A Little Social Commentary: Parks and Festivals

Russia: most people say it as "that remote place with the KGB and Kremlin and some wacky looking churches." The idea of "Gee it's not like I was calling him from Siberia" and the like seems to invade our American vernacular. But then again, let's be honest, Russia is a massive country with two well known cities, and a bunch of barren land where it snows a lot. At the least, Russia is portrayed as relatively emotionless and dismal, with a bunch of grumpy people, who only get happier when drinking vodka.

Well as I'm writing this, it's about 75 degrees Fahrenheit...which makes it, I think about 24 degrees Celsius (I'm not converting to Kelvin because it doesn't matter, I'm not a scientist!). It's nighttime, so conceivably the temperature has gone down. I'm going to estimate that earlier today, it was around 85 degrees Fahrenheit (29 degrees Celsius) and by far the most beautiful day of the past few weeks. When I arrived, it was around 85 degrees and humid, within two days dropped to about 50 degrees and raining, in two more was in the 40s, and then climbed gradually back up to the 70s. In the past three days, the temperature has balanced itself somewhere in the mid-70s, with almost non-stop sun. A brief bit of clouds yesterday called to mind the commercial "A bad day in Florida beats a good day almost anywhere else" where the people sunning themselves on the beach are distraught by a lone cloud that enshrouds the sun for mere moments.

Focusing on today, however, as this gorgeous 80 degree+ day happened, I was not in the wastelands of Siberia, picking potatoes or working in Stalin's latest lead weight factory, but in the following park:
I hope the picture quality on that turns out alright, otherwise this is going to make me look like I'm nuts.
This park (Tsaritsyn in the South of Moscow) was not only beautiful, but pristine. There were thousands of people in it, but not a scrap of trash on the ground (with virtually no trashcans as I noticed), not one sketchy drunk passed out on a bench, no smell of...well you get the idea. I certainly can't say the same of Central Park or the park by Rittenhouse Square in Philadelphia (certainly not of the latter as I one time witnessed a half naked man in Detroit Red Wings style hockey pants wiping his face with a lemon...interesting to say the least).
The same was true of yesterday at "Den' Goroda" or the celebration of Moscow's 861st Anniversary. I walked probably 5miles worth of Moscow (Tverskaya Ulitsa, to Red Square...Red Square past Christ the Savior Cathedral, through a large park, and down Stariy Arbat to Smolenskaya Naberezhnaya) and can say legitimately the same thing about the majority of the city that I witnessed.

New Year's Eve in Philadelphia (to compare a reasonably grandscale event) a few years ago smelled of cheap alcohol (hidden away from the watchful eye of all society as is the case with nearly all alcohol in the US), and one could not walk in the streets without feeling slightly dirty as the puddles of recent rain intermingled with litter, food, and the like. Furthermore, the feeling of safety was virtually non-existent: whereas in Moscow, the police were nearly everywhere patrolling the streets, parks, Metro stops, etc., New Years Eve in Philadelphia was merely decked with "security guards" at the Waterfront (and police directing traffic...), and no activity in the train, EL, or subway stops. I still consider the five minutes underneath of City Hall awaiting either certain death or the subway to be one of my most frightened moments, as myself and a friend were surrounded by any number of questionable looking individuals.

I'm not knocking Philly, because part of me really has some sense of loyalty dedicated to it. I'm mostly just noting the following: we find ourselves so critical of everyone else's society, its strange customs, its questionable history, its "backwardsness," yet a simple walk through these capitals of the modern world really do show the average person how wrong we really can be. Now I'll be honest...some of the Russians are grim looking. It apparently DOES get very cold here very quickly. But the idea of "bleak Moscow" is a major stretch in my opinion, even if after only two weeks of living here. It's one of those "don't knock it till you try it" matters I think...much like the Babushka's borsch :)

Signing out for now! Back to engaging the world, as always...