International Ennui

Last weekend I went to Riga... again. I think it's interesting that international travel has now become slightly blase. My new work visa was ready for pick up, so I got on a train on Thursday night and, miracle of miracles, understood most of what everyone said and was able to ask questions (and I was understood!). I arrived in Riga with some time to kill, so I headed to my hotel, which let me check in early, and napped until the afternoon when I needed to go pick up my new visa. I passed the evening going to the movies, which were in English with Latvian and Russian subtitles. I saw Frost/Nixon. I think it got an Oscar nod or two. I can't think why, to be honest. It wasn't a bad film, maybe a little uninteresting. I could tell there were a lot of other Americans in the audience because they laughed at the appropriate times. My ticket back to St. Petersburg wasn't until the next day, so to pass the time, I went and saw Yes Man. Not exactly Oscar material, but, hey, it did make me laugh. There were more Latvians in the audience because I noticed I would usually laugh a second or two before the people reading the subtitles would. Also, there were a few subtleties that non-native English speakers wouldn't get that went unnoticed by the audience. On the train ride back to Russia, I didn't understand a single word of any Russian spoken to me.

We had a three day weekend because Monday was Day of the Defenders of the Motherland (usually translated as "Men's Day" because of conscription). Russian men celebrate by drinking all day. As my friend Sveta put it, "Never is Russia more defenseless than on the Day of the Defenders."

I was reading this article by an American that had been living in China for several years. I found this quote to be particularly relevant: "We had crossed the shadowy line that divides strange from stupid."

As I walked to work this morning, I noticed how light it was for this time. I also noticed that it was going to be sunny. Also, the temperature was hovering just below freezing (warm, relatively speaking). Ah, I thought, could we be getting a little bit of spring!? Nope. I ended up walking home in heavy snowfall. The sunny promise of springtime gave way to the icy reality of winter. Wake me up in May, will you?