So we dumped all our bags down in the train station, three teams worth of back packs and purses and day packs, and took turns leaving the enourmous pile to find food. Emily, Syd and I went to a small stand with sandwiches and juice and things. The lady did not appreciate me moving her display water in an attempt to buy it and shook her head dissappointedly at me. After eating we took our tun at bag watch, people passed too a fro and made there way across the room on their way to buy tickets or catch trains, most of them taking the time to observe the curious spectacle we had made. One man passed with several woven baskets which I stared at wondering what they were for, I guess my staring was more obvious than I had intended because the man said “hello” and waved, every time he passed after that, which was several, I got a wave.
After taking our turn at bag watch team L’chaim and Jenny made our way to platform 8 to take the train to Lutz. Once we had finished the cumbersome and dangerous endevor of getting our packed selves down the stairs I proped myself up against a pillar to relieve my shoulders of the weight of my pack and huffed deeply like I tend to do. To my surprise and amusement the little old lady in front of me turned to me and huffed back, at which point I smiled and huffed again, she huffed too. “It’s heavy” I said, to which she replied “heavy , yes”. Im sure my excitement at the fact she spoke english was transparent, she asked “you are american yes”. “yes” I said. “You are a negro, yes?”. “No” I replied and attempted to explain but I am fairly certain that it was all lost in translation, it suprised me how excited she was. We capitalized on the fact she spoke english to get clarification on what our train tickets said. After the great italian debacle of 2006 I have some familiarity with the train and made my way all the way down from car 12 to 7. After climbing the impossibly high step with 2 backpacks and a heavy purse the conductress took my ticket and had her colleague lead me down to a sleeper car. I was told to sleep on the top. Initially I had no idea what to do, the passenger already in there , I would later learn her name was Galina, was an older red headed woman who did not speak english. She looked puzzled at what I was doing and then Adam showed up. Adam is a wonderful texan who works with the peace corp and speaks both English and Ukranian. He told me to come down and explained how the conductress would bring sheets for the bed rolls. Galina and I shoved my pack under the seat and my other pack in a hidden compartment. She spoke enough english to convey simple concepts to me like to sit down and to put things places but once the other car passangers arrived ,a second Galina and Vladimer , I felt like a fish out of water. They spoke to eachother in Ukrainian, and before too long I knew they were talking about me, I guess African American is the same said in english or ukranian. So my feelings hurt that they were talking about me but not to me and the enemy feeding my insecurities on what they might be saying, I pulled out my laptop and began the last blog. The conductress came buy asking if we wanted chai, I looked at her with sad eyes and said no, Galina 1 thought that I didn’t understand so she attempted to translate asking if I wanted “tea-a”, still no. Once they had recieved their tea Galina 1 pulled out different little bread rolls, she offered me some but I was not hungry and was sad in my heart so initially I refused, Galina1 persisted and Galina 2 said “just one” so I took the roll offered, it was soooo good, I don’t know what it was it was sweet like mexican sweet bread but it had some little black things maybe poppy seeds. After awhile Adam reappeared and spoke to them, apparently they had been wondering where I would stay and how I would get money to buy water and if someone was waiting for me, all the general concerned parent questions. When the sheets came Galina 1 made my bed for me and Vladimer switched sides with me and pulled the ladder down for me. Galina 1 told me to take off my shoes and wash my feet, in gestures more than language and then I went to bed and they were quiet so I could sleep, in general they took awesome care of me and I felt totally welcome. The next morning Adam told them “nice to meet you and thank you” for me, they said likewise. I really like Ukranians so far.
