Weekend Update -- A Few Days Late
All,
I must inform the entire Western world that it actually snowed in Moscow over the weekend. I was remiss in not taking pictures, because Moscow really is quite beautiful when it snows. Now all the Russians can finally stop walking around with long faces, lamenting the absence of a "real winter". I have to admit, I too, wanted a real Russian winter as well. When people ask me about my (almost) year here, I want to be able to give them what the want. "Yeah, it snowed up to my knees every day, my eyelashes froze on several occasions" etc, etc. Instead if warm trend doesn't break, I will have to sheepishly admit that it did get down to 34 degrees that one really cold night.
So the snow came, but there was only about 2-3 inches of accumulation. The streets are bare now. However, the cold has arrived. This afternoon, it was 18 degrees. And it is expected to get down to 12 degrees tonight.
This cold streak has brought a lot of fur coats out of cold storage. I saw this one (not sure of the noun to use here) obsenity, monstrosity, curiousity in this purple, yes, I said purple fur coat. In looking at this coat, I thought OK, maybe she got it for like 96% off -- which would still have been a rip-off. Then I thought, now I know why there are no purple fur-bearing animals, Barney notwithstanding. The woman looked like she was wearing the offspring of Pepe Le Peu and Prince.
No more updates on metro purchases; I haven't really seen anything interesting and I am still looking for my rock lady. There was lady at the entrance to the metro when I left work this evening. She was holding a sign representing a company called "White Cat", but I couldn't catch the details. My Russian reading level isn't all that high and the metro entrance steps at rush hour is not really the time to test my reading comprehension.
I have just about 89 days left in the program. As I approach this deadline, I am getting a little melancholy for moreso the experiences and the relationships than the actual country. But I did realize that I will actually miss Moscow. I also feel like I am leaving a lot of experiences on the table. I am trying to visit Uzbekistan, Estonia and Turkey (and if the border reopens soon, Georgia) but that is a lot of traveling in 3 months.
I had dinner with a Russian friend who informed me that there was supposedly another terrorist attack planned for a central metro station at 7 pm tonight. As far as we both know, nothing actually happened, but all this continued, specific chatter is starting to wear on my nerves a bit. You can rationalize one notice as a over-reaction to a fluke or a mistake. Getting weekly notices of an impending terrorist attack is a little more difficult to explain or deny away.
Oh, last note of the night -- My interview with Trajan Langdon got cancelled in typical Russian fashion. So I called the CSKA Moscow Basketball teams Press Officer, Maria Kravchenko on Thursday and requested a meeting with Trajan Langdon. She immediately says yes, Monday at 8 pm. I said, uh..don't you want my name or contact information? She says no, just call me tomorrow and I will confirm that the player is OK with the time. So I call her on Friday and she says, yep 8pm Monday night. Practice ends at 7 pm, just call me when you get to the stadium. I said I will be bringing 3 people with me, do you need their names or ids? She said no. I say OK.
Monday comes and I just want to double-triple check on this appointment. So I call Maria at 4 pm and say I have a meeting at 8pm, are will still on. She says, well actually no, we need to cancel the meeting because there is a womens sport event at the stadium and the security will be tight. I said, well can't you just get us security passes. She says, OK, give me 20 minutes to solve this and call me back. I call back at 4:25 pm and the phone rings 25 times before a man answers. I ask for Maria Kravchenko. He puts the phone down and sing-songs out "Masha", there is a bit of rustling then dead silence. I hold on the phone, in the artificial silence for 3 minutes, until the guy comes back on the line. He then kindlly informs me that Masha has left for the day. I say how can that be? She was working on an issue for me. The guy gets all indignant and says, well I can't help you, I can just take your name and number? For what? I ask. The meeting is in 2.5 hours, if she calls me back tomorrow it will be too late. He mumbles something. So I cave and give him my name and number. I know that he wrote down this information accurately and immediately placed the message on Masha's desk. I know that is what happened.
Anyway, today I called Masha like 8 different times and the phone just rang and rang. So wish me luck in salvaging this interview. It is such a shame because it is really for a good cause. Something, somewhere, sometime has to break in our favor.
Until next post.
I must inform the entire Western world that it actually snowed in Moscow over the weekend. I was remiss in not taking pictures, because Moscow really is quite beautiful when it snows. Now all the Russians can finally stop walking around with long faces, lamenting the absence of a "real winter". I have to admit, I too, wanted a real Russian winter as well. When people ask me about my (almost) year here, I want to be able to give them what the want. "Yeah, it snowed up to my knees every day, my eyelashes froze on several occasions" etc, etc. Instead if warm trend doesn't break, I will have to sheepishly admit that it did get down to 34 degrees that one really cold night.
So the snow came, but there was only about 2-3 inches of accumulation. The streets are bare now. However, the cold has arrived. This afternoon, it was 18 degrees. And it is expected to get down to 12 degrees tonight.
This cold streak has brought a lot of fur coats out of cold storage. I saw this one (not sure of the noun to use here) obsenity, monstrosity, curiousity in this purple, yes, I said purple fur coat. In looking at this coat, I thought OK, maybe she got it for like 96% off -- which would still have been a rip-off. Then I thought, now I know why there are no purple fur-bearing animals, Barney notwithstanding. The woman looked like she was wearing the offspring of Pepe Le Peu and Prince.
No more updates on metro purchases; I haven't really seen anything interesting and I am still looking for my rock lady. There was lady at the entrance to the metro when I left work this evening. She was holding a sign representing a company called "White Cat", but I couldn't catch the details. My Russian reading level isn't all that high and the metro entrance steps at rush hour is not really the time to test my reading comprehension.
I have just about 89 days left in the program. As I approach this deadline, I am getting a little melancholy for moreso the experiences and the relationships than the actual country. But I did realize that I will actually miss Moscow. I also feel like I am leaving a lot of experiences on the table. I am trying to visit Uzbekistan, Estonia and Turkey (and if the border reopens soon, Georgia) but that is a lot of traveling in 3 months.
I had dinner with a Russian friend who informed me that there was supposedly another terrorist attack planned for a central metro station at 7 pm tonight. As far as we both know, nothing actually happened, but all this continued, specific chatter is starting to wear on my nerves a bit. You can rationalize one notice as a over-reaction to a fluke or a mistake. Getting weekly notices of an impending terrorist attack is a little more difficult to explain or deny away.
Oh, last note of the night -- My interview with Trajan Langdon got cancelled in typical Russian fashion. So I called the CSKA Moscow Basketball teams Press Officer, Maria Kravchenko on Thursday and requested a meeting with Trajan Langdon. She immediately says yes, Monday at 8 pm. I said, uh..don't you want my name or contact information? She says no, just call me tomorrow and I will confirm that the player is OK with the time. So I call her on Friday and she says, yep 8pm Monday night. Practice ends at 7 pm, just call me when you get to the stadium. I said I will be bringing 3 people with me, do you need their names or ids? She said no. I say OK.
Monday comes and I just want to double-triple check on this appointment. So I call Maria at 4 pm and say I have a meeting at 8pm, are will still on. She says, well actually no, we need to cancel the meeting because there is a womens sport event at the stadium and the security will be tight. I said, well can't you just get us security passes. She says, OK, give me 20 minutes to solve this and call me back. I call back at 4:25 pm and the phone rings 25 times before a man answers. I ask for Maria Kravchenko. He puts the phone down and sing-songs out "Masha", there is a bit of rustling then dead silence. I hold on the phone, in the artificial silence for 3 minutes, until the guy comes back on the line. He then kindlly informs me that Masha has left for the day. I say how can that be? She was working on an issue for me. The guy gets all indignant and says, well I can't help you, I can just take your name and number? For what? I ask. The meeting is in 2.5 hours, if she calls me back tomorrow it will be too late. He mumbles something. So I cave and give him my name and number. I know that he wrote down this information accurately and immediately placed the message on Masha's desk. I know that is what happened.
Anyway, today I called Masha like 8 different times and the phone just rang and rang. So wish me luck in salvaging this interview. It is such a shame because it is really for a good cause. Something, somewhere, sometime has to break in our favor.
Until next post.
posted by S | 10:29 AM
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