Sex, Drugs, Rap & Roll

Here homosexuals get lumped in with everything bad. If there's a protest/demonstration against Chechens or some other ethnic minority people hold up signs that say "death to all Chechens, Muslims, and "homosexuals" (they write the "f word")" And they use the f word frequently. There's also a Russian equivalent to that word as well which is really bad. So homosexuals in the United States have nothing to complain about. Gays here can't be out. Much less have a parade. I actually feel safer being Black here than I would if I were gay.

I paid my 4500 rubles for my trip to Moscow. I'm so excited. I've always wanted to be on a really long train ride. All my life. And now I get that experience. I'm pretty excited about the Moscow trip too.

This place still smells and it's not one of those things that you can get used to. I was wondering if there was a laundromat nearby but I couldn't find any. Hang drying clothes sucks. And I just like doing my own laundry.

It's sunny outside today but still cool. I wore a jacket to school this morning because there was an overcast but now it's noon and the sun has come out but the air is still cold.

There's a politician coming to the institute today and he's going to be talking to the students. I have to go back there in about an hour to hear him speak. I think he's the Russian equivalent of a senator or whatever. Which brings me to my next point. Politics, governments, legal systems, laws are all a big joke. If you're ridiculously rich you can do what you want. The Chinese gangsters I saw at the club that night probably had all the cops in this city on payroll. The police here are ridiculously crooked. I've heard multiple stories about people bribing officers so they don't have to face legal charges. It's the exact same in the US but we keep it under wraps. Here it's no secret that for 10,000 rubles you can buy a Get Out of Jail for Free Card.

I'm also about to purchase some tickets to the Мариинский театр (Marinskii theatre) to see the ballet version of Don Quixote. I'm excited about it. The program isn't paying for it I have to pay for it with my own money but I'm really interested in seeing something so spectacular in a Russian theatre. I should be getting my haircut sometime before then so I'll be looking my best when I go to enjoy the show.

Class is almost impossible to understand. I'm not taking the type of class where they'll pause and explain in English. It's just Russian Russian Russian! Like ESL classes. You don't have to know Spanish or Korean to teach people how to speak English. One of my teachers speaks German so every now and then she'll explain a little bit in that and I'll catch it. There's a German girl in my class too. She speaks English perfectly but considers it her 3rd language (after German and French). Everyone in the world wants to learn to speak English. Every time I meet somewhere here all they want to do is practice their English with me. It's annoying and sometimes I pretend like I don't understand so I can just speak Russian with them.

I've also learned that Sif is somewhat of hip-hop/emcee legend here. Firstly, every Black person we see in the city he knows. They're not all from Zimbabwe either. There are lots of people from Cameroon and Nigeria here too. But when we're walking around even white people will come up to him and ask if he was preforming or would be at the club later tonight. He told me when he first got here that all he did was party and go to clubs and that's how he met everyone. But he's settled down since then and now he's really focused on working on writing programs and his jobs.

However! These other Africans he introduced me to might be the type my mom and Ugochi tried to warn me about earlier. They're both college dropouts and all they do is "rap" and work random jobs to get money. Which brings me back to my original theory that 1 in every 3 Black males at some point in time in their life want to become a rapper or think they can rap. That was my original theory. Way back in High School. Before Alchemy, before the Philosophers stone, before Russia, that's what I wanted to be an expert on. And it's valid. Just look at the Dave Chappelle skit about Black people getting reparations for slavery. If that was to happen apparently, "8,000 record labels would be started every hour."

Anyway, I met up with both of these guys with Sif and they both aspire to be rappers in Russia. They rap in both Russian and English and they sound terrible. Their producer is this cracked out Russian kid that looks like a weird hippie and his beats sound like techno with bad samples of Russian singing. Next to someone scratching a chalkboard or a bad violinist their "music" was the worst sounding thing in the universe. I hope they will one day enroll back in college and realize that rapping is not for everyone and it's not a viable career they need be in pursuit of.

The pictures are random. That's me and Peter and those girls are his friends. They were funny cause they only spoke a little English and one of their favorite things to say was "Я Best!" (Я pronounced Yaa) "I Best" They were trying to say either I'm the best or I'm better. And the other one is just some Russian souvenirs.

Stay Tuned.

American Cultural Imperialism (Thank God!)

The McDonalds here is the best thing to happen to me since I've been here. It is so delicious! Way better than any American McDonalds! And the Sprite was the perfect mixture of syrup and carbonated water. It wasn't flat or disgusting like the Sprites from McDonalds in France. It was lemon and lime harmonization perfected.

There were these two kids I saw on my way back listening to some surprisingly good sounding Russian hip-hop and I turned around and pointed at them and kind of gave them a thumbs up and their faces lit up like Christmas!

....

I started this blog a while back and saved it. We went on a tour of the city today. I had seen some of the spots already when I was exploring with some of the other Brown students earlier.

I almost forgot that I'm here to be a student. But now I'm going to get really serious about doing well in my class and mastering as much Russian as I can this summer. I'm picking up words and phrases here and there but the grammar is still escaping me. I have two Russian language teachers. One is young and she talks so impossibly fast! (The classes are all in Russian) And my other teacher is older and she talks nice and slow and I do really well with her. She probably thinks I'm the best student in the language class cause I can converse with her and answer questions in class easily. The younger teacher spits off Russian words like a gatling gun spits off rounds. She probably thinks I'm the worst student in the class.

The poverty here is so grimy. Contrary to how busted up and disgustingly awful my apartment smells there's still a lot more worse places the further away you get from the center of St. Petersburg. The majority of Russia's wealth is concentrated into Moscow and St. Petersburg. The further away you get the more depressing and awful things get... Another reason I think the United States is kind of on top of things in terms of administration and quality of life. If Huntsville, Texas was in Russia I'd probably be a farmer and alcoholic.

The metro is MADNESS during rush hour in the afternoon! I'm from the country and I've never had to take metros and buses. So getting around reading the signs and stops in Russian on one of the worlds largest metro systems is a huge leap for me.

And the Taxi's here! Are absolutely ridiculous! You just stop a RANDOM UNMARKED car in the street and negotiate a price and you go off to your destination. There are some cabs with yellow things on top indicating they are a legitimate cab but cabs don't have meters in them! Pricing with cab drivers is best negotiated by people that know the city and know how much things should cost.

Anyway! I'm about to get very serious about my homework and things of that nature. Dinner time...

Stay Tuned

Rock the Mic

What's better than going to see one of your favorite artists live in performance? Having your own live performance the night after! That's right! I rocked* the stage last night at A2 Club. I was taken to this club by the same guy that I met at the concert yesterday Sif.

Two things: not all Africans are scheming, untrustworthy, tricksters I should have never showed my mom the "I Go Chop Your Dollar" video. Secondly there are too few Black people here for us to be trying to scheme and rip each other off. I'm more worried about being attacked, hustled, or robbed by a white Russian. I know Africans. Trust me! I can tell the difference between a sketchy African that wants to rip me off and someone that is a comrade (товарищ). I know when I need to be cautious and when to be a comrade. That being said. Let me tell you about the rest of yesterday.

So I went to this huge park with my Russian speech partner from school and this kid from Harvard Felix. There was a zoo and boats! There were these enormous ugly birds in the zoo that looked like a mix between an eagle and vulture. We paid for a boat and got in and rowed around the lake it was BEAUTIFUL! The park is huge and it's in the most fancy part of St. Petersburg. There are huge amazingly nice apartment buildings and yachts, boats, and jet skis. It's incredible!

After we left there I came back to the station where I live and met up wit Sif. The most HILARIOUS thing ever happened. I was walking home and this old drunk Russian guy comes up to me and all my friends (at this point I'm with like 5 or 6 other people) and says in Russian, "I want to help you! I don't want these people to kidnap and harm you! How much do I need to pay these horrible girls so they do not take you away? How much is your ransom?" We tried to explain to this man for about 10 minutes that we were all friends and that everything was okay but he was very concerned about my safety. Thankfully, Sif took control of the situation and told the guy (in Russian cause he speaks it better than me) that everything was cool and that we had to go. I shook the guys hand and called him my comrade and we left. Best part about all of this is... I handed this girl my camera and she recorded the entire thing.

At this point it's about 10 pm. We head to the store to get some drinks. Which by the way. Alcohol here costs no more than a dollar and cigarets are fifty cents. They can both be bought on almost any corner and consumed in public. I now know why the average life expectancy for a Russian male is about fifty years. I bought my favorite peach tea that's only here in Europe and we headed to the park.

At the park another drunk Russian about my age comes up to me and my friends and he was really interested getting acquainted with me. He was very rowdy and tried to start a fight with a guy that was with his girlfriend standing on the bridge for just glancing over at him. Anyway, he was cool and to seal our newfound friendship with Sergei Mariinskiy we all took a shot of gin (he was carrying around a bottle of Seagrams). It's very rude in Russia to turn down the drink of friendship. I gave a toast to, "A beautiful city. Great new friends. and A wonderful country" (or something like that). Someone also said to World Peace. Which I think was the most important of all things.

So this dude Sif. Is the most well connected person I've ever met. He calls his friend up (another student from Zimbabwe) and we take a cab to the club. Once we get there we go right through security with no hassle. His other friend from Cameroon (who speaks French, English, and Russian) hooked us up with VIP and drinks and hooka. It was hands down one of the most baller moments of my life! There were some Chinese gangsters in VIP on the other side of the club that looked really scary. They had their women and they were just laid back like than ran the world. I most certainly was not going to cross them or go anywhere near their girls.

Then the moment came. I was talking to a Russian girl about how I don't think I look like Snoop Dogg and these whack Russian rappers started sounding horrible on stage. I told her that I was going to go up and do better. I found Sif and asked him if I could get on stage. He gets the DJ and tells him I'm going to go. My heart is pounding but yet I feel cool in relaxed. Next thing I know I'm up on the stage with a mic in my hand in front of the entire club rocking the building from left to right! I did have to borrow a few lines from Jay-Z, Outkast, and of course Joe Budden but I kept mostly original, entertaining, and of course SO GANGSTA! And Sif is the best hype man ever! He came up beside me and started dancing and doing hand gestures. I felt like Eminem in 8 Mile. When he finally gets his flow together and starts doing well in battles and at shows. It was incredible.

The end of the night was very tame. I left and Sif and the dude from Cameroon come outside and help me get a Taxi and make sure that I don't get ripped off. They got me a cab for 150 Rubles. About 4 or 5 dollars. I would have paid up to 500 or 700 though had they not been there to secure a price for me (dollar to ruble conversions are ridiculously hard). My cab drive was from Uzbekistan and we had a really good conversation in Russian. I'm picking up so many new words everyday and grammar.

I made it back to my room safely and passed out. Woke up. Had breakfast. And made it to school EARLY.

I know I can't have that type of fun every night. I don't even want to. It would ruin the feeling. But last night was truly indescribable and the description you just read does not do it justice.

I'm staying safe. Studying hard. And keeping my wits about me.

Stay Tuned