Coming to you live from Moscow Airport!

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So I am sitting in the airport ready to leave Moscow and begin the second leg of my journey. I am very tired because we had to leave the dorm at 3 am so there was no real point in sleeping at all. I have a few days to update on, so I better get cracking.

Monday we didn't have any movement class because Vladimir our teacher had to take a trip to Spain for the MXAT. So it was a pretty leisurely morning. I headed to acting and was very excited because we were having a special class with Michael Lubanov who is an expert in Michael Chekhov technique. The class was just a lot of fun. He was so energetic and passionate and it was a lot of fun doing the exercises. He kept telling us to sit on the edge of our chairs like a little bird that is ready to take flight at any time, we shouldn't be heavy in our seats.

After acting I went to look for this really large English book store but I couldn't find it, although it was fun to wander the neighborhood looking for it. There was a great bridge that I walked over, then I passed through one of the smelliest, most disgusting underpasses I have ever been in. Good thing it was really short. I hopped on the metro and went back to the dorm and spent a couple of hours writing my last blog. Then I met up with Alli and Pegi to go and explore a new restaurant. We found it pretty quick with the help of some locals. The place was called Squat. There was a huge screen tv playing the soccer game between Brazil and Chile so that was fun. There was a pretty cool motif with huge french cartoons plastered all over the walls.

We were going to try and find another place for desert but realized it was getting close to curfew so we walked back to the dorms.

Tuesday was our graduation day. I thought it was supposed to be singing for the girls so I didn't go to class, but apparently it was the singing final so I completely missed it. But I showed up for acting which was actually our evaluations with Sergey in which he assesses us as actors and addresses the things we can work on and identifies what he thinks our type should be. It was very informative and interesting. After that we had a short graduation ceremony where we got our certificates of completion and took some photos with the teachers.

We only had a little time to grab a bite to eat before the show that night so we rushed up the street to this really cool restaurant that was near the school. I had taken a picture in front of this place earlier in the month, it was called a weird door. Well inside was really amazing. They have you take off your shoes and they give you slippers to wear. You sit on these cushions with lots of pillows. The food was really good. I had these really delicious bruschetta's and some fish soup that was just amazing. It was really relaxing hanging out there.

From there we hopped the metro station to the Satiricon for King Lear. This was an exciting metro ride because they just barely opened this brand new station which was just up the street from the theatre, so we didn't have to ride the bus. The station was really beautiful and it was nice to see that they put the money in to making them just as beautiful as the other station on the metro.

King Lear was a beautiful production. The cleverness of it was just as amazing as Richard III. I wish though that I knew the language because it would have been nice to follow all of the changes and choices that they made in the show. The final moment of the play was just beautiful as the three daughter of Lear sat at three pianos and they were totally dead and Lear tried to keep propping them up as the lights faded but none of them would stay in place. It was really poetic and lovely to watch.

Wednesday was our final day. I got up in time to head to the Tetreykov Gallery Museum which was just spectacular. It was amazing how many pieces there were that I had a real emotional, visceral reaction to. I am glad that I went because the Russians do not let their art out of the country, so I wouldn't have had another chance to see it.

After that I met up with Pegi and Alli and we had an amazing lunch at a place called Propaganda. I got a soup, salad, entree, and baked vegetables for 220 roubles which was pretty dirt cheap compared to a lot of places we have eaten in Russia. It was rather sad to have discovered it on the last day in Moscow. We then headed over to the Theatre Museum which was pretty interesting except that none of the displays were in English. While it was neat to see old pictures, costumes, etc. from old Russian theatre, I didn't get much more out of it since I couldn't read any of the placards.

I am now sitting in a Ben & Jerry's in Amsterdam, I didn't have time to complete my blog in the airport before we had to board.

After the theatre museum we went to the Vaktangov theatre to watch their production of Uncle Vanya. It was really different interpretation, but it was visually pretty amazing. They had updated and put a definite modern/avante garde spin on it, but it made the production very lively and fun. We didn't get much accomplished after the show because we spent a lot of time trying to find this restaurant that had been reccommended, but we were unsuccessful because we forgot the instructions on how to get there and were just going off memory. Plus, we weren't sure if the name of the place was UNDER THE SEA, THE SEA INSIDE, or if we were instructed to make sure we see the inside! Who knows. Mostly spent the day realizing that there were all these things I wanted to do or see, and now it was too late. I suppose it is always that way. You keep thinking that you have plenty of time and will get to this or that tomorrow and then you realize that today and tomorrow have come and gone. Not to say I didn't make good use of my time in Moscow. I think I saw more of Moscow than most, and I had a great time.

Unfortunately there won't be pictures with this one, I have my cord to connect all locked up in the train station locker, so I will have to upload photos later.

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