Thoughts after visiting Moscow

Moscow: Summer is here for two short months, and the population of Moscow spends as much time as possible outdoors. Women pick their way through the crowd, styled as if they bought everything they could get their hands on at Zara, and got dressed in a room with no mirror. Jerseys, belts, jeans, shoes, hats, sweaters, jackets, "put together" after the fashion of the old "Czechoslovakian Swingers." Men favor pastel suits with shiny patent leather Italian style shoes. Commerce does exist here, but the Russians in Moscow have not yet mastered the concept of "service." Why would you want to know how much time your $20 phone card will buy? Just pay.But the Russians are emotional and passionate, and there is much making out in public.Teenagers line public benches, drinking large bottles of beer. This is considered a social triumph, because otherwise they would be guzzling the same volume of vodka.Some of the buildings are painted pastel colors, and look as if they have been squeegeed every day. Others are 70s and 80s crappy construction, of steel and glass. Then there are the basilicas, with their onion domes of gold, or crazy patterns. The city has been contructed and torn down and built again. Across from our hotel we see an enormous pit where the old Intourist hotel, the Moskva, one stood. Yesterday it was announced that beneath the former hotel they discovered over a ton of explosives, probably buried beneath at the beginning of World War II.The Russians are fond of last-ditch destruction in the face of invasion.Oops, that was the dinner bell, I must go. If I have vodka again, there is no way I will return to post to this site. from Russia, with love,AMY J MARASH