There is a story about two ambassadors, one American and one Soviet, who hashed out a plan to resolve the intermediate-range nuclear forces treaty while on a walk in the woods. I feel like Irina and I had our own walk in the woods today.
Around 9:30 PM, Irina asked me whether I would like to go for a walk. I said sure, and we set off under the blazing late evening sun. We left the Petrogradsky Island where we live and headed west, onto the Krestovsky Island. We fought our way through one of the many construction zones dotting the city and ended up in a very nice little park. Irina told me that she used to take Maxim there when he was little, but that she hadn’t been there for a very long time. There was a bit of a nature lesson in all of this as well, as Irina told me the names of most of the trees we saw, all of which I promptly forgot. Apparently you can make a delicious tea from the sap (?) of one of the trees, aspen perhaps? That would be good for headaches, in any case! I had a little burst of excitement when I saw a grove of red pines, and rather exuberantly ran over to gawk at them. I don’t know that Irina understood when I tried to explain why those trees were so special to me.
From there, we walked along the edge of the island. The island is mostly a big park, but there are some strange restaurants and clubs tucked away. There’s also an apartment building, which is supposedly one of the most expensive in Europe, called the Five Elements . . . yeah. Along the way, Irina started getting tired. I offered to turn around, but she really wanted to get to the Gulf of Finland, so we kept going. At the end of the park, there is a great view of the gulf. Well, it would be better if they weren’t building a stadium there, but it was still nice.
On the way back, Irina started getting really tired, and had to hold onto my arm for a while. We passed through the park again, this time along a different route, and came upon an amusement park. Random. (Oh, wow, can you imagine Russian carnies?) A man pulled his car up along the sidewalk to ask for directions. Irina didn’t know where he was trying to go, so he gestured to me, standing a bit back from the car, and said, “Maybe he knows.” Irina and I both had a good laugh about that. We tried to hop a ride on the metro, but it was closed, so we made the long trek back to the apartment. We got back at around two in the morning.
This was a really nice opportunity for Irina and me to get to know each other better. For the first couple days, I had been pretty timid, not wanting to get in anyone’s way, or cause too much inconvenience. She was constantly telling me not to be so shy, and to feel at home, but that’s kind of challenging when you don’t really know what’s allowed, or what’s going on. When you can’t even figure out how the toilet works, or when you almost blow up the kitchen trying to get the water heater to turn on, it’s not a great sign that you can “feel at home.” During our walk, she asked why I was so shy, and I tried to explain that it was hard because of the language barrier. Then she told me the story of what led up to my staying with them.
Apparently, the night Galya called wasn’t the first time Irina had heard of a group of Americans coming to the institute. The institute had called her a few weeks ago to see whether she would like to host someone. She said no. She asked her husband and her son whether they would like to have someone stay with them, and they didn’t want to. So basically, when Galya called and Irina agreed, she was conceding to something she never wanted to do in the first place. And she found it odd that I wasn’t feeling at home. Fortunately, she seems to have had a change of heart, since she’s really very nice to me. I feel like Maxim, on the other hand, thinks I’m ignorant; and I think Alexander just tries to avoid me most of the time. Oh well.
I got to learn a lot about Irina’s life, too. She seemed to be pretty open about everything, but I wouldn’t feel right about putting that information here. One thing I will mention, though, is a somewhat surprising tidbit from her education. During the Cold War, I understand that American students were taught to be suspicious of the Soviets and to practice duck-and-cover in case of a nuclear strike (which I still find very humorous). After all, James Bond (though British) was always chasing Russians, and Ronald Reagan was a bit fond of his Evil Empire idea. I’ve always thought that this was all a bit over the top, but then I wasn’t living in the midst of those times and I wasn’t worried about the world being blown to bits.
Irina asked me what people were taught in America during the Cold War, and I mentioned the above. She said that that was too bad. She had always been taught to be tolerant, to reach out to Americans when she had the chance, and to try to make friends. Even still, Irina is very much interested in peaceful cooperation. Kind of makes the red scare and rants about the “domino effect” sound kind of silly.
I was asking her about Russia’s relationship with all of its neighbors (Russia and China border more countries than all the rest), since it would be really interesting to have Finland and Norway on one end of the country, and North Korea and China on another. Of course, this is perfectly normal for someone living in Russia, so Irina couldn’t really say whether it was difficult; it’s just normal. I said it was pretty easy for us, since we only have two neighbors, and we all get along quite well, especially with Canada. She asked whether we needed a visa to get into Canada, and I told her that we didn’t even need passports before September 11th.
When I mentioned that, she got very emotional, and stopped walking. She told me that she cried a lot that day, and that she prayed for us all. She seemed to be on the verge of tears just thinking about it. When I was in Germany, I got similar reactions. I think it wise to consider the implications of this story. Too often, I hear people ranting about anti-Americanism around the world, how everyone “hates us” and how everyone wants to see us dead. I maintain, as I always have, that this is not true. People are people, and they care about each other no matter where they live. I don’t care if we’re talking about September 11th, the train bombing in Madrid, the bus bomb in London, the tsunami, or the earthquake in China: people’s hearts go out to those who hurt. It is a sad day when a country goes on the defensive and assumes that they are alone in a struggle of all against one. I think there are a lot of people who would do well to remember that.
I didn't take any pictures on this trip, but I came back to the children's park with Dan-Bi later. I'm borrowing pictures from that.
Water on the Malaya Neva, the river we crossed to get to the new island.
Part of an old sports complex we passed on the way to the park. At least, I'm pretty sure it was a sports complex; it had the olympic rings on the side.
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Green loveliness.
The red pines.
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