Borderland Edition

I usually get to work earlier than everyone else. Well, I guess the correct way of saying is that I arrive at the office before most everyone. I don’t usually start work straight away because I need to check my email, read the news briefs, catch up on a few blogs, and other assortment things that one needs to do on the Internet.

I’m still working on getting settled into the D.C. area. It feels like I’ve been roaming since December, but I’m finally in a more, semi-permanent living situation now. Although who knows how long that will last. The commute is a bit awkward because the house isn’t as close to the metro as I had thought. Walking home at night isn’t as enjoyable as I had thought. I decided to take the MARC (commuter train) today. The 7:17am train was canceled I discovered so I waited for the 7:38 train. The train seems to be quicker than the metro and I like the sound of the train rolling along the tracks, it reminds me of Ukraine. It’s interesting to me how often trains are delayed or the metro breaks down. Public transportation in D.C. seems to be less reliable and less convenient than in some developing countries. At first I was annoyed by the delay caused by the cancelled train but then I realized it doesn’t really matter if I am 30 minutes or an hour late even. My job is not that important. In fact, it doesn’t matter if most of the people on the train/metro are late. Important people fly around in helicopters so they are never late.

As I was walking out of the train station towards the escalators down to 10th street, I ran into a large crowd of people waiting to use the escalator so I avoided the crowd and took the longer route around the building. As I walked, I thought of the important things I must do today. They aren’t really important at all and I’m lucky to have such small problems such as not receiving my Political Russian textbook yet, even though it’s the third week of class.

I’ve heard rumors that Madeleine Albright is here today for some conference. I’m not sure if that’s true or not. It would be fun to run into a famous person at work. Although I’d rather meet Condi than Madi. We could chat about Russia and Putin for a bit before she went to the conference and I went back to making websites. As I should do now…

** Update ** Two weeks+ after I ordered the textbook and three phone calls later I finally got an update on my precious shipment of one Political Russian book. I spoke with a lady named Sam, who was actually helpful, at the bookstore and she tracked the package down to a delivery truck. So, inshallah, by tomorrow at this time I will be browsing the pages of a brand new Russian textbook. Darn, life is exciting…

“In the current atmosphere…just the thought of having this government looking at you, reading you, and deciding if you are violating laws is pretty scary, and it’s not something you can win,” Mark Ames, the newspaper’s editor in chief and founder, tells RFE/RL. “It was enough to frighten away people who were helping us stay afloat the last couple years.”

The inspectors told Ames that someone complained that the paper “mocks and humiliates Russian traditions and history.”

“The eXile” is closing down

So, I guess The Onion won’t be opening up a Moscow office anytime soon…

“Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” asked Alice.

“That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat.

Last night I had my first installment of the Political Russian course I’m taking this summer at SAIS. Three hours, fours days a week for eight weeks. It’s going to be intense. The professor started the class by telling us that we should expect about 3-4 of homework per class. So, that would be… three hours of class plus three hours of homework… yup, six hours of political Russian per day. I’m going to have to figure out how to fit work into the new schedule…

However, the class seems like it’s going to be great. There are ten of us in the class as of yesterday (I’m hoping a couple will drop since that’s a little large for a language class). Three or four of us are RPCVs from the former Soviet Union, almost everyone has lived in a Russian-speaking country at some point in their life. Being in a more diverse city has humbled me and shown me that I’m not the international super star like back home. But, it’s good to be challenged.

Speaking of challenging, here was the text we started off the first hour of the class with (it was in Russian of course, but here’s my translation):

By invitation of the State Duma and Russian government, the president of France was in Moscow for an official visit. The Russian president, the chairman of the State Duma and the French president held talks about the future of Russo-French cooperation. The sides discussed the issue of bilateral relations based on mutual understanding and equality. The relationship is developing successfully.

Quite a bit different from PST where we learned how to order a beer from a cafe…