October, 1999. School and walking around.

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It's Not Snowing Yet

October 17, 1999

Hi Friends,

The title says it all. In the last two weeks, we have gone from Indian Summer to nuthin'. "Nuthin' " is zero degrees Celsius, 32 Fahrenheit to North Americans and just plain cold to all of us after our blood had thinned during the summer. There is snow in tonight's forecast. This year, we could actually tell when Fall arrived and when Winter arrived -- each to within a few hours.

I miss the summer - Indian, babushka or regular. All the outdoor cafes are closed now. It's Sunday and we should be figuring out an excuse to go sip beer on some restaurant patio. We have never been short of excuses but sipping suds just before they freeze doesn't have the same romance. Enough whining. On with the show.

Exactly two weeks ago, Marianne and one of her teacher buddies dragged their husbands out to the Botanical Gardens to scout out a scavenger hunt for their school classes. The day was glorious and the flowers were loaded with bees getting their last pollen fix. Marianne was taking notes so the teachers could think up a series of landmarks to keep the kids busy for the three hour field trip. Marianne has sixth graders and her friend is the first grade teacher. They've initiated a "buddies" system where all the kids get together once a week and the old ones "teach" the little ones. It sounds like a bunch of fun and for this session the kids were given a series of landmark photos to locate throughout the very large Gardens. Did you notice the change in clothing between the October 3rd trip with husbands and the October 14 with the school class?

Other than that, we've been mostly just doing the normal work-sleep-wait-for-weekend routine. Last weekend, we passed by a military monument that I drive by every day. Up close, it's amazing just how small these World War II machines were. No wonder they were no match for the Germans. But those Western invaders relearned Napoleon's lesson - Winter is the great ally of the Russians. Marianne and I have learned that lesson after just one winter. Winter is the time to stay put.

Well, almost. We've become accustomed to getting around by way of the Metro subway here. It's cheap, quick and reasonably convenient. We don't need to use it during rush hour so it's even comfortable, despite it's age and signs of the wear and tear a couple million passenger-trips per day give it. In my search for Soviet art, I've come to appreciate the murals found in some of the stations. This particular one was not far from the "tank monument" and both are in a part of town that had a number of heavy arms factories. Not much there now except mostly-empty buildings. The exception is the Antonov aircraft factory. It stills turns out rugged transport and passenger planes - some of which may be arriving at an airport near you. Fly them, share our experience.

Yesterday, I had the brilliant (?) idea of exploring on our Metro. We normally just hit the nearest three or four stations since our house is centrally located. The basic idea was to find more Metro murals to photograph. We packed up early -- 10:00 or so. It was Saturday after all. Our nearby Metro, called The Golden Gate (or Zoloti Voroti in Russian written with Roman letters) is one of the prettiest. I've taken a number of shots of the tile work and the chandeliers down on the platform. On this trip, I was about to take just one more picture but I made the mistake of standing next to one of the ex-KGB agents they park in little booths at the end of every escalator. She was most unhappy and told me in no uncertain terms that it was NOT ALLOWED to take pictures of the Metro. One of the prettiest places in town and we can't take pictures? This did not bode well for the pending photo expedition.

We carried on anyway. The plan was to go to the end of our line, see what's there and work our way back. My Metro map showed that the end was about 5 stations away, in a left-bank district called Slavutych - famous (in Kyiv) for a brewery and not much else. When we were getting on the subway at the Golden Gate platform, I noticed that the line in fact continues three stops past Slavytich - so we were indeed going into uncharted territory. Subway stops missing on maps probably says more about the currency of maps than the speed of building subway lines.

The subway did end three stops past Slavutych. The station was modern but very plain. Very little temptation to risk prison for a photo. Outside, we were in a standard Soviet suburb. Forests of monotonous high-rise apartment buildings. Lots of new construction and, up close, the outside of the apartment blocks looked OK. The lack of car parking was noticeable and, for the most part, the people out here use the Metro to get to work or anywhere else. It was crowded enough on a Saturday that I would not want to ever consider getting on during rush hour.

From the end of the line, we returned one stop at a time. We'd get out, survey the platform, go outside and survey the area - and then leave. The pictures from inside the first four stations turned out not worth the trouble. The ones on the outside looked like variations of picture #06. No wonder this wasn't on the tourist itinerary. Nothing bad or wrong mind you, just nothing very exciting or worth writing home about. So I'll stop.

Last night, we went to the Circus that was in town. Actually, it's always in town in a round concrete building about a twenty minute walk from home. The occasion was a school function where kids, parents and teachers were invited to see the show together. It's a nice facility and kids at a circus seem universal. Even if the kids are fifty-something.

The show is put on by a troupe of about 30 performers and they have a standard assortment of acts: clowns, dancers, animals, acrobats, high-wire acts. (No elephants this year unlike last year. This is an urban location so we wondered if they got there via Metro. Probably not but stranger things can happen)

The wild animal acts were definitely not in accordance with California animal-sensitivity training. There were wolves and foxes and dogs (lots of dogs), monkeys, a raccoon and a couple porcupines. I don't think I'd ever seen a porcupine and now I have. It was a much bigger animal than I remember from those cute little illustrations in children's books. Speaking of big, the circus also had bears trained to run around or to ride a bicycle or even jump on a trampoline. Kids loved it. I'm not sure about the animals.

The best parts of the show were the humans. The clowns were funny, and it didn't matter what language they spoke. There was a pair of clown-tumblers who put on a good show with a mixture of slapstick comedy and real acrobatic skill. And the obligatory troupe of dancing girls - some with hula hoops, some without but none with much in the way of clothes. Such attire just blends in at a circus. But the stars of the show were the high wire people. The building is good size so the wire really was high enough to make an impression. Unfortunately, my picture taking skills were no match for stage lighting pointed right at us so not much turned out. Believe me, it was pretty good in person even if the picture is below our standards.

So that's it for now. I have to get back to Russian studies and some work I brought home. Reality always intrudes. And in this country, I can't even run away with the circus because it's always just down the street.

See you next time - after the first snow.

Regards,

John and Marianne

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Originally sent October 17, 1999. Reformatted June 4, 2001.

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