On the steps of the palace!

Or in a booth in Starbucks, for, once again, I am without Internet in my room.

yay.

The outrage over losing internet – daily – is building. I am paying, when the interest is tallied, upwards of $100,000 to be a part of this program (for the whole two years – around $50 grand for the first year, around $40 grand for the second, plus interest), and the goddamn Internet doesn’t work. Download one .pdf regarding a summer fellowship and WHAM! “NIET DENEG” = “NO MONEY.”

MXT, or it’s “IT people,” is making hand over fist from my Internet usage. It’s outrageous. It’s impossible to accomplish basic tasks one needs to stay connected: read the newspaper, write e-mails, write blogs, looks for summer employment. While my free-time internet searching used up my initial minutes, I’ve been very protective of the megabytes I’ve purchased. No videos, no Skypeing, no uploads to Facebook (except for 1 photo). And once again, I’m out of internet time.

Frustrating. Royally frustrating - especially after a beautiful wintery day. Today classes were cancelled for us dramaturgs. Igor Vishnevetsky, our Russian Lit. teacher, had to attend a conference, and Anatoly, our dramaturgy professor, is busy in Milan. So, no school. Seizing this oppporunity, us four D'turgs and Nastia (our fab American Studio administrator) went to the Kremlin Palace. It was pretty amazing.

Overwhelming does not describe the Kremlin. Impressive is more appropriate, I think. The Kremlin Palace took us about 2 hours or so to wander through. Giant golden platters, Faberge eggs, scepters, 13th century crowns, thrones, massive gold leaf carraiges and numerous other treasures fill about 5 massive rooms in the Palace. Definitely impressive, but not overwhelming. Stunning in its beauty and opulence, but not blinding.

The Hermitage, I hear, will leave you breathless. It's size, its collection, its decadence leave the Kremlin in the dust. But its still some damn beautiful dust.

The older parts of the Kremlin complex are also beatiful. The Church of the Assumption (?) and the Church of Archangel were two that we went into. They were awesome - in the literal sense of the word. The modest size, but the immense history, inspire awe. Being able, with the aid of art history lessons, to decode some of the history adds to the awe. The height and spans of plaster, tinted with various hues to create angels and saints and Virgins and God. To know that it was made several centuries ago, and is still standing, is awe-inspiring.

If only my access to the internet could inspire such awe.