It would be a little weird to put random stories in with the metro bombing, so I’ll leave that entry to itself. Besides the crazyness lately with the terrorist attacks, the trip has been pretty good.
School still sucks, I feel like I learn nothing... but lunch is free. Sometimes in class, I try to run through grammar I studied on my own or figure out new words from signs using context clues and random logic.
As far as people go, I’ve had some interesting experiences the past two days. Yesterday, I went to some underground jazz club where all of the US diplomats go to eat. A center table will cost you 5000 rubles a person just to sit, and a meal is around 2000 rubles. 7000 rubles = 236 dollars at the current going rate. But it’s ok because I ate for free. Ira was meeting with the owner about alcohol sponsorships and whatnot that she does for her job, while I head spanish tomato soup, the best cheese potato things I’ve ever had, and duck with a wild berry sauce. I also was able to have water, which is normally more expensive than beer or tea, but I didn’t care in this case obviously. The guy who owned the club was pretty cool from what I gather, but he knew I didn’t understand a lot, and the waitress gave up on talking to me after the first 5 minutes. Seems like going over how to check into/out of a hotel, talk about pictures, and describe your room in class doesn’t work out too well in the real world. But it’s ok because every day is progress.
Today I went to another underground club/restaurant with Ira but it wasn’t free, although it was only 800 rubles per person. Dinner started with horseradish/garlic vodka shots that were accented with a peppered cucumber slice. Definitely a unique experience. Appetizers were potato cakes with a horseradish glaze stuff, sour cream, and salted raw salmon. Dinner was beef tongue in some kind of cream/mustard sauce, baked with zucchini. I picked all of those things at random, but it turns out I ordered a 100% Russian meal. Success, seeing as I wanted just one fancy Russian meal while I was here. It was also delicious, but nothing will ever beat the other place.
After dinner we walked around the city. We saw a few random buildings with some classic architecture, but one part that hit was when we walked into an old soviet apartment building. Ira told me about how it used to be a super fancy place, with only four enormous flats in it. When the Soviets came in, they broke the flats into fractions, then moved a ton of more people in. Now, it remains as the Soviets left it with paint peeling off the walls, twig&twine brooms laying in corners, bars over everything, and huge cracks running down the walls. Something about being able to tell it used to be nice, coupled with it’s utter destruction now, will be something I will definitely remember.
We then walked across the river, and after a drunken call from Steve who was blacked out and in central park (still don’t know how that worked out for him. last text received: dude i have blood on my hands!), we decided to head home. On the train some guy heard us speaking English, and asked where I was from. After I said USA, he asked if I knew the Governator, which is actually how Russians say governor, no joke. After explaining that I don’t know Arnold, he went to tell me how he is currently unemployed but was a research engineer (EE/MechE) and had developed some type of technology to prevent or fight forest fires in California. He was asking me how he could get a letter translated so he could send it to Arnold, and got Ira’s phone number. He was a silly guy, but a good guy, and I told him if he sent one that they would probably translate it for him at the California office. Ira might translate it for him, but we’ll see.
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