Eve Lopez's Page

I have only two more days here. Tomorrow is my last day at Children's Hospital. It will be a special day for me. I'm going to repeat the project that Richard and I did so successfully last time - paper picture frames and a photo session of each of them with a Poloroid camera. They're going to love it.

The way CCS-Russia works is this: We go to a placement (hospital, boarding school, shelter, elderly home, disabled center) with a translator, and first off we do a craft. The Russians believe in "… Continue

Today, at the Children's Hospital, we went outside. I didn't bring my gloves because I didn't know we were going outside. A little boy pointed to my hands and pretended to be shivering. "I forgot them," I said, pointing away, and stuffing my hands in my pockets. It's amazing how much one can communicate without understanding each other's language. The little boy took off his left glove and handed it to me, and I almost died. "Nyet, nyet, spasiba!" I said, giving it back to him. It was one of the… Continue

There is no snow.

The Russians are pretty angry about it, too. They are used to having great snow during their New Year and everyone is worried about global warming. It is also messing with my banya. For the real banya includes not diving into cold water, I learned, but actually diving into heaps of powdery, fluffy snow.

Nadia, the director, is loathe to take us because she says that diving into slush is not "as nice" as diving into snow. She wants to wait...

I really hope it snows.

Everythi… Continue

I spent my last day in Russia roaming the streets of downtown Moscow. I got lost twice in exactly the same way. Had coffee and eggs off of Red Square.

Visited the former State Department Store (GUM), which used to be a government building with small stores, each selling rations of something different -- one for bread, one for meat, and so forth. It was notorious for being consistently understocked.

Now, it's a big mall with Dior, Louis Vuitton, and more.

St. Basil's Cathedral was just as lumi… Continue

I took the overnight train on Friday night and was kind of scared. Nobody spoke English. All signs were in the Crylllic Russian language. Thank god for universal numbers.

I stopped a girl and asked in Russian, "Hello, can you help me?" She just stared at me. I whipped out my unintelligible ticket and she pointed toward the 3rd-class carriage.

I smoked a cigarette, anxious. There were military men idling about, intimidating in their dark green coats, brass buttons and big Russian hats.

Finally… Continue