Snags and Scuffs

I too hate quotes in blogs, but this resonates with me these timez:

“Own nothing! Possess nothing! Buddha and Christ taught us this and the Stoics and the Cynics. Greedy though we are, why can’t we seem to grasp that simple teaching? Can’t we understand that with property we destroy our soul?

“Own only what you can always carry with you: know languages, know countries, know people. Let your memory be your travel bag. Use your memory! Use your memory! It is those bitter seeds alone which might sprout and grow someday.

“Look around you- there are people around you. Maybe you will remember one of them all your life and later eat your heart out because you didn’t make use of the opportunity to ask him questions And the less you talk, the more you’ll hear.”
-Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn “The Gulag Archipelago”



The bus drivers are the coolest guys. I mean cool like smooth; like cool, tough guys. They don’t give a shit. They don’t give a shit about anything. They just drive their transport, smoke their tobacco cigarettes, and listen to their cassette tapes. They practice driver etiquette; no matter from where they are driving from or to, they will always wave to each other on the road. They have tempers and opinions. Their vocabularies make me giggle and blush.

On my 4am bus to Chisinau, the driver has gotten to know who I am. He smiles when he talks to me and made me move to a different seat on the bus that was warmer than where I had chosen. On route we made a stop and as we stood outside the bus he asked me where in Chisinau I’d be getting off. Once in Chisinau, at the stop I had said, he yelled to me sitting in the middle of the full bus, “Americanca! Here’s your stop at the North Station!!” Everyone turned to look.



Last night I went bar hopping with my two guy friends out here. I went bar hopping because on a Saturday night, other than the discothèque, there is nothing else to do. We drank no alcohol, only caffeine, and I don’t know if that was the better choice, because by my 5th espresso in two hours I felt like I was on drugs. But then we didn’t stop with coffee and moved on to “Non-stop,” like Red-Bull, but poured with who-knows-what in empty warehouses and basements (or so my friends claim.)

The time change kept me out later than expected. Sitting shotgun with my boots off and feet up on the dashboard, I dissolved in the seat and let the road appear in front of the car as Beyonce did it around us; we were going fast. We couldn’t handle another bar, so we thought it best to go to the woods. As we drove in I said “Hey guys, is this a good idea for me to go to the woods with you two? I mean, if I scream no one will be able to hear me.” The one driving said, “I just thought of that too,” put it in reverse, and we continued just driving around.



The kids were so enthusiastic and suggested to name the newspaper after me. I told them it was a bad idea, as it’s not my newspaper, its theirs, and let’s try to be more creative and abstract in our name. Today was the informational meeting for the Raion-wide newspaper for youth. Regretfully, only kids from around town and the village next door showed up; ideally kids from the entire Raion would have attended. Yet those who did come had amazing potential and the atmosphere throughout the meeting was right. I explained the roles and the organization of the staff, the kids filled out applications. After the meeting I went to yet another bar with one of the two friends I got caffeine-high with last night, and together we selected the staff over espressos.