The Decent People

Okay, let's be honest here. Do you think that Russians have a really good stereotype linked to them? What's that I hear you yelling? No? They're all drunk? And rude too? My, my, aren't we judgmental? No. You are not judgmental. You are rather correct. I have been next to people smelling so strongly of alcohol that it burns your nose more than once. My favorite encounter was on the bus. I was standing next to a guy that ever so discreetly pulled a can of gin tonic out of his jacket, took a sip, and very carefully put it back into a pocket inside his jacket. I can only assume that he had a special pocket made in his jacket just to put his alcoholic drinks in. I was laughing too hard to be disturbed by any of this. And as for the rudeness, I have already posted about the cheeriness of the cashiers. They have zero cheeriness. One time a cashier said hello to me...I was shocked. That's how nice they are.

On to the point now! Yes, many people are drinking (although not necessarily drunk. apparently Russians have special genes that allow them to drink more than anyone else, or so they say). Yes, many people are rude (Oh the stories I have). But I've actually met some really nice, decent people as well. So in the spirit of positive thinking I'm going to tell you about them a bit! One really nice person I've met is Ludemilla. She is the principal of the school I teach at. A few weeks in she told our head teacher, Emily, that I was not dressing warm enough. The next day in our classroom there were a variety of scarves and hats for me to choose from to wear. Thus...the idiot hat!

The idiot hat strikes in front of The Cathedral on Spilled Blood

But she is such a sweet woman and I like her a lot. She even gave us each a gift for International Women's Day!

Another nice person I've met is not actually a person I've met. So everyday I have to take two buses to get to school and then two to get home. They're not always real buses though. Sometimes they're just oversized vans that are called shuttles. I ride shuttles pretty often. The only problem with them is that they don't always stop at the bus stops so you have to tell the driver to stop where you want them to. They recently moved the bus stop in front of our apartment down the street a little bit. Not far at all but it's still an adjustment. So I get on the shuttle one night, around 8 or 8:30 to head home. It's a short little ride, just about two minutes but the walk is 15 minutes and brutal when the freezing wind picks up and it's snowing. I'm in the back of the shuttle, just hanging out, doing my thing. We pass the bus stop and I think "oh dang, I'm way too tired to get up though so we'll just see when someone else tells him to stop." Imagine my surprise when he stops right in front of where the stop used to be and then glances up in the rear view mirror at me as if telling me to get off. I decided that he recognized me (most likely due to the idiot hat) and stopped where he knows I get off. I was rather touched! And it was proof that not all Russians are crusty old meanies!

A final example, rather precious if I do say so myself. I was walking from the store to the head teacher's apartment one day after fulfilling a ridiculous craving for freshly baked bread. The sidewalks here are pretty slick, they have a few inches of ice covered with about an inch of slushy snow. Not pleasant. And there's a big mound of it on the sidewalk by the store. Usually my fellow teachers and I just run over this mound, hoping that we won't fall and die of embarrassment. As I was walking back (la, la, la, so happy to have bread that costs less than 50 cents and is amazingly delicious!) I saw a little old lady stuck at the top of the mound, trying to find the best way to get down. I decided to help her out a bit and gave her my arm to hold while she walked down. She just chatted away with me (I made up my own conversation/translation..."How icy it is today! I just hate ice! Down throw me down Clark!"). When we got to the bottom and I let her go she said, "на здоровья девочка" I was tickled pink about it! When a babushka says, "To your health young lady" it's kind of a big deal! I pretended like she was a good witch and gave me good luck for the rest of the day. It was awesome.

Moral of the story. There are good and bad people everywhere. And I have found a little of each here in Russia.