1,000 Spitting, Smoking, Snot Rocket Asians

September 17th

Today I had to work again (gasp). I went to the museum to watch my crate loaded into the truck. This is a photo (obtained somewhat on the sly) of the grand staircase inside the Pushkin. Since there is no elevator, all works of art must be carried up and down these bad boys. It's beautiful though, yes?

Before our crates went into the truck, the incoming show had to be unpacked. As seems to be the case in the rest of Moscow, this museum does things in their own fashion, including hiring a million laborers as brute force. I have never seen a crate unloaded like this in my career.

Or schlepped up the stairs like this:

I would now like to make some politically incorrect statements about the labor force. They were DISGUSTING. They all smoked and smoked and smoked. However, that was beneficial for masking the underlying stink of body odor. They did a lot of spitting and I loath spitting. BUT...I'll take spitting any day over blatant Snot Rockets. And I'm not talking about some Off-To-The-Side-In-Some-Bushes Snot Rockets, but some Out-In-The-Open-Directly-Next-To-The-Truck-And-Entrances Snot Rockets. I was appalled!

Here is a picture of me being appalled and protecting my baby crate (while trying not to toss my cookies) from the surrounding smoking booger crew. (Thanks to Elizabeth for managing to catch the exhale.)

After work, a few necessary vodka tonics, and a way overpriced Italian dinner, I packed my suitcase with glee. Tomorrow afternoon I could say good-bye to Moscow. Oh, and here is your Stray Dog of the Day. These guys swung by real quick (hence the blur) as we loaded the truck. Thankfully I think the stink of the crew drove them off before they had a chance to pee on any of the crates.