21:05, November 18, 2008. What does a person who wants to learn to ride a bike do? They take a bike and ride. What does someone who wants to learn to swim do? They go and learn it. And what if a person dreams of learning to communicate? They sign up for a psychologist, join a psychotherapy group, and by knowing themselves, they learn to know others. And they do all this through communication. They interact to learn the subtleties of this art. And what if you want to learn to live? Do you just have to live?! Did I learn the lesson correctly? My psychotherapist once told me: "There is no greater value in life than life itself!"
KRISTINA
Already the ninth person from the countries of the former USSR has arrived through our program!
New faces are refreshing. Especially if you like the faces. I liked Kristina.
She came from Nizhny Novgorod. From the homeland of my father's ancestors (they once even had a mill there, until they were dekulakized and exiled to the Urals). Kristina arrived a whole month ago. But, right after a week in the hostel, she went traveling with the guys who arrived with her from Canada and England. Judging by her story and the description of the route, she wandered around nicely! She returned only three days ago. I tried to contact her about five times during this month — they gave me her number at IEC. But, as it turned out today, she lost her SIM card. Then she lost the second one. And then, as Kristina said, she lost something else, and something significant, but she forgot exactly what. In general, our Kristina is a scatterbrain.
We are colleagues: she graduated from the psychology department of the Nizhny Novgorod State University named after someone... (forgive me my carelessness — someone else would have meticulously found out in whose honor the university was named).
Kristina was in America for two summers in a row. For four and a half months each time. She says she worked there like crazy. First as a waitress, then as a manager. The first year she lived in New Jersey and worked in New York. And the second year she both lived and worked in New York. I forgot to ask if she managed to travel anywhere in the USA. I'll have to!
She spent very little time sleeping, she worked a ton. She caught up on sleep for a couple of hours at home and on the subway, where she also set an alarm to wake up. But she still overslept... She told a lot of comic stories that happened to her all the time. Either she would oversleep her station and end up in the middle of nowhere. Instead of an hour and a half to get home, she always took three, arriving in tears, not understanding why this was always happening to her?! She was constantly getting lost and didn't know where she was. And she was always forgetting and losing everything.
— At a time when everyone pays two dollars for the subway, I paid four! Something was constantly happening to me! I bought a travel pass, and two days later I lost it! I think: "What is this! And that's how everything was for me!"
— Poor thing! And you didn't live alone? — I ask her.
— No, with friends. There were several of us renting an apartment.
— They probably made fun of you?
Kristina doubles over with laughter.
— That's an understatement! Only at first it wasn't funny to me! But then... I'd end up in an unknown place and think: "Well, okay, at least I'll find out that such a place exists. I walk around, look at everything, everything is interesting to me. And now, when friends laugh at my quirks, I joke along with them."
— I see. But how much you worked — I would have died working that much! How much strength does that take!
— I wanted to buy myself a computer and... (it slipped my mind what other "and" she mentioned).
— So this goal shone before you like a flashlight?
— Ye-e-e-es!!! Aha!
THE LANGUAGE WARRIOR fights with the SPEECH APPARATUS
After seeing Kristina off to the minibus, I went to visit Katya. (She was alone because Ira had gone to Egypt, they met there with her mom, they have a joint tour trip). So. And Katya and I hadn't seen each other for a few days. We told each other what was new. She told me about the company she had been hanging out with for the last couple of days. And about how they all got drunk there.
— When you live for a long time, — Katya noted, — you get a lot of friends and acquaintances!
I, in turn, told her about our travels with Nick. About meeting Kristina and about the news with the book — that it will be published. Katya was happy for me and in turn made a suggestion that I thought was awesome.
— I could also write something short, a couple of lines, my impression of life in Africa, so you could include it in your book!
— Great idea! You can even write not just a couple of lines, but pages! And it would be great if someone else from the characters did that too! It would deepen it!
So, if this idea doesn't wither, then...! By the way, our language warrior is Katyukha! Why? Well, because she is constantly arguing with someone, proving something to someone, demanding something from someone.
— And I am learning politeness! — Katya told me after I told her all the news that had happened in my life. — I did something here: I got drunk the day before yesterday with acquaintances and said such nonsense to James! Oh my! And a lot of things that I don't actually think at all! And he says, "you spoke as if you were telling me the whole truth!" So now I'm learning politeness!
— I see. Did you sign up for courses?
Katyushka knitted her brows and pouted. But she understood that I was joking.
I remember she was so funny, back then, at "Paintball". She looked a bit ridiculous in camouflage and with a gun. We joked with her that Katya can only wage war verbally. Demanding justice, for example. But a gun — that's not her thing, she can't do that, and she's scared. And then she shoots badly, and she's constantly being killed. And she wastes ammo unreasonably. In general, it was funny.
CIRCULATION
It feels like life revolves around me. I feel like an important and necessary person. It's pleasant. New people are gathering for Cape Town through the program — they are writing to me (it's good that there are few of them, otherwise it would have become somewhat stressful). Television is planning to come here — we have been in contact with them. I advised them to contact Ivan Zgersky — the author of the guidebook to South Africa. I am like a magnet-coordinator, around whom such impressive and great events are happening that I am sometimes simply delighted.
By the way, I found out what the television is coming here for! Didn't I say?! They are planning to film a show about South Africa. Here is what the producer wrote to me about this: "Our film crew will be in Cape Town from December 17 to 27. We plan to film four special reports during this time. 1. Mayor of the world — a day with Helen Zille. 2. Cape Town Police — fighting crime. 3. Christmas — a fairy-tale Christmas story. 4. Detailed travel — a video guide for tourists." So, if they can contact Ivan Zgersky, I would be very happy to meet him myself. Alexey suggested they film the "Akademik Fyodorov": a report or a TV note about it; and contact me and Katya. So my intuition did not fail me: indeed, the television's plans are not related to the ship at all. It's not for nothing that I understood it that way, even though Alexey didn't write directly in the letter why the TV people intend to come to us, to South Africa.
