Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Hello, Comrade
I don't care what they say about the changes, Moscow is still filled with rude drunks. But some of them are kinda cute.
The Moscow trip was interesting, not exactly what I was expecting, but then again, traveling with a bunch of middle-aged professors and diplomats, what, exactly, was I expecting?
I wanted to do more exploring, but I was there for business so that obviously took first priority. At one point I was thinking, "well, Adrian and I will just have to come back and visit someday," but after being there a week I thought "why?" While Moscow has plenty of history (some of which has been rewritten since 1991) they aren't exactly going out of their way to make it accessible to foreigners. Customer service is also pretty poor, in a "if they pretend to pay us, we'll pretend to work" way that was pretty common during Soviet times. Then again, they may not have liked us simply because we were American.
There's a lot of national pride in Russia, bordering on the manic. From some of the discussions we had that pride seemed to be a response to an inferiority complex more than anything else.
The street we were on, Tverskaya Ulitsa, was nice. It's the "5th Avenue" of Moscow. It was had lots of clothing stores with Western styles (I saw three Mexx stores, one of them across the street from our hotel). The old GUM department store on Red Square, once a place of long lines and empty shelves, is now an upscale mall filled with mostly Western stores, though with some Russian designers. I didn't buy anything, it was more expensive than here at home, but it was fun to see what's considered stylish in Russia. I also thought that if I went into such stores I was more likely to see cute gay boys, but that was rare. The boys only came out at night.
I never made it to any gay bars or clubs, though I found a couple. I'm guessing the big dance club/casino with the billboard-sized posters of shirtless men on the front was probably gay, though I can't find the club ("Astoria") on any of the gay Russia websites. As I walked back to the hotel late Thursday night I saw a doorman and a couple young, kinda sketchy looking guys -- hustlers? -- out front. I thought about going to one bar I located but I was just doing it to "check the square" and say I was in a gay bar in Moscow. I mean, I wasn't going to be able to talk to anyone (English is really not common) plus I'm thinking it would look like I was trying to hook up, which I was obviously not trying to do. Also, given some of the discussions we'd had with the government folks that week, we were advised that we were probably being followed (I think I saw the guy who had me) and they sometimes try to embarrass folks on diplomatic missions when they're upset about something (and they're kinda pissed about some comments VP Cheney made recently...big surprise). Given that I was already violating our team's "2-person rule" (we were only supposed to go out in groups of 2 or more) and the odds of meeting someone just to chat, who would not only be interesting but also speak English, were minimal, I decided to just do some people watching and then call it a night.
One of the first things I saw coming in from the airport, and the last thing upon leaving, was a huge IKEA store.
Our sessions went pretty well in that we exchanged some ideas and at least we realized that there are some major areas of disagreement. We were working with a group from the government on some counterterrorism issues, and they definitely view threats differently from us. Some of the things they said really surprised me, and some of the questions I was asked kind of threw me. One guy from our embassy complimented me on my dancing (good thing I took hip-hop!) as I danced around one question I got; the answer I wanted to give is totally contrary to the US government position, which was awkward as I was kind of representing the US government.
I didn't get flirted with at ALL in this city. I mean, in major western cities like New York, Toronto, London, you can't walk down a major street or stop into a clothing store without at least one guy making eye contact. Even in Bangkok I had Buddhist monks giving me "flirty eyes," but not in Moscow. Bunch'a closet cases.
I ate lunch in a Russian mafia cafe. I always heard the food was better in those. Truth be told, it WAS the best lunch I had there.
Travel back was a little rough. Actually, the travel wasn't so bad (I had a 2-seat row to myself on the 11-hour flight, which was nice, but was pretty exhausted by the second, 3-hour flight) but the jet lag is a bitch. I haven't been getting much sleep -- 4 hours last night -- and I need to get over it soon as I have things to do.
I had caviar for breakfast. Cool.
I may be asked to go back and if so I definitely will, with a more realistic set of expectations this time. It wasn't "fun" in the sense that Adrian and I have fun when we travel, but it certainly was interesting. 20 years after studying the language, I'm really glad I finally got to go.
Pictures will be up soon, I need to resize and upload them.
The Moscow trip was interesting, not exactly what I was expecting, but then again, traveling with a bunch of middle-aged professors and diplomats, what, exactly, was I expecting?
I wanted to do more exploring, but I was there for business so that obviously took first priority. At one point I was thinking, "well, Adrian and I will just have to come back and visit someday," but after being there a week I thought "why?" While Moscow has plenty of history (some of which has been rewritten since 1991) they aren't exactly going out of their way to make it accessible to foreigners. Customer service is also pretty poor, in a "if they pretend to pay us, we'll pretend to work" way that was pretty common during Soviet times. Then again, they may not have liked us simply because we were American.
There's a lot of national pride in Russia, bordering on the manic. From some of the discussions we had that pride seemed to be a response to an inferiority complex more than anything else.
The street we were on, Tverskaya Ulitsa, was nice. It's the "5th Avenue" of Moscow. It was had lots of clothing stores with Western styles (I saw three Mexx stores, one of them across the street from our hotel). The old GUM department store on Red Square, once a place of long lines and empty shelves, is now an upscale mall filled with mostly Western stores, though with some Russian designers. I didn't buy anything, it was more expensive than here at home, but it was fun to see what's considered stylish in Russia. I also thought that if I went into such stores I was more likely to see cute gay boys, but that was rare. The boys only came out at night.
I never made it to any gay bars or clubs, though I found a couple. I'm guessing the big dance club/casino with the billboard-sized posters of shirtless men on the front was probably gay, though I can't find the club ("Astoria") on any of the gay Russia websites. As I walked back to the hotel late Thursday night I saw a doorman and a couple young, kinda sketchy looking guys -- hustlers? -- out front. I thought about going to one bar I located but I was just doing it to "check the square" and say I was in a gay bar in Moscow. I mean, I wasn't going to be able to talk to anyone (English is really not common) plus I'm thinking it would look like I was trying to hook up, which I was obviously not trying to do. Also, given some of the discussions we'd had with the government folks that week, we were advised that we were probably being followed (I think I saw the guy who had me) and they sometimes try to embarrass folks on diplomatic missions when they're upset about something (and they're kinda pissed about some comments VP Cheney made recently...big surprise). Given that I was already violating our team's "2-person rule" (we were only supposed to go out in groups of 2 or more) and the odds of meeting someone just to chat, who would not only be interesting but also speak English, were minimal, I decided to just do some people watching and then call it a night.
One of the first things I saw coming in from the airport, and the last thing upon leaving, was a huge IKEA store.
Our sessions went pretty well in that we exchanged some ideas and at least we realized that there are some major areas of disagreement. We were working with a group from the government on some counterterrorism issues, and they definitely view threats differently from us. Some of the things they said really surprised me, and some of the questions I was asked kind of threw me. One guy from our embassy complimented me on my dancing (good thing I took hip-hop!) as I danced around one question I got; the answer I wanted to give is totally contrary to the US government position, which was awkward as I was kind of representing the US government.
I didn't get flirted with at ALL in this city. I mean, in major western cities like New York, Toronto, London, you can't walk down a major street or stop into a clothing store without at least one guy making eye contact. Even in Bangkok I had Buddhist monks giving me "flirty eyes," but not in Moscow. Bunch'a closet cases.
I ate lunch in a Russian mafia cafe. I always heard the food was better in those. Truth be told, it WAS the best lunch I had there.
Travel back was a little rough. Actually, the travel wasn't so bad (I had a 2-seat row to myself on the 11-hour flight, which was nice, but was pretty exhausted by the second, 3-hour flight) but the jet lag is a bitch. I haven't been getting much sleep -- 4 hours last night -- and I need to get over it soon as I have things to do.
I had caviar for breakfast. Cool.
I may be asked to go back and if so I definitely will, with a more realistic set of expectations this time. It wasn't "fun" in the sense that Adrian and I have fun when we travel, but it certainly was interesting. 20 years after studying the language, I'm really glad I finally got to go.
Pictures will be up soon, I need to resize and upload them.
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