Still Kickin'

So, after 4+ weeks of finding a new apartment with a Turkish guy who doesn't come home for days at a time, starting work as a writer for an English-language Moscow entertainment and lifestyle magazine, spending 6 hours in an FSB (what used to be the KGB) interrogation room, and being disallowed from leaving the country at Sheremetevo airport–I'm still alive!

Just kidding––that is, I am breathing, walking, etc., but not all of those things are true–only 3 of them are.

I really am working for the Moscow Guide, a quarterly publication of the Moscow Times–and the job is amazing! I get to sit around looking up information about obscure extreme winter sports like iceboarding and snowkiting while munching on Finn Crisps and chatting with my fellow writer and editor about which picture of a blowfish is best for the luxury-foods article . . . which makes my life pretty great. Granted, I'm not exactly saving the world, but Moscow Guide can be a stepping stone to bigger and brighter journalistic endeavors–not that journalism is necessarily helping to solve any real problems.

And my roommate really is a Turkish guy who doesn't show up for days at a time–which is fine with me, except that, given Moscow's less than open attitude toward foreigners, I worry, sometimes, that he's been kidnapped or thrown into one of the WWII tanks that line the walkways of Victory Park near my building. I've thought about trying to climb into one just to mess with the ancient controls . . . but being tossed in doesn't sound like as much fun.

He's always fine, though, when he makes it home! And full of stories about the trashy club he and his co-workers went to in Chertanova (on the outskirts of the city to the south) or how he had to pull two all-nighters at work (recounted while making himself another cup of coffee). He's nuts! But rather sweet, and always interesting.

I have one more story, obviously . . . but I'll save it, try to keep you guessing!

Happy Halloween, everybody--I hope they celebrate it wherever you are, because they certainly don't here!

ps: I promise to start putting up pictures soon, in case anyone is interested in seeing the beginnings of Moscow's winter (i.e., fall).