MEETING ALEXEY

Saturday, December 6th. We finally met! I had been waiting so long for him to arrive, but we only managed to see each other today, the day before they set off for the South Pole. I was starting to think I’d miss out entirely.

I was looking forward to it, but the situation is easy to understand. And, honestly, there’s nothing to be offended by. We aren’t friends yet. We’ve only written about ten letters to each other, which only qualifies us as good acquaintances. And besides, meeting in person gives a completely different impression of a person than letters do. That’s a fact!

And how did Alexey spend these days? Well, hanging out with his crew from the ship. And with Katyushka, Lizka, and Edward. Probably with some other local friends and acquaintances too.

I get the feeling he had the most intense and best time with Liza. They are best friends, after all! And that’s so sweet, it’s impossible to be offended by it! Friends, as I know from experience, are people who have 'clicked.' People who electrify each other, people who are close and have a wonderful time together! So I was genuinely happy for them.

'When they meet up with Lizka,' Katyushka said emotionally while the three of us—her, me, and Lesha—were walking today, 'something incredible happens! Both of them are broke, they blow everything, money just flies away! They go shopping, Liza says: "I don’t need anything!" Then you look: they come out with bags full of stuff.'

'We love to shop!' Alexey adds, smiling kindly and a bit shyly.

I must say, Lesha made a much better impression on me than I expected.

ABOUT TODAY

Woke up at seven. Yesterday was a bit tough, recovering from two days of work, all that stuff. My head was buzzing all morning today.

Met up with Katyushka and Kristina. Kristina has been hanging out with Sarah—her friend—and some new friends most of the time lately. So I don’t see her very often, which is a pity. It feels unpleasant. I’m jealous of her because of all these foreigners. After all, Kristina is one of us! Of course, I understand that these feelings of mine are bad, selfish. It’s just that I feel good with her and want to talk more, but it doesn’t work out. My efforts to see her more often are in vain for now. But jealousy is wrong. And time will tell how things actually turn out later.

We had a picnic. We grabbed a watermelon and sat in Sea Point Park, on the ocean shore. We asked questions, told each other how things were going. About who is thinking of going where next: me... well, you know; Katya—to Canada, Kristina—to India. After this conversation, I wanted to go to India more than before, too. But not to Canada. It’s not warmer than our Urals everywhere there in winter. And in some places, it’s even colder.

We’ll travel, we’ll wander the world. And then we can go home. To our native land.

We chatted, joked, and laughed. Katya told us how much fun Lesha and Liza had yesterday. So much so that her phone got stolen, and he lost his. In one evening!

Around two o'clock we headed out, Kristina to her friends, Katya and I to meet Alexey. Katya took the bus, I went to get my bike and rode it. On the way, I stopped by to see Kirill; I burned a couple of discs for him and gave him my camera. He worked as a photographer in Odessa (did I mention that?). He loves photos too, but had never used a digital camera.

'Here, take it! You’ll fix it and use it!' I handed him the little gift. I don’t have money for repairs here anyway, I don’t want to take it home broken, and this way, maybe I’ll do a good deed for a good person.

'I’ll definitely fix it! Thanks!' Kirill replied.

And I left. To meet Katya and Alexey at the Waterfront. And Alexey, as I already noted above, immediately made a good impression on me, at first sight.

We got on a sightseeing tour bus around Cape Town, around the local mountains, and took off. The bus was an exact copy, only new, of the English double-decker buses. And for the first time, I was riding on top of such a bus! Hooray!

We had a great ride. We got off in one place to sit in a cafe, and then drove on. Mountains, ocean, the road right along the edge of the cliff. Life is beautiful!

Lesha said that he plans to immigrate here next year. To start with, he wants to get licensed and work as a guide. From what he said, I realized he has a pretty good idea of South Africa. Both about the history and the culture. About cities and specific places. Alexey even planned to write something like a guidebook. But the idea kind of faded, or he didn't have enough patience. But he even started writing! I asked him for this work of his. He promised to give it to me when he is here next time, that is, on February 10th.

Katyushka was having a blast today, I was taking pictures of her (now on her camera). Lesha bought a small pirate flag, we took so many photos with it. There was such a good, friendly atmosphere. We joked, had fun, talked about everything under the sun. And it accidentally slipped out, in context, that Katya works at 'Mavericks.' I was so ashamed. I thought I could keep my mouth shut, but it slipped out, I couldn't catch it in time. All I could do was pretend I misspoke and continue the conversation as if nothing had happened. Alexey didn't let on that he understood. 'Maybe he didn't understand,' I thought. But I felt ashamed in front of Katya.

Tomorrow the 'Akademik Fedorov' sets course for Antarctica. Alexey will see and learn a lot. He has an excellent chance to know and understand so much new about the structure of the world around us, perhaps even more than he realizes himself. And this is not only impressive, but also makes me envious. In a good way.

'It’s all interesting and romantic, but it stops being so when it turns into your job,' Alexey noted. 'But still: it’s interesting! And romantic.'

SECRET REVEALED

We walked around, parted ways, and agreed to meet in the evening at a cafe at the Waterfront. But Katya got stuck with James. And I went. It turned out that Liza and Edward were going to join us, and Alexey and I were waiting for them.

'So, Katya works at "Mavericks"?' seeing the look on my face, Alexey hastily added, 'don't worry! I found out before you. They told me at my former dump—the "Oy-Yo" restaurant, where I worked as a bartender and Katya as a hostess: "Your Katya works at 'Mavericks'!"'

I had to nod silently—it was useless to deny it.

'What does she do there?'

'She’s a waitress!'

'Why doesn't she say so?'

'She’s ashamed.'

'Why?'

'Well, she says: "I’m a white girl, I work in a strip club! Who will believe I’m a waitress there?"'

'I see. Well, I’ll pretend I don’t know anything.'

When Liza and Edward arrived, we went to a night-dance club to dance. I don’t like such places. My guts were shaken by the bass. But I tried to relax and move a little. Why did I come, in the company of good people, to mope, or what?

I only went home after two in the morning, after saying goodbye to everyone, wishing Alexey a good voyage, and expressing my joy that we finally met. I left my bike at the Waterfront, and Edward, Liza, and Alexey kindly gave me a ride to it.

ACCELERATING

I often hear people around me express things about themselves like: 'I’ve moved enough, traveled enough, run around enough. It’s time to settle down somewhere.' And Lesha said something similar today about his future immigration here. I replied that I, on the contrary, felt like I had just started real movement. I’m just picking up speed. And I don’t even have enough movement. I wish I could go faster! I don’t want to wait, I want to move sooner! To New Zealand, Australia. To England to see friends for a month or two. To fly into space. To visit India. Enough sitting on my butt! Life doesn’t wait, so you have to hold on to its back tighter, AND FORWARD!

I’m spinning like a top. Sooner or later I will take off. I hope that takeoff will be on a rocket. From a spaceport.

The end of the world won't happen, there will be (in reality) the end of darkness!

December 06, 2008