5/24/09, 8:24 p.m.

we have some good excursions coming up this week
monday we're supposed to go to мамаев курган
check out the memorial there, and of course see the statue
tuesday we're going to the панорама down along the river
it's a big museum/memorial thing commemorating the battle
i'd really recommend reading about the battle of stalingrad
it was insane
and wednesday we have another concert [i think]
i think we're going to the symphony this time, but i dunno

we had a concert on saturday, and it was awesome
volgograd has a national folk orchestra [along with a philharmonic one]
it has all the fun russian instruments you hear about
балалайки, домры, баяны, and дудки
they played a bunch of southern russian and ethnic folk songs
they even had a group of башкиры there
and they played this really awesome song that i can't remember the name of
[башкортостан is a small republic near the border of kazakhstan]
the concert went a long time, but it was really good music

in the централный район [the central district],
they have a place called аллея героев [the alley of heroes]
it has a war memorial on it, and there are commemorative plaques lining the sides
they have a pretty decently sized book store on it that i went to on thursday
i was perusing for some more reading material
and i found the complete plays of chekhov there
all four, nice print, good quality book, for 127 rubles
or, in usd, just under $4
by comparison, my english version cost me $20
stuff is so inexpensive here it's ridiculous
i even got room service [пельмени and борщ] in moscow for 189 rubles [$6]
it's insane

among other things we've found when walking around централный район,
we came across a really cool bar called белая лощадь, the white horse
it's an experience to say the least
when we went there
they were playing american music,
which happened to be on an italian music station,
all while ordering in russian
it's about as surreal as talking to a japanese waitress and nigerian students in russian
volgograd is crazy, and i love it