Damn, there's a lot I should comment on. [gobi stretches her fingers]
So, in the order as they appear:
About Victory Day. Yup, once it was very clear cut for me, too. And now it isn't. I have a lot of mixed up feelings about WWII in general and how things were handled by all the countries involved. Still, when I think about the war, I associate it with my grandparents (both of whom passed away in the last 3yrs... and I was stuck in the US, so another load of guilt right there). I read "Molodaya Gvardiya" as a teenager and I tried to be objective given the general consensus at the time that it was a very skewed propaganda novel. But it touched something inside of me, my grandparents were from the same region as described in the novel, and I couldn't help imagining them in place of the characters. It all becomes personal at some point. I've heard my grandparents' stories and I've heard stories from people on the other side (Germans and Poles) and I concluded that war is a terrible thing and that nobody really wins.
I used to walk a lot in Moscow, too. If I was lucky and my friends would be in town when I visited in the summer, we'd visit the museums and exhibits and all the parks. When I wasn't so lucky, I'd walk around by myself, shopping or just wondering around, visiting childhood routes. When you only have several channels on the TV, it forces you to get out of the house :)
Oh my God, the food! For me, it's the dairy. Packing on the way back is a nightmare, I'd always get loaded with alcohol, dried mushrooms, chocolate, dark bread, various gifts... that's the annoying thing, you always haul stuff back and forth and most of it is not even for you. Once I smuggled grechka/buckwheat (it's available in Oregon hippie stores, but it's not the same).
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
zaluzianskya and ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
skylark_photos
no subject
Date: 2004-07-18 02:21 pm (UTC)So, in the order as they appear:
About Victory Day. Yup, once it was very clear cut for me, too. And now it isn't. I have a lot of mixed up feelings about WWII in general and how things were handled by all the countries involved. Still, when I think about the war, I associate it with my grandparents (both of whom passed away in the last 3yrs... and I was stuck in the US, so another load of guilt right there). I read "Molodaya Gvardiya" as a teenager and I tried to be objective given the general consensus at the time that it was a very skewed propaganda novel. But it touched something inside of me, my grandparents were from the same region as described in the novel, and I couldn't help imagining them in place of the characters. It all becomes personal at some point. I've heard my grandparents' stories and I've heard stories from people on the other side (Germans and Poles) and I concluded that war is a terrible thing and that nobody really wins.
I used to walk a lot in Moscow, too. If I was lucky and my friends would be in town when I visited in the summer, we'd visit the museums and exhibits and all the parks. When I wasn't so lucky, I'd walk around by myself, shopping or just wondering around, visiting childhood routes. When you only have several channels on the TV, it forces you to get out of the house :)
Oh my God, the food! For me, it's the dairy. Packing on the way back is a nightmare, I'd always get loaded with alcohol, dried mushrooms, chocolate, dark bread, various gifts... that's the annoying thing, you always haul stuff back and forth and most of it is not even for you. Once I smuggled grechka/buckwheat (it's available in Oregon hippie stores, but it's not the same).
More later.