As I might have mentioned on this blog before, I work in a school.  That school has many students from many different countries that stay for a short time or for a long time.

Recently, we’ve gotten a lot of students from Russia.  They are quite young and it is funny talking to them.  They are 15, 16, 17 years old.  They have no memory of a world divided in the United States and the Soviet Union.  They don’t remember the us vs. them mentality that a lot of people had during the Cold War.  They don’t remember an Olympics full of red uniforms, hammers and sickles and serious faces.  They simply don’t remember a world like that.

At first when I realized this, I thought my, my, that is unfortunate, but as I think of it more, I feel my point of view changing.  They don’t know a world of hatred, divisions and tensions.  They know a world where America and Russia are not at the brink of war with one another.  Yes, things aren’t exactly peachy all the time, but not the Cold War type of tension.

On Saturday I took a group of these students onboard the USS Oak Hill and thought to myself that this kind of visit would have been impossible, unheard of thirty years ago.  No way the American military would have allowed Soviets onto an American warship.  And the other way around, no way that would be allowed.  There is just no way.

But times are different now.  And it was a lovely visit:

GO AWAY:

I’ve learned the hard way where and when you can and cannot take photos.

You cannot take photos:

1. At a recycling plant.

2. In a Korean supermarket.

3. Of Victoria Beckham when she isn’t in her photo op area.

4. While a guy is explaining the lost wax process.

5. In the Isabella Stuart Gardner museum.

6. At a jewelry stand.

And a couple of days ago, I found out that you cannot take photos of the shattered glass in front of a Macy’s window display.  Well, you can’t take more than two photos before they catch you on the security camera and close the curtains on you.  But you can get a shot or two done:

Many is the time I’ve been mistaken and many times confused.

Weary to my bones.

So far away from home.

I’ve often felt forsaken and certainly misused.

Still tomorrow’s gonna be another working day.  I’ll try to get some rest.

(Paul Simon’s words, not mine).

Kinda felt like those words came back to me when I was on Spectacle Island and George’s Island in the past couple of days:

My life is never lacking for interesting characters:

I was about 12 years old when a little movie called Cinema Paradiso came out.  I watched it many times, but a couple of years ago, something strange started to happen.  Whenever I would even watch the trailer, I would start to cry.  It is about a kid from a small town in Sicily who finds who he is at the movies.  He befriends the film operator at the only movie theater in his town.  He falls in love with a girl he sees at the movie theater and their first kiss is there.  Its all very romantic and emotional.

A couple of days ago in my classroom, I showed a clip from Cinema Paradiso.  I got a little tear in my eye when I showed the clip, due to allergies.  Yeah.  Allergies.

Here are two little old movie theaters for your evening entertainment:

Boston, from the top of Mount Wachusett:

I spend my winters delighting in the snowy slopes of Wachusett.  Yesterday I saw the area without snow for the first time and it was kind of amazing.  I have always wondered what it looked like with no snow.  It is just as lovely as I had imagined:

USS Constitution edition.

Sometimes things just happen perfectly, like this insanely well timed shot of this guide on the USS Constitution: