a lighter note (eta)

Thank you all so much for letting me share, for your encouragement and your good wishes. You really are too kind in your opinions of me!

I thought it might be a while between posts. But, walking to school today was certainly postworthy.

It was a nice walk to school--a bit crisp, but the sun was up. The streets were fairly empty of both cars and people. I thought I might have spotted my friend walking across the Field of Mars, but didn't want to shout to find out. I started across the bridge.

About a third of the way across (It's a long bridge...maybe...a quarter of a mile? I'll go check. Aha. It's 578.3 meters. That means nothing to me. Wait. I'm amazing! I went to onlineconversion--a fav of mine--and found out it's .36 miles. ) a man stopped and asked me where the Aurora was. This is a common request. I, ever wanting to be helpful, and always a little proud of myself when I can answer in Russian, told him where it was. (Not that amazing. It was, "There. Not far. To the left.") The man thanked me. And fell into step. He seemed friendly and chatty.

Soon the conversation was beyond me and I told him that I only spoke a little Russian. He asked me if I spoke German. (Ususally it's Finnish...) Nein. He asked if I spoke English. I said I did. By this time his arm was around me. I didn't think much of it. It's a narrow sidewalk on the bridge and it just seemed a friendly gesture. Really. Just friendly. It's a touchy-feely walking culture here which I like. Usually.

He continued to speak Russian to me, telling me he was a sailor and lived on the water and then declared in English, "I am submarine captain. I have no money. I want you." To which I replied, "You can't have me." (I can say this in Russian, too.) and laughed it off. (The Russian office staff thought this answer was hilarious when the story was retold.)

He persisted (I'm guessing) in Russian. I stopped, shrugged out of his arm, and bent to tie my shoe. (Um, it didn't really need to be tied.) I hoped this would allow him to carry on walking without me. It didn't. He waited. Patiently. When my shoe had been untied and retied twice, I started walking again.

He went to put his arm around me again and I straight-armed him, firmly but not violently, and told him no. I then looked back and saw my friend approaching full-speed ahead. "Maya padrooga!" I was rescued. He thought was obviously of the more the merrier mindset! He welcomed her to our little walking party and started to tell her about his submarine. She stopped to tie her shoe. (Great minds, eh?) When we started walking, he started to tell her he had no money. I told him she didn't have any money either. Neither of us had any money. (I can say that in Russian, too. ;> )

And we left. We just picked up a little speed and walked the rest of the way to school. He called after us, but we didn't look back. Okay, friend kept a close eye on his progress. He didn't follow us. He headed toward the Aurora and stopped to talk to the street cleaner on the way. Really, he was harmless and probably a still little drunk from last night.

But, it made for a good story this morning. That's certainly one thing that's never happened to me on the way to school at home!

eta: It really wasn't a scary or threatening situation. He was harmless. It was just a quirky little experience.