First Post [Again]

Hey everyone, I’m mostly writing at this point to say I got into Moscow safely and am now stationed at one of the finest in Russian hotels. This means that when you turn on the water in the sink it comes out a stream of yellow and brown for a bit and that there is some ungodly buzzing sound coming from a random part of the room.

Moscow so far reminds me of (for those of you from the Boston area) a combination between Boston driving and Worcester aesthetics or, for the more musically inclined, a copy of the Pink Floyd album cover “Animals” but with a bit more light and movement. This of course is after only a few hours, most of which were spent napping, but its amazing the amount of smokestacks everywhere and the general layer of smoke that pervades the city. That said it certainly has a distinct feel to it and I haven’t stopped smiling since I’ve been here…except for the whole brown water incident.

A bit about the flight:

My first flight from Boston to Atlanta was fairly uneventful, so much so that this single sentence covers it.

The flight from Atlanta to Moscow was a bit more interesting mainly because I had two major accomplishments-I had my first multicultural Russian exchange, and I sat next to a real Bellarussian on the plane.

The multicultural exchange was perhaps one of my finest moments and one that I hope will set a standard for the many others to come. I had just arrived at the check-in gate, met up with some people in the program, was standing in line to board, and generally feeling good about the whole experience. All of a sudden, from somewhere behind me comes a loud repetitive beeping sound and I turn to see a Russian man on one of those small truck airport machines.

He looks at me.

I look at him.

He looks at me.

I look at the giant moving vehicle approaching me and beeping like crazy.

He says something in the vein of “move out of the way, please” (in Russian)

I step back.

He says «Спасибо» (Thank you)

It was a beautiful moment.


-The Bellarussian I sat next to on the plane was a nice guy but spent most of the time complaining about how Delta charged for alchoholic beverages and then, when I told him one was included with the meal, was quite surprised that the wine on Delta was better than that on AirFrance. Unfortunately most of our conversation during the first half was conducted in English (I tried to start off the conversation in Russian but when he did not respond in like I didn’t feel like pushing the point) and was composed of me asking him excited questions about Russia and him contradicting me at each point. An example:

Conversation 1:
Me: So, do you have any advice for someone going to Russia

Him: No

Conversation 2:

Me: So…is there anything I should see in Russia?

Him: No.

Me: Oh.

Him: Well, you can see Red Square

Me Yeah, I’ve heard its incredible

Him: Its really boring, I don’t know why so many tourists go there.


To be fair I think he didn’t understand everything I was saying but, regardless, my favorite part of the whole exchange came as we were flying into Russia. We were above the clouds and the sun was burning on the horizon and it was absolutely beautiful and I said to him
“Wow, isn’t that incredible”

He shook his head with a combination of disappointment and disgust and said “Its just clouds!”

But then, towards the end of the flight something interesting happened. He randomly turned to me and said “Let’s talk in Russian” and we spent the rest of the time talking about Russia, him giving me advice that had previously been withheld, and us discussing the differences between America and Russia.

Afterwards our flight landed and we made our way to the hotel where I am sitting now. The first thing I did when I got to my room was, of course, turn on the Russian TV. Currently I am stll trying to figure out whether I was watching a game show or a trial because someone kept excitedly asking “Если бы вы были там, что вы бы делали?» Basically “If you had been there or been in this situation what would you do?” Like I said, I’m still trying to figure out if the target of the questions stood to win a large sum of money or time in jail.

Anyways some of us are going to be heading into the city tonight in about 20 minutes (its 7:40pm here and we are 8 hours ahead) so I’ll wrap this up.

I hope everyone who is traveling abroad gets there safe and I hope everyone who is in classes is having fun. Things are good here and for the strangest reason when the plane landed I felt as if I was coming home. I realize its foolish to say, not having been here even a full day yet, but like I said I haven’t stopped smiling.

Also, tomorrow I find out who I’m living with. (Бабушки!) (Grandmothers! – something is lost in the translation)

До скорого,

-Гриша