Airport At Start

Airport Musings…

I was bored.  Bored and kinda excited.  We were about to take off on our next adventure – to Venice.  But the waiting waiting waiting for a plane to arrive, fill up with us, and take off  seems to drag on and on, clocks and watches ticking much to slowly.  But, sitting next to me in the waiting area was a good looking young man, busily reading one of the new kindles.  He was tall, sort of gangly, and probably about 35.  So, being myself, I asked him if that was the $79 kindle with advertising or one of the fancy new ones without keyboards.  It was a start of a conversation, at any rate. 

In any case, he turned to me and, with a heavy Slavic accent, told me it was the former, the $79 variety. 

“Where are you from?” I continued the conversation.

“Russia”, he answered. “Moscow”. 

“Really,” I returned. “What are you doing waiting for a plane in St Louis?”

“I was working in Quincy,” he responded. “I’ve been there for two months now. But I have to go home.  My wife is having a baby.”

So, as we settled into a more and more familiar friendship, I was able to ask him questions about his homeland – and how he viewed America.

Could he download books to his kindle in Russia, I asked him.  Of course, he answered.  And he had a iPod and an iPad as well.   

He admired America.  He really did.   But he loved Mother Russia.  And, while he didn’t exactly trust Putin, he was resigned to having him become the next President. Because, you see, they were a “democracy.”  That’s right.  He felt he lived in a democracy, a free state. On the other hand, he thought the US’s political issues were so messy and people so outspoken, it made him nervous.   He had a Ph.D. in some science or other, but seldom told people about it as then, he felt, they would not hire him because they would have to pay him more. But he enjoyed the small town of Quincy – because it was small! 

And, while all of America seemed well-developed, he moaned about the lack of navigable roads outside of Moscow and the undeveloped countryside. And what a huge diverse country, he continued.  How do you meld a country that big?  That was why the USSR failed. An iron fist cannot make people change their beliefs easily.  Even during the USSR period, religion played a part, hidden within each person’s home or heart.  Now it was in the open.  But so many religions in such a big country!! He couldn’t understand our lack of a national healthcare plan, as in Russia, they are all covered through the government.  But he was ashamed of the lack of development of towns and villages outside the major cities.  But it was home.  And he would never leave.  His family was there.  His wife, a scientist, was there.  And her family was there.  Which goes to prove, you live where your roots are – no matter what.

So my Russian friend, smiling, got on the plane to go back to Russia. “I’m flying Delta because Aeroflot is much more expensive, “ he explained.  So, at least in that, he had become “Americanized.”  I wonder how his flight went, if his wife had her baby.  I just wonder…”