Back to the Wintry East

Today was a really good day. We had our first day of class, and our instructor cracks me up. She asks us lots of funny questions, but it's doing a lot to help us in terms of our grammar and our fluidity of speech. We talked to the internship coordinator today, and apparently, I'm supposed to have an interview scheduled by the end the week-- just waiting to hear a definite time from the Gogol Institute. Anyway, in that others were occupied with interviews, tracking down lost baggage, and other similar joys, Neils and I headed out to see some sights. We stopped at the Temple of Christ the Savior first off, and it was just breathtaking. I guess even though I've heard all along that it was one of the most beautiful temples in all of Eastern Orthodoxy, I didn't really expect to be effected to such an extent as when I walked in and saw the paintings on the ceiling. You quickly begin to understand that what faithful Russian Orthodox believers feel as God there really is God, that though maybe they believe differently than we do, it doesn't change in the slightest our Heavenly Father's love for them and desire for them to come unto Him and feel the peace that comes in living a life of goodness and faith. I'm not real big on the whole idea of kissing icons and lighting candles and all that, but I really did feel 'God' today.

The Temple of Christ the Savior is apparently above the Temple of the Transfiguration of Christ, so we took a spiral staircase underground into the second temple, equally magestic though in a completely different way. The art style was really unique, and while the first had primarily saints and apostles scattered around huge depictions of Christ, God, and the heavenly hosts, the latter had a lot more of Biblical interpretations. It took us a while to really figure out what some of the stuff was, but then things would just click, and it was a really cool unifying moment where I could look at the pictures and say, "That's us, too." It's hard sometimes, I guess, because we don't revere saints or patriarchs or metropolitans (city-wide bishops) or anything like that, so it feels like our histories kind of diverge and don't really come back together much at all. But being there, seeing those things, I thought to myself, "We're really not so different at all." I have so much respect for the nuns especially that work at all of the temples, and I'm understanding more and more God's love for all of His children.



On a less serious note, some of my favorite secular but not exactly secular depictions in the Temple of the Transfiguration of Christ were the seven-headed dragon from Revelations and the 12th-ish century monks with broadswords. Definitely cool. Another item of note was the Urim and Thummim depicted on early Orthodox apostles and saints. A very cool connection.
I bought a ring at one the temples today. It's a pretty simple variety, and they're all over the place, but I always regretted not picking one up when I was in Ukraine. Anyway, got it, and I was glad to finally get that taken care of. The thing is, if you size it for one finger and then put it on a larger finger, fun things can happen. By fun, I mean your cold finger warms up when you go inside, and the ring starts to cut off your circulation, and since your fingers are much fatter now and the ring only barely fit over your knuckle when you first put it on, you're in a bit of a pickle. Add to that the fact that pulling on the ring simply pushes all the blood further up the finger, causing it to swell even more, and you've got yourself into quite the predicament, the resolution of which comes, apparently, only with ample amounts of soap, plenty of tugging (with both hands and teeth), and a great potential for a bruised knuckle in the morning. Anyway, good stuff for a Tuesday night.

I guess I'll finish briefly with some general observations and comments on Moscow. The fact is, I love it here. I love the cold, no matter how much I complain about my ears stinging. I love the people. I love the smells and the hefty ten-rouble coins. I love seeing advertisements in Russian. I love the metro. I love the vitality of this city, the fact that at any time, I am surrounded by more than ten million people. I love families here. I didn't get to see a ton of families when I was in Ukraine, but it's been so invigorating to see happy families, to hear dads chatting with their sons on the metro, to see husbands and wives laughing together. I realize now that I have skipped about half of my day, but I should go to bed now, because though the sun doesn't wake up until 9:30, the alarm clock is an early-riser. So for now, that's all.