It's now Tuesday morning, and we will be doing day 2 of translating Markovnikov's Dr. Chem. dissertation. The wonderful thing is that we have both dissertations, so we can see the places where the examiners did not understand or agree with Markovnikov's statements, and see how Markovnikov had matured as a chemist from the M. Chem. degree (many more such places in the dissertation) to the Dr. Chem. degree.  These questions alone will make a fascinating paper (in my opinion, of course).

A morning full of translating was followed by a late (2:30 pm) lunch and then more exploration of the city. I had some shopping to do, and we went to the Central University Market (ЦУМ), where I was able to get what I needed. It also meant yet another day in much brighter sunshine than is supposed to be at this time of the year, so I am sure that my dermatologist is not going to be happy. But... the fact that I have been walking up and down hills for an average of 3-4 hours per day will make my cardiologist happy!

The walk took us past the eastern side of the Kremlin, which gives an excellent view from outside the walls:

View of the Gul Sharif mosque in the Kremlin from the east side at the end of Baumann Street

The east wall of the Kremlin

The Kremlin, with the Gul Sharif mosque, and the Söyembikä tower to its left. Sasha is taking the photograph in the foreground.

Below the walls of the Kremlin on this side, there is a topiary of a peackck, with a flower garden as its tail:

The peacock below the Kremlin. Note how the flowers show the eyes on the tail.

The peacock up close and personal. Sasha spotted a vole under its tail.

Going to the market, we once again crossed the canal through town. On Saturday, we found out from our guide that this canal was built by Ivan the Terrible to segregate the city, with Tatars (Moslems) on the east bank, and Russians (Christians) on the west bank. You can actually see the difference because on the east bank, the Russian orthodox churches are generally small, while the mosques tend to be more numerous and larger. The big cathedrals are all on the west bank, and the mosques on the west bank are less numerous and smaller (at least, this is my perception).

The canal through the city: the Kremlin is to the left

The canal has a mural at the closed (north) end:

Gene taking a movie of the fountains in the canal (or of the pigeons, not sure which)

Sasha is shooting a panorama shot of the mural. These telephone cameras are marvellous, and put my little old camera to shame!

On our way back to the hotel, we passed the Kremlin Metro station, topped with the Kazan winged dragon, symbol of the city (the winged leopard is the symbol of Tatarstan).

The entrance to the Kremlin Metro station

The winged dragon of Kazan

In an earlier post, I noted a church with green-topped spires (an unusual color for an orthodox church, and much more common in mosques) below the plaza just outside the Kremlin. This was a mistake: the building is, in fact, the monastery associated with the Church of St. Nicholas.

The green roof and spires belong to the monastery associated with the Church of St. Nicholas. The fact that this is a monastery, and not a church, is clearly announced on the banner on the side of the building, which advertises the "Monastery shop"

I have also found some advantages in the fact that I cannot really watch television (there are two English-language channels, but neither really interests me -- I can hear English back in the US), at least with full understanding, because my command of Russian is not good enough. Suffice it to say that seeing a Tom Cruise movie dubbed into Russian is a surreal experience. It almost -- ALMOST -- makes me wish I had actually seen the movie in English. I have seen the movies on the Disney channel, but it is so long since I have seen one ("Pocohontas" was on two nights ago) that I have forgotten ALL the dialog, so I don't understand any of it. The Kazan channel is fascinating to watch: it has segments on the weather, exercise by a woman who has bigger biceps muscles than I do, fashion cooking, and a full five minutes each day for your horoscope. There are also about three minutes of news daily, but I think that most Russians get their news from one of the three national channels.

The time has, however, allowed me to make much faster progress on my other project, reformatting the diagrams from that wonderful upcoming textbook, "Advanced Organic Chemistry."

More anon...