Metro Dailies Update
Dear Readers,
Today in the metro vending section... The old lady with the brown stones was nowhere to be found. I hope she is OK. In related news, a youngish, Caucasian (from the Caucasus) was selling a stone that takes the creosote of cruddy frying pans. I just had to buy one, because you never know when your frying pan will, out of nowhere, just crud up on you. One must always be prepared for the eventualities of life in the big city. The girl said the stone will work for 2 years, and I believe her, because everything a street vendor says about their products is always true.
Then I hit the double jackpot because, right next to the crud stone table, a really, really old woman was selling polyester kitchen aprons. I had to buy the one with multi-colored balloon faces with hats. It so cool because it looks like it was designed by either a developmentally delayed child or an adult mid-acid trip. No, you are not on an acid-trip, the brown stuff in the corner is my couch.
I am working on a really cool Financial Literacy project with the IBLF/Russia Partnership. I am setting strategy for a Financial Literacy Working Group. I have been involved with this group since I presented a paper at their orginal round-table meeting. Here are the links to some pix from that event (in October). As a result of this relationship, I got to attend a G8 summit meeting co-sponsored with the OECD on Financial Literacy efforts around the world. I was acrredited with the Russian delegation and so my home/sponsoring country was listed as Russia which I am sure befuddled all the other delegates. I never thought in a million years that I would be attending a G8 meeting. Unfortunately, the main take away from the meeting was how shockingly stultifying the meeting was. I made friends with the Russian Central Bank delegate (we were homies from the same country, see) and she slept through the entire first day. The next day, she gave an unintentionally hilarious presentation, including a video, which she starred in. I did not see the entire presentation because the coffee that I was mainlining took a serious toll on my bladder. Anyway, I made some great contacts and in the breaks, met some really awesome people.
On another happy note, I got permission to interview Trajan Langdan. For those of you who are not sports or basketball or Duke or Cavalier fans, Trajan is a Duke player, who played in the NBA for Cleveland and LA (Clippers) before heading to Europe and then Moscow. Trajan is bi-racial and I am involved (through my church) with a group called Metis. Metis means mixed-blood in Russian and the group offers supplementary classes (art, language, computers) as well as networking and support for bi-racial children and their families.
The US can be a difficult place to be bi-racial, so you can image how incredibly difficult it can be here in such a self-selecting, homogenous, xenophobic culture. In the US, everybody who speaks English without an accent is accepted, for the most part, as an American. In Russia you can live here for a 100 years and if your last name is not quite right and/or your skin tone is too dark, you are not considered Russian. Don't let that we love Pushkin and he was black nonsense fool you. Again, for the slow readers, if you do not have the right last name and your skin tone is not right, you are not Russian. I do not care if your Russian language is flawless, better than the best, you are not Russian, full stop.
So, I thought Trajan would be a great role model for the Russian kids. So we are going to meet him and pitch the idea to him. Secondarily, my friend from the embassy and I are working on a project to record the experiences of the African diaspora in post-Soviet Russia. We would like to interview Trajan for the project. Keep your fingers crossed that we get his approval and that he has a good story to tell. Ex-pats can choose to live a very insulated and charmed life, tamping down the inequalities and discomforts of Russian life with lots and lots of Russian roubles. Money can't buy love, but it definitely can purchase comfort and ease.
On the weather front (boy am I punny, see I did it again), it is pouring down rain, which means we still have not gotten a meaningful snowfall this entire 2006-07 winter. Its moved past the truly unbelievable into the downright weird, even a bit spooky.
Until tomorrow, dear readers. I remain vigilant in my search for unusual metro purchases.
Today in the metro vending section... The old lady with the brown stones was nowhere to be found. I hope she is OK. In related news, a youngish, Caucasian (from the Caucasus) was selling a stone that takes the creosote of cruddy frying pans. I just had to buy one, because you never know when your frying pan will, out of nowhere, just crud up on you. One must always be prepared for the eventualities of life in the big city. The girl said the stone will work for 2 years, and I believe her, because everything a street vendor says about their products is always true.
Then I hit the double jackpot because, right next to the crud stone table, a really, really old woman was selling polyester kitchen aprons. I had to buy the one with multi-colored balloon faces with hats. It so cool because it looks like it was designed by either a developmentally delayed child or an adult mid-acid trip. No, you are not on an acid-trip, the brown stuff in the corner is my couch.
I am working on a really cool Financial Literacy project with the IBLF/Russia Partnership. I am setting strategy for a Financial Literacy Working Group. I have been involved with this group since I presented a paper at their orginal round-table meeting. Here are the links to some pix from that event (in October). As a result of this relationship, I got to attend a G8 summit meeting co-sponsored with the OECD on Financial Literacy efforts around the world. I was acrredited with the Russian delegation and so my home/sponsoring country was listed as Russia which I am sure befuddled all the other delegates. I never thought in a million years that I would be attending a G8 meeting. Unfortunately, the main take away from the meeting was how shockingly stultifying the meeting was. I made friends with the Russian Central Bank delegate (we were homies from the same country, see) and she slept through the entire first day. The next day, she gave an unintentionally hilarious presentation, including a video, which she starred in. I did not see the entire presentation because the coffee that I was mainlining took a serious toll on my bladder. Anyway, I made some great contacts and in the breaks, met some really awesome people.
On another happy note, I got permission to interview Trajan Langdan. For those of you who are not sports or basketball or Duke or Cavalier fans, Trajan is a Duke player, who played in the NBA for Cleveland and LA (Clippers) before heading to Europe and then Moscow. Trajan is bi-racial and I am involved (through my church) with a group called Metis. Metis means mixed-blood in Russian and the group offers supplementary classes (art, language, computers) as well as networking and support for bi-racial children and their families.
The US can be a difficult place to be bi-racial, so you can image how incredibly difficult it can be here in such a self-selecting, homogenous, xenophobic culture. In the US, everybody who speaks English without an accent is accepted, for the most part, as an American. In Russia you can live here for a 100 years and if your last name is not quite right and/or your skin tone is too dark, you are not considered Russian. Don't let that we love Pushkin and he was black nonsense fool you. Again, for the slow readers, if you do not have the right last name and your skin tone is not right, you are not Russian. I do not care if your Russian language is flawless, better than the best, you are not Russian, full stop.
So, I thought Trajan would be a great role model for the Russian kids. So we are going to meet him and pitch the idea to him. Secondarily, my friend from the embassy and I are working on a project to record the experiences of the African diaspora in post-Soviet Russia. We would like to interview Trajan for the project. Keep your fingers crossed that we get his approval and that he has a good story to tell. Ex-pats can choose to live a very insulated and charmed life, tamping down the inequalities and discomforts of Russian life with lots and lots of Russian roubles. Money can't buy love, but it definitely can purchase comfort and ease.
On the weather front (boy am I punny, see I did it again), it is pouring down rain, which means we still have not gotten a meaningful snowfall this entire 2006-07 winter. Its moved past the truly unbelievable into the downright weird, even a bit spooky.
Until tomorrow, dear readers. I remain vigilant in my search for unusual metro purchases.
posted by S | 11:59 AM
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