Well I have been back home in the motherland for a while now. Nearly three weeks actually. I arrived in Vladivostok on the twenty-seventh of August after nearly two days of flying in airplanes and sitting in airports for hours on end. On arrival I was greeted by my friend Sasha along with his friend with great excitement. The old chums were back again. It was good to see a familiar face in a different country. What Sasha noticed about me, aside from my beard and silly hat that I always wear, was that my bag was so small. Did I mention that Aeroflot Airlines lost my bag while I was in Moscow? So all I had was my carry-on, which only contained souvenirs for all my friends back in Chita!!! So as we walked nearly the entire day in Vladivostok, he showed me a place that I could buy some cheap clothes so that I would be able to change into some new clothes for the train. Back in Chita, my friend Yulia and my host dad Nickolai had already taken care of my train ticket. Surprisingly, even train tickets in Russia can be taken care of through the Internet. Sasha and I walked around the whole city until I was dead tired really; we had been to the harbor to watch all the sailors from around Vladivostok, Korea, Japan, and even some American sailors get off their ships in celebration for yet another Russian holiday. He and I met a couple of American Navy-men from Arkansas and Detroit, and they also turned out to be a couple of idiots in my point of view, but what else is their to do as a sailor in a foreign land but drink and find some ladies to get lucky with? Later at around ten Sasha and his friend took me to the train station with all of my stuff, after first taking me to a grocery store where I could stock up on Doshirak (ramen noodles). At the station, we said our small farewells, hugging and shaking hands without much concern. We knew that we would see each other again on my way back.
So now I am on the train late at night, in a small room with a sailor heading to Chita and some other woman as well. I had put all my things away and was ready for sleep in less than ten minutes. I have to thank Sasha for all that walking, because falling asleep was pretty easy that night. Once I woke up in the morning I noticed that someone else had joined us and was up in the top bunks with me. Some really big dude who snores well.
To say the least nothing really interesting happened on the train while traveling to Chita. I did however make good friends with the sailor named Max, and even befriended him on vkontake, I drank a few Stella Artois beers with one of the guys that joined us on our merry adventure. But the most interesting thing that happened was while I was walking outside with Max to get some fresh air at the station stop. While we went to a small kiosk there were people crowded around all trying to get some fresh goods for there long ride, and the amount of Russian surrounding me was unsurprising. What was surprising was the small amount of English I heard with an American accent. I turned around to see a man asking questions in English to another Russian and saying small Russian words like пиво (beer) and большой (big) with an accent that I recognized far too well. So what do I do, approach the obvious foreigner and ask him where he's from. Boston Rob. Not the one from Survivor, but just as cool. We got along just well and we exchanged information, and he told me the cart he was, which happened to be in First Class. Later we met up in the restaurant and he bought me a beer and my lunch. It's nice to have comfort that you can assure yourself is actual comfort.
On the early night of the twenty-eight, I arrived in Chita with a new friend in the Navy, and a great eagerness. I looked around at the station for my friends and saw them coming right towards me. However as they were approaching me, they were still looking around for someone. I had realized that they thought I was someone completely different because of the beard they had never seen on my face. So when they finally realized who I was, Leausha, Glaya, Katya, and Oleg all screamed with excitement!!!..... Galya with probably the most. The exchanging of hugs and kisses came and the questions flew. And as we walked down the station walkway together with all of us filled to the brim with excitement that I had truly come back to Chita; I saw my host brother Leusha (or Alexey, and yes there are lots of Alexeys in Russia) walking towards me alone. He saw me and ran at me to hug me, and I obliged him. Then he told me, "why the fuck didn't you call me?!?!?!" with a smile on his face. We laughed. After walking around the station in the late night, my brother got a taxi and went back to the apartment, and I looked out the window and realized that pretty much everything I knew about Chita had stayed the same. I was back.
