All Russia, all the time
I am intrigues by the constant Russia fixation in the news. I am more worried by Trump telling Putin that he (DJT) is planning to get rid of the new Start treaty than I am concerned that the Russians somehow rigged our election. They didn't need to rig our election - the domestic gerrymandering and voter discrimination policies did that.
Arthur is going to Russia in the fall, to attend a conference and give some talks. He presumed that I would want to go along. I can understand the presumption - I spent a month in the USSR in 1976, on a camping tour with a bunch of students (and an Intourist guide, and very specific itinerary). It would be nice to compare and contrast, and a good brain exercise to go back and try to re-learn the language - I can get words from time to time on the news, but couldn't even make simple conversation. Still, I think Trump is hoping to start WWIII, and I am hesitant about overseas travel at all, much less to a country with which we are already sort of in a proxy war, in Syria.
On the other hand, it's like there is some sort of conspiracy to keep me interested. I know one of the bell ringers at the Danilov Monastery near Moscow (wouldn't have been possible in 1976 - the bells were in Cambridge, at Lowell House in Harvard). I just heard an interview on the radio with Anya von Bremzen, discussing the nostalgia for Soviet-era food, even though better is now available. There are apparently retro-stolovaya places (cheap cafeterias for workers - we ate in them almost every day). I need to make up my mind soon, because getting a spouse visa (really) will take months.
Arthur is going to Russia in the fall, to attend a conference and give some talks. He presumed that I would want to go along. I can understand the presumption - I spent a month in the USSR in 1976, on a camping tour with a bunch of students (and an Intourist guide, and very specific itinerary). It would be nice to compare and contrast, and a good brain exercise to go back and try to re-learn the language - I can get words from time to time on the news, but couldn't even make simple conversation. Still, I think Trump is hoping to start WWIII, and I am hesitant about overseas travel at all, much less to a country with which we are already sort of in a proxy war, in Syria.
On the other hand, it's like there is some sort of conspiracy to keep me interested. I know one of the bell ringers at the Danilov Monastery near Moscow (wouldn't have been possible in 1976 - the bells were in Cambridge, at Lowell House in Harvard). I just heard an interview on the radio with Anya von Bremzen, discussing the nostalgia for Soviet-era food, even though better is now available. There are apparently retro-stolovaya places (cheap cafeterias for workers - we ate in them almost every day). I need to make up my mind soon, because getting a spouse visa (really) will take months.