McDiplomacy

I'm not embarrased to say I have already visited McDonalds, mainly
because the first time it was not my idea but that of my Belgian
friend, Nicolas. Another one of my fellow foreign students here, Julia
(hailing from Germany) remarked that McDonalds is like the American
Embassy. How right she is, it sums up all the great and not so great
things about America; the success of the mediocre, catering to the
masses, plastic; but also, of course, consistency, accessibility,
equal opportunity, bright colors, happy meals. What can I say, I like
McDonalds and they are everywhere here, Russians love them and
tourists are comforted by them. Here a hamburger, six chicken
mcnuggets, and a coke cost about $3.40. And everything tastes just
like it does in any other McDonalds in the world. Except here you can
get curry sauce with your mcnuggets, and the pies are still deep
fried, not baked (I found this in England also). Here they know this
stuff isn't healthy, why make a pathetic attempt to make the pie
marginally more healthy by baking it, and in the process ruining the
taste? In this case I'm enjoying the "little differences" Vincent Vega
so eloquently spoke of in Pulp Fiction.

We traveled about 60 km outside of Moscow yesterday by rail to visit
Sergeev Posad, a city in which there is a famous ancient monastery,
with a large walled compound containing many beautiful churches and
other facilities. It receives many, many visitors - tourists and
pilgrims alike. Across the street from the monastery there was a
restaurant named "American Pie," which had a big poster from the movie
of the same name on its outside wall, facing the monastery no less. As
we were entering the the gates of the monastery, Nicolas joked that
maybe there is a McDonalds inside. Fortunately there wasn't, but after
we left the monastary and explored the town, what did we find on the
main street about a kilometer from the ancient holy place? A
McDonalds. It was a good thing we had already eaten.