Kazan — summer 2010

When you need to get the attention of a young man in Russian, the phrase you use is молодой человек (pronounced mow-low-doy chelovek). I haven't been to Russia in 13 years, and one of the first things I noticed was that people are not calling me молодой человек anymore. Now they call me мужчина (pronounced moozh-chee-nuh), which means 'man.' I was vaguely disappointed. Of course I'm approaching fifty now, so it only stands to reason, and one must release the things of youth gracefully. The other day I bought an ice cream bar, and the woman asked me, «Ну, красивый мужчина, вы откуда?» "Well, handsome man, where are you from?"

Handsome man! I like that lots more than plain ole 'man'. I'll have to keep going back there for ice cream.

Speaking of ice cream, I'm eating it almost every day here, which is funny because back in the States I never eat it. Of course, back in the States we have lots of public air conditioning, so you don't buy stuff to cool yourself down as much as you do here.

It's going to be a scorcher here today. It was already 90 when i woke up, and it's 93 right now. Combined with Kazan's humidity, I shall be sweating like a horse.