Ice Skating!!!

I had the BEST time yesterday! I am so happy.

Andrea met me at metro Tret'yakovskaya which is nine stops north of Konkovo. In my Moleskine book, I wrote down each metro station in Russian and in English. Then, I marked them off one by one as I passed them. The woman that was sitting next to me looked over at my book each time I checked a metro station off. She must have thought I was insane.

I was so scared I would miss my stop and get turned around. (If you know me at all, you know that I am T E R R I B L E with directions.) At Tret'yakovskaya there are three metro lines that meet there: orange, green, and yellow. So, it was all very confusing.

So, I prayed a lot. In my little book, I found a quote I wrote down a long time ago.

"Prayer arises, if at all, from incompetence. Otherwise there is no need for it."
- Therese of Liseux

This quote was very meaningful to me as I rode the metro. I am so incompetent here. I am such a child. I am so dependent on other people. These feelings are uncomfortable, but they are teaching me faith, utter dependence, and prayer.

Riding the escalator at Dinamo.

So, I waited for Andrea at the Tret'yakovskaya platform, and then we got on the green metro line and headed up to metro Dinamo where we met all of her Russian friends. There were probably fifteen of them, and they all kissed Andrea on the cheek saying "Privyet, hello, hi." Some of them I had met or seen at English Cafe - Liza, Nickolai, Sasha, Tatyana, but I met many new people as well. Here is the ice skating rink:

To my left is Andrea, and to my right is Nick/Nickolai. Sitting down on the left is Sergey, and on the right is Anton. Liza is wearing the sky blue coat; she is so petite compared to everyone else. On her right is Tatyana, and on her left is Invia.

I am not sure how Invia spells her name, but that is how you pronounce it. I thought about telling her that her name sounded like "envy," but I thought that might be a bit rude. Invia is very beautiful, friendly, and smart. She speaks some English, and she was asking me where I was from in the U.S. and what I was doing in Russia, etc. Invia and I were holding onto both sides of Andrea while ice skating because she is not very good at maintaining balance.

Here Andrea is holding on to Sergey for dear life. :)

Everyone would meet up on certain parts of the ice skating rink and have a photo shoot. For awhile, the guys, Sergey, Anton, and someone else but I can't remember his name, were jumping in the air with their ice skates on, and the girls kept trying to get a shot of them all in the air. It was pretty funny because they kept falling on their butts each time. Here was the only successful shot:

Sergey and Anton are the "ringleaders" of the group -- both incredibly outgoing, fun, and energetic. They definitely seem like big party people. Sergey is short, and he dresses like a gangsta -- complete with giant gold earring. So, imagine a Russian gangsta rapper, and you get Sergey. He was very vulgar, but a nice guy. Now...and this is when I was terribly shocked. Andrea informed me that Sergey -- this crass Eminem lookalike -- is a lawyer. Yes, a lawyer. "He puts on a business suit for work, and he dresses like a gansta the rest of the time," Andrea said. I could NOT believe it.

I talked to Anton more than I did to Sergey. Anton just started speaking Russian to me all of the sudden, and I gave him a blank look because I thought he was talking to Andrea next to me. "Oh, you're American? I didn't realize." Anton speaks really good English, so I talked to him for awhile. He made me get in front of him into a line on the ice. "Merradeeth, Merradeeth, get here. Get here." Then everyone hung onto each other and did the little "snake line" thing out on the ice skating rink. Kinda goofy, but still fun. Sergey was leading, and since he's crazy, our line quickly broke up and sent us all flying everywhere. It was SO funny....

Eventually, I couldn't feel my face anymore. My ears felt like they were frostbitten. I seriously started to get concerned about my physical well-being. I started imagining having to get the tips of my ears amputated because of frostbite. Sometimes my imagination gets the best of me. Thankfully, at this time, everyone decided to go inside for a hot tea and smoke break, and my ears thawed out just fine.

Hot tea. Russians LOVE hot tea. I fit right in. At school I am kind of teased for drinking hot tea so much, so it is refreshing knowing that the national default drink of Russia is hot tea.

Andrew, Anton, and another guy (maybe something like Sevya?)

You can see the bowl for your tea bags and cigarettes.

At this time Nick starting talking to me. It was hilarious because he wanted to talk to me about something going on in the U.S. -- something about a grandfather and a granddaughter, and the girl is missing? I don't really know. Nick says the grandfather is being accused of murder or something of that nature. So, Nick asked if I heard about it, and I had no clue what he was talking about. "It happened in October. I was watching Larry King on CNN, and they were talking about it on there," he said. It struck me funny that he was watching Larry King in the first place -- Nick...he who has never been to America at all. I told him that my college didn't have television, so I never watch the news at home. He asked me what channels qualify as cable. "CBS? NBC? ABC? CNN?" He was also very interested in public television. It was really funny. I was surprised he knew so much about American television, but then again -- his English is very, very, very good, and watching American television is probably the best way to improve his skills. I wonder where he watches it though...

Then, he moved on to Avril Lavigne. "Have you heard Avril Lavigne's song 'Girlfriends'?" At first I thought he was just asking me if I had heard of her before, so I said yes. But I haven't heard this song "Girlfriends." He said, "I wanted to ask you what a line in the song means. It says, 'So when's it gonna sink in?' What does she mean by 'sink in'?" So, I tried to explain to him that asking "When's it gonna sink in?" is like saying "When will he ever really understand and realize?"

"Ohhhhh, I see, I see. That makes perfect sense," he said.

Later this other guy started asking me questions. I'll never be able to remember his name. Nick said that his name was very, very rare. He said he was the only one in Russia with that name. I wish I could remember it. It sound like Sevya or Severia or something like that. Anyway, his English was horrible, and his accent horrendous. I could hardly understand a word he was saying. When he found out I had been in Russia for just a week, he said, "And how do you like our president?"

I didn't know what to say. I turned to Andrea, "What am I supposed to say?" She just shrugged her shoulders.

I said, "I have no opinion," but I don't think he understood me. His English was very limited.

Later on the ice skating rink, Nick said that he was asking me that because it was a joke. He said that there is a joke in Russia right now -- something about first asking what you think about the president, and then something about Medevev. I didn't really understand it.

After that we took more pictures. Personally, I think that might be why they went ice skating -- just for pictures. But you know, that's okay.

Some of the girls.

Posing for the picture.

Andrea and her friend. I can't remember her name, but she wanted me to take a picture of her and Andrea.

Andrea left me at Tetr'yakovskaya, and I rode the metro back to Konkovo. There are many dogs that hang out at the metro stations probably because they are warm, and they probably find food easily enough. Russians LOVE dogs. In my opinion, they'll hold the door open for a stray dog before they will for a person. Here is one sleeping. No, I didn't touch him, Mom. ;) I wanted to though.


I walked from Konkovo to the apartment, and I was absolutely FREEZING. My nose felt like it was made of ice, and my legs were numb. It was the kind of numbness though that makes it painful when something brushes against your skin. When I got home, I looked at the thermometer and saw it was zero degrees. I can't believe I walked for so long in zero degrees. I need to get a bus pass for days like this!

The day was worth walking home in freezing pain though. When I left, my new Russian acquaintances all kissed me on the cheek as if I were one of their friends. So, all in all, a very good day, and hopefully I will become better friends with them in the future.