch Putin. I said the majority of us don't really like him---he seems to be a bully and that we think he is a dictator. I also stated that America and Europe are threatened by the events taking place in Ukraine, especially the annexation of Crimea. Russians pronounce this Kreem.

He seemed generally surprised. Putin is VERY popular here. He legitimately wins elections with more than 70% of the vote. He stated confidently that there were no Russian soldiers in Ukraine... "look at all the men on the streets of Russia, how could we be in Ukraine?"

I brought up the common narrative of Kruschyev "giving" Krim to Ukraine many decades ago. My friend calmly stated that this was an "illegal" action. Matter of fact. I always say that I don't know the truth and try to discuss things calmly.

I am becoming very aware of how media has infinite power, both in my own country and this one. It molds our views profoundly.

This week I had an interesting discussion with a couple of Russian English teachers.They were very curious about this "bible belt" we have in America. Totally unclear on the concept. I showed them the geographic representation of this and we talked about the philosophical characteristics of the "belt". At the end I mentioned the political implications of a "bible belt" President. They seemed slightly perturbed. We also discussed Mormons and Masons.

Man's Day Festivities

Monday was Man's Day in Russia. We had a wonderful meal at Natalia's house. Valia's brother, Roman was kind enough to drive me to the suburbs for the small party.