Yes. You see here The Big Lebowski, Pirates of the Caribbean, Don't Be a Menace, Battlefield Earth, The Fifth Element (at the top) and Doom 3. I just now found them in my host mom's tv cabinet. They are all dubbed over in Russian, but still have the English dialogue. So shitty, but seriously, Don't Be A Menace?
Second:
I went to two of the best art museums in the world. The Tretyakov Gallery has the world’s largest collection of Russian art, and the Pushkin museum has many ancient and Western works of art. So in addition to falling in love with several Russian works, I also got to see pieces by Picasso, Renoir, Monet, and Chagall. And in 2 weeks I’m going to the Hermitage, which is comparable only with the Louvre in terms of its collection.
Repin's "Ivan the Terrible and his son, Ivan"
Stadium, you should all recognize this as my desktop background. In reality it covers an entire wall. Surikov's "Execution of the Streltsy on Red Square."
Briullov's badass "Portrait of the Writer Nestor Vasilyevich Kukolnik."
Third:
ВВЦ (VVTs). The All-Russia Exhibition Center was built at the height of the Stalin era and is one of the best examples of Socialist Realist art and architecture in the world.
It’s basically the Russian version of Epcot. The main difference is that once the Soviet Union fell, no one took care of it, so most of the buildings are now filled with shopping centers. The main building has kiosks that sell musical instruments, bootleg music, and cats. The irony is staggering.
The Soviet Space Memorial is also close. They have a very cool monument in memory of being the first in space. I’ll be going to the Cosmonaut Museum later.
The giant monument.
Both sides of it.
Thank God the Motherland still thinks Pluto is a planet...
Fourth:
Park Podedy and Victory Gate. Park Pobedy is the Russian monument to WWII (or the Great War of the Fatherland) and is the most impressive thing I have ever seen. It is unbelievably huge and majestic, and my pictures cannot hope to do it justice. It is a huge square with small monuments to the commanders of each theater of war. Leading up to the monument are blocks that lead from 1941 to 1945. The monument has a statue of St. George slaying the dragon at the bottow, is decorated with images of war and the names of cities that fought, and the top is crowned with a statue of Nike. The WWII museum is behind it.
The church that was built in memory of victory over the Nazis is also on the square (Russians always build churches when they win wars).
Victory Gate was built to commemorate victory over Napoleon in 1812, and is also quite impressive.
Other than that, been having a good time. Went to this sweet restaurant called Luch with Christian. Still alive, going to the Bolshoy Ballet tomorrow, and St. Petersburg at the end of next week.
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