From Russia with Love

Four flights, three airlines and a day and a half later I arrived in Moscow, Russia sans my backpack with all my mountaineering gear. The extremely by the book, diligent, Russian airport workers decided that I needed to have my recovered pack sent to my room at 2:00 am. If I weren't brilliantly happy to see the gear intact, I would have passed out in the guy's arms. Can you say jet lag...

If there is any frustration that I get from international travel, its my lack of understanding of the underlying "way of being" of the culture into which I'm inserting myself. Every place, every country, every community has a way of acting, being, talking that is only known by those who participate in it. When we go abruptly to a novel place that is "particularly" foreign we are asking ourselves to try and fit in with no beta on what that underlying current looks like.

Places like China and Russia, that have made enormous social and economic changes in their environment in a relatively short period of time seem to be the most difficult to "figure out". Its as if their negotiation of a new climate (i.e. capitalism) as a disruption in their lifestyle spills over into the way they interact foreigners. Do I actually know that this is true? Not necessarily, but it feels like it.

I did have a wonderful conversation with my airport transport driver here in Moscow, who spoke impeccable English and who was more than happy to practice it on me. Due to the constant traffic here we had a solid 1.5 hours to chat and being the insatiably curious one, exploded questions on him. Too much to share in this short post, but I will say I learned more about Russian culture than I would have spending a month here solo. He tried to convince me that having a Russian boyfriend would greatly increase my chances of learning about the country - - pick up line I'd never quite come across before.

Off for another flight and bus ride tomorrow to get us to the Caucasus mountains in Southern Russia and the base of Mt. Elbrus. Extremely excited about the climb,the opportunity to meet some new climbing buddies and explore that part of Russia a bit. I'm not sure I'll be able to do email while I'm there, so I may need to update you on the climb upon my return to Moscow.

Back at you post climb!

From Russia with love,
Terri