(title:“Moscow, Russia” in Russian… C being an S, B being a V and Cirillic being plain complicated!)
OK FRIENDS (Harasho padruga!)!!
I'm here! I'm here! worry not, as I am well and happy! I wrote this posting yesterday night on zoe and saved it on word. I could only use the net when I'm at school, and it wasn't open for long on the weekend. I'm not yet settled at all (seeing as how I still don't have a place to stay of my own), so that means limited internet time and clothes still wrinkled (and getting more wrinkled by the minute! haha)
BUT I have a new mobile number, so if you want to waste your money and (a lot) of my money or miss the hell out of my voice, you can call +7 916 741 4150
but I think there's supposed to be a 495 in there after the 7, as 495 is moscow's city code. (7 is the country code) but I can't be certain...
Alright, so if you have this URL, that means you're cool in my books! teehee, please keep this relatively to yourself, as I'd like this to be between me and my close friends. (that means you! hug~)
So my thoughts yesterday are below. enjoy, and remember that you are missed a billion times over. Pictures to come soon. Still...not...settled!...arr~!
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It’s only my second real full day, but there is so much to say due to multiple days of no internet access (How debilitating yet cleansing a withdrawal is!! Interesting how it’s called ‘connected’ and ‘disconnected’; shall I allow myself to feel disconnected??), Ahh! Tangent! I digress; notes will be elaborated on through organized point form:
- Flights were good; to Paris, I was sitting next to a Lithuanian (If I remember correctly) couple who spoke Russian, and she taught me many words; the only ones that I remember are Bread, Water, and French. YAY!
- Hilarious interaction: So I’m going through the airport carry-on/body scan thing; the dude scans my laptop bag, and as it goes through, he asks me if I have an external hard drive in the bag, and I said No (because I didn’t), so he checks it. When he realizes that’s it’s just my personal portable tape player, he shouts: “OH! It’s a tape player! Hey guys! Check it out, it’s a tape player!” Thus began my conversation with multiple airport x-ray security guards over how tapes aren’t all that archaic.
(Favorite part: [which I laughingly told to the guy] The fact that they couldn’t even identify the player through the scan!! Is that a testament to how archaic tape players are, or how unskilled they are as x-ray scanners..hmmm)
- First impression of Mockba; GOOD! Very much like Greece. Air always a bit smokey, people a bit rough around the edges, but a lovely place nonetheless. AND, like Greece, one of the first recognizable things I saw after leaving the airport was an IKEA. Oh those Swedes…oh commercialized counties…
- Was already accosted by pushy male taxi drivers 2 seconds out of customs. I love that I look like a vulnerable little Asian girl. My bigger-than-me luggage didn’t really help my image, but I stood by my “Nyet, Spaciba”, and after saying that a few times and then finally laughing in their faces at their persistence, they left me alone which ultimately allowed me to find YURI! My driver! (he was nice…we attempted to communicate the whole way into town; it worked well but stayed very basic..)
- We stopped by my school! It’s SO nice and quaint and everyone seems super kind. Met my boss, whom embarrassingly enough, I thought was another French teacher, so I just spoke to her like a regular person (which is good…I mean bosses ARE in fact regular people), but I didn’t address her with any formalities…like MADAME or VOUS, which in retrospect was not needed at all…yay! It’s gonna be a GREAT year!
- I’m staying with my co-worker Elena and her hubbie Andrei (who have both shown me more kindness and hospitality than I could possibly have imagined or expected) in what they call a Stalin style apartment…which basically kind of means old and slightly run down (pipes uncovered and the like; circa Stalin times), but there’s a certain Russian charm that comes with uncovered pipes. There are no lies with uncovered pipes…water comes in here, water goes out there… (ok fine, I’m reaching), but it’s very comfortable, and it helps that there is a beautiful 2 year old cat named (appropriately) “Mouse”!!! I LOVE that, and I love him! He’s THE most affectionate cat I’ve ever met (sorry Fonfon, I know it’s a stereotype but Mouse is completely attitude-less and so loving that I bet the other cats think he’s gay; oh if cats could only embrace homosexuality, I do think our world would be a happier and more loving place). The one thing that Mouse taught me, though, was that after I give him a gigantic belly rub and let him cuddle his face all over my legs, he sort of makes my eyes itch and my nose run and my palate really uncomfortable. Yep, I’m officially a confirmed victim of cat allergies, although I’m still in denial, and it’s really not that bad. I’m actually living with it (as I am living with Mouse). I can’t let him in my room anymore though, and he looks at me with these eyes…and I realize that it is just a love that could never be, so I slowly close the door on him, and he meows this meow…. “MEOW I still love you! MEOW please just let me in! MEOW! Why don’t you love me anymore? MEOW just one more rub! Please! I still love you!...”
(Why yes…I DID just write more about a cat then of my first impressions of Moscow! ..... It’s a rough breakup, Okay?!!?! ;)
- It took me a day to realize that the stereotypes I kept hearing of Moscow aren’t really that bad. ONE DAY! Not even! Being in Moscow is a lot like being in any big non-anglo European city. Big…historical…foreign…I ventured out on my own today, and it was fine! I got lost a bit once, but made it out fine. As long as you have a regular dose of vigilance and you’re not waving your money around, you’re good to go! And really, that’s just common sense anywhere.
- I made my way to the Red Square…and the Kremlin…Fantastically marvelous places! Being there is just super cool, yet shockingly normal, and it was only at that moment that I (and only somewhat) realized where it was that I was standing and what it is that I’m doing. I think the magnitude of all of this will only hit me sometime in the next couple of months. Maybe when I start working, and have my own place…
I’m off now; but not before saying that I miss all of you quite a bit. I walked in a park close to Elena’s flat this evening for a bit, and there was a jazz festival of some sort that I was blocked out of, but I could still hear the sax, and as I strolled alone on the stone ground I thought how nice it would be if my friends were there with me. Who knows, soon, maybe, maybe not, possibly; well not right now at least. J
lovelovleovleovleolveolelove
patey:]
