Bitter-sweet farewells

This summer has been one of slow, drawn-out farewells. Another music post, this goes out to you Moscow:

I'm sitting in the Warsaw airport on my way home from 2 years of studying in Moscow, Russia. I can hardly believe that I am finally on my way back to the US after SOOOOO long being absent. The time in Russia was incredibly difficult on me, and I owe so much to friends and family that got me through the toughest times. I can honestly say that I've never felt more alone, betrayed, angry, and bitter than I often did in Moscow. I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship with this city (I guess I should say that city now), with a bit of a Stockholm syndrome thing going on (a bit, I mean, I'm not super in love). And yet, saying goodbye to all of my dear friends over the summer tore a bit of me out. That's the catch with living in a place so far away, you can never really take all of you along when you finally leave. Moscow, you definitely took a big part of me for yourself, but I guess in a weird way I love you for it...bitch.

The last little while in Russia I got into 'do everything Russia' mode. I ate so many pelmeni, vareniki, and pirogi that I definitely don't want to see them for quite some time now; I made it to a museum that a friend and I had tried to hit up twice before with no success; I threw a shashlik (shishkebab) roast for a ton of my friends; and I gave a talk in my church.

One of my most anticipated activities was to catch the sunrise over Sparrow Hills. To do this I had to wake up at about 4.00 am to run the 10k there and catch it on time (I could have done this at a time of year when the sun rises much, much later, but I procrastinated). I was expecting a totally tender moment with Moscow where I re-convince myself that I really do love this city. Instead I found a bunch of drunk people driving around screaming...I was pretty disappointed (although on the other hand you've got to hand it to them for still being drunk at 4.45). The sunrise was beautiful though, and at least I had a nice run without any traffic.

Then I graduated from my Master's program.

Anyway, after all my little goodbyes, it finally came time to go. People ask me a lot 'what now?' Now I'm nervous, excited, burned-out, tired, and a bit hungry. We'll see what comes next, but for now, Прощай, Москва.

A Bit Depressing at First, But It Gets Lighter at the End

We visited the Holocaust Museum. This is the sort of place that breaks one's heart. I have a hard time believing just how cruel humans can become. I think it's impossible for me to relay the emotions and thoughts of going through a memorial like this. The name of the museum is Yad Vashem, meaning a place and a name. In the spirit of remembering I'm including a few quotations that struck me.

'When our children cried in the shadow of the gallows, We never heard the world's anger. For Thou didst choose us from all people. Thou didst love us and favor us...and when our children are marched to the gallows, Jewish chlidren, wise Jewish children, They know that their blood is not counted in the Bloodshed - They only call back to their mothers: Mother, don't look.' -Nathan Alterman, 1942

'I know that when I stand before God on Judgement Day, I shall not be asked the question posed to Cain - where were you when your brother's blood was crying out to God?' -Imre Bathory.

'So for us even the hour of liberty rang out grave and muffled, and filled our souls with joy and yet with a painful sense of shame...and also with anguish, because we felt that this should never happen, that now nothing could ever happen good and pure enough to rub out our past, and that the scars of the outrage would remain within us forever.' -Primo Levi, The Truce

The day ended with getting fantastically lost on the Mount of Olives. Well, not lost really, we just thought we could get into some sites that were actually closed. But we caught a beautiful sunset over Jerusalem from our vantage point, and I had some mild epiphanies that I think will stick with me for a while (if you really want to hear them call me and we'll talk).

The next day we headed to Bethlehem to check out the birthplace of Jesus. It turned out to be much more of an adventure than I bargained for, since it's in Palestinian territory. I met a British girl who convinced us to go to the wall separating Israel and Palestine and we ended up having a fascinating discussion with our taxi driver about the condition of the conflict.

One of my favorite parts (and least favorite parts) was the people on pilgrimages. It was inspiring to see so many people from all over the globe gathering to pay homage to their beliefs.

The emotions surrounding the wall were a bit hard to take in. So many cultures clash here, but the wall itself seems so archaic and cold. Walls just scream evil in my mind.

We saw a handful of Banksys along the way, which was cool.

We drove in to Tel Aviv for the last half of the day to hit up the beach. It was so relaxing playing in the water, going for a run up the coast, and coming back to a fantastic view of Joppa. This was the perfect way to end a stressful trip.

I found some really cool workout equipment and had to play on it. 

Photo Overload: Mountains, Masada, Ein Gedi, Dead Sea

Days 2 and 3 are sort of melded together in my mind, but they were so very different. Day 2 started out with an early morning run (after cleaning the cat fur off my face) up the Mount of Olives and over to Mt. Scopus.

The view from the top of Mt. Scopus

After the run and a bit of Shabbat fun at the Jerusalem Center (really fantastic) we finished the day off with more sites around the city. If I'm perfectly honest, most of these sites were a bit of a disappointment. With all the thousands of pilgrims wandering the city, it's quite difficult to get a feeling of reverence, and look at the sites as they really ought to be. Some of my favorite moments in Jerusalem were not at the famous  Christian, Judaic, or Muslim sites but in random corners of the city where I could just look over it and think of its significance. That being said, here are some more pictures of the famous sites.

Protestant's version of Calvary

Protestant's version of Jesus' Tomb

Garden of Gethsemane

The next day we woke up at 3am to catch the sunrise at Masada, an old fortress first built by Alexander Jannaeus, later taken by Herod the Great, then later by the Romans in about 70 AD. The Romans laid siege to the fortress, and rather than give in to them, the zealots inside committed mass suicide. 

...but the sunrise over the Dead Sea was nice.

 

The cistern and the only remaining inhabitant of the fortress.

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Really just incredible.

After Masada I swung up to the natural springs of Ein Gedi, which is where David hid from Solomon in his early years. 

This rock was just begging to be climbed. 

This waterfall had a sign that forbade swimming. But I've always been a rule breaker.

I decided to try to run to the top of the falls with the 15 minutes I had left. Another passenger on the bus told me I couldn't make it, but I think we all know that made me want to do it all the more. Sorry for the bad video, but you get the picture I think.

After Ein Gedi we drove up to the Dead Sea to take a dip. This was pretty fun, and very odd. You can just sit, or even stand in the water and you just float. 

The mud is apparently really good for your skin.

And that was all done by about 2.00. The rest of the day is for another post. 

I am returned unto Zion, and will dwell in the midst of Jerusalem: and Jerusalem shall be called a city of truth. ~ God of the Old Testament

Wednesday I bought a ticket to Israel. Thursday I went to Israel. Before you start thinking that I'm rich and frivolous, tickets are super cheap from here...so only the latter is true. I flew into Tel Aviv Thursday night, and the next morning was on a bus for Jerusalem.

Day one was a bit confusing, trying to find my way around a city that I had 1) not planned anything for 2) had no map of and 3) has so many interesting things that I easily got distracted/lost. It turned out ok, and I found the hostel (which ended up being an adventure all on its own), and started the tour of the city.

At the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, where Orthodox faiths believe Christ was crucified and buried. I was trying to figure out where to go next and looking great doing it.

Western Wall

Random school above the Western Wall. As I've said before, one of my favorite things to do is just wander around new cities. This definitely held true in Jerusalem.

Such a fascinating cultural struggle. The whole time I was there I was just blown away that things don't just erupt into violence. It's such a strange balance.

 After a long day of wandering around Jerusalem and seeing much more than I'll ever be able to tell, we came back to our hostel. This hostel is located in the middle of the old city, and you're supposed to sleep on the roof. I set aside mats and blankets, but when I came back they had been commandeered (filthy hostel hippies). All that was left was a damp one and a sheet. It was pretty cold, but luckily a tabby cat came and slept on my face to keep me warm.

This is what I woke up to. Sort of worth the freezing night, right?

Days 2, 3, and 4 to come!

I Defended My Thesis Because No One Else Would...Poor Little Guy

That's right, on Monday this week I defended my thesis. This was the last act of the theatrics that were my Master's Program. The reviews were fantastic. I got a happy rainbow pot o'gold (scores are given in lucky charms here, just another peculiarity about Russia).

Another peculiarity about Russia is that apparently your program forgets you exist for 6 months while you're trying to write your thesis. This got quite depressing at times, since I had to go about teaching myself the entire subject matter. I learned so much about myself in the process, but I think the paper turned out slightly worse than it would have with support. Anyway, significant effort went into this paper, so I thought I'd include my abstract here on my blog just for memory's sake.

Abstract                                                      

This thesis will investigate short-run investment herding in Russian markets.  It has two objectives:  first, it will explore informational cascades as an example of herding to suggest a timeline in Russian markets. Second: it will apply game theory to transition conditions to suggest a larger Eastern European context for the Russian example. There is some scholarly interest in herding in developed and developing countries, but there is little literature on transition countries[1]. Do herding models have validity outside advanced markets? The answer to this question can be found partly in price irregularities in the market. My thesis has policy-relevant conclusions.

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[1]      See Miller (2008)