2011-09-12 An All-Nighter Pulled A Fast One
Okay lots to write about. First off I’m glad 9/11 went off without a hitch and everything is all right back stateside.
Anywho, Saturday night was my first night that I went out clubbing. And wow was it a long night. I didn’t get back home until Sunday morning and it was almost 8 am. We went to a few bars then a few clubs and it’s very difficult to describe the entire night in a blog entry. First off, I spent only 250 rubles somehow. This equates to less than $10. The entire district is a mess. Literally mobs of people just hanging around into the early morning. At least a few thousand just loitering around outside. The music varies a lot from heavy metal to American top 100 radio songs. Though all are remixed to the DJ’s taste. My favorite segments to dance to were American songs remixed into techno dance pop nonsense, but can you complain when it’s Chumbawumba and Blink 182?
Turns out Russians are also not great dancers. I looked pretty good compared to them. And I have minimal rhythm and was pretty drunk. Though despite my drunkenness I still managed to be the responsible one of the group. And was only that drunk due to my responsibility to prevent the already too drunk members of our group from getting any further down the black hole that they had ventured down. These drunk peers of mine refused to stop buying vodka, so I had to steal and drink these shots for their own good. They thanked me afterwards in the morning for doing this courtesy.
Let’s see, I spoke Spanish to a few Italians in Russia. Wonderful Italian couple, made me want to visit Genoa. Maybe I will now that I have contacts over there. Saw a fight break out and someone basically got curb stomped. But all in all, it was a fun night, and Russians tend to be very nice. They were pretty pleasant and decent drunks. I’m sure they’re used to it. A girl did try and get me to buy her a beer, but clearly she was only using me for the alcohol, even though I was only using her to practice my Russian…
So far the Russian girls here haven’t been that impressive. They have been tall and thin, but that seems to be it. Maybe it’s because they don’t smile much. Or laugh much. Or seem like they’re enjoying life at all.
Now the news for today… I went out with some friends to explore some more of the city while I bought tickets for the Zenit St. Petersburg Champions League game versus FC Porto, which I’m really excited for. Unfortunately as we were changing trains we were pick pocketed. By clear professionals who had marked us and got us while we were boarding a train. 6 Russians joined us as the 4 of us were waiting for the train doors to open. As we boarded (2 girls and 2 guys) they pushed our first girl onto the train and pushed the other off, then surrounded the two of us and began roughing each other and us up, while they went through our pockets. I was utterly confused as I thought they were just being assholes, and I was ‘politely’ shoving them back gesturing to the open space behind them. Then as quickly as it began they grabbed the girl they had prevented from joining us and tossed her on the train and all quickly exited. Then they tossed back our student id’s as they were no use to them and the doors closed.
I spotted the id’s sitting on the ground and knew that they were ours… Luckily I keep my actual wallet and money in my inside jacket pocket which they couldn’t get to. My friend Mike was not nearly as lucky as they got away with his wallet and a 1000 rubles. Which isn’t that bad, when we surfaced we called our director to cancel all his cards and such and start getting replacements. In all respect to Mike he handled it all pretty well, while the worst part of this were the looks all the native Russians gave us after we had been pick pocketed. It wasn’t a look of 'ugh stupid Americans’ but more of a 'I feel bad but there was nothing we could do’.
So we got through a classic Russian situation and we’re perfectly fine. Just be careful on the Metro is all I have to say. Off to do some homework. Talk to y'all soon.