The Concert

My sitemate had extra tickets to a classical guitar concert held at a church and so I went along.

He knew little details, other than the music university was putting it on, so we didn't really know what to expect.

The concert had two parts. The first was a Serbian guitar player who really played some beautiful pieces and the second was a sort of student recital, with less memorable but nonetheless pretty musical selections.

I spent much of the concert deep in my own thoughts, keeping my eyes nearly always focused on the stain glass window behind the pulpit, as I could not see the performers. I saw the glass get darker and darker as the sun set. My sitemate and I hardly spoke after the concert started and said nothing when it ended. He and his host mother disappeared when it was over while I was still collecting my hat and other belongings. As I turned around, I heard "как вас зовут?" and saw a man looking directly at me. "что?," I responded, even though I knew exactly what he was asking, for my name. I was just so shocked. He repeated himself and told me his name (Maxim) and went into some story of which I could understand "get acquainted with," "to marry (in the form a man would use)," and "person." I told him my name and immediately began searching the sea of faces for my sitemate. Maxim wanted my phone number, and as if I wasn't floored before, I was even more so now. I feigned ignorance but we continued to talk and he insisted that I was German. "HET!" Ukrainian? How I wanted to laugh at that. "нет, я американка." "But you are German," he persisted. "Uh, no, I'm American." But your ancestors, he continued in English, "your blood is German." Wondering what his fascination was about all of this, I responded that yes, I was German, because I am, on both sides of my family. I ask him in English and then in Russian if he works in Germany, because I swear he told me this earlier, but he just looks confused. Actually, he looked and seemed confused the entire time we talked. Sadly, I find this trait somewhat both scary and endearing at the same time. It's like "hey, are you sociopath or Hugh Grant? Only one way to find out!"

I would not give him my phone number, so instead I got his. I told him I had friends waiting and I had to go and he asked, to check, whether or not I had a phone to call him, which I do, even though it will cost me tons to call a land line, and inquired as to when I would call. "Two days," I responded. "Okay. Call after 6pm, then I'll be home." Okay, I said and left wondering exactly how that phone conversation would go. I then remembered the zhenitsa comment and went back to him. "You aren't married, are you?" "No," he said and so finally, I exited the church.

When I saw my sitemate again I chastized him for not helping me out and he promptly teased me about picking up a man in church. I of course went home to tell my host mom about all of this who shook my hand and laughed when told. Then I called a clustermate to tell her that I had proof that our former TCF (a devout Orthodox Urkainian woman) had been praying for us...