The First Day . . . A Tour and More

The highlights today included a tour of the city and an introduction to crafts that we are hopefully going to lead various groups this week in performing. I am not a crafty person it turns out (though I never expected I actually was). Fortunately, the group has several people gifted with creative ideas and an ability to execute them. I will try my best to follow their lead.

With Asya, one of our interpreters, guiding us, we got to the city via bus, which costs all of 16 rubles, or roughly 50 cents. So, that's a bargain. We slid to a stop beside the original monastery, whose exterior stone walls date from the 13th century and which, thankfully, Stalin did not knock down. However, as Asya explained, Stalin did order one of the principal cathedrals overlooking the Volga blown up. But, once the Soviet Union passed into the history books, some newly wealthy benefactor rebuilt it . . . three times the size of the original. (This is actually why there are dozens of cathedrals of varying sizes throughout Yaroslavl; wealthy merchants through the ages tried to atone for their de facto ungodly actions of making money by building God a new house, which they then named after themselves . . . one could have Bob's Cathedral by the river, and Kevin's cathedral on a hill nearby). Another factoid that I did not know is that the famed onion-domes are actually representative of candles, with the domes as flames, rising toward God. And, if one attends a church service in an Orthodox church there is no place to sit. Everyone stands through the service, which typically is two hours long. Very un-American indeed! 

Before the cathedral is a memorial and eternal flame dedicated to the Russian women who stepped in to make the country run and the millions of men who died in the Great Patriotic War. The level of suffering that World War II caused is hard for Americans to comprehend. In Yaroslavl (a city of half-a-million), half the male population didn't return from the war. The gender disparity continues to this day in Russia, with women outnumbering men roughly 55% to 45%.

We got a ride back to home base from Victor, the CCS driver. I happened to glance up as we were proceeding and was stunned to see that the Gators rule, even in Yaroslavl. I found out this evening at dinner that one of my fellow volunteers is a Seminole. I guess she has to stay tight-lipped about her allegiances if she wants a ride from Victor!

We had an initial Russian lesson after lunch. Where it was revealed that my 47 lessons were largely an investment in futility and budding humiliation. It's really about intimidation. I don't want to speak incorrectly, and yet there's no way to avoid that dilemma. So, I added the burden of this pressure and stammered my way through very basic words and phrases from way back in Lessons 1, 2, and 3. Which means I had better stop procrastinating and writing about my failures of the day and go study for a better tomorrow!