Первые впечатления

Originally sent June 14:

Privet druzya,

So I don't know if you care or not, but I will use this thread to describe my adventures in Russia henceforth. I will consider keeping a blog, but until then-- vot syuda ya budu zapisivat' vse svoi priklyucheniya.

Internet time is limited, so I shall keep things brief and curt. Flew via red-eye from SFO to Washington Dulles on Friday night; had 12-hour layover in DC. My cousin picked me up from the airport, and I slept at his place, and then my other cousin came to his place and we had a homemade Indian lunch, the last I will get until August, I am sure. Then the flight from Dulles to Moscow Domodedovo. I was very excited and nervous and all, especially since that plane ride was the first time in my life that I was surrounded by a majority of Russian speakers (in my previous experience, they have formed a small but humorous contingent wherever I was). My first contact with a Russian who didn't necessarily know me to be a non-native speaker: a woman who asked me for my blanket. It was very exciting.

Upon arriving in Moscow, I was dismayed to find it was hot as balls, and the airport was not really air-conditioned. I was more dismayed to find the line at immigration to be longer than the Trans-Siberian express. Literally. The line started in Moscow. I'm now in Vladivostok.

The above is not true, but it was a long line, and it took over an hour to get through. I found my baggage and asked if I needed to go through customs, because I had a bottle of wine (a gift for my host family). The customs officer was like-- why? So I just went through. Awesome.

Then a student from the ANE-- Academy of the National Economy, the host organization-- was waiting for me and found me, and we drove the 40-minute drive from Domodedovo into Moscow. Countless numbers of Soviet-style block apartments along the way. I was excited but slightly terrified, because it occurred to me that this was a fucking huge city, and I didn't know anybody in it, except this one weird punk kid.

We finally got to what is now home for me-- Ukrainsky boulevard No. 6, Apt. 243, and there I was met by my host mother, O.

O. was not what I expected from a woman who teaches journalism at Moscow State University (MGU-- Moskovsky Gosudarstvenny Universitet). She is short and fat and unlovely, and has a liberal amount of facial hair. Nonetheless, she is an extremely nice woman, and her first act was to make me a massive lunch of tomato-cucumber salad with smetana (sour cream), mushroom-potato bliny (pancaky wrap thingies*), and kvas (bread drink, literally made from fermented bread, delicious). We talked for a bit, and I started to feel overwhelmed being in this very new place. I went to bed for six hours or so.

At this point I will say a bit about the family and the apartment. The apartment is located in a very Soviet building. There are three bedrooms, a bathroom, and a kitchen/ dining room. I get a bedroom to myself; my host parents V. Sr. and O. are in the largest bedroom, and in the other bedroom live their son, V. Jr., age 24, with his wife L. and son, D. (age 10 months-- super cute). The apartment is shabby but clean. Cheesy decor. Welcome to Russia.

Anyway, when I awoke at 10:30 PM, the sun had not yet set-- welcome to 55 degrees north latitude. Cool. Had ice cream with home-made cherry sauce (made at the dacha-- i.e. their summer cottage), then talked and watched some world cup, finally went to bed again.

Woke up at 9:30 AM, broke fast, mom called from home. I assured her all was well. Then I went out with O. to buy a simcard for my GSM phone, get a three-month metro card (3000 rubles, or about 55 bucks, for three months-- not bad, but not cheap), and whatnot. O. then went to work, and I walked for the first time alone in Moscow! Normally this is not a big deal, but in a place like Russia, you feel like everyone is watching you, esp. when you are brown.

Later, I went out with V. Jr., who gave me a walking tour of the city. So cool. Walked through the Arbat, the Bohemian artsy street of Moscow (now quite touristy), through the Mayakovsky district, past the Kremlin, past Pushkin's place, bought a beer and stopped in a little courtyard where Pushkin used to hang out, and then walked to Patriarch's Ponds. If you've read Mikail Bulgakov's Master and Margarita, you'll know that this is where the novel begins. And then we went to Bulgakov's house!!! So cool! Saw his typewriter! Used his toilet! So cool!

Then we saw more monuments like the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Russian White House (home of the Prime Minister, i.e. Putin), and other stuff I don't remember, then back home to Ukrainsky boulevard. We passed the majestic Stalinist Hotel Ukraina, which is now the Radisson. Yay capitalism!

Then I had more bliny and tomato-cucumber salad, and now I am writing to you. Cool, no? On the agenda for tonight: a stroll through Victory Park, and then card games. Ура!

--Aseemovich