From Russia with Love

C Novym Godom! (Happy New Years!)

As a means of introduction, here is some Photoblogging of some of the Christmas (really New Year's) Trees around Moscow:







Our tree.




The Tree in our courtyard

So, to continue...

My New Years Eve began at o’dark thirty, walking to the metro to meet Lindsey. Her friend was flying in that day, and I agreed to accompany Lindsey to the airport to meet her friend. We got on the metro at eight; six metro stops and an hour-long bus ride later, we were at Sheremetovo Airport with two hours to kill since the flight was somewhat delayed. Being New Years Eve, finding myself in an airport, and knowing full well that it was five o’clock somewhere, I decided that the universe was telling me to drink and ordered a beer. Waiting and talking, Lindsey and I came to the conclusion that I should just get drunk and accidentally find myself on a plane to Petersburg so I could meet New Years and the love of my life, who probably lives on a street just like mine, in a building just like mine, in an apartment just like mine (for those not familiar with Russian New Years traditions…getting your friends drunk and on a plane out of town isn’t one of them. This is, however, the plot of the classic Soviet film “Ironia Sud’by ili S legkim Parom” – “The Irony of Fate, or Have a good Time at the Baths” – which Russians watch every year on December 31. Great film; I highly recommend it!). Luckily, the plane landed before I could order another beer and start the celebrations entirely too early and we waited outside of customs for Kate to arrive.
After taking the bus back to the Metro, we rode into the Center. I parted ways with the girls to go back to Izmailovskii Park (I hade been just the day before buying obscene amounts of pirated DVDs) to pick up a few things that weren’t there on Friday (not all the merchants come out for Fridays). I got a cristal decanter/shot glasses set for less that $13 and a pair of parade boots to wear back at Middlebury during Russian Choir concerts. I talked the guy down 400 rubles! This seemed like a huge accomplishment until I realized that this amount sounds a lot bigger in rubles than it does in dollars. Either way, I was happy with my purchases.
Haivng made it home, I talked a little with Tatiana Nikolaevna, who had spent most of the day cleaning. Although there’s the obvious concept of cleanliness and New Year’s cleaning, it seems to me that this is more of a superstitious think for Russians. Everything had to be pristine for the New Year; Tatiana asked me to throw away all old papers, old cloths that couldn’t be worn, etc. since they’re bad luck to keep into the New Year. This ritual cleanliness extends to people too, and Tatiana offered me first shower. I had showered just the day before and wasn’t really planning on taking a shower that day, but I knew Tatiana would either make a fuss or think of me as an absolute pig if I didn’t shower in New Years Eve. It felt good; I put on my nice cloths, the new boots and even wore a tie! I was ready for my night on the town!
Our evening’s celebrations started at an Ethiopian restaurant Sara found that a. was open on New Years Eve and b. didn’t close at some rediculously early time. It was very delicious food, not to mention my first time trying Ethiopian. There were seven of us all together since Sara also had two friends in town (one of whom was celebrating a birthday that night) plus one of their acquaintances, Earl: a man in his 40s-50s, recently divorced, apparently likes to relieve the pain of his mid-life crisis by hanging out with the young crowd. Earl does a lot of business in Russia/Poland and is over here quite often. He doesn’t speak enough Russian to get by, so he’s often ‘escorted’ by young Russian translators. He made me feel a little uncomfortable since I felt like I was eating dinner with my father (he actually looked like a fatter version of my dad, especially in the eyes and nose. If his voice had been deeper and soothing, I would have been really freaked out). He was one of those people that liked to talk about Russia/n/s and Moscow like he knew a lot about it, which he did to some extent, but it was a tourist’s education and I quickly tired of his lectures. To make things worse, a lot of the bars and clubs he recommended as really good are also well-known in Moscow as popular places for expat businessmen to find good hookers. He was a nice enough guy; it just struck me as strange that I was spending New Years with him. Of note: Ethiopian food is really fun to eat because you have to eat everything with your fingers! A few beers and a bottle of vodka later, we were off for Red Square!!!
We knew that the crowds and security at Red Square would be ridiculous, but we had NO IDEA just how ridiculous until we saw it with our own eyes. We got out at metro station Ploshchad’ Revolutsii, a very pretty station, which Christine, one of our guests, wanted to snap a few pictures of. Taking pictures in the metro is technically illegal, and I didn’t want to leave her alone taking them, especially since there were police all over the station. Chrisine, birthday-girl Rachel, friend Earl and I got separated from the rest of our group, so I jumped into action and got us as close to Red Square as I could.
As soon as we got out of the Metro, there were metal detectors and mobs of people just wanting to get through. I told my American friends to just be pushy and shove people a lot. There were a few times when I thought the crowd would just push their way through the police line; the metal detectors were swaying back and forth, screaming at all the metal that was going through. We made our way to the other side without a riot breaking out. The other, however, weren’t quite as lucky. The metro they came out of also had a security checkpoint that no one cared to pay attention to. The mob actually pushed the barricades over and stampeded their way to the festivities. I was jealous that I couldn’t have been involved in this excitement, but I’m glad Kate got to experience it, especially after being up on transatlantic flights for the last day and a half.
When we finally found each other, it was amazing. Everyone was drunk on the New Years spirit, shouting ‘S Novom Godom!!’ at the top of their lungs, setting off fireworks and lighting sparklers. There wasn’t a big ball dropping like Times Square, but you knew exactly when the clock struck 12 because everyone went absolutely wild! Below are some pictures I took. Security unfortunately wouldn’t let us any where near Red Square, so we settled for around the Kremlin.


Although not quite visible, this is a Dyed Moroz (Santa Claus) playing the clarinet.


This one was taken as someone walked through the crowd carrying a sparkler.






Chaos explodes at 12 o'clock outside The National hotel.












Christine, Kate, Lindsey


Lindsey and Kate


From the left: Me, Sara, Rachel, and Earl



Somehow, we ran into Steve, another grad student from Middlebury, in the craziness. He invited us over to his apartment and we celebrated New Years just like home…in a home, that is.

Happy New Years to all and hope 2006’ll be a good one!


A reminder from Tatiana's bookshelf that 2006 is now upon us...you'll see the calandar to the left of "War and Peace" and above her TWELVE volume collection of Theodore Dreiser.

posted by Misha Molodoi @ 2:04 PM