I know that some people wanted me to post on things in Voronezh, the city I'm studying in, but I think first I should detail the journey, the trials, the tribulations that went into getting me here. We left West Point at around 1130 in the morning on 27 January 2009 on a 15 passenger bus. Now, in this bus there are two seats in the front, and 4 rows of seats in the back. Two of those rows were completely filled with our enormous amounts of baggage, leaving the remaining 5 of us to squeeze in the remaining space. This was a theme which would continue throughout the trip.
We made it to JFK Airport early and checked our bags. We got through security and ate, of course, at Chili's, because 5 of us hadn't just come from Honduras or anything and wanted more Latin food. We still had a while so we loitered around in the airport, shopped around, and tried to remember anything resembling Russian. Soon enough our flight boarded and we got on the big plane bound for Russia.
The flight was 9 hours long, and unfortunately I was unable to sleep during it. Nothing very exciting happened, there were a few movies but I didn't really watch them and just studied over some Russian phrases that I figured I'd need in the time when we got there, such as the word for Embassy (which it turns out, didn't really help that much). Finally we landed in Moscow. However, the airport we arrived at is on the outskirts of the city, so the drive to the American Embassy is around 45 minutes. We had been told to ask for MosCab for transportation, and they were supposed to be there to pick us up. They were not. Not only that, but no one there had even heard of it (or couldn't understand our questions). We ended up getting a small bus for around 5000 rubles. This was good, however, because I'm pretty sure this is the only way we could have gotten all our bags and ourselves to the Embassy without around 4 or 5 taxis.
We made it to the Embassy and went in what we thought was the main entrance. The Russians provide their own initial security for the Embassy, and of course there are Marines there as well. In the entrance we went in, there was a guard with a Marine watching from behind a glass wall. We nearly created an international incident here because all of us started piling in with all our baggage, but we weren't allowed to bring our bags in the actual building. So the bags keep piling up in this tiny room, and the Marine was laughing from behind the glass, asking "Where's he going to put it all?" Around 4 or 5 of us got through the screening (most of our bags wouldn't fit through the x-ray machine either, and the guard was getting very frustrated at all our computers, cameras, and other electronics) when we realized that we had come through the wrong entrance. Therefore, we all trooped out, leaving a very angry Russian gate guard.
Finally we found the right entrance and dropped our bags in a lost and found closet. We had a little time before our briefing, so we were cut loose to tour around Moscow for a couple hours. 4 of us took the metro to Red Square, which was nice. Seeing Lenin's Tomb and an ice skating rink juxtaposed was kind of ironic and appropriate at the same time. We also ate lunch at a very good cafe in the Гум, the mall right next door.
Quick video game vignette: back in middle school I played this game that I really liked called Ghost Recon. The reason this is relevant is because the last level occurred in downtown Moscow. In fact, part of the fighting took place in the Гум and Red Square. I feel embarrassed and uncultured, because in that level there was a large square building which I used to get on top of so that I could snipe the Russians on the other side of the square. Well, that building is Lenin’s tomb. Oops. Anyway, the other interesting fact about this game is the situation that it encompasses: in the back story, Russia invades Georgia in 2012 and the US sends an armored division to drive them back, and does, eventually capturing Moscow and the Military Coup that caused the whole thing in the first place. I think this game came out sometime between 1999 and 2003. The point is, they might have been a little off in the year (and the US’s involvement), but they predicted the Russians invading Georgia! Someone at this company must know something. Interestingly, the same company also produced the Halo series. Sure, say what you want, even that those events didn’t happen for another hundred years or so, or that it was just dumb luck, but I say: they were off about the year on the first one too.
Video game vignette complete. Eventually we had our briefing in the Embassy and were on our way to the train station, where more hilarity ensued. We couldn’t find our train, and didn’t know which подъезд (entrance) we needed to go to. The result: us dragging our baggage between two of the entrances. Turns out you probably shouldn’t get there 2 hours before your train leaves, but we didn’t want to hold up the embassy staff from going home anymore. About 40 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave we looked again, found it, and boarded without too much of a hassle, although fitting all our baggage in the car was again an adventure. Finally we arrived in Voronezh, and Libby found our POC. We loaded up yet another bus and we driven to our homes for the semester. I spent the day relaxing, unpacking, settling in, and catching up on sleep to try to adjust to the time change.Well, my battery is almost dead and I suppose I should end this. I know there wasn't much about everyday life in this one, but if you want to hear about any aspect of life in particular, feel free to post here or send me a message on facebook or email.
Пока -
CJR
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