September 30 - Day 13

Okay, I think maybe Moscow and I are going through a phase. I have not given up on my idea that this is an amazing city with amazing people but I guess it is time to take off the rosy colored glasses. Last night, after that oh-so stress inducing student production, a large group of us decided to hit a local dance club to burn off some of that tension, and in only a couple of hours, a few too many hard lessons were learned. Lesson one: Unless you want to be considered a hooker don’t where a skirt to a dance club, no matter how conservative the rest of your outfit may be. Lesson two: One shot of Russian vodka is okay, two or more will turn your tiny nineteen year-old accomplice (and you) into a walking target for scary Russian men. Lesson three: When it becomes apparent that you have a Russian stalker of your very own, despite your best attempts to steer clear of him, denying his offers to buy you drinks and planting yourself on the side of a 250 pound American actor/linebacker, get out, no questions, no waiting because he will not go away. Lesson four: Yelling at scary Russian stalkers that you and your friends 1- don’t speak Russian and can’t understand a word they are trying to say, 2- are CATHOLIC and will not do whatever it is they have in mind, and 3- are just plain not interested, will not have any sort of deterring effect, if anything it will make them even more persistent. So again just get out. Lesson 5: When you get the distinct feeling that scary Russian stalker guy might be in the mob and the very large men in your party are also getting a bit freaked out it is time to leave and never come back. Go home, put on your fuzzy pajamas and think twice before you decide to go dancing again. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled about having to get up bright and early this morning to walk to the Moscow zoo to observe animals for acting class. I had heard that the Moscow zoo was disturbing but I wasn’t prepared for how messed up it would really be. It was a beautiful day with all sorts of children out and about (I even got to break my flip-flops figuring it would be the one and only time I would get to wear them) but the gorgeous weather was a frightening juxtaposition to what waited for us inside. Throngs and throngs of people poured into what could be considered one step above a circus. As my classmate Bob put it “Well at least they don’t whip the animals in public.” Animals were shoved in to tiny cages that didn’t even begin to resemble a habitat. There were Russian men trying to feed an ostridge beer and a woman giving her kids Kit-Kats to feed the wolves. The animals were malnourished and looked as though they were going insane. It was so disgusting and depressing, and none of the Russians seemed to find anything wrong with it. As, one by one, our students returned to the dorms all they had of animal observations were stories of which animal cruelty was more depressing. The Russians always say, ‘This is not a jungle!’ denying the American idea that this place is still not fully civilized and while, yes, there is money and opportunity and more culture than we could even attempt to comprehend they still have an ideology toward basic human decency that I am having a really hard time wrapping my mind around. It is very, very, very different here, in ways that I have yet to figure out, (I mean, it has only been two weeks) and I am doing my best to not judge and try to observe the country and the people within the context of their history but it is difficult. It is certainly an eye-opening experience and in the past few days I have really started to appreciate some of the American ways of life that I have often taken for granted.