An Unexpected Change

Have you ever seen your city from a new perspective?
Did you ever walk down the street smiling at everybody?
Did you ever discover anything new in places where you have been many times before?
Did you ever feel yourself absolutely happy without any serious reasons?
Do you think that such an experience is impossible?
You are silent and then answer the last question: Sure! Yes, I do!
I say “No!”
I did it all. And I’m gonna tell you about it. In fact, it’s so easy!

It happened last summer; our penpals from America arrived at our school. At first all the Russians who were going to take part in this great event were very nervous and thought: “What will we do with them? Our English is terrible!” We imagined how we’d walk in together in one group and speak with each other in Russian, and the Americans would walk in another group, and maybe one or two of us would dare to say a word to the Americans.

But on the very first day, we found familiar faces we had seen on the photos and on Skype and told them that we remembered them; they did the same. We gave them a tour of our school: we visited an assembly hall, a school puppet theater room, and the Museum of Nomad Culture. We danced Kovcheg (it’s the name of our school) traditional round dances and together tried to work the puppets. Then we listened to a lecture about nomadic life, and shot bows and arrows. Later we decided to move to Red Square, occupied the whole trolleybus, and on the way there we compared the usual things that are so easy for us and different for them. And it was the beginning of the great…adventure!

One of the first days, we visited the Moscow Kremlin Museums and the Armory. I had been to the Armory before, but now I saw the museum like a tourist, not like a school student who has a day off of lessons. (And even now, four months later, I go to the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts and read the English subtitles under the pictures!) We visited more places in Moscow in the first three or four days than I had done for the whole year!

Suddenly, I realized that, when you have something to do from morning until evening, it is really exciting. This revelation was surely unexpected for me!

I went home down my avenue in the evening and felt myself tired and simply happy. I wanted to smile at everyone without thinking that I may seem a little crazy. I had reasons to do this: I didn’t have any problems, I made a lot of new friends, and I spent time doing really pleasant things. I explored my city again with my new friends. It’s really cool! And never in my “sweet short life” had I felt like this before, and never had I had so many positive emotions.

In two or three days, we all became true friends. On the one hand, it’s good to have a lot of friends in many different places. But, on the other hand, it’s very good to be everyday with the same people, because you only say goodbye for the night and don’t feel separation pain because you’ll meet each other the next morning.

On the 8th day, we gathered together in the evening at Komsomolskaya Station in the Moscow Metro. I have only one association with this station – trips to St. Petersburg. And that day we made it real one more time. After a night on the train we arrived in the fairy-like dream city – St.-Petersburg! You can’t imagine how I love it!!

In fact we spent the greater part of our time in St. Petersburg in standard tourist style. We had a tour from one museum to another, always trying not to be late for an excursion, bus, train… I should say we were lucky: we arrived at three museums 10 minutes before closing time and had the last excursions befor the staff closed the doors behind us. And once I understood that now I was a tourist like our friends, with only one difference: sometimes I speak Russian. But I’m a guest from “another land” for whom these places are unusual and who walks the city with bright feelings, not like walking in Moscow. And I believe that I really had the same feelings as our friends from the neighboring continent. It was an unexpected change of view. After this I saw “Peter” and, later, Moscow, not like Mashka who has lived in Moscow for all her 16 years, but like a person who has seen it for the first time.

When we came back to the capital, I went on to see the world around me in this new way. I didn’t do it specially, it happened by itself. But it was very interesting. I was really immersed into speaking English and exploring the city around me…

And when two weeks of this wonderful life were over and our friends went back home, I came home from the airport at 5 a.m. in the morning, had tea (it was so usual, but not like the last time when we always ran somewhere…) and went to my room. I couldn’t sleep until 8 o’clock. I remembered our adventures and I had mixed emotions: on the one hand I felt pain, but on the other hand, I felt great satisfaction. I made some new friends on the other side of the world (first I automatically wrote “on another side of the moon”). I had a great time; what else do I need?

And in that early morning, I had the most unexpected thought: Where is the depression that I had felt before our friends came? You can ask me why I had depression; I can tell you that it is very usual thing for everybody. Something like: parents sometimes make me crazy; I don’t have a large number of friends; nobody loves me; all my teachers want something from me; people at home love my cat more than me; I don’t understand chemistry and trigonometry; I don’t want to do anything; I want to be a little sick and sit at home for some days; and simply nobody understands me; etc. All these problems vanished due to this miracle!

Ain’t it exciting?