Shooting on Location

Today my groupmates and I went to various locations around Moscow to shoot video and photos for a 5 to 7 minute movie we have to make. First we visited Tchaikovsky Concert Hall which was pretty cool and we were able to get good footage and picutes there. Next we visited Pushkinskaya metro station and shot a scene in front of a rather large statue of Pushkin. Finally we went to the Triumph Arc in downtown Moscow which was roughly a forty minute metro ride away. There we got to see some really amazing scenes and take some really cool pictures. Hopefully some time soon I will get a chance to upload the photos and footage we took, but for now you will have to settle for a stock image of the Triump Arc.

Ride on a Big Green Tractor

So our weekly field trip took us to Ekoniva, one of the largest John Deere suppliers in Europe. We took a pretty cool tour and got to see a wide variety of tractors and other combines they sell. Then we got treated to a presentation by the president of the company, Mr. Stefan, and this was one of the highlights of the trip for me. Not only were we treated to tea and sandwiches (again) it was interesting listening to a man who took a huge risk by investing in Soviet Union and early Russian federation agriculture and having it pay of huge dividends for him. Mr. Stefan spoke fluently in three languages and he had the guts to explore an area of the world that very few of his classmates in university did (he was from Western Germany). After that we got to drive one of the big green tractors that Ekoniva sells, and courtesy of Dr. Layfield he is a picture of me in front of the tractor.

Arbat Street

Yesterday Isaac, David, Dennis, Galya, and I ventured down to Arbat street in central Moscow. Arbat street is one of the oldest streets in Moscow, and home to many of the city's finest shops and cafes. We walked by one of the flats Pushkin lived in before he died, and there was also a statue of Pushkin and his wife across the street from the flat. This statue is pictured at the top of the page. We also got to see the Prague restraunt which is the nicest in all of Moscow and considered one of the finest in Europe.

Russian Bureaucracy

I very clearly remember before coming on this trip my Russian Politics professor telling me that Russia was considered a "backwards" country as far back as its inception and some of that "backwards"-ness persists today. Since arriving in Moscow I have kept this thought in my mind and found very little evidence to support this "backward" claim. Until today.

Today, Maxsim, one of our Russian classmates, took us to pick up our metro passes. These metro passes are incredibly affordable and will alleviate the 2 dollar fare every time we have to ride the metro. Getting your metro pass is not as simple as using it though.

First, we had to go down the line two stations and fill out a form detailing the usual - age, address, where you are studying, etc. When you are done filling out the form they give you a 1x4 inch slip of paper to bring back in two weeks and pick up your pass with. Of course, unbeknown st to me, I threw my slip of paper away sometime during the last two weeks. When we went back two stops down the line to pick up our passes not having my slip ended up not being that big of a deal. After I wrote a letter saying I was sorry for losing it. Once I gave the lady my handwritten note she gave me my pass and I went on my merry way, but it blows my mind that the second most used metro system in the world does not have a computer filing system. This metro has to make hundreds of thousand of rubles a day on passenger fare, and they would make a few hundred thousand more if they ever bothered to stop anyone who jumped the entrance and rode for free. Yet, they havent bothered to invest in a computer system? Seems kind of strange to me.

Even though this post has a definite tone of anger/unhappiness I did not intend it to. The metro has been one of my favorite things here in Moscow, and I am still loving Russia. Most likely this is all to do with the fact that I slipped on a rather large sheet of ice today and ate it.

Also, the photo is courtesy Dr. Layfield's blog. He takes more pictures than anyone I have met in my life and if you want to see more pictures of what my classmates and I are doing in Russia check out his blog at layfieldinrussia.blogspot.com.