Tver Trek - Episode XVI – Saving Private Squirecam (Part I)
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Someday we might look back on all of this and decide saving Private Ryan was the one decent thing we were able to pull out of this whole godawful mess. Like you said, Captain, maybe we do that, we all earn the right to go home."
Sergeant Horvath (Tom Sizemore) in Saving Private Ryan
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Breakfast at the Ostenbrook was still a decent meal this morning, but our favorite RW waitress was no where to be found this morning, so the entertainment value was somewhat less than it had been the day before. We did have plenty of time to discuss our current situations, however, which was one of the best things about our breakfast meetings.
Had I the 17 days to do over again, I think I would have liked to started these breakfasts a lot earlier. Being able to discuss our situations, away from the interpreters, was a lot of fun and a general help to the guys.
Wednesday featured my evening date with RW#11. I had made reservations for the City Club for dinner and inside for their live music area. I found that the City Club was a much better atmosphere than the Zebra. For one, there was plenty of outdoor seating for dinner. We sat in a gazebo and had a nice quiet place to chat. The food was really good, and it was not sushi, so that may have played a part in it too.
I thought that we would eat dinner from 7 until 9 or so, and then go inside to listen to some of the music and maybe dance a little bit. One of the other guys actually came there and was expecting us inside about 9:30 or so. We never did make it inside, however.
We ended up staying outside and talking for the entire 5 hours or so we were there. She was very easy to talk to, and although she did speak some English, we had use of my interpreter, which made things a lot faster and easier than our prior meeting.
I always felt that an interpreter is much more than a translator, and this night proved the value of having her there, even though RW#11 spoke some English. By this time, I was so comfortable with my interpreters and the process, it was like she “was not there”, if you know what I mean. The conversation flowed easy rather than us searching for the right words to understand each other.
RW#11 had to return to Moscow the next day to work, and she had to get up at 5 or so to catch the train. Yet, she stayed out till past midnight with me. When she had excused herself to use the restroom, I simply looked at my interpreter and she said “She’s super.”
My interpreter actually left later on. By that time, RW#11’s sister had joined the party, and she spoke very good English (unlike me – I speak and write good, not well). I liked meeting a member of her family, and you could see the resemblance. I joked that it was too early for her to be testing me by coming to our date, which brought out a nice laugh and I could tell that the sister was a decent friendly person too. They got me home first and we set up another date for Friday night, my last in Tver.
I had the breakfast meeting in the morning, followed by a scheduled morning date with RW#8. She was the RW who one of my interpreters said she “saw a future with”, yet she was unable to meet again every time we called.
She was unable to make our morning meeting as well. When breakfast was finished, I went to the office, only to find that she was sick. At least she called. I ended up having an unscheduled morning meeting which filled the timeslot, and I looked forward to my later dates that afternoon.
Scheduled was a third date with RW#4 and third with RW#10. The date with RW#10 would be dinner at the Chinese restaurant, and then the evening at Kultura, another club in Tver.
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode XVII – Saving Private Squirecam (Part II)
Despite two DNP’s today, this day was a good followup to yesterday, as both the third dates went well. My date with RW#4 did involve another movie, because the last movie event had worked out so well. This flick was not that good however, so in the Russian movie department I was 1 for 2. However, lunch afterwards was at Fortuna and gave us more time to know each other.
I liked RW#4, but I had to wonder about the age differences. Because she is 19, there is a very large gap which does make it much harder in seeing a future between us. I think that she and I would need a lot more time together to match, but obviously, I leave in a few days, so that was out of the question. I felt more “interest” on her side then I did with RW#6, so at least that part of the equation was taken care of. We would have to spend time together if and when I go back to Tver, and write each other in the meantime.
For my evening date at the chinese restaurant, the food was good, but there was no eggrolls. Apparently this is a major difference with such restaurants in Russia, or so I was told. I cannot imagine a chinese place without eggrolls, but so be it. The food was good though. Despite it being labeled as the most expensive restaurant in Tver, the bill still was very cheap by U.S. standards.
Kultura was sort of dead when we arrived. Kultura is more of an ampitheatre club atmosphere, with a “dance stage” down below the curved seating. It was more techno music than the other clubs, but it was nice and we had a good time there. We danced for a while (she was a good dancer) and by the time this date was over, I was really starting to sense the ‘lack” of interest by RW#6. I think it is true what others have said, that eventually a RW will show her interest in you, if indeed she has any. Unless you are blind, you cant help but notice.
We did not have breakfast in the morning, which was good, because I was quite tired anyways. On Friday, my last full day in Tver, I would meet 3 of the ladies again, RW#6, #10, and #11.
For those who believe in such things, the day started off with a bad omen or two. First, I nearly cracked my skull when I left the bathtub to answer the phone, and slipped on the slick kitchen tile. I ended up hurting my wrist and elbow instead of my skull, and the elbow would bleed intermittently for the next 3 days, but at least I was alive. Leaving the flat brought me into contact with a black cat sitting underneath the stairwell. Just great.
The early lunch meeting with RW#6 was actually a change in mood. After the events of the past few days, I was backing off in my interest in RW#6. Yet it seemed to me that RW#6 was trying harder to show interest in me during that meeting. Go figure. It was not anything she said exactly, just mood an mannerism, but it certainly seemed different to me. I ended the date a bit early, probably because I was confused and frustrated by the “lack” of interest until now. I regret it now, as we could have spent a bit more time together. But at the time, it seemed like a good idea.
As I waited for RW#10, the downpour of rain started. It had been raining off an on for the past few days, but this was a major rain blast. I sat down to await RW#10 and wonder if she was going to make it in the heavy rain.
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode XVIII – The Bird lady of Tver
Despite the nasty weather, RW#10 showed up. Ten minutes early.
We headed next door to grab some lunch, when my interpreter noticed an injured baby bird attempting to escape from the rain. The bird was too young to fly, and it looked like it was very scared, if not hurt. We went inside for lunch, but my interpreter was already scheming as to how to save the bird.
During lunch, RW#10 presented me with a present, a very pretty picture of a log cabin surrounded by snow in the wintertime. It sits on my desk as I write this, and I thought it was a very nice gesture.
Following lunch, the bird was still outside. The interpreter asked the ladies nearby for a box to keep the bird in, but I quickly nixed that idea, as the box they brought was little more than a shoebox and was not a proper place to keep a bird. Instead, I offered to buy a cage, and so we went shopping, with the interpreter holding the bird in her hands, during which it grew quite calm.
We went to a few stores that day, all with my interpreter holding the bird while inside the store. Not something that happens in the average Wal-Mart, but ok. We eventually found a decent cage, but RW#10 took the bird instead, which was ok with me. The interpreter had a cat, and her having it was probably not a good idea.
The rain lightened up that evening. I was scheduled for a 7:00 date with RW#11, but she called and said traffic was heavy, so she would not make it until 10. So instead, I went home and packed. When we did meet later, we spent as much time as we could together until the restaurant closed, and then we dropped her off at home. She made me promise to write soon after my return, and she headed inside, while I headed back home.
The sands of time had indeed run out on my Tver trip. Just when things were getting interesting, I had to go. The search party had found private Squirecam, and like it or not, he was being shipped home. Like the “real” private Ryan, I wanted to stay, to see where things might lead. But it was not to be.
Squirecam
Tver Trek - Episode XIX – The Leap Home
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Theorizing that one could time travel within his own lifetime, Dr. Sam Beckett stepped into the Quantum Leap accelerator and vanished .... He woke to find himself trapped in the past, facing mirror images that were not his own and driven by an unknown force to change history for the better. His only guide on this journey is Al, an observer from his own time, who appears in the form of a hologram that only Sam can see and hear. And so Dr. Beckett finds himself leaping from life to life, striving to put right what once went wrong and hoping each time that his next leap will be the leap home…
Quantum Leap
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I left Tver at 8:00 that Saturday morning. As appropriate for my mood, it was raining. The car ride was much quieter this time, as I was sharing the car with a RW who was going to meet her fiancé who was coming to take her home.
Russian customs going out was far easier and faster than going in. It took about 5 to 10 minutes. The plane flight was horrible, as I sat to an obnoxious AM, who must have said to me 10 times “How many MOB’s do you think are on this plane” and “MOB’s are Russia’s #1 export”. I counted the minutes until I could fall sleep.
Customs in the USA were sad. Asked no questions whatsoever after a simple “hello”, I went out to the LAX terminal in 60 seconds. So much for 9/11 security measures. I killed time until my later flight to LAS, and finally made it home safely.
Squirecam
