18 June 2009

It’s been a pretty good week so far. A little depressing now that everyone is leaving (my classes are down to about five students) but I’ve been trying to stay busy.

On Tuesday I met An and Valentin’s new roommate. The Italian went home, and a Canadian moved in, Kaevan. He’s a very nice guy…but I don’t think he’s going to survive Russia. For one thing, he is the complete opposite of everything Dr. Selimov told me when I was preparing myself to come here. Basically…he’s way too…nice. Also, he speaks almost no Russian…but being from French Canada he speaks English and French fluently, and he said that with his studies he also speaks Chinese, Turkish, and a little Armenian. Here’s a few example of why I think he’s going to have some serious problems:

An and I had to stop by the student services office- I had to pick up the registration for my new migration card from my reentry into Russia, and he had to speak with someone about his grading certificate. An went inside an office and I sat down by the door to wait for the next available person. He went and sat all the way down the hall by himself. I told him he didn’t have to sit by himself and suggested he come sit with me. He gestured towards the office and said “they hate me in there!” and laughed. I told him “they hate everyone. Don’t take it personal.” He said “oh no…trust me. They hate me. I think it’s probably better that they don’t see me and say ‘what are you doing here!?’” I told him that they see hundreds of people every day in the short, two hour period that they are open, so they likely didn’t remember him. His answer was “Oh, they remember me!” and winked.

When we were at the bank for him to make the first payment on his internet connection (before they will connect you in the dorms, you have to make your initial payment at the university bank) there was a rather long line. An and I were talking, and had sat down while he waited. So we wouldn’t have to wait in line with him in the really narrow corridor, I told him “when you get to the front, hand the woman the form. After she reads it and looks at you, give her the money. If she says anything, hand her your passport.” He said “Whoa, whoa! I’m not giving anyone my passport unless I absolutely have to!” He’s going to learn very soon that you need to show your passport for pretty much everything.

Best of all: the three of us were walking down the street, and after a while I noticed that he had been carrying his backpack in his hand for about an hour.
Me: Why are you carrying your backpack like that?
He stops, leans close to me, and whispers "My laptop is inside!"
Me: So?
Him: I’ve heard someone could steal it if I put it on!
Me: Someone could steal it like that…
Him: How?
Me: Someone could walk by, grab it out of your hand and run away.
Him: I don’t think that’s very likely…
And after that, he decided he was tired of carrying it, and put it on…backwards…with it over his stomach. After spending the whole afternoon like this, and going back and forth in Russian with An and English with Kaevan... as nice as he was…I had no patience. I said “are you serious? Look, I’m wearing my backpack. I could have a laptop in here. I’ve walked around with my laptop before. When its in your closed bag, nobody knows. When you are so obviously worried about it, it shows everyone around you that you have something valuable inside.” He took it off and carried it again. Eventually he put it on normally. After about ten minutes, I noticed An had dropped back considerably and was walking very slow. I asked him if he was tired and if I was walking too fast, and he said no…but Kaevan (the Canadian) had asked him to stay behind and watch his backpack.
Good luck to him.

Today after class I met up with An and we went to the zoo. I was really excited about it all week, and it turned out to be very depressing. They had a lot of different animals from all over the world, but their conditions were worse than the Turtle Back Zoo in West Orange. For example, they had a polar bear in a cage the size of my bedroom on Cleveland Avenue, and I saw a Jaguar in a glass cage the size of my car. Most of the larger animals looked emaciated and either didn’t move at all or paced back and forth in their tiny living quarters, I suppose to get at least some form of exercise. I will say as bad as I felt watching them, it was kind of cool watching a Leopard jump off a perch and eat a rabbit (already dead).

They had several pavilions set up for different kinds of animals (reptiles, monkeys, deer) and they all looked like they were converted warehouses that weren’t really intended to house animals, and they all had bad ventilation and smelled awful.

In the end, I’m glad I got to go, but it was a really depressing afternoon. The highlight was probably at one of the monkey cages when we saw some kind of ape laying down while another picked bugs off his back and ate them, and we heard a little girl tell her dad “that’s nice that the monkey is giving his friend a massage!”

I decided I’m definitely going to Moscow next week, leaving either Tuesday or Wednesday. I will take the night train down, spend one day in the city, and take the night train back. I know one day isn’t much, but I don’t have much time left and that way I don’t have to deal with a hotel. I spoke to my friend Olga (not the woman I’m living with, the girl who I met at UD who was studying English, and who introduced me to her boyfriend, Vova) who recently returned home to Moscow, and she said she’s actually coming here for a few days next week…so I don’t know that I’ll actually get to see her in Moscow, but I’ll definitely get to see her at some point. I had trouble finding someone to go with me because everyone is either leaving next week, out of money (after last week’s adventures I’m not too far off, but how many chances will I get to do this stuff?), or taking their TORFL. I think Natasha, the girl I have been tutoring will go with me. I mentioned to her yesterday that I was going, and asked her about the city. She said she’d only been there once before, and I said “really? want to come?” and without hesitation she said yes. To be honest I was expecting a ‘no’, but of course I’m happy to have company. She said, however, that she isn’t sure about her work schedule and might not be able to go.

This weekend I’m going to a play, there will be a giant celebration in the city for graduation day (the official end of the term for students of all levels), and on Sunday Hillel is having a big picnic. Monday I am meeting with Valentin and An, and we have having a farewell dinner. I think from here on, I’ll be pretty busy until my flight home.