More Thoughts

January 3

1/3/95, 1:55 pm

Yesterday we visited the folk art museum and went shopping on Arbon Street. We even got to go to the McDonald's there, a huge place. It was a tremendous amount of fun, but I felt unsafe all day long. My worries are magnified with each passing day. I found out yesterday that Dimitri is less our guide and more our bodyguard. He's packing a gun to use in case we're attacked. My understanding is that obnoxious Americans are hated here, and enough people want us dead for being American, much less being obnoxious ones (and nobody can convince me that a gang of giddy college students wouldn't seem anything but obnoxious). We've started to realize the tension of our situation, to the point that yesterday Will was trying to quiet some of the louder ones at McDonald's. For the most part we mind our own business and keep a livably low profile in public. I'll have to be honest and say that A and MM are going to be lucky if they make it out of this country alive. They might as well paint red targets on their butts and have neon signs on their heads which read, in Russian, "Rob and Kill Me Please."

But, so far we're okay. I'm probably not helped much by the minor but unsettling things that are happening, like the subway car stopping in the middle of a tunnel, sitting still, and starting up again a few seconds later with no explanation. Last night we went to Red Square, Karl and Anna and I. It was beautiful at night, but Karl commented that he didn't have a good feeling about being there, and I had to agree.

All in all, I'm ready to get out of this country. I miss America! I long for Pokey sticks with ranch sauce and a tall, cold glass of my mother's iced tea. I would settle for my own, however, and when we get back on Sunday I intend to drown myself in some.

This morning we went to the Pushkin Museum. It was fascinating, especially the Egyptian art and artifacts, and the medieval furniture and portraits. And I wasn't half as nervous for our safety. But we are all growing more aware of our precarious position.

I'll say now that I'm quickly growing to hate the metro. I don't know why, either, as it's fast and convenient. Perhaps I feel confined and vulnerable while on it. Maybe it's the fact that every morning I walk up from the station at Oktober Square and see that huge statue of Lenin. I don't know. I simply don't like a bit of it. Tonight we go to the Bolshoi and see something, probably opera. I'm looking forward to it. Until later...

Michael


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Michael G. Williams