Week 2 in Russia: Events Both Good and Bad

On Tuesday, I lost my wallet, ate a hot dog, and watched a Russian performance of Jesus Christ, Superstar. How did this all occur in one short day (in the Emerald city)? I will tell you the story…

In the morning, I overslept my alarm. My neighbor, Ashley-from-England, woke me by knocking on my door at the time we were supposed to leave for Philosophy together. I hopped into clothes, put up my hair, dusted on some make-up and ran out the door. We were, in fact still early for Philosophy. After class, I took Ashley to get his passport photos taken. This is when I realized that I didn’t have my wallet. I frantically called my roommate to ask if I had left it in our room—no, I had not. Then I realized that the last time I looked at it was for bus fare. I didn’t have the correct amount of paper money, so I put my wallet back in my purse and got coins from a separate coin purse. Usually, when not in a hurry, I get my bus fare out before leaving the dorm.

I realized that my wallet was indeed lost or stolen, and immediately went back to the dorm to retrace my steps. Unfortunately—but not surprisingly—no wallet was to be found. I went to my room, dumped out my purse to be sure it really wasn’t there, and made a list of the contents of my wallet. I called my mom using Skype and we together canceled my debit cards and talked over what I should do next. I called the international student coordinator, who suggested I open a Russian bank account. As soon as I told my mom this, our internet stopped working. It probably needed money—not something I had at the moment. I gathered myself together (I thankfully had kept some Euros and US $ in my passport/document belt) to go open a bank account and exchange currency.

After opening a bank account and exchanging money, I went to the university to email my mom the Russian account information. I sent her the email and skimmed through my unread emails. Lo and behold, I had one entitled “Lost Documents” from Lisa, the girl who gave me a tour of Moscow. Someone had found my cards lying on the street and tried the only Russian number that was in my wallet—her business card! Lisa sent me the woman’s phone number, and I called it immediately. Turns out, the woman (Tatyana) works at the Irkutsk Musical Theatre, so I went there to meet her and retrieve my cards.

When I got there, she not only returned my cards (both debit cards, my drivers’ license, insurance cards etc), but also invited me in. She is the sound-board operator for the theatre, and they were rehearsing Jesus Christ, Superstar when I came in. I watched rehearsal from the booth before going to get tea and a snack with Tatyana and her little girl. Unfortunately for me, the snack was a hot dog. I felt bad saying no—refusing food is considered so rude here—and she had just gone out of her way to help me. So I looked at the hot dog, and I looked at her. She told me to cut it on the diagonal. So I did. And I ate it. The whole thing. With coffee.

After that, we went back to the booth and I got to watch the rest of rehearsal and sound check. I was getting ready to leave when Tanya asked if I would stay for the show. I had a ton of homework, I needed to call my mom, I had skipped my internship meeting, and I was tired. But again, rude not to, so I stayed. And I saw JCS in Russian in the third row for free. I loved it. Afterwards, Tatyana gave me her email address and told me to call her when I got home. She very much expects to see me again. So I got home and called my mom first. Meanwhile, Tanya calls to make sure I got home okay! Can you say Good Samaritan?

The wallet-stealing fiasco pretty much sums up my week. Since we had already canceled the debit cards, the bank wouldn’t re-instate them for security reasons, so I still had to transfer money to a Russian bank account. I checked it today and was able to withdraw money. It’s actually kind of cool to see how Russian banking works. Perhaps I’ll write about it in another entry. Anyway, I just cannot believe the kindness of others and needed to let you all know how welcoming this complete stranger was to me after finding cards scattered on a snowy Siberian street (alliteration intentional). Russia kicks you in the back of the knee and then helps you back up again.

Next time I’ll be sure to write about my internship (I finally found Russian hippies) and my first experience wearing high-heeled Italian leather boots in -20F weather. (Right now it’s -13F with a wind-chill of -34F...on my birthday the high will be zero. Almost positive. Almost).

Until then, I’ll leave you with a few pictures. Be safe, keep warm, (and hold on to your wallets!).

Orthodox Church

"Happy New Year 2009"

Kirov Square

PS. If you are so inclined, I encourage you to check out sonorousproductions.com. This is a shameless plug, as I am involved in the project. It's an independent music website, with a premiere of a new musical coming soon (written by Steve Sunu). Check it out and let us know what you think!