Since I had to look up a number of words, and wanted to try to get my grammar correct, my short note used up a good hour. That, and some other fiddling around, and drinking tea, and it was still only 5:30. I decided to take a bath. The tub was this giant thing you could drown in. Wonderful for long hot soaks. I felt a lot better after I got out, and I read for a while.

Lilia's mom showed up from her shift at work, and got Lilia up. Lilia made bliniy small pancakes you eat with jam or honey and sour cream). They were wonderful with tea! They joked that in Russia, they call Bill Clinton "Bliniy Clinton". Nina left to go back to her apartment to check on her mother. Lilia relaxed noticeably, and explained that her mother was upset that Lilia hadn't been taking care of me properly as a guest. That is, she wasn't up at the same time as me, feeding me! There was a lot that went on between Lilia and her mother that I of course never understood. I would think I could at least catch the tone of the conversation, but I could rarely gauge Nina's mood. The only times I could were when she was angry, and wanted people to know it.

I didn't really realize on my first trip how really bad I am at 'reading' Russians. I think I'm a decent judge of character, but that just plain goes out the window there. I don't really like the stereotyping that Russians are all dishonest. I don't think it's true. But I do think that Russians, as part of the soviet way of life, are very good at deception. That doesn't mean that they all do it, it just means that they can, and I as a dumb American don't have the foggiest idea when they are and when they aren't. And Nina was the hardest person to read of all.

My naivete with Russian people really became clear when we went to visit Valentina. The visit was set up by a mutual friend, Alexei. Valentina was writing to a man in Canada, and wanted to talk to me about the possibility of getting a tourist visa to Canada to visit him. She also wanted me to bring some things back to mail to him. Lilia, Alexei, and I all went to Valentina's. Alexei to translate, as he speaks good English. Valentina lived with her daughter and brother, and I think mother as well. We were going to go out to the dacha, but the weather was looking a bit nasty. Instead we stayed at the apartment to have typical Russian tea. That is, a table covered with enough food to feed an army.

Valentina's brother (don't remember his name) put on a video of a live 'Chicago' concert. He asked me to translate some of the lyrics, as Alexei couldn't understand them. I translated sung English to spoken English, and Alexei translated to Russian. It was the first time the brother had known what the songs he loved were about! He also played a bit of one of his own compositions on the piano.

Valantina's daughter, Nastya also played the piano. The entire time I tried to keep their extremely friendly dog off of me. It was a good thing, I joked, that he came with 'ruzhka' (a handle). He was some kind of a boxer, and had lots of neck skin, perfect for holding onto, so he couldn't slobber me to death.

At one point in the evening, the brother asked me if I would change some American money for him. I said sure, but I didn't now if I had enough rubles on me. I was expecting for him to bring out a $20 or a $50. He brought out a $1 bill!. I got out two 10 ruble notes, and started to count out 5 in change, and changed my mind and just gave him three 10 ruble notes.

The food was all wonderful, of course. We had brought some chocolate and boxes of juice. You CAN'T show up empty handed!

Valentina asked me about the possibility of getting a tourist visa to Canada, and I told her it's possible, but unlikely. She also wanted me to take some information to her boyfriend in Canada. In particular, she was going to set up a bank account for him to transfer money to. I thought this was a little odd. A few other things bothered me a bit as well, but nothing too major. Since she didn't have the bank account information at that time, she said she would meet me at the train with it.

When we left, Lilia dragged me off before Alexei could get his shoes on. He ran to catch up to us, but she made it obvious she didn't want him around. It wasn't until a few days later that Lilia filled me in on Valentina. She said she knew her, but didn't know that she was the woman we were going to see. She said Valentina was only interested in money. She said Valentina was just looking for a meal ticket, and wasn't anxious for me to take anything with me to Valentina's man in Canada. I said if Valentina met us at the train when I left, I would, since I said I would, but I would warn the guy as well- which I did. Later in the trip, I would learn more about Valentina. One woman in particular called her 'Vermin'.

In the evening, we watched a video I had brought, 'The Princess Bride'. With Lilia's English ability, and some translation from me, she understood it for the most part. I did pause it a few times to explain some parts, but we both enjoyed it.

I was able to sleep a bit later the next day. In general, I slept an extra hour each day. I had to explain to Lilia that I couldn't just stay up all day, then get a normal night's sleep, and be adjusted.

Lilia has three cousins who live in the next apartment block over. They are all sons of her father's sister. The two of them that I met were about five years older than they looked. The one pictured here is 20, and attends university! (He's the one without the beard, I'm the one with a beard.) He came over to try to fix the T.V. I don't think Lilia completely believed me when I told her it was the antennae. But her cousin came to the same conclusion. He did lend us some videos, including 'Daylight' and 'The Lion King'.

Watching an overdubbed film is a strange experience. You can still hear bits of English under the Russian. I kept switching between trying to catch the English (frustratingly impossible) and trying to understand the Russian (probably good practice, but also impossible). At least I had seen Lion King, so I could just relax and enjoy it.

As per usual, we took the trolley bus downtown to attend to various errands. Lilia had to check in at the 'soot' (law office) where was full-filing her practicum. On the way home, I bought her three roses. She said 'maybe one'? But I insisted on three, which I could see made her happy. On the way home, we stopped to sit on a bench, near a statue of Yuri Gagarin. Unfortunately, the picture of her with her roses didn't turn out well, but you can see the roses in the picture of her cousin and I. (Yes, much of my narrative, and many of my pictures are out of chronological order :-)

I still had a large pile of stuffed animals, colouring books, bandages, and many other things for some unknown orphanage. Lilia had called several, and we decided to give the stuff to two of them. One was within walking distance, and had children under three years old. We divided the stuff into a pile 'for leetle' and 'for big'. The 'detski dom' was very large, clean and well lit. I guess I had visions in my head of some of the horror stories you hear about, but this one was really very nice. Since babies of this age don't need a lot, just some 'kasha', some sleep (sorry, no pictures, I didn't want to take them with my flash!), and some entertainment. I guess a clean diaper is nice too, but I've spared you those pictures as well :-)

They were very officious, and gave me a receipt for everything I brought!

Part 2

Trip 2 Index

Part 4