Common Restaurants

Common Restaurants 

The final post for this blog ... at least for now ... is related to a small obsession that Traci LaLiberte had on our trip.  She was intrigued with seeing the common signage for American restaurants found throughout Moscow.  It was really fun to see a familiar sign with familiar ads but differing language.  Here are a few that we saw in our travels.

 

No a restaurant but I thought this was a fun ad to include in the blog. Chuck Berry!

 

Moscow Subways

On our last day in Moscow, Tracy, JaeRan and Traci had the wonderful opportunity to tour (yes, we literally toured) the Moscow subway system.  Each station has a unique appearance and varied artistic presentation. The subway has been dubbed "The people's palaces".  Some of the stations used stained glass, others (Revolution Square) adorned with bronzed statutes honoring the variety of men who fought to protect Russia. Other stations are adorned with granite, mosaic and amazing architecture.  We've included some photos that we took (below). You can also learned more about the subway system at the links below:
http://www.architecture-online.org/2013/04/moscow-metro-subway/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moscow_Metro 

http://www.thisarchitecture.com/moscow-metro-subway-masterpiece-architecture-design/

 

 

 

 

Thursday September 26^th

Once again we left the hotel and found ourselves sitting in the Moscow traffic.  Our host was so terrific ... we really didn’t mind. We learned so much about Russian history, progress and culture sitting and talking.  It becomes clearer with each conversation how similar our communities and our people are.  Our child welfare systems are also very similar in practice, innovation, intention for improvements, struggles and our common goals of helping families to care for their children safely and helping children when that is not possible.  We recognize that the perceptions that Americans have of the Russian child welfare system is based upon the experiences of parents who visited Russia and adopted children over the past couple of decades and that much progress has been made (in many but not all) regions of the country. 

We were very fortunate to visit the offices of our hosts, the National Foundation for the Prevention of the Cruelty of Children (NFPCC).  We had a tour of the office and met all of their trainers and regional support specialists.  We were engaged in an exciting conversation about possible collaborations, comparative research opportunities, and sharing of our resources.  They have published wonderful standards, resources and practice guides for use in their regional child welfare jurisdictions.  Additionally they have also disseminated the Child Welfare Field Guide, published by CWLA and written by our traveling colleagues Judy Rycus and Ronald Hughes.  We ended our time together with a delicious lunch at a Belarus-Russian restaurant.

This was the most delicious dessert.  Little donuts

 

We spent the afternoon doing some souvenir shopping around Red Square - we got a little out of control. IT was very fun to see the hats, the nesting dolls, flasks, shot glasses, beautiful traditional scarves etc. So much to buy … so little luggage space JWe also looked at the shops within the area Cathedrals and we were able to see an Orthodox service in progress. It was beautiful. I am continually amazed at the full and extensive artwork/internal paintings that completely cover the walls and ceilings of EVERY Cathedral. We ended our afternoon with a tour (yes a tour) of the Moscow subway system. It is nothing short of a museum of amazing stonework, mosaic art, statutes, stained glass etc. It was so amazing, we will devote an entire entry to it in this blog. 

These are styling port-a-potties in Red Square

JaeRan, Tracy and Marina at the Train Station

Headed back to the hotel ...

 

We said good-bye to our host, guide and interpreter Marina. We really grew very fond of her and it was sad to say our good-byes.  We are looking forward to seeing her again.  She put us safely on a train to our hotel by the airport and away we went!

Wednesday September 25^th

We were up early today to catch a flight from Khanty-Mansiysk back to Moscow. There is a two hour time difference so we lost two hours in the change. The travel was without incident … and then we became all too familiar with Moscow traffic!  OY … that is traffic like I have NEVER seen.  It took us so long to get to the hotel.  We arrived and then immediately jumped back into the traffic jam to head downtown and visit the Tretyakov Museum.  We say the most BEAUTIFUL works of Russian art. I think that one of the most striking was of Ivan the Terrible holding his son (Ivan) after having hit and killed him in a fit of rage.  Ivan was ‘no joke’.  Our host and guide Marina referred to that as an ‘anger stroke’.  Marina also told us the story of how Ivan the Terrible blinded the architects of St. Basil’s Cathedral (colorful and beautiful like no other cathedral in the world) so that they could not build anything as beautiful anywhere else in the world.  See the photo below of a portrait of Ivan as well as the outside of this wonderful museum.  Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow 

 

 

 

After the museum we walked through the streets of Moscow and saw some more famous sites.  We walked along the river bank where we saw an enormous statute of a ship and a sailor.  We were told that this was originally designed as St. Columbus and offered as a gift to the United Nations in NYC.  They politely declined the gift. It was then repurposed and now stands to pay homage to Peter the Great … who apparently, although living in a different century, sailed on a similar ship (???? How can this be???). Well that was what we were told anyway. 

We got to our final destination of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. This breathtaking Cathedral was once destroyed-an order of Stalin.  It was going to be the site of a grand building called the Palace of Russia.  There were detailed plans created and preconstruction work completed, however when Stalin died the project apparently died with him.  In its place, the government built a swimming pool.  Yep … a swimming pool.  That remained until the early 1990s when the community decided to rebuild the original Cathedral in exact replication.  You can clearly see why Moscow wanted to have this amazing Cathedral back in their city. 

After returning to the hotel we said goodbye to our colleagues from IHS in Ohio and APSAC.  They flew out on Thursday morning.  After making plans for continued collaboration and future projects (this is the stuff Traci L. is FAMOUS for J ) we fell into bed!

Today was another terrific day in Western Siberia!  We have really grown to love the town of Khanty-Manisysk.  This oil boom town has wonderful cultural resources, plenty of sports (especially winter sports), the world championships of chess etc.

At the conference today the Americans offered Master Classes which the Russian attendees participated in. Traci L. was fortunate to be able to present along with a colleague, Betsy Smalley, from Ohio's Institute for Human Services.  We presented on adoption assessment, preparation, and support.  My contributions were primarily geared toward adoption of children with disabilities.  The building that we presented in was The Vladimir Igoshev House Museum . The exterior was amazing and Mr. Igoshev's paintings were beautiful renderings of the local indigenous people and landscapes.

We couldn't resist the photo board at the Conference ... it was like being at the Emmys :)

Again, our hosts fed us a wonderful lunch. We had closing sessions, a beautiful Organ concert on a new instrument handcrafted in Germany especially for the concert hall in Khanty-Mansiysk. It was beautiful. We ended our day by taking a night tour of the city. We saw the riverfront, the historical portion of the city, the main Orthodox Cathedral, sports pavilions, the Olympic biathlon training center etc. Although the the indigenous people of this area have been here for hundreds of years, the development of what is known today as Khanty-Mansiysk began in 1993. The oil from this area provides over 60% of the nation's oil and 7.5% of the world's oil. Precious minerals have also recently been found within this region.

 

Harriet was tired of being in the room (my purse really) and wanted to join the fun of the night tour

 Statue  on the Ob River

 

 

Orthodox Temple Complex
of Christ's Resurrectio

 

 

 This is the rectory for the Cathedral.  A Beautiful complex with multiple buildings at the Center of the town.

 

 

Saints Cyril and Methodius; two brothers who created the Cyrillic alphabet

 

I'll admit-I"m tired and the blog is going to suffer for it tonight.  I will get on my game and write a more informative blog for you tomorrow!  In the meantime, enjoy the photos of Khanty Mansiysk-a beautiful beautiful town.