I made it to the consulate Wednesday. Tuesday I took too long getting out there, and it turned out that the Belarusian consulate recently moved and the old address is still listed on street maps. So, I went out the next day and got there on time. It was strange- it’s easier to get into the Belarusian consulate than going to the bank. When I go to the American consulate, there are about five levels of security and it takes about 10-15 minutes to get inside. At the Belarusian consulate, all I did was press a button on a callbox. A woman buzzed me in as she asked my business, and then there was just one woman behind a glass window. Not a single guard. Anyway, in the end she told me I need to present tickets to the Ukraine before I can get my transit visa in order to prove that I’m not sneaking into the country. It shouldn’t be a big deal, as she told me it only takes five business days to receive my visa.
I really don’t want to go alone, so I’ve been telling everyone I know about the trip. My friend Roma said he was interested, but when he found out I was taking the train and not flying he said no. He told me perhaps he’ll fly down and meet me there, but he doesn’t like trains. This Czech girl, Stanislava in my group said she is interested, so perhaps she will go with me. I don’t know her that well, but she is very nice and her Russian is a lot better than mine.
I completed my registration for both the FSOT (Foreign Service Officer’s Test) and the ТРКИ (Test of Russian as a Foreign Language). As the clock winds down, I’m starting to get nervous and I’m studying as much as I can, but they are both general knowledge tests.
The night before last I had a talk with Vera. Even after we had a talk about extending the monthly dues, I’ve been getting increasingly annoyed going there. I go downstairs, I sit by myself, she gives me dinner, gives very short answers to all of my questions, talks to her cats, and basically shuffles me out as quickly as possible. She has been treating me like an inconvenient client, whereas the idea was supposed to be I’d be eating with her family and getting conversational practice. With Olga, once I gave her the money it was over and done with. Every night after dinner, Vera gives me a cup of tea. On that particular night, she put the tea in front of me before I even finished my dinner and got my breakfast together (which by the way has been cold kasha every morning). I asked when she usually eats, and she said that they all eat at different times and it’s always disorganized. As I drank my tea I kept trying to start up conversations, but she was clearly not interested and kept getting her phone and calling people. Finally I asked her if I was interrupting her by being there, and she pretended she didn’t hear me so I got my things together to leave. I couldn’t carry the pot of kasha and the jar of jam at the same time, so I said I would make two trips. When I was up here, I spoke to Olga about it and she said I shouldn’t be shy and set things straight. When I went back downstairs, Vera and her family were all sitting around the dinner table eating together, twenty minutes after she pushed me out the door. I told Vera that the deal wasn’t working out, she gave me back 60% of the money (it was already almost halfway through the month), and I wished her all the best.
Today my friend Natalia, the girl who I meet with Fridays for our tutoring sessions (I help her with conversational English, she helps me with conversational Russian) and I met up for the first time in a few weeks, as she went on some student tour around western Europe for a few weeks. She told me today that speaking with me in English and speaking with me in Russian is like speaking to two completely different people…
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