Journal 112

Journal 112

5-8-10

Today was a REALLY lazy day. In fact, I spent quite a bit of it in bed -- I was so tired…

I started reading the Count of Monte Cristo. I needed a change from Oscar Wilde.

*****

I tried to go to practice, but the hall was closed. And on the way out, I had another adventure with, "Random Russian People Come Up To Me And Start Conversations That I'm Not Allowed To Escape From."

I passed by the guard -- who was a new one today -- and he asked me if there was anyone left in the hall. I told him that there was no one there, and that it was ok to close the hall. As usual, however, the manner in which I say things tends to give it away that I am not, in fact, Russian. This surprised the guard, however, because he had assumed that I was actually a Russian girl. This led him to ask where I was from, and when I told him that I was from the USA, he got very excited -- he'd never met an American before! From there, things went either downhill or uphill, depending on how you want to look at it.

The Uphill Side: It's always fun to make new friends, and have random conversations.

The Downhill Side:

1. I was *trying* to get out early, so that I could go to dinner with Mulzoff and some of the other guys -- hopefully at the Hard Rock Café! (Goodness knows, I still haven't been there yet!)

2. When the place that someone you don't know wants to take you -- an older man, especially -- is located behind an area that is barred off, and you can see the padlocks for… Well, it tends to put you off a bit!

Funny thing is, Slava (as I got his name) saw my apprehension about following him back into an area that could be locked off behind me, and waved it off [do all Russians do this?] saying, "Oh, don't worry! We're just going to chat!"

And chat we did -- for the next half hour!

In the middle of all that, he treated me with the typical Russian hospitality -- which is to say, that even though I kept saying that I was trying to get to dinner with my friends, Slava kept trying to feed me and give me something to drink!!

*****

By the time I got out of Slava's and called Mulzoff again, they were almost finished with dinner -- and wouldn't you know that they had gone to the Hard Rock!!! No luck for me today… The timing worked out though, in that they finished dinner and got home just before I arrived from the Metro.

We finished out the night with some more Firefly, and then I was off for home.