A Complete 180

I’m guilty---I judged the book by its cover, so to speak. Turns out I shouldn’t have spoken so soon. I spent Day 2 exploring part of downtown Moscow on my own. Day 3 was my first day of business, and the university seems like a whole new world now. Here’s how it all went down:

I began Day 2 writing another diary-type entry. Take a look:

It’s 5 AM, and I’ve been up for about 2 hours now after a nice 4-4.5 hour sleep. I definitely thought I would get more sleep seeing as I was wide awake for almost the whole flight over, but that’s jetlag for you. I’ve turned on the television to a music channel so that I feel like I have some company. They keep playing Lady Gaga’s ‘Paparazzi’ which is a very disturbing song…Then there are some crazy Russian dance songs or remixes of American songs with some mad beats. I can dig that. Although I wasn’t about to tell Ilya that I liked dance/house music yesterday, because I’m fairly certain that would have ended our nascent friendship (if I can call it that) on the spot. Anyways, dance music has this power over me that I can’t explain. It helps me to forget things and makes me feel more comfortable.

I’ve spent the last couple hours thinking of what I am going to do today and in what order. It was really stressing me out until I decided to look through my guidebook. Thank goodness I bought that right before I left. I’ve found listings for several internet cafes (one of which supposedly provides free wi-fi), an American Express bank, and a map store. I plan on making these my three big visits today. Best of all, they are all located within walking-distance of each other and Red Square! So, today I will experiment with the metro.

I will probably go to МИР this morning and buy that cell phone first. I think that will make me feel much more comfortable, as long as I can figure out the sim card/calling plan, because then I can at least call Becca from the Fulbright office if I am in trouble or need help around town. Once I get to the internet café, I’ll be sure to check and write down the cell phone numbers of my friends in Moscow and give them a call today, too. Plus, I’d love to write to my parents and try to set up a Skype call soon. I need to hear their voices, and tomorrow (Monday) is Dad’s birthday so if I don’t get a chance to call them tomorrow then it needs to be done today.

Since I’ll be around Red Square today, I’ll probably also stop in ГУМ, the state department store, and take a stroll to see some of the high-priced wonders that have made Moscow the most expensive city in Europe. Also, I’m bound to find a place that sells internet dungles, right?

Now for a recap of how my day went from 7 AM onward:

After a breakfast of bread sliced coarsely with my Swiss Army knife and peanut butter from a spoon with a banana and tea, I set off toward the market area by the metro stop. This area is known as Петровско-Разумовское (Petrovsko-Razumovskoyo), which is also the name of the metro stop. I stopped in МИР and bought the cheapest phone they had--a mall black Samsung--for 942 rubles (about $32 at the current exchange rate). Cell phones don’t work on ‘plans’ here as they do in the US, so you have to buy a sim card from a provider company, and you must charge up your sim card by buying minutes, and this can be done in two ways. First, you may pay at a store that sells the sim cards from your provider, or you can use these little kiosk/terminals that are all around the city and type in your phone number and then insert cash (Russia is nearly entirely a cash economy still, except at very high end restaurants and hotels that except credit cards). Anyways, the little kiosk at МИР where I had the ‘pleasant’ encounter the day before with the young man and woman was closed, so the man who helped me at МИР directed me to another store closer to the metro called Евросеть (Evroset‘). He was very kind and was sure to speak slowly to me and even helped me change the language settings on my phone to English. Anyways, I popped into the store selling sim cards and after a really long wait I finally purchased one by Билайн (Beeline), a provider that was recommended to me for its good coverage and service. The sim card and my initial deposit was 150 rubles, or about $5. I don’t know how long this will last, but we shall see.

Before I continue, I want to explain two things about Russia, illustrated perfectly by my long wait at Евросеть. First, Russian are obsessed with cellular phones. They are a real status symbol. People are always vying to buy the most high-end, fancy-dancy phone on the market. This isn’t like America where everyone seems to be buying the iPhone (although I have seen a few of those around so far). This is a quest to get the most unique and most recently produced models from across the globe. People essentially judge one another and compete with each other based on cell phones. And, they seem to always be on the phone. In this respect, I suppose it resembles America. But without calling plans and everyone operating on a pay-as-you-go system, people charge up their sim cards en masse. So, the stores that sell cards and/or have terminal kiosks located in them are frequently packed with people waiting to use them. This brings me to my next point: queues. The idea of standing in line is anathema to Russians. One must possess a strong will and a strong pair of elbows if you ever want to be served at a store. No matter if you are two feet away from the desk or terminal, someone will likely find a way to get in front of you. Of course, their reasoning is that they are much busier than you and don’t have the time to wait around, but this just leads to one giant problem: a nation where everyone is professedly busier than everyone else, thus lines tend to collapse on themselves. (I will note, however, that I have noticed exceptions to this in grocery stores. Also, if you want to be served by an attendant or salesclerk, the best way is to simply shout at the top of your lungs exactly what you want. It seems that the highest bidder wins---that is, however shouts the loudest.

Now, back to the day. After purchasing the sim card my cell phone was ready to go. That was easy enough. I headed across the street to the metro station and bought a card for 10 rides costing 200 rubles (about $6.67). Like the New York subway system, rides here are a set price no matter where you travel, including transfers to other lines, which is quite a deal because the Moscow metro system is expansive. It is also one of the most efficient in the world, with trains never more than 3 minutes apart--how the Soviets managed to run such an efficient public transportation system while failing miserably in market and production efficiency baffles me. The metro is, however, very crowded usually. I read in one tour book that in any given day it serves more people than the New York subway system and the London Underground COMBINED. WHOA. And, well, I believe it. But the crowds are made bearable by the state of the subway stations and tunnels. From what I have seen so far, they are extremely clean, and the trains, while not new or necessarily as cozy as the Washington system, for example, are clean as well. I have also read and seen photos of certain stations that are renown for their artistic beauty, although I have yet to visit them. The metro system was built in the early decades of the USSR as a sign of technological prowess, but also as a canvas for cultural expression. A handful of systems are decorated with extensive murals and tilework, and some even have huge chandeliers hanging inside the station. I will definitely explore these stations soon. One last note about the metro: it is WAY FAR underground. The escalators that I rode, at least, put any escalators in the DC system (even the longest ones) to shame. I had a few moments of serious vertigo as soon as I got on one of the escalators…

So, I’ll try to be brief about the next two hours of my day. I got off at Чеховская станция (Chekhov station), named after the famous Russian playwright, Anton Chekhov. The Fulbright office is located nearby, so I went to find its location. Across the street from the office is Пушинская площадь (Pushkin Square), where a few fountains and a statue of Russia’s most famous poet and national hero, Alexander Sergeyivich Pushkin stand. This was also my first glimpse of metropolitan Moscow. And it’s amazing. Very wide boulevards, about 6 lanes across, that often run only one way. There are no above-ground cross-walks on these boulevards, so you must travel to certain intersections until you find an underground walkway in order to cross the street. Shops line most of the ground floors of these buildings, which are almost all built in a very classical style but each adjoining building has a different color stone--lots of light and dark grays, pinks, and beiges.

From Pushkin Square I walked toward the map shop to find a better walking map of Moscow, as well as a map of the metro system. Along the way, I came across a massive dark-red stone building with ornate gold-plated decorations of two-headed eagles (Russia’s imperial and modern-state symbol). The building was huge, and it was just…there…right in between other non-descript looking buildings. I wasn’t sure what the building was, but then my eyes wandered across the street. There I saw a another square, in the middle of which was a HUGE statue that I recognized as Юрий Долгоруки (Yurii Dolgoruki, or Yuri ‘Longarms’), a medieval prince and the official founder of Moscow in 1147, when he declared it more of a city rather than a trading post. The statue is of him riding a horse and pointing forward, and was commissioned by the Joseph Stalin in 1947 to commemorate the 800th anniversary of Moscow. I wanted to take photos both of the building and the statue, but I had second thoughts when my eyes drifted to the, oh I don’t know, FIFTY or so policemen patrolling the area. They were both regular охрана (okhrana, or security--in Russia you see them everywhere) as well as lots of ОМОН, or the special forces police, armed to the teeth with automatic rifles and dogs. It was then that I realized that this giant red building must be something important, so I looked in my guidebook and found that it is the Moscow mayor’s office. I’m not sure who the mayor of Moscow is, but he or she has got some pretty sweet digs, and one hell of a security entourage. And in Russia, you never take pictures of official buildings. I mean NEVER. It can be considered a serious offense, akin to espionage, and you can be jailed for it. So, my camera stayed right where it was.

I continued down an alley and passed a small Orthodox church whose service just ended. I had forgotten that it was Sunday and all the services were going on. It was a small glimpse into a religious Russia that has been seriously revived since the end of the Soviet Union. Further down the alley and a few turns later I found the map store and got a great little pocket map. Then I made my way toward the Kremlin. First, though, I wanted to stop at a shopping center just outside the Kremlin walls for a bite to eat and to find that internet café with free wi-fi. The shopping center is called Охотний Ряд and is actually three stories underground. It’s got a ton of shops and boutiques and was very crowded. I headed to the food court area where I got a blini (Russian crepe or pancake) with salmon and a glass of kvas, a Russian staple drink that is like beer in that it goes through a process of fermentation, but it is non-alcoholic. It has a very distinct taste, but one that I cannot describe. Most foreigners hate it. It was my first glass ever, and it wasn’t fantastic, but I won’t say just now that I will never have it again. I then searched for the internet café for about another 45 minutes but sadly never found it. That frustrated me, because I wanted to look up the phone numbers of my friends in downtown Moscow so I could have someone to hang out with.

But, with no success, I decided to leave the shopping center and venture into Red Square. This, my friends, is a place that everyone should visit. I turned one corner, saw the colored onion domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral at the far end of the square, and lost my breath. Not kidding. I had seen pictures of the square and these iconic spires before, but nothing prepared me for the real thing. Red Square is GARGANTUAN. MONOLITHIC. JUST PLAIN BIG. I didn’t expect it to be so. I felt dwarfed. I strolled from one end to the other, passing by Lenin’s Tomb, the mausoleum where the body of Vladimir Lenin is preserved and kept on display, usually accompanied by a long line of people waiting to see it and ‘pay their respects’ to the founder of the USSR. And from what I understand, Lenin’s Tomb is another exception to the ‘Russians-don’t-make-lines-for-nobody’ rule, as this location is sacred to these people, not to mention crawling with police. On this day, however, there was no line, because the Tomb was closed on Sunday (maybe it’s closed Saturdays too---not sure yet). Behind the Tomb are the incredibly high, red stone walls of the Kremlin, within which all the major governmental buildings of the Russian Federation are enclosed. These buildings are all constructed out of a yellow-colored stone with white columns and trimming. Across from the Kremlin is ГУМ, the state department store--also a massively imposing yet classically constructed building. I did not venture in today, although I plan on exploring it soon. At the far end was St. Basil’s Cathedral, perhaps the most iconic building in all of Russia. And it’s truly lovely to view. Today being Sunday, however, it was crawling with people. The entire square was, in fact. I barely took a step without ducking to get out of the way of someone’s photo opportunity. So, I did not go inside the Cathedral today. I would like to make a day out of Red Square sometime in the future when I can visit the sites without the weekend crowds. Just to the right of St. Basil’s is the giant clock tower and entrance inside the Kremlin’s walls, marked by a massive wooden door, much such as one would have seen in the walls of a medieval castle. Seeing a door that large again reinforces the feeling that you have suddenly been turned into a dwarf upon entering the square. As I turned around to head back in the direction from which I entered the square, I was able to fully take in the other massive structure that completes the enclosure of Red Square. It is the State Historical Museum, another medieval-like structure whose red-brick construction mimics that of the Kremlin walls. With towers and spires, the museum makes me feel like I’ve entered a fantasy world. Perhaps a Hogwarts-esque type place, but more sinister. In my amazement, I failed to take any photos on this day, but have no fear. I’ll be making this trip and walk many more times I am certain, and my own photos will follow, although photos of Red Square are ubiquitous enough online.

Upon leaving Red Square, I went in search of another internet café, but this journey was halted when I found another Евросеть where I could buy an internet dungle to receive wireless internet on my laptop. This was a real adventure, because I barely understood what they were telling me with regard to payment plans and such. After about 25 minutes, I ended up buying a USB-modem by the same provider as my cell phone sim card and putting some money on it. I then sat in a café and tried desperately to get it to work, but it froze my computer about 4 times before I decided to drop it until I got back to my dorm room, and then I set off to find an internet café. Luckily, this time I had some success in an upscale shopping center, and I was able to get the phone numbers of my friends in Moscow. After a couple unsuccessful attempts at calling them, I hopped back on the metro and went home exhausted.

I spent the evening in my room, accompanied only by MTV Russia and a dinner of bread, tomato, tea, and peanut butter. I realized I still did not know the time or place of my meeting Monday morning with the International Relations office, so I knocked on a few doors in search of Ilya, but found only one young woman who looked death-stricken to find some young man knocking on her door. I realized that I had only one way to get in touch with him. On the day of my arrival, I had used Ilya’s cell phone to call Becca, the ETA coordinator in the Moscow Fulbright office, to let her know that I had safely arrived. I used my phone this time to give her a call and ask if she still had his number in her call log. Thankfully, she did, and I was able to reach Ilya to find out that my meeting was scheduled for a little before 10 in the International Relations office, situated in the Ректорат, the main building on campus where most administrators have their offices. It is akin to W&M’s Wren building in importance, but does not host classrooms.

The next day, Day 3:

I showed up at the appointed time and was floored by the majesty of the building’s interior (it’s got a pretty impressive looking exterior, too, although it is made out of an odd pink stone). I checked my coat, a custom in many Russian buildings, and proceeded to the office of International Relations. I should note that the name of this office is misleading for those who attended W&M, and particularly for those who were IR majors like myself. This is not an academic department, but rather a department that deals helps coordinate international cooperation projects dealing with agriculture and such between the university and other institutions of higher learning around the world. It was here that I was introduced to Nina Mikhailovna Demidenko--the woman with whom I had been in contact before my arrival. Now, I thought I had met Nina Mikhailovna on my first day when I registered my passport and visa. Turns out, it was the wrong Nina Mikhailovna. So, this Nina (the real Nina, in my mind), was actually very glad to see me. She also introduced me to Elena, her assistant, who would soon show me around the campus. I was impressed with their hospitality and generosity---this is what I had expected from day one.

After also being briefly introduced to the vice-rector of International Relations--an extremely strict and imposing looking man named Evgeniy Ivanovich Koshkin--and told that I would have a meeting with him shortly about my responsibilities and their expectations for me at the university, Elena showed me around some of the grounds of campus. Elena is a recent graduate from the university, and is very amiable. She was eager to show me the places where I would be spending most of my time, and although she does speak relatively good English, she wanted to speak to me in Russian because she didn’t want to leave anything out. I think she took care to use a fairly basic vocabulary, however, because I had almost no trouble understanding what she was telling me--at least I got the gist of it all.

First, she took me to Шестой корпус (or the ‘6th Academic Building’), where on the third floor of the left wing the Department of Russian Language for Foreigners is located. This is where I will be spending most of my time, even though I am not studying Russian officially. Here is also the Office for International Students, where all foreigners must register their visas and all foreign students attending the university for their PhD are sent to coordinate their studies and topics. Now get this: I get a desk in this office! I totally didn’t anticipate having a desk! I figured I would be working from my dormitory the whole time, but no! I have a desk with an internet connection for my laptop and good working space. I share the office with two women (only one of whom is here at the moment, the other being away on her holiday to her dacha). Through another door which remains open is the office of the dean of this department. The women are very nice and hospitable--offering me apples grown at their dachas--but in typical Russian fashion they shout really loudly when they speak to one another. No matter, though, I have a desk in an office!

Elena then showed me around the Foreign Languages Department where I met a few professors and even a class of young women taking English class. They all giggled when they found out I was a native English speaker and then one of them said in Russian, “Come sit with us!” while giggling and turning her head away. It was cute. Elena and I marched on through the library, where there is a museum of husbandry that I suppose showcases developments in animal-raising techniques. It was closed at the time, though, so I’ll check that out later. Then Elena showed me the cafeteria that I should eat in, which is actually located right behind my dormitory. We then walked back to her office so I could meet with the vice-rector.

He was busy when we arrived, so I sat down with Elena and Nina Mikhailovna for tea and cookies and we discussed a few things. Apparently, I am currently living in what they refer to as the гостиница, or hotel, and I will not be living there full-time. After I go home to extend my visa, I will return to a new room in another very tall, gray concrete, Soviet skyscraper next door which is one of the official dormitories. Okay…

Then, vice-rector Koshkin was prepared to see me. His office was…you guessed it, majestic. Huge. Massive. Artwork hanging on walls, giant windows that opened out onto a beautiful garden with statues, flower beds (called клумба, or kloomba), a fountain, and white-pebble paths. Apparently it is adjoined to the university’s ‘Dendrological’ Gardens, essentially an arboretum. I think it’s pretty expansive, so I’ll check it out later when the weather is not so crummy (by the way, its in the 50s and overcast and drizzling---worse than below freezing and snowing, in my mind). But back to the meeting. We sat on couches and armchairs that squared-in a coffee table and were joined by two other faculty members. It was explained to me (in near perfect English by vice-rector Koshkin) that my responsibilities are as follows: to help train groups of professors from various departments in conversational English to improve their qualifications for international conferences and also help them be qualified to begin teaching Master’s Programs in English, which they hope to begin next year. I will also be working to improve the university’s English-language website and their catalog for international students. The vice-rector told me that I may also be able to interact with students if I choose to hold some extra conversation hours/classes in the evenings, perhaps, but I will have to see what my schedule and workload is like first. Vice-rector Koshkin made it very clear that he expects great results from my work, because he plans on putting the professors through evaluations at the end of the academic year to test their qualifications. Given his imposing and solemn look, I agreed to everything immediately. They are still trying to put together a schedule for my classes, which is difficult seeing as the professors all teach during the day. It looks like my classes will be held at around 3pm onward.

I am a little intimidated by the fact that I will be teaching professors and not students. I don’t know how they will react to being lectured by a young, recently graduated American, but we shall see. Supposedly I may begin as soon as this Friday. Before I can really start making lesson plans, though, I will need to have a couple introductory classes with the professors so I can gauge their current levels of English.

I left the meeting and went back to my office space to start looking through some ESL resources that we were given by Fulbright and also some ESL websites. It was a whole lot of information to look at without knowing what in the world I was going to start with. A daunting task, but one that will hopefully become much easier once my classes begin.

Then I had a huge surprise. Into the office comes a very tall young woman with glasses and short brown hair. She greets us all in Russian and then asks in nearly non-accented and perfect English, “Is Bryan here?” Why yes, yes I am. She introduced herself to me as Kristyna Jungova, a Czech who is studying here for 6 months as part of her PhD. She was told that I would be coming and that she should meet me, since I am the only native English speaker here and she also speaks near-native English. We exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet up for dinner that night after I finished some of my work and took a brief nap (I was falling asleep at my desk).

So, at about 7pm Kristyna and I met up outside my dormitory. She told me about her situation here. She had been very lonely since her Russian is about as good as mine (from what I can tell), but she had no one to speak with. Her program is almost entirely independent. She is not taking any formal classes to speak of, so her days have been essentially free. She also encountered some bureaucratic delays in coming here. First, she applied and was accepted for a year-long program, but was notified before her departure date that her stay had been shortened to 6 months. Then, her arrival was delayed, so she didn’t get here until two weeks into the school year. She has been at the university now for two weeks, so she knows her way around the area much better than I do, and offered to take a walk with me and show me around.

We talked about a number of things on the way: the dichotomy of the generous hospitality and the rudeness of the Russians we had met so far, the condition of our respective dormitories and how the kitchens were terrible and did not allow for much in the way of cooking, our language backgrounds, music and movies, our travel, so on and so forth. She took me down one of the main roads running beside the metro station all the way down to the next metro stop, Тимирязевская. It took about 30 minutes to get there, but we stopped along the way at a few stores so she could show me the nearest ATM, a great grocery store where we both bought some goods, another market, and a few other places. We then walked back to her dorm where we were able to throw together a scrappy dinner of couscous and vegetables with bacon added---the bacon made the meal. I think her dormitory is the one I will be moving to when I return from the US. It’s not much different than mine is now, although her room was slightly bigger and had much more closet space. She also went to IKEA (and told me that it takes two buses and a taxi to get there and back) and bought a lot of things to decorate her room to make it feel more like home. Her room did not have any cookware when she arrived or a television, so that makes me think that what I found in my room may have been left here by previous occupants.

Kristyna is also going to start taking some private Russian language and culture classes with a couple professors here, and she offered that I could join her and split the cost. I will likely take her up on it as long as it doesn’t interfere with my work schedule. Oh, and we also finished our dinner in traditional Czech fashion. She broke out a bottle of a famous Czech liquor digestif called Bech-something-or-other. It tastes a lot like Jaegermeister, and apparently is also referred to as ‘toothpaste’ in the Czech Republic for its herby flavors and the tendency for some Czechs to drink it upon waking to ‘freshen their breath’. I’m not too sure about that part.

Anyways, the evening was great and it was wonderful to meet someone with whom I can comfortably speak English and also with whom I can share my gripes. We did a bit of that today. We also talked about taking some trips throughout Russia together. We would both love to see Irkutsk, and although it is a LONG ride train-ride away via the Trans-Siberian, it will hopefully be worth it as long as my schedule permits.

Oh and one more funny story. While Kristyna and I were cooking dinner there was another young man in the kitchen. We introduced ourselves, and it turns out he is from Pakistan and is here currently studying nothing but Russian for a year before he enters the economics department at the university. His Russian was very basic (he only recently arrived) and his English was very difficult to understand. His name is Talal (I think, or maybe Talan). When I said I was from America, he gave me a very strange look. I realized right away we might not hit it off just because of our nationalities, which made me really upset but also wary. Then, our conversation picked up as we discussed a range of thing from prices in Russia to food to this cool phone that he had purchased in Pakistan for a great price because it was made in China. He made some comment about how there are too many Chinese studying here, because they are always where the money is, and that the development and progress rates in China are too high for their own good. Then he asked me if I knew of a certain town in Texas where a few of his friends are studying. I didn’t recognize the name. He then told me that his father worked in the US for four years, but illegally. Our conversation ended when he left the kitchen with his pot of beans and remarked, “He was deported from that country.” I’m not sure how our friendship will be.

So, in short, the last two days were great. I feel much more at home, and hopefully things will only get better from here. And the campus is actually quite beautiful. I will take some photos of it soon and post them when I can. I probably won’t keep writing such long and detailed entries, but I’ve got time on my hands now, so why not? That’s all for now, folks!