First I went to Mockba

(St. Basil's)

Mockba is how you spell Moscow in the Russian alphabet. The Russian language and alphabet were partially responsible for making Russia the craziest place I have ever been. I have never been to a place were so few people spoke English and where I couldn't even sound out the metro signs. After being there for a few days I decided I should probably try to figure out how to pronounce the Russian words. After I figured out how to do that the world got smaller and I felt more comfortable being there. I got really good at saying the word for "English" in Russian which is "Angleeskee." Many people starting talking to me in Russian. When this happened I would get a petrified look on my face and would sheepishly say "Angleeskee," then they would smile, shrug their shoulders, and walk away. Not being able to communicate with people is so frustrating!

This whole trip was an incredible experience, the kind I never want to forget.

I spent the first week at a conference of the International Association of Music Libraries. It was a very interesting conference with some incredible presentations. I presented my paper "A Bibliographic Overview of Research on Music Copyists" on Monday. It was nice to get it over with so I could enjoy the rest of the conference without having to worry about putting more finishing touches on my PowerPoint presentation. I am pleased with how the presentation went. Monday-Thursday afternoon were spent at the conference events including a wonderful Baroque conference in the Russian National Museum in Moscow. My favorite part of the concert was of course the baroque oboes. The oboists inspired me to once again try my hand at the difficult instrument. I regret that I did not take very many pictures during these first few days of my trip. My one lame excuse: jet lag.

My dear Philip arrived on Thursday afternoon. He had just been traveling for about 24 hours, but he was still willing to go see downtown Moscow with me. Here are a few pictures from that evening:


Eclipse was playing!



This is me entering the Russian MTC.

Phil always looks so cool.

The best meal of our whole trip...

at a really cool outdoor restaurant!