Little Things

There are small events that occur here in Saratov that incrementally improve one's mood. Last week as I was walking to work, not yet on the Moskovskaya thoroughfare, I heard a man behind me exclaiming quite loudly, " мнжчина! мужчина!" Pronounciation roughly-- Moosheena. This means "man". Russians don't have anything that approximates sir, so when you speak to someone on the street, you address them as "man". I have a hard time getting used to this. At home I use sir and ma'am fequently. I can speak and understand rough Spanish---Russian to me, the longer I am here, sounds Spanish to some extent; the rolling "r"s, "a" on the end of things implying feminine grammar declensions at times. To me this sounds Spanish and feminine and when I hear it and it causes my brain to seize up often.
Anyway this fellow wants to know where he can catch a bus that goes up Moskovskaya. I respond with "московская улитца там"  and point him in the right direction. He thanks me.

Wednesday on my way home from the Institute at about 4pm, there is a guy walking in front of me with his son, they are slower than me and I don't like to pass on the ice---especially when things are wet. Ice is bad, water on top of ice is no good at all. I sort of slacken my pace to settle in about 10-15 feet behind them. He reaches over to put his arm around his boy and unknowingly drops some bills---a few hundred Roubles maybe(perhaps $10) in a little wad. I come upon the money, pick it up and say "мужцина!", he turns around immediately, I hand him the money, he smiles, thanks me. I pass them and continue on.  I'm in a good mood all the way home.

Russian Federation President Vladimir Putin has a 14 year old female black lab name Koni


http://saxontheweb.blogspot.ru/2009/04/putin-dog-steals-treats.html




Look at him! The man loves somebody!
I'm just sayin.......I like the guy just a bit more now that I know that. She looks a little like my Thurman.

More Edith Piaf, Frank.

 

band Conductor and Opera guy doing Sinatra

Future NVCC-Loudoun Student, Stepan Orlov, along with my Institute Colleagues Maxim and Kamiel(and beautiful wives), took me to an event at another college on Saturday evening. It was a performance representing the songbooks of Frank Sinatra and Edith Piaf. Band was very good. There was a monster baritone sax soloist. The woman singing Piaf was superb. Sinatra you can’t really duplicate, and this guy, while he had the pipes, didn’t really approximate old Frank….”I deed eet my vay…”

My only observation was that both the conductor and the male soloist had mullet heads that would scare Miguel Corrigan circa 1991. I had a dead animal crawling down the back of my neck back then that was absolutely mortifying. I was “all biz” up front with a poor white trash breaking bad party in the back. These guys both have dead squirrels on steroids crawling down their necks. I loved it. No disrespect intended. Russia. Glad I’m here----really.

An Interesting Walk to Work

Monday morning, after staying up late, reading what my Russian friends are saying on Facebook, watching Russian TV News, perusing the Washington Post, Politico, and FoxNews, I roll out of my apartment about 9am to walk to the institute.
 I'm not a worrier, at least from a global socio-political perspective---anyone who is like me who followed the events following the break-up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s---knows that the potential of Europe to do something unimaginably inhumane every 50-60 years or so is within the realm of possibility---but I don't "get" that feeling with these events here. The news cycle on Ukraine had me slightly worried---not for personal safety, but that some sort of missive from my government---or the Russian government---might have me on a plane before I am finished here.


So I immediately notice lots of police! No cars at all on Moscovskaya. White police tape all along the thoroughfare for blocks and blocks. Hardly anyone on the street. I'm thinking....hmmm.
There are two cops, big, well dressed dudes on both sides of the street, every 20 yards. I make eye contact with probably 50 of them on my "commute". If I haven't already said this here, I basically stand out like a flashing strobelight. Only blind people do not know that I am a foreigner, if not American. These police officers do not seem to care that I am walking by, do not seem threatening in the least, nor worried about anything in particular. By the time I get to the Institute, I'm pretty relaxed, thinking this can't be related to anything geopolitical.


When I get up to the International Office, I use the opportunity to ask in terrible Russian about what might be going on....


The Para-Olympic Torch is in Saratov! It will come down Moscovskaya around noon. They've basically paralyzed downtown traffic for this. People are crabby like they would be in DC when a caravan of political bigwigs tie up traffic. Many are late for work or don't come in at all.


There you have it. We are not that different are we?