A beautiful place; a missed opportunity

Words 511;  pictures

            The most beautiful place I have seen in Moscow.  Tsaritsina Park.  For me, it’s no work today, or tomorrow.  I heard from a friend about the great beauty of Tsaritsina last night.  It’s true.  I got out there about 9 am.  The park has dorozhki/trapinki (walking paths) all over the place.  The air was fresh and clean.
 The birds were deafening—so much so that I didn’t listen to my podcasts for about an hour.  Then I got back into Marketplace, The Story, and Slate’s Gabfest.

            I didn’t run as far as last Wednesday—I was mighty tired.  I think I haven’t been getting enough calories to maintain fitness of a marathon runner.  I vow to eat more. 

            Today was Victory Day which celebrates the anniversary of the end of WWII. My first Russian teacher told me that the Russians don't call WWII, WWII.  Russian call WWII, "The Great Patriotic War" (GPW).  He said they use this name because so many people died—nearly everyone has a family member or several who died in that war.  Another teacher told me that the Russian has so many people in their army that one of their 'tactics' was simply not to have any tactics except run at the enemy with their inexhaustible supply of people. The first to charge simply drew their fire and used up enemy ammunition  Last week, one of my students told me that the GPW was fought from 1939 until 1941.  It begin when Hitler reneged on his pledge not to attack the Russians.  After 1941, around the time when the US came in, the war became WWII.

            Here are some pictures of the park.  When I got home, I went to a website for Tsaritseno Park:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsaritsyno_Park   you will see a heap of restored buildings.  I’m proud that I wasn’t interested in the buildings.  Man-made stuff doesn’t interest me much.

No man-made stuff except for this fountain...

…and for these pedal-powered vehicles.  I took their picture for the boys…

…and for these solar-powered lights.  I like the idea…

…and for this climbing tower.  If you click on the picture, you can see a larger version, and you can more clearly see the hand/toe holds.  I hope no kid was sacrificed before the people who put this thing up understood that it is a bit dangerous.

Smoking while pregnant

Last night, I may have missed an opportunity.  I was walking home when I saw a woman smoking—not something unusual.  People here smoke a lot.  The thing about this woman is that she was in the seventh month of pregnancy.  I didn’t say a thing to her.  I was thinking later, “Maybe here, people haven’t heard about the dangers of smoking while pregnant.  I could have approached her with a big smile on my face and I could have suggested that she go to the internet and search for ‘smoking while pregnant.’  I could have put a tiny seed of concern in her mind.  She might have ignored me on the spot, but when she got home, by herself in front of her laptop without anyone looking over her shoulder, maybe she would have searched for information.”

            It’s total non-sense when I think of all the times when I’ve stuck my face in someone’s business for dropping a gum wrapper, but I didn’t say anything when I saw a real problem like this.