News of my Near Death May Have Been Exaggerated

I spent the last three days lying on a couch in the living room of the flat where I am staying trying not to die. I highly recommend avoiding the flu while on vacation in another country. It is just really inconvenient and bothersome. To be honest I am not sure how high my temperature got. I do remember hallucinating a bit on day two. I get sick like everyone else but I normally do not get a high fever incapacitating sick. It was very nice to get to experience this kind of illness outside of my home environment.


Like any seasoned traveler I came prepared. We all have our special medications that we know will work for us. Last year it was Mitch who was sick and he needed Tylenol PM. Sadly that drug is illegal here in Russia, though we did not know that at the time because we searched many pharmacies looking for it. For a friend from Russia traveling to Africa, she had her mother mail her all her favorite medications incase she got sick. For me it is Nyquil and Dayquil that keep me from frying my brain (I brought plenty of both). I prefer to let my body heal naturally, but I am not stupid, I know when serious damage can occur and I will take medications to temporarily alleviate symptoms. My normal course of action is to let it run its course. If my fever climbs to high i.e. enter hallucinations, then I take some meds to bring it down. Then I wait to see if my body will keep it down. I know I am healing when I can break my fever without the aid of meds. That finally happened to me yesterday. Then it is just another day or two of recovery time and I am good as new.


I could tell you tale of meditations for three hours and controlling your immune system, but unless you are into that whole Taoist stuff you will not care. So I will skip that part and just tell you I willed myself to health. Ordinarily this would be the end of my trip to Russia. Jean and the discovery team are heading back to the USA in two days, and I would be leaving too. This year I made some additional plans to meet up with friends in St. Petersburg, thus extending my stay by 10 days. This provided me with a high degree of motivation to get healthy. Really who wants a sick friend to come and visit them? That just sucks for everyone involved.


Here I sit on a couch in Moscow recovering from my flu. I think in retrospect, running in -20 degree weather was not such a good idea. Oh well, live and learn.

-Dana

Funny exerpts

The people I have met on my many trips to Russia have an aversion to
dirt. I can understand their reluctance to sit on the ground as
their clothing is often very nice and the floor is often dirty. What
stuck me as odd was the ubiquitous adoption of this aversion. It
seems everyone feels the same way. I assumed there would be
exceptions to this but I have not found them, until I stayed with
Russian Hippies.

I on the other hand have a special afinity to dirt. I can happily
roll around in the mud and dirt for hours without a care in the
world. After all thats what showers and washing machines are for.
The moment one of my new friends dropped a fork on the floor and
picked it, wiped it on his pants, then used it to stir the pot with
all our food in it; I knew I was with people I liked.

Sadly we did not roll in the dirt. We did go for a walk with Kola,
Valya, and myself. During which time we wrestled in the snow and
took turns trying to toss each other into snow banks. Kola knighted
Valya with a rather large icicle he pulled from a building. Both
Kola and I used my scarf to tie Valya to a swingset. We then walked
away to leave her to freeze in the Russian winter. Since Kola does
not speak English and I do not know Russian, we decided the
conversation would be much more interesting if we retrieved Valya
( well rather that's what I assumed he was thinking)

Kola is this super laid back cool dredlock wearing hippie dude. He
attended four yeas of music school, at which time he learned to sing
and play guitar. He travels by hitch hiking around the world and is
a testament to the modern hippie.

After the food and festivities we all claimed a spot on the floor to
sleep. When the sleeping bags were set out? We saw we were one
short. Someone whould have to share. At which time Kola jumped up
and trotted to my space to share. It was very funny and we all got a
good laugh from it. I still don't know who ended up sharing for real.

I loved the part where we were all bedding down and everyone
stripped down to, at the most, their underwear, at the least,
nakedness. Contrary to popular belief, I am rather shy. I ended up
sleeping in my jeans. I was not surprised a bit by this, after all
these are hippies. Naked people are all over the place on line. We
all know what the "Internet is for" (ref: Avenue Q)

At the culmination of the gathering I guess I made a good
impression. I was invited to join some of them at the rainbow
gathering in Europe next/this year. Yay for good impressions.


-Dana

First Day of Workshops in St. Petersburg

Today we worked all day with the discovery program. I have my group of
college students and I am leading them in activities. It is a
challanging group to work with, in that the goals established for this
group are difficult for me to achieve.

I can't help but thinking the reason for this has more to do with my
inability to speak Russian and less with the group I'm working with.
Every year I leave here enthused about learning the language and swear
I will continue studying throughout the year. Perhaps this year will
be the year I actually follow through.

This is my first time comming here where I have arranged my own travel
plans and visa. As well, this is the first time I will be staying
after the discovery group leaves. I can only hope this will set a
personal precidance for future visits with friends in the area.

For now I will enjoy my time here and hope it is not the last time I
visit. Since the discovery program and Jean are the main reasons I
continue to have a reason to return, I fear the worst. Jean is
retiring and the discovery program may no longer make these trips
without her. Unless Jean returns I will have to find my own purpose to
visit my friends in this corner of the world.

-Dana

Minus 20 outside

We arrived in St Petersburg at 5AM and had to wait for the metro to
open. While standing in the train station I made a new friend. It was
an old drunk man. Despite how many times I told him (in Russian) that
I don't speak Russian, and he seemed to understand me, he continued to
prattle on (in Russian). Finally Mekhty saved me and we headed off to
the building we will be working in for the next few days.

When we arrived most of us were exhausted and fell fast asleep on the
mats on the floor. We had 4 hours of planned down time. I wanted to
head off on my own for a bit to explore the area. I changed into cold
weather running clothes and hit the ice.

I have never before run in freezing weather and I was a bit concerned
at first. After the first mile or so, I was able to settle into a
comfortable rythm. My constant movement (and awesome clothes) kept me
warm and happy. I think I was smiling during the entire 7mile run.

I'm the kind of runner who likes to greet people and say "hi" or "good
morning" (annoying, I know). I get mixed responses that I like to
catagorize into three things:

-- They pretend I don't exist and walk faster to avoid me
-- They acknowlege me and continue on
-- They respond with a friendly and enthusiatic reply

I have gone for long distance runs in at least 5 countries. Every
country provides the same basic matrix of responses. I was extremely
pleased that the Russian people were not an exception.

I guess people all around the world have some very basic comonalities,
independant of culture. Perhaps it is coded into our DNA:

Strange man running + friendly greeting = run/acknowlege/or reply

What an odd thing to evolve in humans

-Dana

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