From Russia With Love

Well I love Victory Day. Russians sure do know how to do holidays. If you didn't know, Victory Day is the day that the Germans surrendered during World War II which the Russians call the Great Patriotic War...

On Friday, we had a half day and we had a special assembly so we all had to wear the "formal uniform." The school was decorated with all these Red Army posters and they were playing war songs over the loudspeaker. The kids all brought bouquets of carnations and we had a special moment before breakfast where we went outside and had a moment of silence and all the kids laid down their bouquets for the veterans and I guess for the people that died in World War II. It was actually kind of beautiful. So then we had a concert where every class sang these old Russian war songs and everyone knew them and they were all singing along! Then at the assembly they were all singing the war songs and it was this big deal and there were real veterans there and real Russian soldiers in their camouflage there! It was so exciting! The kids sang for them and presented them with flowers and cards they had drawn and some of the teachers spoke and a lot of them were all bawling and I just smiled because I had no idea what was going on but it was all just so exciting!

On Sunday (May 9th which is the actual holiday), there was a big parade so naturally we went. Kristin and Becca and I woke up early and went and found a good spot (I was right up front!). The streets were packed and we waited for about an hour and a half. The parade started with helicopters flying over and then fighter jets and the coolest ones were ones that had red, white, and blue smoke coming out the back (is that called something?) and it made the Russian flag! And then another thing was when they flew in the formation of a 65 (because it's celebrating 65 years). After all the planes flew over, the tanks and trucks started rolling down the streets. It wasn't really like parade-ish because there was no confetti or anything (ok, let's be honest, I was a little disappointed) but everyone was cheering and waving their Россия flags and taking pictures and I felt so patriotic and it was like despite our differences we were all celebrating together. Ok so there was a rumor that there would be British, American, French, and Polish troops so we waited a little while after all the tanks and vehicles (and they had big missiles on them, by the way) but they never came. BUT they were there but they were just at the Red Square part which is closed off to the regular public but it's for Medvedev and Putin and probably my students' parents because they're all the richy important people. But we got to watch it on TV. After the parade we met up with the boys who had come a little later and got a spot pretty close to us and we met up with some of our Russian friends and we all went to lunch at Starlite Diner (good American food because we were part of the victory during the war, too, even if Stalin didn't think so, so I think it was appropriate...). We watched the Red Square festivities on TV while having burgers and milkshakes. After that we headed to Victory Park (which is a park in honor of May 9th and has this huge monument there and a whole museum and there are tanks there you can climb on...it's nice). It was a gorgeous day--and actually that's because they seeded the clouds. Apparently they spent like $1.5 million to do this--they put this chemical in the sky so that the moisture clouds stay away and this has to be really bad to breathe in but it's always sunny on Victory Day! But so the park was packed but we found some more of our friends and sat in the grass just enjoying the day and watching people and listening to the orchestra that was playing all these war overtures. After the park we went back to Jeff's new apartment which was in walking distance and sat at the park outside his place! When we got home it started pouring down rain and I was so tired and a little sunburnt but it was a great day.

And to make it even better, we had Monday off! I love three day weekends. Good job, Russia.

And here's a video in case you wanted to see it for yourself.

and PS. Russians march really weird. Like they try not to bend their knees--it's kind of funny, actually :)