More snow, more grey and more bleak. I’m beginning to understand why teachers don’t last very long here as they do, for instance, in Nice! We took a stroll in the snow this morning before breakfast and once again no matter what direction we took; the wind and snow would be blowing directly in our faces. It is uncanny how many times that happens to us.
We had a nice long breakfast, reading papers and catching up. We were going to go to a museum or something but the day got away from us so at two we got back into our snowsuits and took the Metro to Red Square to look at the ice sculptures. We were told that people looking for good luck place the coins there. They rub the coin between their hands and get it hot and then place it over the ice and it melts into the statue, really quite cool. We wandered around the square waiting for three o’clock so we could listen to the bells from the Kremlin Tower. Then we headed into GUM to wander around and get warm. Everything is still decorated for Christmas and I must say it is getting old.
You couldn’t swing a dead squirrel in circle without hitting a bride and her entourage having their photos taken in GUM. Outside in the square we had seen about six wedding parties but there must have been twenty or more in the store. The brides outside were cavorting in their long white dresses and the slush was making the hems extremely dirty… also they looked COLD because they only had short fur jackets over their dresses and it was under 20 F. (Read on; the condition of the revelers probably was a warming factor.) On several occasions I noticed a couple of the brides checking each other out. I was amazed at how young they all looked and at how drunk they all were. The bride carries the flowers, the groom carries the bride and the wedding party carry the Sovetskoye Shampanskoye lots and lots of bottles of Sovetskoye Shampanskoye.
Fortunately, no one was protesting today outside Lenin’s Tomb as they did on Friday. It is hard to imagine that anyone can still get so worked up over his remains. We decided to walk home and managed to get back just before it got dark. It is slow going even with lots of light; darkness only increased the probability of injury on these sidewalks.
Dinner last night was served in two courses, with a long break in between for me to participate in a conference call with the Foundation Board at NBCC. The first course was curried chicken salad served on thin toasted dark bread. The salad had about a cup of chopped chicken, a cup of chopped green grapes, a handful of crushed walnuts, a handful of raisins and one chopped green apple. The dressing was just mayo, whole grain mustard, pepper, olive oil, a bit of garlic, curry power, cinnamon, nutmeg and crème fraiche. I mixed everything together and let it all sit for a day so that the flavors would meld. The hot course was roasted stuffed peppers. The stuffing was just a mixture of the carrot/cauliflower mash from a few nights ago, with some cooked rice, five cloves of chopped garlic browned in butter, a nice big tablespoon of yogurt and two whipped eggs. I roasted the peppers first and then placed them in a bread pan that I had lined with the rest of the cooked rice so that the peppers wouldn’t fall. I filled them with the mixture and let them bake for about forty minutes. Just before serving I sprinkled the peppers with grated pecorino and served them very, very hot. Here are a couple of photos. Tonight’s dinner will be far less elegant.
Best wishes, Cindy and Wm
From CC: I’m happy to report that I’m not jaded quite yet … as we walked through Red Square and approached St. Basil’s Cathedral with its many colorful towers covered with snow, I had a little catch in my throat thinking how fortunate I am to be able to see things like this for real, not just in photos. I’ve already seen St. Basil’s several times since moving here, but each time it’s almost as impressive as it was that first jaw-dropping time last August.
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