(Before you start -- this is a LONG one, I know. It's the 2nd day in Moscow, and our first full day of trying to run errands. I've split it into sections, just look for the asterisk marking lines. Those sections are: Morning; Electronics-Stores-Are-Awful-Places-When-You're-A-Foreign-Language-Student; Dinner + Politics; Red Square; and The Trip Home. Have fun! --MK =^_~=)
Happy birthday, mutti!
As per normal rules, I've not slept yet, so it doesn't count as a missed day.
Up and at 'em early -- although, I was up for most of the night. Slept from about 9:30 ish to 11pm, when my roommate woke up and asked me what time it was -- although it was obvious there was no light coming in from outside -- I told her it was 11 (PM), and bless her heart, she asked if it was AM (meaning we'd have been very, VERY late for today's orientation events) -- and after that, I proceeded to wake up about every hour until maybe around 5 or 6, and then I got a few more hours in, until we got up at 8:15. Isn't it funny, though, how you're always "up" until it's time to *get* up.
In the hallway, on the way down to breakfast, we saw the remnants of a party in the hallways -- pistachio shells everywhere, along with cigarette buts, and a few beer bottles, and the like. We were quite surprised to see it all just strewn about by the window in front of the elevators; but as we learned later in the day, it seems Russians aren't about picking up their trash. That deserves a qualification -- at restaurants/fast food places/etc. -- where an American may expect to bus his or her own table, Russians do not. You leave your trash where it lies, and someone else picks it up. (Please note: to any Russians who happen to read this, or anyone who may be offended by the comment -- I don't mean that that is true for everyone; just that it's something we were told.) Another interesting difference -- when it comes to transactions, here, no money ever changes hands. That is to say, you never directly give someone money, in Russia. You either place it on the table or in a drawer/divisor of some kind, where the person you're dealing with can pick it up. According to our resident director, John, this stems from an old superstition about it being bad luck for money to pass between peoples' hands. These days, most people aren't familiar with the superstition, but they know that money isn't supposed to go from hand to hand. But, I digress.
Breakfast was at the little cafe here in the dorms, but there wasn't much to actually get for breakfast -- it was mostly junk food. I went with a pineapple juice box, and grabbed a bottle of water for the day, too. While we were at breakfast, I got to thinking about the distinct lack of fruit and vegetables I'd seen (or rather, hadn't seen) within just the last two days. Everyone's right: meat and potatoes -- and soup. Don't get me wrong, everything I've had so far has been *delicious* but -- I want more plant life, that's edible, around. … I digress, again. =^_~=
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Orientation took up most of the morning, with useful hints about metro, busses, cell phones, and wi-fi internet, and then we broke up. As far as the useful hints go, here is what we learned:
When it comes to Metro, you can buy, basically, any of the following:
* 1 ride pass
* 5 ride pass
*Two kinds of monthly passes:
*Transportnaya karta - By day (30, 60, 365)
*Poezdnoi - By calendar month
*Student pass -- although, getting one is apparently hopeless for most people. Because I'm going to be here for a year and a half, however, they are going to see what they can do for me with that, and told me to ask again on Monday.
With the two kinds of monthly passes, the former will get you unlimited rides, while the latter has a limit of about 70 rides per month. Also, with the Transportnaya, you buy the card (50 Rubles), and then you can add time/money [however you want to think of it] to the card. Unfortunately, all of the prices on the Metro cards raised on January 1st, so the passes were twice as expensive!!!
Jess and I agreed to hit the metro (where everyone was going first, to see about buying a monthly pass), then to the Bee-line store (where we could get cell phone sim-cards, phones, and wi-fi cards), and if we had time, we'd change some money, and I'd buy a phone before dinner. Of course, as I mentioned before, the passes were much more expensive than we could have guessed (1530 rubles, all told, for the card and the pass) -- so I decided to use up the rest of the 5-ride pass I'd bought the day before, and I'd change some money and buy the 30 day pass on the way to dinner. Jess and I went off to the Beeline store, so that we could get better prices on the sim cards (hopefully the phones, for me), and the wi-fi cards... ...My goodness were we UNPREPARED!!!!! First of all, walking into a cell-phone/electronic store when you're already cognizant of how non-fluent you are is already intimidating. To see it buzzing with people, and realize you're *COMPLETELY* screwed is quite another!!! Nobody teaches you how to purchase a cell-phone plan in school! If anyone does, I should have been going there! If it hadn't been for a sales person who knew English, and another woman, just a regular customer, who knew it, and helped me when the sales person was gone, I'd NEVER have gotten a sim card. Ugh, talk about draining. And, after all that, I couldn't get a wi-fi card, because they told me that it would be better for me to bring my laptop in, and have someone who knew Russian help me set up my account, and get things going. Ha ha, ha... You know you're hopeless when…
After the pseudo-productive fiasco at Beeline (I had to cave on trying to use Russian, I didn't buy a phone because they were all extraordinarily expensive; but I had a sim-card...), Jess and I walked around the new part of Moscow we were in, and eventually stopped at a store/cafe to have lunch. The cafe was on the second floor, and I had a chicken broth with eggs (2, little ones!) soup; while Jess got a sandwich. I wondered what kind of eggs they were, that I was eating, and gave props to whomever it was that made the sandwich, because it was very pretty! It was also huge, and Jess gave me part of one of the halves to help her eat -- and -- everyone, you'll be proud -- there was mayonnaise on the sandwich, and I knew it, and I ate it anyway. Can't say I was horrendously fond of it (as I already knew) -- but I gave it another go-round. It was interesting, certainly! :P
We left and walked all the way back to the Dorms -- I was surprised we didn't take the Metro! Needless to say, I was pretty darn cold by the time we got back! We had about 15 minutes to ourselves before we needed to head out for dinner, because I needed to change money and buy my new Metro pass still. All of those things went rather quickly, and Jess and I were on our way to both our first Transfer on the Russian Metro, and to dinner. John (our RD) had told us that we would be being joined by some students from the university, and I think everyone in the group was a little excited, and a little nervous about that fact.
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We hit the Metro, and I pushed to the map on the train to find our path (because I'm Metro-Girl, you know). As I was looking at the map, the guy I happened to be looking over got up and gave me his seat. Rather kind of him. He was kinda cute; but I didn't get his name -- a first for me, who's used to getting into random conversations with perfect strangers, and getting names for them. I laughed about it with Jess, saying (in Russian), "I wish I'd gotten his name… Normally I do…" "… But not here!" Jess filled in. As clichéed as it may sound, we caught each others' eyes just before he got off the train with his friend, and we shared a smile.
Of course, that little Hallmark story might go two ways:
A. Happily Ever After -- Hooray, see? Russian people *do* smile! And they can be nice! What's everyone so worried about??
OR
B. Apparently, in a common/worse-case-scenario, when a girl smiles at a guy, it means, "I want to go to bed with you." …And not to sleep….
All of which means:
A. He was either a nice guy who did a nice thing, and he smiled back to acknowledge that I was grateful for what he did…
OR
B. He was smiling back because he thought I wanted to sleep with him.
I think I'll stick with A. but I'm sure that there are those of you who are reading along who are currently banging your heads into the walls nearest you, because you're quite sure that it's really B. and I'm just being Oblivious. Please, do be careful about the head-banging-into-walls thing -- I have no liability insurance! =^_~=
Train-Smiling aside, Jess and I got to the meeting place just fine, and the rest of the group, plus the university students all came along just fine, too. John started getting us introduced, and, being the bearer of no fear and no shame, I marched myself right over to go start trying to chat. Learned that one of them was no longer a student (graduated), and that most everyone else was involved in Journalism at the university.
After we made sure everyone had arrived, it was a short walk over to where we were having dinner -- some Italian place (if the Tucci's are reading any of this -- it didn't even compare!!!!) where we were having….. Three guesses, and the first two don't count…… Pizza! Luckily, I had told John earlier that I didn't like/couldn't eat cheese (Who knew it would be an issue in *Moscow*!?!?) -- so he made sure that at least one of the pizzas had no cheese on it, and it was actually full of veggies! It was pretty nice; especially as it was the most vegetables/fruit of any kind that I'd seen since getting into Moscow. Another first/"be proud" moment: there were cherry tomatoes on the thing, and I ate them! I did draw the line at the red bell pepper though. I have to say, I was kinda peeved though -- seems like my "no cheese, but lots of veggies" pizza was sorta popular, so I only got two pieces of it, of of the 8 or so that there were. (For reference, these were not as big as American Pizzas. Think, probably like a small from somewhere -- and maybe a bit smaller than that.) Lucky for me, there was also garlic bread, so that wasn't so bad.
The *really* interesting part about dinner, however, was the conversations we were having! One has to remember that all of us in the American group do *not* speak fluent Russian; and yet, eventually, at my end of the table, we got into Politics! Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, of the three things you're never supposed to talk about at dinner -- sex, religion, and politics -- we *definitely* got into politics, and even a little bit on sex (we started talking gender perceptions/stereotypes between the US and Russians). Politically, we got into the following (In order):
What I/we think of Obama
9/11
The War in North Ossetia
What One of the Girls thought About Putin/Medvedev
Which led to…
Political Awareness
and
Cold War [Leftover] Feelings
(And a flash of Bill Clinton randomly somewhere -- really just 2 seconds of one girl in the group loving him, and me saying, "Ah, not so much.")
No pulled punches, huh???
El'ya (have to check on that) started off by asking me what I thought of Obama -- to which I replied (in stilted Russian), that I thought he had a lot of charisma, which got many people behind him, but that I didn't agree with all of his policies. This led into my trying to give an example of something I didn't like -- such as his bypassing the Senate check of people in the Cabinet by appointing "Czars." The Russians got a kick out of that being his chosen name for those people. I must say, it was certainly a trip trying to explain: the whole "Executive," "Judicial," "Legislative" (then House/Senate) divisions; Senate interviews of Cabinet prospectives; AND how Obama bypassed all that -- in Russian. Whew! She followed me though, so that was good. (There were some pepperings of English in between all that -- and lots of cognates, thank goodness!)
After Obama, she asked me/us about what we were doing when 9/11 happened, and how events unfolded for us. She was very surprised to hear me say that our principle had told the teachers not to turn on the t.v.s and not to tell us what was going on. I asked them, in return, how they felt about it, seeing it all on the news, and Val'ya answered something to the effect of being very surprised, and I *think* something about noticing/being surprised that it was just the US that had been attacked, and no one else. (I think that the thought may have been in there, wondering if it was only the US that was going to be attacked; i.e. were they in danger, too?) Then Mal'ya and El'ya asked if we knew who the pilots of the planes were; which we got it figured out to, they wanted to know if we knew where the pilots had been from (e.g.: what countries).
9/11 led into El'ya asking me, very quietly, and very seriously about what we had heard about the War in North Ossetia. One needn't have even understood the rest of the question, if one only got "North Ossetia" out of all of it, because her demeanor clearly asked, "Do you think that we were the bad guys / it was really our fault?" As honestly as I could, I told her that when we found out, it was a total surprise to us -- It was during the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, if I understand correctly. I remember seeing then-President Bush going and talking to then-President Vladimir Putin. -- and that at the beginning, yes, we had been under the impression that Russia had attacked first/invaded North Ossetia. Her face fell noticeably, and I continued, "But we started receiving more reports, and we heard that Russia had been attacked first." (This was true in my experience.) She looked relieved after that, and started explaining things from her side (The Russian side). There was quite a bit that I didn't understand, but she explained how there were Russian citizens there, and peacekeepers (I believe), and then how they had been attacked first. I was certainly surprised to find myself a part of that kind of conversation -- and it was very important to me, because it really laid bare the kind of mis-trust people are still afraid of: that Russians are afraid they are going to be seen as the "bad guys" by Americans, or that they worry we've automatically labeled them as such, and they need to prove that they aren't.
We moved on past the topic of North Ossetia into what El'ya thought of Putin (she reminded everyone that Medvedev is President now), and she said that he was much, much better than Yeltsin. She followed with an explanation saying, I believe, something to the effect of, when Yeltsin was in office, there weren't products in the stores, no food on the shelves at times -- but with Putin, money started coming in, and flowing into Moscow. I may not have everything exactly correct there, but I believe that is part of what she said -- apologies. That brief conversation segued into an amount of "political awareness" between the US and Russia, as El'ya and Mal'ya started talking about the Mayoral system (which made us bring up our Mayors and Governors). At one point, they asked if we knew who a certain journalist was -- forgive me that I can't think of the name right now (might have been another Vladimir), but he was ok with the US, just not its politics. Anyways, we did not know his name, and they were surprised, so I countered with the fact that I had met people who didn't know who Vladimir Putin was, and another girl from my group added in that much of what we hear in US press, concerning Russia, is only negative news. Put another way, one other girl said, "People in the US not knowing who Putin is would be like you not knowing who our Vice President is." And, in some degree, that's true. It's all about what is important to whom, and how much exposure those subjects are getting.
We also touched on Cold War feelings, and it was a difficult question to get out -- trying to ask if they still felt any left-over feelings from the Cold War, and they actually turned it around and asked me, essentially, "Do people think there is still a War?" It was hard to answer. I told them that people know there is not a War these days, but some people still have those feelings, that mis-trust. We kept coming back to this conversation point in reference more than we were on the point itself. For example, I later brought up to El'ya, "You asked me about the war in North Ossetia because you were afraid we all thought you were the bad guys, right?" She responded, "Yes," and I said, "That's kind of what I was asking about, with the Cold War feelings. You were worried we didn't believe in you, and people in the US believed you might have started it, because of those feelings from the Cold War." And later, when they asked about how our parents felt about us being in Moscow, I answered along these lines: "My parents are nervous that I am here, yes; and my Nana, she STILL has bad feelings about my being here! And some of that is, yes, because it's Russia, because it's Moscow, because of the Cold War. And yet… It's also just because I'm halfway around the world. How would your parents feel if you said, "I'm going to America?" … [Here she gave the same look of, 'I just told my parents I'm going to America, and they think I'm going to be eaten alive by America/Americans.' That we gave when she asked us what our parents thought of us being in Moscow.] -- See? Same feelings. Some of that is just being parents."
Heavy subject matters aside, we laughed about miscommunications -- them asking one of the guys what cities he'd been to in the States, and him trying to describe his city instead (There was some making fun of 2-word responses -- "yest' derev'ya [Here/There are trees]" "yest' zdania [Here/There are buildings].") -- and introduced El'ya and Mal'ya to "Puppy Chow!" Ha ha ha, the looks on their faces were priceless! Definitely a, "What the HELL is THAT" look, from both, if I ever saw one! El'ya wasn't brave enough to try it, but Mal'ya was -- which led to the agreed upon, "Strange, but tasty" verdict. Of course, then she asked what it was….. And when I said, "Dog food" (Puppy Chow) -- oh my *goodness* the reaction was hilarious!!! We were mostly laughing at the shock she expressed, and we reassured her and El'ya both that it was just a name. Concerning coincidences -- all day long, for at least the last two days, I/we had been trying to figure out the word for "peanut butter," but nobody knew/could remember -- so when we were trying to explain what was *in* Puppy Chow (very difficult, when there is NO Russian equivalent for our US breakfast cereals), we got to ask them what it was.
Oh, and since I promised sex earlier -- I asked them what they thought about Americans, and American girls. They were a little confused by the question, so myself and another girl explained, "Well, in the US, everyone thinks Russian women are beautiful, but kind of cold/snooty," and then they understood. (For the record: we HAVE seen a fair amount of pretty girls, but also not so pretty ones, too.) We got an answer, something to the effect of that they think we are all like models, too (the girls), and that we're something to the effect of smart or outgoing? I didn't quite get the next part. Then we talked about obesity -- how there are lots of obese people in the US, supposedly, but she didn't see all that many when she was there, and also how it's getting to be a problem in Russia more and more. She told us, "If you look, you will see fat people everywhere." Next, she marveled over how, "When you see a woman in the US with 3, 4, 5 children, they all look perfect, and she's totally in shape!! In Russia, if a woman has 3 or 4 or 5 kids, she doesn't loose the weight!"
Oh, the subjects we'll get on. So, "Agent H," I've not protested, but 2 days into Russia, I HAVE talked an awful lot of politics -- and over dinner, no less!!!
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After dinner, we wound up walking over to The Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, and Red Square, in general. The University Students who went to dinner with us also wound up coming along, so we had a really great time together! The Square was absolutely gorgeous at night, and quite impressive! Unfortunately, my camera wasn't working very well, so only a few pictures came out anything close to my normal standards of "good photography."
Fast Fact: The name, "Red Square" has NOTHING to do with Communism. The Russian word for "Beautiful," used to be, "Krasnyi" [Красный]. Thus, it was originally named, "Beautiful Square." Today, however, the modern form of the word "Beautiful," is "Kracivyi" [Красивый] while, "Krasnyi" [Красный] means "Red." Thus, today, it is known as, "Red Square."
While in the Square, and hanging out with the girls from the University, I had a few interesting cultural experiences:
1. One of the girls was humming bits from "The Phantom of the Opera" 's soundtrack -- "Angel of Music," which goes to show that Music knows no language barriers. =^__^=
2. With the same girl, I had an interesting conversation on the usage of the subject pronouns,"Bui/Tui." [Вы/Ты]((Pronunciation = Vwee/Tee)) -- (You - formal/ You - informal) It all started because I was using "Bui" with her, both out of respect and because we didn't really know each other yet, and out of nowhere she asked me, "Why are you using "Vui?!?! Use Tui with me!!!"" So, I did as she said, and then I told her about how French has its "Vous/Tu" ((Vew/Tew)) andthe rules with that, which is what I was using as my guide for the Russian version of all of that.Figuring out when you're allowed to use the Informal with someone can be a bit of a bear!
3. At some point, we were walking down the street, on a bit of a hill, leaving the main part of the Square, and one of the russian girls slipped a bit, almost falling. I think the may have cursed or something, but then, because they were with us, we somehow got into a comparison between English's, "F$&K!!!!!" and some of Russian's choice words. While some of you reading this may look down upon swearing, I don't think you could deny the fact that walking out of RedSquare, listening to 3 or 4 Russian girls all but shouting, "F$&K!!!!!!" and seeing it happen at the same time would be pretty funny….
We also saw a few interesting things, such as: an ice skating rink a little further on than St. Basil's; a little table set up selling, among other things -- those "Russian" hats with the Stars on them; and a McDonald's (Of course?). In the same area we saw the Mc Donald's in, there was a Discotheque near-by whose music we could hear -- and naturally, I said something about how I hoped I could start dancing soon, because I missed it! That led to us joking about dancing with the big statue of a man seated on horseback that was near by!!! It was pretty funny.
Additionally, we made wishes while we were out! There is a place that is the very center of Moscow, it seems, and if you stand in the middle of the square marking it (therefore, the center of the city), you can make a wish! When you make your wish though, you must throw a bit of money over your shoulder! Not being in possession of any coined money yet, one of the russian girls came to my aid and lent me a coin!
I'm not entirely sure what happened when we went to go on our way home -- we started in to one Metro station, and then backtracked. I think it had something to do with the fact that another Metro would have given us a more direct route, and there were some shifty-looking characters in the tunnel that one of the girls didn't like. I didn't quite understand everything, but I do know that one of the girls (who was trying to get us out), on the way up was telling me that something was, "Very, very important!!!" and as we walked into the Metro we wanted to be in, she yelled, "These girls won't listen to me!!!!" Again, very funny. =^__^=
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Due to the nature of how the evening went, and how we all split up, Will, Michael (aka - Misha), and Natalie were the only people from our group left traveling home together with me. (I can't remember if I've said yet how many people there are in our group -- 11 of us new people, and another 6 academic year students who've been here for a semester already.) As we walked down Leningradskii Prospekt back to the dorms, we cheated some, and were speaking in English eventually, after starting in Russian. We passed a sign that I had seen before, and thought about, which bore the message, "Taxi Massage" -- and I voiced the question, "Does that just *smack* of Prostitution to anyone else, or is it just me??" This led into my telling them about the "Pink Light" district that Yitian and I saw in China at one point -- girls standing in the doorways of places that said "Massage" on them -- but what Massage place has a lobby bathed in Pink Light, with no visible seating area, just a staircase that leads to nowhere [visible], with a doorway occupied by a girl in high heels, some kind of short shorts or a short skirt, and a skimpy top?
Misha countered with, "Well, she needs to have a flexible range of movement to give a good massage! Her clothes can't be too constricting!"
To which I replied, "I give a damn good massage; but I don't wear high heels, short shorts, and a halter top when I'm doing it! It might make it a more enjoyable experience for you, but that's not the point!"
Everybody laughed, and Misha came back with, "Well, don't judge her by what she's wearing! She could be a doctor, or a nurse, or a policewoman!!!"
I responded, "Just depends on how short the skirt is, huh??" [Referring to the Halloween costumes of the same designs.]
Misha laughed and said, "Yeah… "
"Unfortunately," I continued, "We girls are still judged by what we wear today…" Which gave my assumption that the girls were probably prostitutes.
Misha, indefatigable as ever, said, "But, she could have her kids asleep upstairs and be waiting on-- "
-- Here I thought he was going to say, 'A customer!' and so I started to say, "Oh, come on!!!!" -- but he finished with:
"-- her husband!!!"
I about died laughing. =^__^= ''
Misha summed it all up best when he said shortly afterwards, "Man… When we start speaking in English, we talk about really f#%&ed up things…"
Will and I chatted for a little bit, about the Paris Metro vs. Moscow's (After getting interrupted in the middle of that conversation 3 separate times!!!), and about the "feeling" of both cities, and then we'd gotten to talking about bartending some, too. I told him about Nana's daily Manhattan, which he thought was pretty cool. (This added weight to my assertion that Tom Brokaw was just a *little* bit off when he titled his book, "The Greatest Generation." It really probably should have been called, "The Most Bad-Ass Generation." -- Keep in mind, that I say this because my 85-year-old Nana can, and still does, walk and play 18 holes of golf; has her nightly Manhattan; and when I once told her I was pretty sure she could probably out-drink all my friends if she wanted to [being that my generation favors "girlie," mixed drinks, while her generation basically drank straight liquor], she smiled and said, "Not anymore…" Meaning that up until quite recently, the answer to that was, "You bet your a** I could." …. All that in addition to the fact that she lived through the Great Depression, had to deal with WWII, going to college and getting married in the middle of all that, living the life of a Military Officer's Wife [Which included 3 years in Japan, moving there with 3 children under 6!!!], raising 4 children and getting them sent off to college, and being the most awesome Nana a girl could ever want? I reiterate: Bad. Ass. =^__^= My goodness, I love my Nana.)
By the time we finished those conversations, we were back at the dorm -- and I got to come up and do all this writing!! I got my new pictures onto the computer, but I don't have enough internet to put them OR this new journal up online! I tried!
Eep -- it's 3:00 AM - I have to run! We will be up at 9 AM-ish later this morning, I think...!
Love,
Moscow Kitty; 3:00 AM
(With edits on 2-4-10)
=^__^=
Happy birthday, mutti!
As per normal rules, I've not slept yet, so it doesn't count as a missed day.
Up and at 'em early -- although, I was up for most of the night. Slept from about 9:30 ish to 11pm, when my roommate woke up and asked me what time it was -- although it was obvious there was no light coming in from outside -- I told her it was 11 (PM), and bless her heart, she asked if it was AM (meaning we'd have been very, VERY late for today's orientation events) -- and after that, I proceeded to wake up about every hour until maybe around 5 or 6, and then I got a few more hours in, until we got up at 8:15. Isn't it funny, though, how you're always "up" until it's time to *get* up.
In the hallway, on the way down to breakfast, we saw the remnants of a party in the hallways -- pistachio shells everywhere, along with cigarette buts, and a few beer bottles, and the like. We were quite surprised to see it all just strewn about by the window in front of the elevators; but as we learned later in the day, it seems Russians aren't about picking up their trash. That deserves a qualification -- at restaurants/fast food places/etc. -- where an American may expect to bus his or her own table, Russians do not. You leave your trash where it lies, and someone else picks it up. (Please note: to any Russians who happen to read this, or anyone who may be offended by the comment -- I don't mean that that is true for everyone; just that it's something we were told.) Another interesting difference -- when it comes to transactions, here, no money ever changes hands. That is to say, you never directly give someone money, in Russia. You either place it on the table or in a drawer/divisor of some kind, where the person you're dealing with can pick it up. According to our resident director, John, this stems from an old superstition about it being bad luck for money to pass between peoples' hands. These days, most people aren't familiar with the superstition, but they know that money isn't supposed to go from hand to hand. But, I digress.
Breakfast was at the little cafe here in the dorms, but there wasn't much to actually get for breakfast -- it was mostly junk food. I went with a pineapple juice box, and grabbed a bottle of water for the day, too. While we were at breakfast, I got to thinking about the distinct lack of fruit and vegetables I'd seen (or rather, hadn't seen) within just the last two days. Everyone's right: meat and potatoes -- and soup. Don't get me wrong, everything I've had so far has been *delicious* but -- I want more plant life, that's edible, around. … I digress, again. =^_~=
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Orientation took up most of the morning, with useful hints about metro, busses, cell phones, and wi-fi internet, and then we broke up. As far as the useful hints go, here is what we learned:
When it comes to Metro, you can buy, basically, any of the following:
* 1 ride pass
* 5 ride pass
*Two kinds of monthly passes:
*Transportnaya karta - By day (30, 60, 365)
*Poezdnoi - By calendar month
*Student pass -- although, getting one is apparently hopeless for most people. Because I'm going to be here for a year and a half, however, they are going to see what they can do for me with that, and told me to ask again on Monday.
With the two kinds of monthly passes, the former will get you unlimited rides, while the latter has a limit of about 70 rides per month. Also, with the Transportnaya, you buy the card (50 Rubles), and then you can add time/money [however you want to think of it] to the card. Unfortunately, all of the prices on the Metro cards raised on January 1st, so the passes were twice as expensive!!!
Jess and I agreed to hit the metro (where everyone was going first, to see about buying a monthly pass), then to the Bee-line store (where we could get cell phone sim-cards, phones, and wi-fi cards), and if we had time, we'd change some money, and I'd buy a phone before dinner. Of course, as I mentioned before, the passes were much more expensive than we could have guessed (1530 rubles, all told, for the card and the pass) -- so I decided to use up the rest of the 5-ride pass I'd bought the day before, and I'd change some money and buy the 30 day pass on the way to dinner. Jess and I went off to the Beeline store, so that we could get better prices on the sim cards (hopefully the phones, for me), and the wi-fi cards... ...My goodness were we UNPREPARED!!!!! First of all, walking into a cell-phone/electronic store when you're already cognizant of how non-fluent you are is already intimidating. To see it buzzing with people, and realize you're *COMPLETELY* screwed is quite another!!! Nobody teaches you how to purchase a cell-phone plan in school! If anyone does, I should have been going there! If it hadn't been for a sales person who knew English, and another woman, just a regular customer, who knew it, and helped me when the sales person was gone, I'd NEVER have gotten a sim card. Ugh, talk about draining. And, after all that, I couldn't get a wi-fi card, because they told me that it would be better for me to bring my laptop in, and have someone who knew Russian help me set up my account, and get things going. Ha ha, ha... You know you're hopeless when…
After the pseudo-productive fiasco at Beeline (I had to cave on trying to use Russian, I didn't buy a phone because they were all extraordinarily expensive; but I had a sim-card...), Jess and I walked around the new part of Moscow we were in, and eventually stopped at a store/cafe to have lunch. The cafe was on the second floor, and I had a chicken broth with eggs (2, little ones!) soup; while Jess got a sandwich. I wondered what kind of eggs they were, that I was eating, and gave props to whomever it was that made the sandwich, because it was very pretty! It was also huge, and Jess gave me part of one of the halves to help her eat -- and -- everyone, you'll be proud -- there was mayonnaise on the sandwich, and I knew it, and I ate it anyway. Can't say I was horrendously fond of it (as I already knew) -- but I gave it another go-round. It was interesting, certainly! :P
We left and walked all the way back to the Dorms -- I was surprised we didn't take the Metro! Needless to say, I was pretty darn cold by the time we got back! We had about 15 minutes to ourselves before we needed to head out for dinner, because I needed to change money and buy my new Metro pass still. All of those things went rather quickly, and Jess and I were on our way to both our first Transfer on the Russian Metro, and to dinner. John (our RD) had told us that we would be being joined by some students from the university, and I think everyone in the group was a little excited, and a little nervous about that fact.
***********************************
We hit the Metro, and I pushed to the map on the train to find our path (because I'm Metro-Girl, you know). As I was looking at the map, the guy I happened to be looking over got up and gave me his seat. Rather kind of him. He was kinda cute; but I didn't get his name -- a first for me, who's used to getting into random conversations with perfect strangers, and getting names for them. I laughed about it with Jess, saying (in Russian), "I wish I'd gotten his name… Normally I do…" "… But not here!" Jess filled in. As clichéed as it may sound, we caught each others' eyes just before he got off the train with his friend, and we shared a smile.
Of course, that little Hallmark story might go two ways:
A. Happily Ever After -- Hooray, see? Russian people *do* smile! And they can be nice! What's everyone so worried about??
OR
B. Apparently, in a common/worse-case-scenario, when a girl smiles at a guy, it means, "I want to go to bed with you." …And not to sleep….
All of which means:
A. He was either a nice guy who did a nice thing, and he smiled back to acknowledge that I was grateful for what he did…
OR
B. He was smiling back because he thought I wanted to sleep with him.
I think I'll stick with A. but I'm sure that there are those of you who are reading along who are currently banging your heads into the walls nearest you, because you're quite sure that it's really B. and I'm just being Oblivious. Please, do be careful about the head-banging-into-walls thing -- I have no liability insurance! =^_~=
Train-Smiling aside, Jess and I got to the meeting place just fine, and the rest of the group, plus the university students all came along just fine, too. John started getting us introduced, and, being the bearer of no fear and no shame, I marched myself right over to go start trying to chat. Learned that one of them was no longer a student (graduated), and that most everyone else was involved in Journalism at the university.
After we made sure everyone had arrived, it was a short walk over to where we were having dinner -- some Italian place (if the Tucci's are reading any of this -- it didn't even compare!!!!) where we were having….. Three guesses, and the first two don't count…… Pizza! Luckily, I had told John earlier that I didn't like/couldn't eat cheese (Who knew it would be an issue in *Moscow*!?!?) -- so he made sure that at least one of the pizzas had no cheese on it, and it was actually full of veggies! It was pretty nice; especially as it was the most vegetables/fruit of any kind that I'd seen since getting into Moscow. Another first/"be proud" moment: there were cherry tomatoes on the thing, and I ate them! I did draw the line at the red bell pepper though. I have to say, I was kinda peeved though -- seems like my "no cheese, but lots of veggies" pizza was sorta popular, so I only got two pieces of it, of of the 8 or so that there were. (For reference, these were not as big as American Pizzas. Think, probably like a small from somewhere -- and maybe a bit smaller than that.) Lucky for me, there was also garlic bread, so that wasn't so bad.
The *really* interesting part about dinner, however, was the conversations we were having! One has to remember that all of us in the American group do *not* speak fluent Russian; and yet, eventually, at my end of the table, we got into Politics! Yes, Ladies and Gentlemen, of the three things you're never supposed to talk about at dinner -- sex, religion, and politics -- we *definitely* got into politics, and even a little bit on sex (we started talking gender perceptions/stereotypes between the US and Russians). Politically, we got into the following (In order):
What I/we think of Obama
9/11
The War in North Ossetia
What One of the Girls thought About Putin/Medvedev
Which led to…
Political Awareness
and
Cold War [Leftover] Feelings
(And a flash of Bill Clinton randomly somewhere -- really just 2 seconds of one girl in the group loving him, and me saying, "Ah, not so much.")
No pulled punches, huh???
El'ya (have to check on that) started off by asking me what I thought of Obama -- to which I replied (in stilted Russian), that I thought he had a lot of charisma, which got many people behind him, but that I didn't agree with all of his policies. This led into my trying to give an example of something I didn't like -- such as his bypassing the Senate check of people in the Cabinet by appointing "Czars." The Russians got a kick out of that being his chosen name for those people. I must say, it was certainly a trip trying to explain: the whole "Executive," "Judicial," "Legislative" (then House/Senate) divisions; Senate interviews of Cabinet prospectives; AND how Obama bypassed all that -- in Russian. Whew! She followed me though, so that was good. (There were some pepperings of English in between all that -- and lots of cognates, thank goodness!)
After Obama, she asked me/us about what we were doing when 9/11 happened, and how events unfolded for us. She was very surprised to hear me say that our principle had told the teachers not to turn on the t.v.s and not to tell us what was going on. I asked them, in return, how they felt about it, seeing it all on the news, and Val'ya answered something to the effect of being very surprised, and I *think* something about noticing/being surprised that it was just the US that had been attacked, and no one else. (I think that the thought may have been in there, wondering if it was only the US that was going to be attacked; i.e. were they in danger, too?) Then Mal'ya and El'ya asked if we knew who the pilots of the planes were; which we got it figured out to, they wanted to know if we knew where the pilots had been from (e.g.: what countries).
9/11 led into El'ya asking me, very quietly, and very seriously about what we had heard about the War in North Ossetia. One needn't have even understood the rest of the question, if one only got "North Ossetia" out of all of it, because her demeanor clearly asked, "Do you think that we were the bad guys / it was really our fault?" As honestly as I could, I told her that when we found out, it was a total surprise to us -- It was during the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics, if I understand correctly. I remember seeing then-President Bush going and talking to then-President Vladimir Putin. -- and that at the beginning, yes, we had been under the impression that Russia had attacked first/invaded North Ossetia. Her face fell noticeably, and I continued, "But we started receiving more reports, and we heard that Russia had been attacked first." (This was true in my experience.) She looked relieved after that, and started explaining things from her side (The Russian side). There was quite a bit that I didn't understand, but she explained how there were Russian citizens there, and peacekeepers (I believe), and then how they had been attacked first. I was certainly surprised to find myself a part of that kind of conversation -- and it was very important to me, because it really laid bare the kind of mis-trust people are still afraid of: that Russians are afraid they are going to be seen as the "bad guys" by Americans, or that they worry we've automatically labeled them as such, and they need to prove that they aren't.
We moved on past the topic of North Ossetia into what El'ya thought of Putin (she reminded everyone that Medvedev is President now), and she said that he was much, much better than Yeltsin. She followed with an explanation saying, I believe, something to the effect of, when Yeltsin was in office, there weren't products in the stores, no food on the shelves at times -- but with Putin, money started coming in, and flowing into Moscow. I may not have everything exactly correct there, but I believe that is part of what she said -- apologies. That brief conversation segued into an amount of "political awareness" between the US and Russia, as El'ya and Mal'ya started talking about the Mayoral system (which made us bring up our Mayors and Governors). At one point, they asked if we knew who a certain journalist was -- forgive me that I can't think of the name right now (might have been another Vladimir), but he was ok with the US, just not its politics. Anyways, we did not know his name, and they were surprised, so I countered with the fact that I had met people who didn't know who Vladimir Putin was, and another girl from my group added in that much of what we hear in US press, concerning Russia, is only negative news. Put another way, one other girl said, "People in the US not knowing who Putin is would be like you not knowing who our Vice President is." And, in some degree, that's true. It's all about what is important to whom, and how much exposure those subjects are getting.
We also touched on Cold War feelings, and it was a difficult question to get out -- trying to ask if they still felt any left-over feelings from the Cold War, and they actually turned it around and asked me, essentially, "Do people think there is still a War?" It was hard to answer. I told them that people know there is not a War these days, but some people still have those feelings, that mis-trust. We kept coming back to this conversation point in reference more than we were on the point itself. For example, I later brought up to El'ya, "You asked me about the war in North Ossetia because you were afraid we all thought you were the bad guys, right?" She responded, "Yes," and I said, "That's kind of what I was asking about, with the Cold War feelings. You were worried we didn't believe in you, and people in the US believed you might have started it, because of those feelings from the Cold War." And later, when they asked about how our parents felt about us being in Moscow, I answered along these lines: "My parents are nervous that I am here, yes; and my Nana, she STILL has bad feelings about my being here! And some of that is, yes, because it's Russia, because it's Moscow, because of the Cold War. And yet… It's also just because I'm halfway around the world. How would your parents feel if you said, "I'm going to America?" … [Here she gave the same look of, 'I just told my parents I'm going to America, and they think I'm going to be eaten alive by America/Americans.' That we gave when she asked us what our parents thought of us being in Moscow.] -- See? Same feelings. Some of that is just being parents."
Heavy subject matters aside, we laughed about miscommunications -- them asking one of the guys what cities he'd been to in the States, and him trying to describe his city instead (There was some making fun of 2-word responses -- "yest' derev'ya [Here/There are trees]" "yest' zdania [Here/There are buildings].") -- and introduced El'ya and Mal'ya to "Puppy Chow!" Ha ha ha, the looks on their faces were priceless! Definitely a, "What the HELL is THAT" look, from both, if I ever saw one! El'ya wasn't brave enough to try it, but Mal'ya was -- which led to the agreed upon, "Strange, but tasty" verdict. Of course, then she asked what it was….. And when I said, "Dog food" (Puppy Chow) -- oh my *goodness* the reaction was hilarious!!! We were mostly laughing at the shock she expressed, and we reassured her and El'ya both that it was just a name. Concerning coincidences -- all day long, for at least the last two days, I/we had been trying to figure out the word for "peanut butter," but nobody knew/could remember -- so when we were trying to explain what was *in* Puppy Chow (very difficult, when there is NO Russian equivalent for our US breakfast cereals), we got to ask them what it was.
Oh, and since I promised sex earlier -- I asked them what they thought about Americans, and American girls. They were a little confused by the question, so myself and another girl explained, "Well, in the US, everyone thinks Russian women are beautiful, but kind of cold/snooty," and then they understood. (For the record: we HAVE seen a fair amount of pretty girls, but also not so pretty ones, too.) We got an answer, something to the effect of that they think we are all like models, too (the girls), and that we're something to the effect of smart or outgoing? I didn't quite get the next part. Then we talked about obesity -- how there are lots of obese people in the US, supposedly, but she didn't see all that many when she was there, and also how it's getting to be a problem in Russia more and more. She told us, "If you look, you will see fat people everywhere." Next, she marveled over how, "When you see a woman in the US with 3, 4, 5 children, they all look perfect, and she's totally in shape!! In Russia, if a woman has 3 or 4 or 5 kids, she doesn't loose the weight!"
Oh, the subjects we'll get on. So, "Agent H," I've not protested, but 2 days into Russia, I HAVE talked an awful lot of politics -- and over dinner, no less!!!
***********************************
After dinner, we wound up walking over to The Kremlin, St. Basil's Cathedral, and Red Square, in general. The University Students who went to dinner with us also wound up coming along, so we had a really great time together! The Square was absolutely gorgeous at night, and quite impressive! Unfortunately, my camera wasn't working very well, so only a few pictures came out anything close to my normal standards of "good photography."
Fast Fact: The name, "Red Square" has NOTHING to do with Communism. The Russian word for "Beautiful," used to be, "Krasnyi" [Красный]. Thus, it was originally named, "Beautiful Square." Today, however, the modern form of the word "Beautiful," is "Kracivyi" [Красивый] while, "Krasnyi" [Красный] means "Red." Thus, today, it is known as, "Red Square."
While in the Square, and hanging out with the girls from the University, I had a few interesting cultural experiences:
1. One of the girls was humming bits from "The Phantom of the Opera" 's soundtrack -- "Angel of Music," which goes to show that Music knows no language barriers. =^__^=
2. With the same girl, I had an interesting conversation on the usage of the subject pronouns,"Bui/Tui." [Вы/Ты]((Pronunciation = Vwee/Tee)) -- (You - formal/ You - informal) It all started because I was using "Bui" with her, both out of respect and because we didn't really know each other yet, and out of nowhere she asked me, "Why are you using "Vui?!?! Use Tui with me!!!"" So, I did as she said, and then I told her about how French has its "Vous/Tu" ((Vew/Tew)) andthe rules with that, which is what I was using as my guide for the Russian version of all of that.Figuring out when you're allowed to use the Informal with someone can be a bit of a bear!
3. At some point, we were walking down the street, on a bit of a hill, leaving the main part of the Square, and one of the russian girls slipped a bit, almost falling. I think the may have cursed or something, but then, because they were with us, we somehow got into a comparison between English's, "F$&K!!!!!" and some of Russian's choice words. While some of you reading this may look down upon swearing, I don't think you could deny the fact that walking out of RedSquare, listening to 3 or 4 Russian girls all but shouting, "F$&K!!!!!!" and seeing it happen at the same time would be pretty funny….
We also saw a few interesting things, such as: an ice skating rink a little further on than St. Basil's; a little table set up selling, among other things -- those "Russian" hats with the Stars on them; and a McDonald's (Of course?). In the same area we saw the Mc Donald's in, there was a Discotheque near-by whose music we could hear -- and naturally, I said something about how I hoped I could start dancing soon, because I missed it! That led to us joking about dancing with the big statue of a man seated on horseback that was near by!!! It was pretty funny.
Additionally, we made wishes while we were out! There is a place that is the very center of Moscow, it seems, and if you stand in the middle of the square marking it (therefore, the center of the city), you can make a wish! When you make your wish though, you must throw a bit of money over your shoulder! Not being in possession of any coined money yet, one of the russian girls came to my aid and lent me a coin!
I'm not entirely sure what happened when we went to go on our way home -- we started in to one Metro station, and then backtracked. I think it had something to do with the fact that another Metro would have given us a more direct route, and there were some shifty-looking characters in the tunnel that one of the girls didn't like. I didn't quite understand everything, but I do know that one of the girls (who was trying to get us out), on the way up was telling me that something was, "Very, very important!!!" and as we walked into the Metro we wanted to be in, she yelled, "These girls won't listen to me!!!!" Again, very funny. =^__^=
***********************************
Due to the nature of how the evening went, and how we all split up, Will, Michael (aka - Misha), and Natalie were the only people from our group left traveling home together with me. (I can't remember if I've said yet how many people there are in our group -- 11 of us new people, and another 6 academic year students who've been here for a semester already.) As we walked down Leningradskii Prospekt back to the dorms, we cheated some, and were speaking in English eventually, after starting in Russian. We passed a sign that I had seen before, and thought about, which bore the message, "Taxi Massage" -- and I voiced the question, "Does that just *smack* of Prostitution to anyone else, or is it just me??" This led into my telling them about the "Pink Light" district that Yitian and I saw in China at one point -- girls standing in the doorways of places that said "Massage" on them -- but what Massage place has a lobby bathed in Pink Light, with no visible seating area, just a staircase that leads to nowhere [visible], with a doorway occupied by a girl in high heels, some kind of short shorts or a short skirt, and a skimpy top?
Misha countered with, "Well, she needs to have a flexible range of movement to give a good massage! Her clothes can't be too constricting!"
To which I replied, "I give a damn good massage; but I don't wear high heels, short shorts, and a halter top when I'm doing it! It might make it a more enjoyable experience for you, but that's not the point!"
Everybody laughed, and Misha came back with, "Well, don't judge her by what she's wearing! She could be a doctor, or a nurse, or a policewoman!!!"
I responded, "Just depends on how short the skirt is, huh??" [Referring to the Halloween costumes of the same designs.]
Misha laughed and said, "Yeah… "
"Unfortunately," I continued, "We girls are still judged by what we wear today…" Which gave my assumption that the girls were probably prostitutes.
Misha, indefatigable as ever, said, "But, she could have her kids asleep upstairs and be waiting on-- "
-- Here I thought he was going to say, 'A customer!' and so I started to say, "Oh, come on!!!!" -- but he finished with:
"-- her husband!!!"
I about died laughing. =^__^= ''
Misha summed it all up best when he said shortly afterwards, "Man… When we start speaking in English, we talk about really f#%&ed up things…"
Will and I chatted for a little bit, about the Paris Metro vs. Moscow's (After getting interrupted in the middle of that conversation 3 separate times!!!), and about the "feeling" of both cities, and then we'd gotten to talking about bartending some, too. I told him about Nana's daily Manhattan, which he thought was pretty cool. (This added weight to my assertion that Tom Brokaw was just a *little* bit off when he titled his book, "The Greatest Generation." It really probably should have been called, "The Most Bad-Ass Generation." -- Keep in mind, that I say this because my 85-year-old Nana can, and still does, walk and play 18 holes of golf; has her nightly Manhattan; and when I once told her I was pretty sure she could probably out-drink all my friends if she wanted to [being that my generation favors "girlie," mixed drinks, while her generation basically drank straight liquor], she smiled and said, "Not anymore…" Meaning that up until quite recently, the answer to that was, "You bet your a** I could." …. All that in addition to the fact that she lived through the Great Depression, had to deal with WWII, going to college and getting married in the middle of all that, living the life of a Military Officer's Wife [Which included 3 years in Japan, moving there with 3 children under 6!!!], raising 4 children and getting them sent off to college, and being the most awesome Nana a girl could ever want? I reiterate: Bad. Ass. =^__^= My goodness, I love my Nana.)
By the time we finished those conversations, we were back at the dorm -- and I got to come up and do all this writing!! I got my new pictures onto the computer, but I don't have enough internet to put them OR this new journal up online! I tried!
Eep -- it's 3:00 AM - I have to run! We will be up at 9 AM-ish later this morning, I think...!
Love,
Moscow Kitty; 3:00 AM
(With edits on 2-4-10)
=^__^=
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