Long time no blog

I returned to Russia Tuesday night, landing in sweltering Moscow ten hours late after being rerouted through London. I was just happy to get out of Atlanta, which was truly a madhouse, with the Delta employees handing out overnight kits for those who had to wait for a connection in the morning. The one downside of my escape was that my bag didn’t make it onto the British Airways flight with me, resulting in three days in Russia with no change of clothes and multiple trips back to the airport to check on, and finally retrieve, my bag.

The highlight of my time in Moscow was a visit to Lenin’s mausoleum. Like other luminaries throughout history, including Ho Chi Minh and Pizarro, Lenin has been preserved and is on display five days a week in his tomb outside of the Kremlin (his neighbors include Stalin and John Reed, the American author of Ten Days that Shook the World). He doesn’t have it too bad, aside from the chemical bath he endures every day; the interior of the mausoleum has some lovely mood lighting and is climate controlled. I was surprised at how short Lenin was (is?); he seemed more like a doll than anything else. Also, I think that his caretakers have had particular trouble preserving his hands. His right one is balled into a fist, and there were noticeable signs of decay on his left.

I’m back in Ulan-Ude now, the city of Lenin’s oversized head, which bears a striking resemblance to his real one, with the exception of the red hair. One of the wonderful aspects of Russian summers is the number of weddings, and it seems that every city has its requisite photo stop. In Ulan-Ude, that’s Lenin’s massive noggin. I will be here for about a month, with various side trips out of the city to conduct my survey planned, before traveling on to Kalmykia to conduct the survey there.

I still haven’t posted anything to the blog about my time in Tuva, mostly due to a lack of internet connectivity while there and a lack of motivation during my time in the States. I will. It was a fascinating place and I had a number of notable and diverting experiences, ranging from a concert by the throat singing group Huun-Huur-Tu to an encounter with the local authorities.