i see dead people

And you can, too!!

So, I skipped out on school for my birthday and went first to Pushkin's apartment (the one he lived in with his wife), then Gogol's memorial, and finally to this gorgeous cemetary where Chekhov (see above with his wife and..child??), and many other famous Russians are buried. Unfortunately, I keep forgetting the name of it, but there's a lovely monestary attached to it. So here's....

Eisenstein's grave (the filmmaker)
And Mayakovsky's, Bulgakov's, Gogol's, and the Tretyakov brothers (who's art gallery I visited the other day)....




So this cemetary is now topping my list at favorite places of Moscow. I'll definitely be returning since I got there late, and they just let me run in for an hour without charge. But I was so frusterated with the limitations of picture taking, I took a little video, too. Please ignore the narration - except for the part where I express a desire to have a bench next to my grave to people can hang out with me when I die. Go ahead and note that in my will....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1gAj7ir71I

Oh, and here's two other graves that I just thought were especially neat - although, really, the graveyard was just congested with cool graves.



Here's the statue of Pushkin and his wife (quite a romantic pair in Russian literature after he died an early death in a duel for her honor).


This is the great statue in the middle of the Gogol memorial rooms. I was looking at it when this Russian lady came up, took me to one side of it and said, "Cheese" and smiled, then ushered me to the other side where she made a frowny face. I looked at for a moment before I realized, Oh..yeah, I see..they made one side to make it look as if he's happy and the other as if he's gloomy. When I turned around to say something to her, she was already at the gate, and she just looked back and smiled. It was hard to capture as far as camera lighting was concerned, but I tried my best. See if you can tell....



Alright, so that was my 21st birthday day, but as for my 21st birthday night - I was behaving myself, showered and reading politely in my room, when some friends came by with cake, wine, champaigne, roses, and some presents. Two of my teachers sent something along - Vladimir Ivonovich gave me a baby matroishka, and the jovial morning teacher gave me a little bag with candy and a lion statuette (because I'm a Leo??). And my friend, Nicole, got me a stuffed Vinnie Poox - the Russian version of Winnie the Pooh that everyone should try to look up because it's very funny. In fact....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EuBzKV6XgvA
There, now you don't have to do the work. But mine sings, too. Something about honey....
Anyhow, here's a picture of my back and some people and my birthday cake....

And here I'm performing the ritual 21st birthday floor rolling, where I sacraficed my dignity to become a woman....

All I remember is putting the rose stems in my mouth and insisting, "I'm dashing, I'm dashing!!"
Anyhow, that's that.

I went to Tolstoy's country estate, which is in Tula not Moscow - so not only does it top my Tula list, but also my overall Russian list so far because it was a dream. I can't describe it's beauty - and my camera ran out of batteries, so I'll have to steal other's pictures.

Bye : )