Day 2 in Russia Completed

Day 2 has been a mix of activity and slow boredom. The day began with us all finally at breakfast, which was a wide variety of things, as usual. Today, I did not have the eggs oer the oatmeal, but had coco puffs (Russian version), meatballs and sausage with a roasted vegetable medley. And, of course, coffee.

I spent the first 30 minutes talking with a mathematics professor from Tartu, in Estonia. He had a number of interesting insights into the career of the greal mathematician, Lobachevskii. Lobachevskii was one of the founders of non-Euclidean geometry, but he was not honored in his own lifetime for this accomplishment. He did serve as the Rector of the University, and actually got the job because he was married to the daughter of the local Trustee of the Educational District. Another thing I did not kbow was that he sequestered the university during an outbreak of cholera, thus saving many (most) of the university population.

We then got ready for the day's first excursion: our first visit to the Kremlin. The day itself was beautiful: sunny, maybe 75-80°, with a cooling breeze. Of course, I had no sunscreen, so now I am finging gthat I have gotten a touch of the sun. First job tomorrow -- SPF 30+. The first stop was to get a picture of the group across from the University Main Building in front of the statue of Vladimir Il'ich Ul'yanov (Lenin -- aka Leonardo DiCaprio -- look at the picture and you will see).

My e-mail delivery has become deathly slow (or I am being filtered to spam, that I can't get at thanks to Microsoft Outlook), so you will have to look here tomorrow.

We kept walking, and got to the Kremlin where our first serious stop was the beautiful Kul Sharif Mosque, where the students were able to climb to the visitor balconies in time to see noon prayers. Then, to finish off the morning, we visited the Cathedral of the Assumption, a scant 300 feet from the mosque. Like the mosque, this is a functioning place of worship, but unlike the mosque, we were not permitted to take photographs inside.

This time, I noticed metal detectors at the entrances to our hotel, and the mosque, and the cathedral. My photograph of my pacemaker avvisory may not have gotten much use in the airports, but it has been invaluable today.

On the way back from the Kremlin, we stopped for a "Business Lunch" at a small restaurant. It was excellent. There is a bookstore (Dom Knigi) between the restaurant and the hotel. Tje students bought books.

I am finding that the slightly off-center walking is aggravating my back. Fortunately, I have pain killers.

This afternoon we headed in the opposite direction, down to the Kol'tso mall. We all bought necessities (bottled water, soda, chocolate, etc.) at the store before going to the phone staore where Carly and I bought phones. That process only took 3 hours!

I will post again when the pictures become available.

your humble blogger.