Old Lady Friend

We went shopping today and met this little old lady. She doesn't speak any English but she had plenty to tell me and I just nodded along...she never figured out that I didn't speak Russian. I asked if I could take a picture of her stuff and not only did she let me take pictures but insisted that we be in one together.

There was one African guy in the entire market and, of course, I was drawn to his shop. I spent a half hour there bargaining with him over one little thing and I loved every minute of it. We talked about all kinds of stuff in between deciding how much I would pay and, in the end, it turns out that he is looking for a wife and wants to marry me. When I declined he suggested that we should at least hang out in America when he comes...or better yet we could hang out here in Moscow and then we could get married and I could take him to America with me. I politely declined.

Last night my friend and I found ourselves in Red Square really late.
It's much prettier at night. Not that it's not pretty in the day time. AND a cold front had come through that evening so I was freezing! I thought for sure it was in the 30's and there was the possibility of snow at any moment. My friend insisted that it was probably in the 50's and she was right...59. I wonder how long the de-acclimating will take. I still have 2 months of traveling and the weather is not getting any warmer. I might have to give in and actually buy a pair of closed toed shoes after not owning any since America.

And then there was a mini orchestra in the metro. They were actually really good but that wouldn't have mattered...I just thought they were cool.

Ball on a Rope

Some of my friend's friends here in Moscow play baseball every week in this cute little park so this week I figured I'd go out there and see what was going on. It was lots of fun. I enjoy playing sports and for the first time in a long time we didn't draw a huge crowd and I wasn't the only white girl playing!
In general Russians aren't the friendliest of people so I haven't met many nice Russians since I've been here BUT the people who came to the park to play were very sweet. I don't speak a word of Russian so trying to play and communicate baseball in Russian was interesting at times.
Then there was the trip home. I'm enjoying riding the metro because you just never know what kind of crazies you're going to see. I'll write more about metro experiences later. But this particular occurance took place in the grocery store.

I was with 2 other girls who are new to overseas life and we were checking out. I had gone first and was waiting for them when I saw a guy come through the door dragging a tennis ball on a rope across the floor. I actually turned to my friend and said 'there is more to this story. Oh, this is gonna be good.' Behind that guy came a guy with a leash and on the end of the leash was a rather large ferret.

The great thing about this particular situation was that the guy had a retractable leash and the ferret decided that he wanted to stay on the carpet just inside the door. The minute the guys walked in the ferret had a seat but the guys kept going without noticing until the leash ran out of room. Then they had to turn around and walk back towards the ferret, taunt him with the ball on a rope, bush the button on the leash so that it would lock and drag him a few feet until he would walk on his own. But even then the thing would just walk a few steps and the minute the guy let go of the button it would stop, drop and roll and they would go through the whole thing again.

By this time my friends were finished checking out and were ready to go. They weren't at all impressed with the ferret and even wanted to leave. I, however, have had some experience in overseas living and have come to appreciate any situation that can pass as entertainment. There was no way I was missing out on a ferret. Life has come to this.

The guys rounded a corner to where a security guard was standing. The security guard sees the ball on a rope, the leash and the ferret, in that order, and the look on his face goes from one of confusion to horror...it was priceless. They argued in Russian for a minute. My guess is it went something like:

'What the heck are you doing you idiot? This is a grocery store. You can't bring a ferret into the grocery store.'
'But he is on a leash!'
'Well, smart guy, you can't have a ferret on a leash in the grocery store.'
'Fine then!'

Then the guy picks up the ferret and walks right around the security guard and goes through the gate to enter while the guy holding the ball on a rope continues to drag it around like the ferret is still chasing it. I think the ball on a rope guy was my favorite part of the whole ordeal.

Seriously I laughed about this for a long time. Then I got home and told my friend who wasn't there about it and we laughed until we cried for a long time. I bet you can't find quality entertainment like this in America.

Reflection

So it's raining and 50 degrees outside in Moscow today. I chose to stay home wrapped up in blankets drinking hot tea and doing a little reflecting. I find it a little strange that I miss Sudan so much. I did a little piddling around on the Internet and found this video on YouTube. It's not my video, I don't know whose it is, but I just thought that if you have a little extra time on your hands you might like to experience just a small piece of my former life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xesLsgNahvE

Licorice Castle, Locks and Lenin

This weekend we road tripped it out to visit some friends in a little city outside of Moscow. There wasn't a whole lot to see but they had a mall, a coffee bean and a United Colors of Benetton so I'm just gonna say maybe it's not such a small town after all.

They did have this one really cool church. If you remember the game CandyLand you'll see the resemblance to the licorice castle.
The church was big and ominous. I've gotten into this really bad habit. Everything around here is in Russian and I never have a clue what is going on so I've just started wandering aimlessly and doing whatever I want until someone starts yelling at me. Ignorance is bliss, right? I'm going to have to start paying attention soon.
They also have a tradition there that on your wedding day you go to the bridge, put a padlock on it and then throw the key into the river. It's symbolic of, well, a lot of things. I was really loving the bridge full of locks...it might have been my favorite thing about the city, besides my sweet friends!

And of course what good Russian town is complete without a statue of Lenin.

Tea

I have found that I can actually enjoy drinking hot tea. I didn't realize that when I lived in the Sandbox and drank it every day with my friends. I only drank it then because I had to. No, I just realized it today. I guess the difference is that I like drinking tea when it's cold outside, not when it's hot. And by cold I mean 70 degrees. And by hot I mean 127.

I still don't understand why everyone thought that hot tea could cool you off. It doesn't! It just makes you so much hotter when you already thought that you were going to die and that life couldn't get much more miserable.

Although I did pick up one bad habit. As much as I like hot tea apparently I only like it with a ridiculous amount of sugar. In the Sandbox they would fill the glass halfway with sugar first, then fill the rest with tea. Now that I'm drinking it out of regular sized coffee cups I'll have to cut back a little. If I end up with diabetes at the age of 25 you'll know why!

But it was a nice 'social' thing to do and in my time I would guesstimate that I drank around 300 glasses of hot tea with some of the sweetest women I've ever met and if it took a glass of tea to have a conversation then it was well worth it.

Concert

This afternoon there was a little concert down by the pond because today is the anniversary of the Russian flag.
Everyone was sporting a flag. They even gave us each one to hold and wave.
This kid was especially excited about his flag.
The man in the tux sang a lot of famous songs. I didn't understand a word of what he said but everyone else was singing along so I'm assuming the songs were famous.

And here's a picture of the inside of a metro car. It's against the rules to take pictures in the metro but I ended up at the last stop on the line and was the only person around so I took the liberty of snapping a few shots.

Wandering

I went wandering around the city today and ended up at this amazing park that included threee of my favorite things: lots of green grass, a huge fountain and a castle. What more could you ask for?Part of the castleThe fountain

An orthodox church on the castle grounds

A really cool bridge with a tower

Me at the fountain. The thing about wandering around on your own is that there is no one to take any pictures of you...That's why I have all these self portraits

The Expected

So here are some of my pictures from the regular tourist sites of Moscow. Even though I've done all this before I didn't have anything to do today so I figured what better way to spend an afternoon than in Red Square.
I think this is probably the most famous place in Russia.
A cool doorway at the back of St. Basil's.

I don't know why there are so many Chinese people here...I feel like they have somewhere else important to be these couple of weeks but seriously, the airport was full of Chinese people when I arrived and I haven't been able to get away since. Not that I don't like Chinese people and not that the people in this picture are even Chinese, but still.

The cool clock tower in the Kremlin.

Lenin's tomb. I've already done this and didn't feel the need to stand in a really long line just to go in again. It probably hasn't changed in the past 10 years, right?

It is so easy to pick Americans out in a crowd. I was on my own this afternoon but I made lots of new American friends who took plenty of pictures for me.

There is a plethora...

Need Some Sun?

So I don't have a picture. I definitely wracked my brain as to how I could get one without being totally and completely obvious but it just didn't happen.

As I was taking my daily laps around the pond this afternoon I saw this Russian guy taking his afternoon beer break and he had this amazing suit. Well, I assume the suit was great although I didn't get a good look at it because it was folded up next to him on the bench. Yes, the entire suit, pants, shirt, jacket and tie, all just sitting there next to this guy who was hanging out in his underwear. No joke. Drinking his beer and soaking up the sun.

I did hear that there was a recent study that the majority of people don't get enough Vitamin D. I guess he also read that same report and thought today was a great time to catch up on that.

Sunsets

I love sunsets. It is my favorite part of the day, no matter what part of the world I'm in. Around here the sun sets about 10pm. It's so strange and it throws off my entire day. I never realized how much my body's shedule depends on the sun.

Now it's 9pm before I realize that I should eat something for dinner. I can't go to sleep until at least midnight if only for the fact that I don't even know what time it is until I notice that the sun has set and by then it's already really late.

But what is really the strangest thing about all of this time changing stuff is that I still find myself waking up every morning at exatly 5:08 am. The mosque by my house in the Sandbox made the call to prayer at 5:08 each morning and, even though I'm apparently never consciously aware of what time it is, somehow 5:08 holds some importance. Don't get the wrong idea, I don't get out of bed at 5am, I just roll back over. But still, I definitely wake up for a minute.

Rain

Just a fun story that shows how much I really am messed up after life in the Sandbox.

I didn't look out the window today before I left the house because I forgot that in some places the weather changes day to day and you never know what to expect. It's not just a difference between 110 and 120, hot or really hot. It can be warm one day, cold the next, rainy the next, you just never know.

So today I took the minute long elevator ride downstairs, opened the door and was shocked by the fact that it was raining. I didn't know what to do and I paused there for a minute. Well, not exactly a minute. I stood there with the door open for so long that the door lady actually came out of her office to see if everything was ok. She only speaks Russian so that was fun.

I didn't realize it in the moment but I actually didn't know what to do. It was this internal struggle between several thoughts; The Sandbox idea of 'oh, can't go outside or do work because it's raining. I'll just go back upstairs and be lazy all day' Then there was the foreigner who has been in the Sandbox too long thought of 'I'll just roll up my jeans so they don't get wet and traipse through puddles of mud' Then I realized that it wasn't just rainy but cold too and I was in flip flops so what would I do when my feet froze?

There were a few more thoughts before I got to the point where I realized 'this can't be that hard. There are other people outside and they don't seem to be struggling with this concept of going outside in the rain. What do they know that I don't?' Then I realized that we have this contraption called the umbrella and it works well to keep people dry in the rain. An amazing concept.

I feel like such an idiot that it took me that long to come up with a solution to how to go outside in the rain. I think this might be just a part of what they mean when they talk about 'reverse culture shock'.

Temporary Home

The place I'm staying is amazing!! The apartment is so nice and cute. Although they do have 2 IKEA's so they should have cute places. K-town didn't really have many tall buildings and the flat I am in now is actually higher up than the tallest building in K-town. I haven't ridden an elevator in a long time and now I ride in one every time I come home.

They have this little park next to their building that has a pond!! Today I was bored so I just went down and walked around the pond a few times for fun. It was great to see all the regular Russians out there playing with their small children and enjoying a nice afternoon beer. I guess I got used to the absence of alcohol so now that it's absolutely everywhere it kind of wierds me out.

My friends make fun of me because I always wear shoes in the house. They would rather be barefoot than wear shoes and I'm so used to always having to wear flip flops for house shoes to keep my feet from getting filthy that I can't break the habit no matter how clean their apartment is.

Differences

Several people have asked if I'm back in the states. Sorry, I guess I never clarified that even though I left the Sandbox I'm not back home yet. I'll be traveling for the next 2 months or so, just wandering around the world visiting friends, enjoying cold weather, new cultures and good food.

Here I am in front of a fountain. I don't know why the fact that this country trying to beautify their country impresses me so much but it really does. Another thing that I love about Russia is the mullets. Everyone has them. Men, women, children. Somehow they are cool and I love it.

Small Children

In Sudan small children were always just amazed to be in the presence of a white girl that it became completely normal when they would get in my face and stare at my blue eyes and freckles. They would point and talk about me and I would laugh and joke with them.

It got to the point that I would be out to dinner with local friends and kids would come up to our table and stand there for long periods of time and just look at me. Yesterday I actually had the exact same experience with 2 little blond haired, blue eyed Russian girls. They weren't even together, it was 2 separate experiences. I'm not sure what was so different about me that they found me fascinating but it was fun.

But African kids laugh and play when I joke and make faces at them...these little girls were more petrified than anything and their parents would come whisk them away as if I was going to curse them or something. It was great. I felt right at home.

Moscow

This is my little friend at my going away party. Her hair is out of control and it is the cutest thing!

I made it to Moscow. It isn't cold but I'm cold. By that I mean, the weather is moderate but this Sudanese girl who owns nothing but chacos is just not used to 75 degree weather. I am amazed at how developed it is. I've been here before so I don't know why I'm so pleasantly surprised. They have a metro, paved roads, traffic laws, grocery stores with everything under one roof, clouds, rain, parks with fountains, gummi worms, kiwi, chocolate covered raisins, and escalators everywhere.

We went to McDonalds today but not just any McD's. This one has 24 cash registers and seats 500 people at a time. It was amazing!!

Pictures

Just a few more random pictures from the Sandbox that I didn't have an opportunity to post while I was there.

Jebana

Usually when the ladies pounded the beans they would do it in this crazy African rhythm and I loved it. Then they would hand it over to me and expect me to just break out into a rhtyhm too. I'm not African so I don't have this amazing sense of rhythm instilled into me and it always took me a few minutes to catch the hang of it and come up with a beat.

What I really loved is that, while they would sit there and laugh at me making a fool of myself trying to get it together, once I finally got a beat going they couldn't ever replicate mine. I think it's a great example of how African and Western music are just so different.

So here I am making a pathetic attempt at pounding coffee beans in a cool rhythm.

Sadie Mac

Since I'm traveling for a while I figured I'd stop by and see some old friends and meet their new cute little baby. She is a week old today and pretty much the cutest little girl ever.

The first day I got there Sadie had to spend the night in the hospital because she had jondus but now she's healthy and doing great.

That's me and Sadie hanging out at Starbucks on the Mediterranean. The Med is behind me but it's across a really big road so you can't see the beautiful water.

Kisra

Kisra is a type of bread thing that they eat in the Sandbox. It's similar to Ethiopian injeera, just real thin, pancake like stuff that you use to pick up other things. This is my friend Sandy making it. Basically she has a fire under that big flat black thing and it's really, really hot next to it. She knew I was taking a video and she was so excited to be 'in a film'.

Dancing

Homeless

Yesterday as I was going through my suitcase trying to decide what to wear I picked out the cutest thing that I own. I figured I should look cute on my first day of freedom. Then I went to the mall and got a lot of dirty looks and realized that compared to everyone else I looked like trash. It's not that my clothes are old but they don't fit right anymore and they've been worn and washed in Sudan which automatically makes them weird.

Plus I've gotten used to doing whatever I want in the heat. By that I mean that I don't do anything to make myself look cute. It was always too hot to wear my hair down so I would just pull it up. Makeup just sweat off so I never put that on either. Really my number one priority for the last 2 1/2 years was doing anything to not be so hot and looking cute was nowhere near as important. Really being presentable only consisted of wearing culturally appropriate clothing.

Now it seems strange to me that you're supposed to make yourself look decent before you go outside. In the big scheme of things is it really all that important? I guess so, based on all the nasty looks that I got at the mall.

But what am I supposed to do about this? I mean, everything that I own at this point in my life is in that suitcase and that was the cutest shirt I found. I don't want to spend a lot of money on clothes now because I have a skewed perception of fashion after life in Africa. What if I buy things and then get to America and look like an idiot?

But I can't keep looking like this. It's one thing to look kind of trashy when you're the only white girl around. People assume that you're a normal person capable of looking nice but that you just chose to dress like that and it's somehow ok. But when I get to Eastern Europe and am just another white girl in the sea of white girls people are just going to think I'm homeless.

No More Sandbox!!!

After an unexpected delay I finally made it out of Sudan!! I was supposed to leave on Friday morning but I woke up sick on Thursday and had to postpone my flight for a day but I did make it. I don't know why I was surprised by the delay...typical Sudan giving me a a little last reminder of just exactly why I should be excited about leaving.

The airport was fun too. I had a 5:45am flight so I arrived at the airport at 3:30am to find a complete zoo. I didn't check my bags in until 5am, but then again neither did anyone else. They don't have computers and all the check-in guys had hand written passenger manifests so every time someone checked in that desk agent had to go to all the other desks and cross them off everyone else's passenger list. Ridiculous.

But the entire airport was aware of the problem so they didn't even look at my form when they waved me through immigration and they barely glanced at my passport as they rushed me through passport control.

Then I ran into a line about 100 people long to go through the security check to get to the gate. We have a small airport and there are 2 metal detectors to get to the 3 gates. Since there were 2 flights at the same time there were 2 really long lines. Then my flight's metal detector breaks so they tell my line of 100 angry people to 'merge' with the second line of 100 angry people.

I thought there would be a riot. Men were yelling, people were fighting, it was crazy. There were women and children in the middle of all this, so to help them out the security people announced that they would let the women and children come around to the side of the line, not anything abnormal. But that just made the men even more angry.

Finally they just let everyone go through the metal detector without checking anyone!!! I'm no expert on airport security or anything but I definitely feel like there is something wrong with that picture. I guess there just 'wasn't enough time' to try to make sure terrorists didn't carry weapons on the planes.

My flight was an hour delayed because the K-town airport couldn't get their act together, but no surprise there. When the plane lifted off I realized that, in that moment, I was getting my last glimpse of Sudan. I kind of pictured my departure as being this bittersweet, emotional moment but I found that I couldn't be sad because I was still perturbed/angry over the airport situation...I will NOT miss times like that.