kindness II

For part two of my treatise on Russian kindness, I want to share a few anecdotes from my time here.  The first came pretty early on in my teaching, but after I'd started receiving a bunch of invitations to come talk to different classes.  I had been to about ten classes one week, and while my spirits were high (I was just thrilled to be invited by that point), my energy level was declining by Thursday.  While I didn't think twice about it, I forgot that Russians are usually extremely skilled at reading others' emotional states.  When I showed up to teach my phonetics class, Tanya was there early and told me I could take the period off.  When I asked her why, she said that Olga, whom I had taught with the previous day, called her the night before and told her she was worried I was too tired and needed a day off.

The second story comes from my English Club.  One week, the theme was show and tell, kindergarten style.  My selection being limited, I presented really the only personal effect I had brought with me: my bobbing head moose, John Phillip Moosa.  I explained my long association with moose (I'm sure you all know the tale of how I came to acquire J.P. already) and how the moose is my favorite animal.  Some five or six weeks later, at our Christmas party, one of my most faithful attendees gave me a gift.  She had come almost every week, and contributed regularly, but because of the size of the club I don't know that I'd ever spoken with her in a one-on-one context.  Despite this, she had made me a hand-painted magnet.  It was a moose.

Finally, I gave a lecture on the U.S. electoral system to an extremely large group of students in the Political and Sociological Faculty, probably more than 60, maybe 80.  Afterward, a trio approached me and asked if we could get together some time to talk more informally.  We made plans and went to a cafe.  We talked for hours, sometimes with me speaking bad Russian, sometimes with them speaking exceptional English.  As we exited the cafe, I motioned the direction of my apartment, explaining I was headed that way.  They said they were too, so we continued to chat as we walked the half mile or so until I had to turn off into my cluster of neighborhood streets.  We parted ways, and as I was climbing the stairs up to the hill that holds my building, I looked back and noticed they were headed straight back the way we'd come.  They had all three walked me home.