Thoughts on the Built Environment, Religion, Art, Gender, and Anything Else

It was that time of the month again. The expat meeting. The gathering of the English-speakers. All twentysomething of us. The time I could finally say what I couldn't in my Russian as a Second Language classes, in the way that naturally comes to me. No more translation or conjugating verbs awkwardly in my head. Just normal me, like I wasn't in third-world Far East Russia. If you can tell, the absence of Westernization was getting to me.

It was my third expat meeting; I was at the awkward period of my study abroad experience where I developed "the routine". You know, where the "new" experience of studying abroad wears off; the pixie dust of adventure settles for the comforts of convenience and normality. The usuals were there: the ESL teachers who couldn't stay in one place, the American who try to alter Russian culture with the lullabies of the US, and the international guys who married Russian women. We got to talking about the usual stuff-- events in the news, funny things Russians do, etc. Typically people come and go, in their own schedules, so it wasn't unusual for people to stop by. But this meeting was different.

There was a new guy. He was slightly awkward, had crazy white hair that stood up like Einstein's, but held a persona of eery calmness. In a thick accent I didn't recognize at first, he introduced himself as Florian and requested to sit. I obliged out of intrigue.

Now, at these meetings I don't typically talk. I just listen. The people around me got to talking to Florian and I learned he was from Switzerland and a professor of improvisational theatre. "For someone who teaches such a haphazard subject, he's oddly relaxed", I think to myself. Time goes by, the discussions change. Florian eventually asks me a question. Or maybe I brought up the cool fact that the Switzerland landscape is built to explode (in case of an invasion). I don't know, can't remember. The important part is that we got talking. We eventually reached the subject of religion and discuss various places we had visited around Vladivostok. I was researching religion here, but not nearly as much as he had been doing. He found places I had never heard of. This old professor, strolling through the alleyways of Russia and finding my research. Bazinga.

So yeah, takeaway. I'll never forget the time that a meeting with a professor restarted my confidence to go out and do stuff. I'd been sitting, reading articles in the library when I should have been exploring. Thanks Florian!