In Which the Militsia Stop an American

14.11.2008

So today was ... interesting. Last night after writing my entry about having no friends I contacted Yura and we decided to get together, today. But, for most of the day I sat in the Smolny office and did research for a presentation I have in a few weeks. Yura called me at around 5, and we met up in front of the Petrogradskij metro. He had with him a friend, whose name was Sasha. (COINCIDENCE?! Yeah, probably, since EVERYONE HERE IS NAMED SASHA. Or, at least, everyone named "Aleksandr" or "Aleksandra") I couldn't tell if they were TOGETHER (as in dating) or not -- But that doesn't mean anything because I'm in Russia and I'm sure people try to mask it. Of course, I wasn't able to tell if he and Andrei were together when I first met then, too, until Andrei told me they were, and that was in a gay club. I think he and Andrei broke up, though -- I haven't asked. I know they got into a fight that night. BUT IN ANY CASE. This Sasha fellow was quite attractive. A красавец, if you will.

But in any case, we basically walked a circle around the Petrogradskij island and talked, which was thoroughly enjoyable. Apparently, this is a very Russian thing to do, even in bad weather, because it doesn't cost any money. Going out to eat is really expensive here. Actually, pretty much everything except public transportation is really expensive here. Really, not much of anything to say about that. We walked, we talked, and that was that. He's supposed to call me to go out tomorrow or Sunday, again, so we'll see what happens.

But, while we were approaching the metro, we were stopped by two militsia, and asked for our documents... I didn't say anything, so they didn't know I was American until they looked at my passport. He didn't even really look at my documents -- I think he was surprised and taken offguard. He just looked at the top of my (folded) multi-pass visa, which only says my name, date of birth, and country... he didn't look at the bottom part, which shows what dates I'm allowed to be here, and my photo, or anything else. He handed it back and saluted, then turned and whispered something to the other officer, who was checking Yura's and Sasha's documents. That officer handed back their documents, saluted, then they walked off. Apparently they usually try to extort money, but I guess I was lucky... Sasha and Yura whispered something to eachother, then Sasha asked to see my passport. I'm assuming just to see what a US passport looks like (except, I just carry a copy with me). He was surprised about something, but I'm not sure. After that, they went off, and I went to meet Elizabeth and Bryan for dinner.

And that was pretty much it for today. Bryan told me of a few clothing stores here that sell Russian-designed stuff, so I want to stop by those sometime and see if there's anything decently interesting. I think the idea of Russian fashion just kind of passed me by completely -- I figured they just went off the French and Italian trends or something, like the rest of Europe. Who knows. We'll see. Going to an Indian restaurant with Maneka + others, tomorrow, then the BLACK PARTY at Central Station! So tomorrow should be great.

EXCEPT I HAVE A TEST ON FUCKING MONDAY. I fucking hate my Grammar in Situations class. It's absolutely absurd. Mostly because of the professor. I can't stand that professor. Yargh.

One cultural note: I feel like the Russian "group of friends" is a really powerful social unit, here... Usually they're in pairs, but I notice higher frequencies of threes and fours on the evenings and weekends. I don't know, I just feel such a level of closeness when passing or just seeing these groups of people that isn't normally attained in America. It's strange. I'm not sure how to describe it, really.

16.11.2008

Yesterday I had planned on shopping, then going out to eat for Maneka's birthday, and staying out all night at Central Station. Also possibly planned on going out with Yura if he ended up calling me. Very little of this actually happened, but FIRST, something I forgot to mention on Friday's entry.

When I was out walking with Yura and Sasha, we stopped in a little gift shop because I guess Sasha needed to buy a Christmas/New Year's gift for someone. I mentioned off-hand that I, too, needed to buy gifts for friends and family in America. Well, the store didn't have what Sasha was looking for (I think), so they forced me to look around... There really wasn't anything interesting in the least, except some neat stuff that I would buy if I didn't have to CAREFULLY PACK IT AND LUG IT HALFWAY ACROSS THE WORLD, NO EXAGGERATION. Fancy glass hourglasses and such. There were some neat opera glasses I almost bought, but I didn't know to whom I would give them, plus I didn't have enough money on me. But in any case, Yura saw a chess board IN WHICH ALL THE PIECES WERE SHOTGLASSES, and suggested I take that to America. And he wasn't joking. It was like, the tackiest, trashiest thing I've ever seen, but apparently to a Russian this is a good idea for a gift. I could imagine being in the mall with Brendan, Jen, and Sarah, seeing this in like Spencer's Gifts or something and joke about buying it for about five seconds and moving on.

But anyway, back to Saturday. I ended up staying in almost all day, on and off doing work and taking naps (I have been sickeningly tired all the time this past week). I didn't really feel like shopping, so I didn't call Emma, and decided we could go if she called me, which she didn't. And Yura never called. So, in I stayed. I did go with Maneka and friends, though, to dinner, AND IT TOOK SOME CONVINCING TO TATYANA TO NOT FEED ME BEFORE I WENT. Good lord.

Dinner was fantastic – We went to an Indian restaurant, which was entirely EMPTY when we got there. It was a really nice place, though. We ordered a bunch of different food and shared it all amongst ourselves. And it was delicious. An older American couple who had very heavy Minnesota accents came and sat a table over from us, and I was the only one who was able to tell that they were speaking English, which was kind of sad. Illana ordered a birthday icecream surprise for Maneka, in which they gave the rest of us normal icecream, then turned the lights down and brought out a plate of icecream for Maneka, along with a ladle of ALCOHOL, which they SET ON FIRE and POURED IN A CIRCLE around the icecream. It was class. Blue flames were racing a circle around the icecream for like ten seconds.

After that we were going to go to a bar or something but instead we all got lazy and dispersed to our respective homes. I actually walked halfway to Central Station, first, but then decided I'd rather just go home and turned around. It was a good decision. I had a hard enough time waking up at 11:30 after getting home and going to bed. I'd have been asleep all day if I went out.

And I had perfect timing when I got home, too! Kill Bill was on, and I've been wanting to rewatch that movie for a while now. It had pretty damn good dubbing, too. In that the English audio track was not present, and the voice actors actually acted. Quite melodramatically, but the actual actors are melodramatic in that movie anyway. The only annoying part is that the Japanese audio track was there, and one stupid man was doing ALL the dubbing for the Japanese, in a MONOTONE voice. But oh well, can't win everything. Oh, and Bill had a CREEPY ass voice.

... So, my plans for today? Lay around and do work and nap on and off. Yep.

... And apparently find a weird as HELL show. Or, well, it's not a show, but some sort of ... games... reporting thing. Like, I don't know what the hell it is, but this is the second time I've seen it on TV. Some sort of games series in which Russia, China, Kazakhstan and the U.S.A compete. Yes, America. What the hell? The games are like one big joke; everything is all cartoony and strange. But it's all also pretty dangerous and difficult. When I turned the TV on they had a ring with a tree and fake bananas in the centre, and a wild bull running around... Teams of two had to get the most amount of bananas out of the ring. Alright, simple so far. So, both members of each team are dressed up in APE SUITS and one had to WHEELBARROW HIS PARTNER to the centre, without getting GORED BY THIS BULL, and his partner has to climb up the tree, fetch a banana, then drop back down into the wheelbarrow to take the banana back to the edge of the ring. And this continued for a while, with a few near-deaths.

The second game... racers had to HOP ON A CONVEYOUR BELT that was GOING BACKWARDS, while CLOWNS popped out of a CARTOON HOUSE and HIT THEM IN THE FACE WITH PIES.

The third game, another ring with a bull. This time, two people had to race... while wearing PEA TIN CAN costumes, go to the centre, gather as many PEAS as they can (which were big fluffy green balls), and return to the edge of the ring WITHOUT GETTING GORED BY THIS BULL.

And then people had to race on this gigantic cartoony colorful obstacle course dressed up as GIGANTIC ROOSTERS and do something I didn't quite understand.

I am in awe. Does anyone know if these games are covered in the U.S., too? It's kind of a strange mix of countries... the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and ... the U.S.? What the hell?