Pictures from Art and Arctic Conditions

A few weekends ago, we got to see some pretty awesome art in one part of Moscow. Ever heard of the Pushkin? It's a super amazing museum of European art- the largest in Moscow. I got to go there and absolutely loved it. Just across the street from it is the very beautiful Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which we also got to visit:

There's a ton of saint/icon worship in Russia and it confuses me. For being called the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, there sure weren't many paintings (if any) of Jesus. There were tons of icons and paintings of saints, though. The art work was beautiful, but I still don't understand why they choose to worship icons and saints more than Christ.

Near the cathedral there was a super cool exhibit of this giant sculture of sand and ice. The sand half told about Russian history, and the ice half illustrated scenes from Russian folklore and fairytails. The sculpture was made by artists in Russia, Ukraine, Spain, Canada, USA, and I think maybe Mexico. It was so huge that I have no idea how they transported the sections. How does one ship a giant ice or sand sculpture thousands of miles without it falling apart?

Please note that the section shown above was only about 1/3 of just the sand half. I would like to know what the artists would do if I aked them to make me a sandcastle. It would probably have a full size, functioning drawbridge.


Brush away that Tartar!

This clock was modeled after one on a big clock-tower in Moscow.

Check out that detail work!

Here are some shots I just took of the area when we were near the Cathedral:

The blue building is some museum full of works by Russia's offical painter. I didn't see the inside.

This last Saturday, all of the Moscow-based ILP teachers were given free tickets to a pro basketball game against some other Russain team.

Here's a pic I snapped on the way to a market after the game.

Contary to popular belief, Nevada can get extremely cold in the winter. However, I don't recall my toes ever being so cold for so long that I wanted to cry. Despite the fact that I was wearing two pairs of socks and warm snow boots, my toes were so frozen as I waited for the bus Saturday morning and trekked around that outdoor market Saturday evening that I thought I might cry a little bit. You know it's cold out when you feel the snot freezing in your nose the moment you step outside your door. Yes, this last week it finally got as cold as I was expecting Russia to be before I came here. But shouldn't it be getting warmer, not colder?