Thursday, April 13, 1995

Moscow Day 3


THURSDAY APRIL 13, 1995 6:00PM -- rob worked today, he is going to take the next four or five days off, so i spent the day with barb and madeline. the weather was pretty good, about 50 degrees and sunny. i went to madeline's school in the morning and to her ballet lesson in the afternoon.

it was kind of an interesting way to see the city and the people. barb has a driver with a car that she uses several days a week to take her and the kids to a number of different activities. wesley spent the day with a british nanny who took off on outing to meet some other kids.

after the ballet lesson the driver took us to the lenin hills. this is one of highest points in moscow. from this point you can see towards the downtown. you can see the white house which is the government building that figured heavily in some of the political problems of the last two years (tanks shooting at the building), parts of the buildings of the kremlin, and all seven of the stalin buildings which are large ornate structures that stalin had built to honor himself. one of the largest of these buildings is on the bluff and is the site of the moscow university. just below the hill is the site of number of venues for the 1980 Olympics, including both of the ski jumps And the 100,0000 seat Olympics stadium.

i got to spend alot of time with barb and get some prospective of her issues with why she wants them to live somewhere esle. essentially she "hates" living in what feels very much like a hotel under the watchful eye of 14 rude security guards.

the number of locals they are employing is also interesting. in addition to the driver and nanny I mentioned there was someone here this afternoon to give russian language lessons to rob, barb, and the nanny. there is also someone who comes in once a week and cleans. about half of these people were here this afternoon while i was taking a nap. rob and i were laughing about the "nooter full employment act for the russia people."

the three of us finished up the night by playing cibbage and batgammon. more soon

click on the picture for a larger copy!
One of the Stalin Buildings


The White House


[originally written on a Newton MessagePad 120
using handwriting recognition.]

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