New years with Russian Hippies

Obviously from the title I will talk about how I spent my new years
eve in Russia. First it is important to mention the importance of this
holiday here. In Russia the new year holiday is the most celebrated
and most popular holiday. The celebrations in many ways equal and at
times exceed that of Christmas in America.

This year I was lucky enough to be invited to join some local people
in Moscow. One of my friends I met on a previous trip to Russia was
going to be in Moscow with her friends to celebrate. I had not planned
on doing anything special for the day and had assumed all my friends
had plans to be with their local friends. Imagine my surprise and
pleasure when I was invited to partake in this celebration normally
reserved for only the closest group of friends.

When I met my friend at the metro she confided in me that she was
nervous about me being there. In truth I was very nervous as well.
While Valya is a good friend of mine I had no idea who she associated
with outside of the program I teach in. She had told me previously
that these people were "Russian Hippies". In addition to this, I was
to meet one of the people who lives at the flat I will stay at on my
extended portion of this trip. This means for me, if I do not make a
good impression then I would have to make other arrangements. Valya
told me she was not sure if we would all get along well.

To not leave you in suspense let me assure you now that my evening,
night, and morning were wonderful beyond belief!! This evening was so
much more than I could have hoped for.

We bought food on the way there and alcohol of course. We spent the
evening all helping to cook and sipping wine. It was a one room flat
with 7 people cooking and having fun. I was really made to feel like
one of the group.

As is often the case being the tourist, people will try to accomodate
me and make sure I am fully included in everything. This makes the
conversation less natural and more stressful. For this evening, I was
just another friend there to share the festivities. If I did not
include myself then I was left to myself.

This evening was one of those theoretical situations where the tourist
is instantly invited into the core culture and fully accepted one of
the group. It felt as though I was with a group of friends I had know
all my life and they treated me reciprocal warmth.

The conversation was challanging to follow but not impossible as it
was all in Russian. I helped cook and learned some new dishes I will
share. The food was out of this world delicious.

We (they) sang songs while Kola played the guitar. We all danced and
listened to music on the Internet.

We all finally left at 3 PM the next day.
This post is getting knd of long so I will follow it up with some
funny exerpts from the evening for your enjoyment. In a later post.

Russian warmth and other types of PDA

I arrived in Moscow this morning at 5 am. This time I was totally
alone. One of my friends offered to get up early ad meet me at the
airport, but I declined the offer. I think it is good practice to
totally immerse yourself in a foreign environment and try to
accomplish goals.

This does not mean it is any easier to do just because I chose to do
it. I was toatally neverous and felt very isolated. I was afraid I
would insult someone or make some mistake that got me sent home or
something like that. Thankfully the day went smoothly.

I was suppose to meet up with a friend here in the AM and chill with
her all day. Sadly my Russian phone would not work. I spent the day
going to various metro stops to see if anything looked familiar and I
could walk to her house, No such luck. After two hours of this , I
decided to set up shop in a starbucks on arbat street.

When I arrived there was no snow on the ground. As I say in starbucks
I got to watch as it started to snow and blanketed the ground in clean
white fresh snowy goodness. I had not slept in three days so I was in
and out of it for a while there. I was struck by what I saw both at
starbucks and on the train into Moscow. Both couple were young so that
may have had something to do with it. Both showed open, warm, and
passionate affection, publicly. It was a kind of care free joy of just
being together and being oblivious to the outside world; that I have
not seen here before. It was a nice thing to see.

The rest of the gang flew in and I was thankful for my time alone. No
matter how many times I come here, I am still a foreigner. Each time I
get that gut wrenching feeling of "here I got into a world of people I
can understand marginally at best, into a culture I have only begun to
scratch the surface of, and I'm alone". It is a moment I have when I
begin each journey into a different country. A moment where I have to
pause, take a deep calming breadth, and walk one foot in front of the
other into the unknown.

Silver linings

Earlier I mentioned how I did not take a tour of Frankfurt. Instead I
sort of took a self guided tour of the airport.

Today was a busy day for me. Issues with the new house and getting
Internet set up at home. Thankfully I had wifi and a plug to spend my
day being productive.

Important tip here:

When using a plug adapter make sure you do not leave the adapter
behind while packing up your equipment in a hurry. I did this once
before in Ireland at the airport. I guess it is a lesson I did not
learn the first time.

Here comes the silver lining:

Earlier on my self guided airport tour I remembered seeing a travel
electronic store. As soon as I noticed my missing adapter I hustled to
the store arriving just before they closed. I bought two adapter to
have a spare. Glad I took the tour earlier or I may not have been able
to find the store in time. I guess the universe had it's own reasons
for the confusion earlier. Nice that the karmic payoff happened so
quickly.

Thanks Universe

-Dana

Frankfurt Tourism = FAIL

I am on a 12 hour layover in Frankfurt Germany. I like the long layovers because it normally gives me the chance to go out and explore for a bit then head back to the airport and catch my outgoing flight. Mind you I have been here a few times so I am not hyper motivated to walk around this city in the middle of winter. Since I am here already I figured, why not!

I did the usual of going to the information desks and asked about storage for my luggage and things to do in town. This is where things started to go south. I got my bag in storage just fine. Then, I asked about transportation into the city. The first guy at the tourist information both said he had no idea what I could do while here for 12 hours. That was not very helpful. I had to press him and he gave me directions the "metro". I roamed around and never found a metro. I went to a place that had signs all written in English about special sightseeing tours for people in the airport. I don't normally go for this kind of thing but I was bored so I went in and asked. I guess the signs are in English but the tours are only in German. Understandable since I am in Germany. I asked him about other stuff to do. He had no idea either and gave me directions to the "metro" (totally different directions than the first bloke). Again no metro.

I repeated this hunting process on 4 more people at the information and tourist booths, all with similar results. I even asked a complete stranger, same result. Finally I decided it was really not worth it. If it is this much trouble to go sightseeing in the city I am not going to waste my time and money on it.

I found a nice little cafe with Wi-Fi in the airport and got some coffee and will surf the net until I have to leave. I should mention, every single person I spoke with was friendly and outgoing. The shuttle driver and I even joked around about long solid cylindrical objects being broken and flat. Totally not a PG conversation but fun to have with a total stranger. The girl with him was in tears from laughing so hard.

Sorry Frankfurt, I had a wallet full of money I would have gladly spent in your city if only you had given me the option to do so.

On My Way Back to Russia

Traveling invokes mixed feelings for me sometimes. I think it is
traveling alone for extended trips that gets me. Of course I'm excited
to travel and to be away from my normal environment. At the same time
I am sad to be leaving the familiar suroundings of home.

I have been traveling since I was 5 years old alone. With divorced
parents living in seperate cities, I spent a lot of time traversing
the distance between the two. I can still remember the sinking feeling
as I would leave each place. It is a similar feeling now.

On this trip, I'm starting in Oklahoma, where I spent my holidays with
family, and traveling to Russia via a 37 hour series of flights. It
may be this long flight has influenced my state of mind but I think it
is more than that. It is difficult leaving when you really enjoy what
you have where you are.

For this trip I am not as well prepared. I do not anticipate any
problems but several of my safety precautions have not been taken. For
example I am carrying much less cash than normal, I have not printed
out all my paperwork to keep a hard copy, and I have not made
arrangents for what I will do after my arrival.

Well for ths trip I will approach it more with a Taoist philosophy and
let the experience flow around me and with me while I enjoy the
journey. This trip is slightly out of my comfort zone, I look forward
to the growing experience.

Wish me luck....

-Dana

How Long Can You Stay Before the Vacation Feeling Goes Away?

I decided to spend some time in Washington, DC this summer. This was to be a working vacation. I previously lived in the city so I had many friends to catch up with and the touristy stuff was not needed. This was to be more of an extended trip away from home. This is not the first time I have spent a summer in DC but this is my longest stay out here since I have lived here. The main question here is; why did this trip not feel like a vacation?



As of this writing I am sitting in the living room of the apartment I rented in DC with only two days left in the city. This may have been mistake number one, renting an apartment. Sure it is not home but once you rent a place the natural tendency is to nest. This involves simple acts like buying toilet paper and laundry soap in bulk. These are things that you normally only do at home. After we did this it started to feel more like a second home and less like an adventure.



I believe the second mistake was the time factor. Traveling for three months is fun. But really I traveled for a few days and then stayed put for three months. It was after the first month or so in one place that the adventure stopped and the reality of daily living set in. This meant looking for work and earning money at my normal job.



This brings me to my next issue. Every other time I have spent an extended time in Washington, DC I have not taken part in my regular means of earning money. That does not mean I have not worked, but rather it means I worked jobs that were very different from my normal profession. So previously, the entire time was an adventure from my standard reality; this was not the case on this trip.



My final error was taking vacations from my DC location. While here in DC I left two times for a week at a time. One time was for a conference in Philadelphia, PA for interpreters. This was an incredible experience with all the correct ingredients for a vacation. The second trip was to the Bahamas which again contained the appropriate ingredients for a vacation feel. This just increased the let down at my return to DC. It was almost a home coming but it lacked the completeness of that comfort of home because in reality I was still not yet at home.



That does not mean this trip to DC was not a pleasurable one. I have learned even more about the art of vacationing while maintaining my lifestyle. I have spent some wonderful moments with dear friends and sadly I have broken contact with a friend as well. I have run miles and miles around the city and gained a greater appreciation of DC and the sights it has to offer. Now I must return to my home in a few days by car. This will be my last bit of vacation before returning to my life. I have decided to maintain my apartment in DC for at least a year. With this decision I hope to be able to practice taking vacations to DC that involve work but still maintain the feel of a vacation.



As I have said before and it still holds true in my opinion; vacations are a state of mind. Maintain that mindset and you will maintain the vacation feel no matter what you are doing.

Parties and Clubs in DC

I had a six page post all written up and ready to go then it occurred to me it would not be incredibly entertaining for you to read. I have decided to recap the events that are more interesting and not make you muddle through the boring stuff.


I just spent a weekend in DC and I really needed to talk about it. It was a totally awesome trip. This excursion was very different than most of my trips out there. The main purpose of this trip was for me to take a legal certification written test to allow me to work in the courtrooms as a legal interpreter. No, I did not pass the test but that is secondary to my experiences out there. While I was there I stayed with a good friend of mine.


When there is stuff to be done and fun to be had I am all in until everything stops or I fall over from exhaustion. On this trip exhaustion hit me first. Funny, my friend said she would not have believed how little sleep I get and how little I eat without seeing it herself over a 72 hour period. I must admit I did sleep and eat less than I normally do but I do not think she reads this blog so it will just have to be our secret. Shhhh don’t tell. I think I did this in part just because I was having so much fun and in part for the shock factor. It is fun to watch people stare in disbelief as I keep my energy levels at full steam without the advent of sleep or sustenance.


It is an important part of the story here to note my friendship with Michelle. I met her at an interpreter conference randomly and we happen to have many DC friends in common. We became fast friends but living across the country it was more of an email friendship. I travel to DC often and I would normally end up out at the same places she did due to mutual friends and the like. I had never before stayed at her house and I was a bit trepidations about the situation. Fortunately I know myself very well and I am comfortable, or at least appear so, in a myriad of situations. She did catch me off guard as we entered her house. Seems the back door where you park opens directly to her bedroom. As she opened the door and I saw all bed I had a thousand thoughts running through my head. Ok dirty people get your minds out of the gutter that is not what I was thinking. I was contemplating the most grace full way to get out of her room without hurting anyone’s feelings. I was also going through a list of people I can call to stay with at the last minute. Finally I was scanning her room for the door into the apartment . Since I could not readily locate the door I thought “Oh Snap! Is this a studio apartment?” I can’t imagine the look that must have been on my face but she totally played me. I think I made a comment bourn of desperate bravado about “so does this work on all the guys?” Turning around nonchalantly she fell to the bed saying “ready”. I was feeling very awkward at this point when she broke into a grin and said the door is in the corner and laughed at me. Arg!


The first night was some sort of fund raiser thing for dogs (you can tell I was really into it). Turns out, one of Michelle’s friends is a professional photographer and she is hobnobbing with some rich folks looking to increase her pocket book and portfolio simultaneously. I was so outclassed at this party. You know it is a high class party when you can actually hear the people talking and the girls all look like models while out numbering the guys 3 to 1. I ended up talking to this dude who is a previous employee of Merrill Lynch. I guess he had a good retirement plan as he flew to DC in his private Jet just for this event. He was fun to get riled up. At one point I got him going on a rant about all the people here for the poker fundraising event who were not actually going to play. I really got him worked up until he looked at me and asked why I was there. I told him I was one of the people here for the sole purpose of annoying him and I had no intention of playing poker. (pretty much a true statement). He seemed to not know what to do with this so he headed to the bar. I decided to push my luck. As he walked away leaving me and his young girlfriend I called out to him to bring me back some water. As soon as he was out of sight his female friend was all over me telling me how they were not together and she was just his friend.


Now the best part of the conversation. Dude comes back with is drink and mine. The lady looks at us and then glares at him. He totally forgot to get her a drink!! I love it. I left when he was headed back to the bar.


At work the next day a trend was begun. An interpreter walked out and introduced herself, I did the same. Then she replied “your THAT Dana??”


Me “um yes”


“OMG I have heard so much about you”


This was a trend that continued through the night at the party I went to. Now keep in mind folks I have not lived in DC for many years. I have no idea who was talking about me recently but wow what a great ego boost. The evening was like a homecoming party. Now this party was officially to say farewell to the hordes of people exiting the company, but when I replay it in my mind it is a party for me to get to see all my old friends. Thanks party planers Kevin and Michelle. Several times people came up and asked if Hillary was my wife. Not sure where that came from but the third person received my sarcasm full on. I responded “No, this is my mistress and that is my girlfriend, my wife is in California. They do not know about each other so Shhh.” This was also a repeat conversation.


After the party we watched “Princess Bride”. If you have never seen the movie “The Princess Bride” then skip this section because it will be meaningless. The next few hours were mingled with watching, and quoting the movie, word for word, and dozing off. Neither of us wanted to admit we were too tired to continue the movie. It is a great movie and worth a duel “to the pain” to watch. Still a good movie, If only we can listen with our perfect ears while ignoring the cries of babes at our horrible sight. If we had been able to remain awake it would have been a miracle. I know a guy, name of Max, his wife is most defiantly not a witch, but he is a miracle worker for sure. I did warn you not to read this if you do not know the movie.


The final night is worth mentioning. The club we ended up going to is called L2 it is some fancy club for rich people. Again thank you to Michelle’s friend for her contacts. I have been going to George Town for years to go clubbing. This particular club was one I had never even heard of. Guess I traveled in the wrong crowds. The guy who got us in is a member. It is several thousand dollars to procure a membership. Even with his invite I had to pay $30 to get in. It was worth it. I think the ratio here was 5 Women to 1 male. I felt like a minority here and it was a good feeling. I very much enjoy talking to and hanging out with women. Not only was I arriving with some very attractive women but there were multitudes more just standing around. At one point in the evening, and this is sort of a highlight for me, I was surrounded by 7 gorgeous ladies talking about something funny. Keep in mind I am not a member, I am just some punk who wandered into the club with long (well groomed) hair. As I glanced around the club I noticed a group of guys looking at the group I was in, 7 Women and one guy, with a look of WTF on their faces. It was a pretty cool experience for me.


There were several pictures taken in the car on the way to the friend’s house. As the driver this was interesting to say the least. We dropped them off and headed back. We arrived back at her place and I decided it was too late to sleep because I needed to get to the airport very early in the AM. Michelle and I stayed up and I bought tickets for my trip to Peru. Finally the time came and I was driven to the airport and left on my own.