In Which People Are Nicer Than They Have Any Right To Be

(Alternate titles: I get lost even though I know exactly where I am; I find out how little Russian I actually know; I (unintentionally) make steps to overcome my fear of being late)

What a day.

Classes start out pretty decent, although I’m feeling kind of rough during the last one (and complaining to my seat partner about it incessantly; our relationship is kind of built on mutual complaining though so it’s okay). After class, I’m supposed to have a meeting with this professor at the Moldovan Academy of Science, allegedly for my Idea Project, a month-long research project supposed to get us comfortable with the city and with speaking in Russian. Actually, I’m mostly having this meeting with him because I secretly want to work with him over the next year. Surprisingly, the resident director is fine with me meeting up with some guy I met on the Internet (“Aren’t you worried I’ll get murdered?” “At the physics lab? No.”).

Anyway, my friend and I went to the Moldovan Academy of Science building on Sunday so that I knew where it was and that I wouldn’t be late for this meeting. So I’m feeling pretty confident taking the trolleybus over to the building that I know where I’m going. Sure, it’s just one building, but it’s a pretty big building, and so is Parliament… (That’s a weak argument, even to me, and I’m sure you can see already where this story is going. That’s called foreshadowing.)

So I go in these big, heavy wooden doors at about 1:45, and there’s a foyer with a reception desk, and these two older men having a conversation in Russian. They ask me where I’m going, and I show them the address, which is the address for the specific department. I’m hoping they can show me what floor or something it’s on, because I don’t see any signs around. One of the men seems worried, and starts telling me that it’s not here, it’s not here, and I show him my map and ask if he can point it out for me, because at this point I’m realizing that maybe it’s a different campus. He can’t find it on the map but promises he knows where it is, and says, “okay, I’ll just take you.”

Aside: Now, before you start chastising my street smarts, just know that I was indeed thinking about the possibility of getting kidnapped and that this man with a limp did not seem super threatening and I wasn’t planning on getting in any strange cars.

And we start going, (well, first, he gets into this long conversation with a different person who I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know on the stairs) and after a not actually that brief pit stop to buy a battery for his phone, we get on the trolleybus (a different one) and go down to the real building. Now, as it turns out, the building we were at is the faculty building where all the directors are (if I understood that correctly, that is) and the place we’re going is the research center. I also was thrilled that I recognized the streets we were driving on on the bus, because I had walked them a few days ago- see? all that walking around Chisinau is coming in pretty handy. I was not lost at any point on this journey, and I could have gotten myself back at any time. My tour guide used to be a lawyer (and also head of the Biology Department, I think), and so he knew all about the United States, he said, and we talked about different cities he knew, like Detroit, and San Diego. Sometimes, after the third time I try to say I’m from Connecticut, which isn’t far from New York, I give up and just say I am from New York.

Eventually we get to this more  modern building that has plaques on the door and he says, “Okay, it’s probably in here somewhere. Let’s find someone who speaks English so you can actually tell them what you want.” I can’t believe how nice it was of this person to take me to this other random building. He said he was going there anyway, but I’m not sure I believe that.

On the stairs, we run into a random man who speaks English! This is exciting. He says he will take me to the Department of Nanotechnology, which is where I am supposed to be meeting with the professor. Then he gets into a long conversation with the first guy and finally we go. I have to say, the man-from-the-stairs was really nice and I am very glad he showed me how to get to this building, but I a little bit felt like I was about to get kidnapped. (This is an exaggeration. He was really nice.) Instead of going into the building, we went on this dirt path through the woods toward a run-down shack, and I was a little concerned at the state of the department. I think that was just a regular run-down shack though, as you do, because after this shortcut was an actual building that I went in. As we walked, we talked about the state of the Moldovan Academy of Science (in English!) and I’m pretty sure this counts as research for my Idea Project.

Then I was like 45 minutes late for this meeting due to all of the events that transpired, and  so I had to wait with some guy who was sitting out in the lobby for him to be free. We had a nice conversation where I nodded and smiled until he asked me a direct question at which point I stared blankly at him.

Then I went in to the meeting, and it was short. The moral of the story was “study physics, because then you will get to travel the world when you go to conferences.” He just got back from Switzerland. Then he handed me off to this other person who took me up through the winding old corridors of the building into his laboratory and tried to teach me what he was doing with all the machines he had. I kind of understood some of it. This part was in English. Then he said I could come back next Friday for the end of the project if I wanted, but I have a group meeting on that day, so I don’t really think I will be able to. We shall see.

Then I walked back up the one-way street to get to the trolleybus stop three miles up the road. I think we should all be impressed with me walking three miles when I wanted to curl up in a ball on the ground.

Overall, I can’t decide how I feel about this day in general. On the plus side, I might be close to done with my Idea Project after all these mostly-impromptu interviews (four!). On the minus side, no one really had any idea what was going on with me all day, including myself. I still do maintain that people were nicer than they had to be.