New Places, New Faces

Doing as the Muscovites do, we grabbed some Big Mac’s from ”McLenin's,” some beers from a subway station vendor, and retreated to the steps of the Red Square to watch the final light of the everlasting day disappear. It was 10pm, and there was still enough daylight to properly salt my fries. Our travel unit had doubled overnight with the exciting addition of Stacey and Mike, and we were all riding the high from the football match we had just attended. Our new travel partners, in a stroke of genius, had scored four tickets to the Russia v. Argentina international friendly. The atmosphere of the game was electric, and gave us all a charge that would last the whole week. With the foreboding brick towers of the Kremlin in the foreground, and the onion-shaped kaleidoscope domes of St. Basil’s Cathedral in the distance, we tore into our late night snack while patriotic chants from the match rang in our heads.

We weren’t two bites into our Russian burgers when we were startled by the boisterous salutations of a tipsy local. Almost in one motion, he introduced himself as Pasha, hurled himself onto the step beside me, and threw a signal to a bag-toting babushka that apparently meant we would be requiring some additional beers. The frumpy grandma-turned-vendor, a colorful scarf bound tightly over her silver hair, shuffled over to us and traded four bottles for 200 rubles. Pasha’s gesture cemented our friendship immediately. For the next three hours we occupied a corner of the Red Square and told tales of lives lived worlds apart. For each difference we discovered ten similarities—Pasha is a marketing manager for consumer products sold in grocery stores. We shared some secrets of the trade, learned some Russian toasts, and set a plan to meet the following night. We provided Pasha an opportunity to practice English, and in return received an after dark walking tour of Moscow that became the highlight of our week in Russia.

Jeannie and I were grateful to be able to share our post-India breath of fresh air (both figuratively and very literally) with Mike and Stacey. They were great travel partners and are the most loyal of friends. Mike, charging intensely down the road to be a medical doctor, was allocated two weeks of vacation this year. With his program director deciding when those two weeks would fall, Stacey and Mike committed to meet us on our trip, regardless of where in the world we happened to be. On the day they learned of their vacation dates, they raced home and tore through our itinerary to see whether they would be needing sweaters or saris in their luggage. True to their promise, they packed their bags for Russia (and managed to tie in a Turkish escapade on the side).