SR. SOCIAL

There was a Sr. Couples Conference held shortly before we arrived in Russia that we didn't get to participate in for the obvious reason that we weren't here :) Since then there have been a few attempts made to hold another one but for a variety of reasons they never happened. We've seen each other from time to time, and had a few visits over Skype, but never had a chance to really get to know the other senior couples. President Gibbons decided to fix that.

Wednesday morning we left early on the train and headed to Novosibirsk. We met up with the three other couples at the mission office and enjoyed a nice walk to the Mission Home. It was a hot day outside, so it was a relief to walk into the building--while not air conditioned and fairly warm, at least it was out of the sun. The eight of us piled into the elevator, the doors swooshed shut, and the elevator sat. And sat. Then it sat some more. Pushing buttons didn't help. The alarm button only gave out a weak sound. The doors wouldn't open. It was getting warmer and warmer every minute. Finally Elder Webb pulled out his cell phone and called President Gibbons. A few minutes later the doors finally opened and we spilled out into the cool lobby that before seemed so hot. We're not sure why the doors finally opened; we're guessing that maybe it was that President Gibbons hit the call button so the doors opened to let him on. We split into two groups and went up on other elevators. Later when we left, half of us walked down the stairs.

We walked to The Mexican, a restaurant a few blocks away. We enjoyed a good (Mexican) meal there. Then we walked another couple of blocks to the theater where they had tickets for us to see a Russian ballet, Coppelia. It was wonderful! Dave has been hoping we'd get to see a Russian ballet before we leave, and we did!

Approaching the "Novosibirsk Opera and Ballet Theater"

The building was completed around 1945, hence the old Soviet symbol on the bas relief above the entrance.

 

It is bigger than the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow. The architect was either killed or imprisoned when that was found out. (We've heard both, but since we can't read much Russian, we couldn't verify which.) It is also bigger than any theaters in all of Europe.

The Gibbons said the coat check area is wonderful--even in January, with all the people who attend and check their heavy winter coats, getting out after is quick and painless with several coat check areas like this:

This is one of four coat checks. Of course, in July they're unnecessary.

This is the end of the season--we saw the last performance of Coppelia. There is one more performance of La Bayadere. Apparently they have one opera company and one ballet company, and rotate through a variety of ballets and operas, rather than several performances of one show and then start on a different production. President Gibbons said they will often put on 2-3 different ballets and 2-3 different operas in a single week!

The inside of the theater is beautiful:

And outside the rotunda:

Then there was the performance. Absolutely awesome!

 

 

We are SO glad we had the opportunity to see a Russian ballet.


This week's Russianism:
While we enjoyed going on a day train (for most of our trips we've had our own sleeping compartment instead of regular seating), things did get rather warm on our way home the next day. A lady came through the car with a basket of ice cream treats, so we bought one. We were surprised to open it and see that it was an ice cream cone. They lined the inside of the cone with a chocolate shell (like the outside of an Eskimo Pie) and then filled it with ice cream. The cone doesn't get soggy. It was very tasty! No pictures of those--we ate them too quickly.

By the way, today is National Ice Cream Day in the U.S. Hope you get to enjoy some ice cream!