The “what if”-game

Many children like to play it. You just imagine yourself different situations and what would happen...

if your dad was a firemen...

if there was a big hungry wolf behind your door ...

if you were born as a princess...

I was particularly good at it. Apparently I had a whole new world created on that principle and made my parents really worry! With the age my fantasy slowed down, but sometimes I still like to sit all by myself, stare in the eternal nothing and imagine different “what if”-situations...

My next destination actually turned one of my daydreams into reality.

“What if my parents had decided to move to another country than Germany? What if I had grown up in Israel or in USA?”

In New York I stayed with some friends of my parents, who were also Jewish immigrants from Perm, were both doctors and had two children my and my sister´s age. They had left Russia about two years before we did and had to start over their life on a new continent exactly the same way as us in Germany.

It was amazing to observe the crazy mix of American and Russian culture.

“Anya, would you like some tea?”

“Yes, of course!”

“With or without ice?”

The two sons, despite of their perfect English and not so perfect Russian, had only Russian friends and were both dating Russian girls. Even though they hardly ever switched to their mother tongue. Somehow I always thought that our Russian circle in Germany was an exception to the rule, but I guess I was wrong. Some aspects of immigration stay with you no matter where you go and if we had moved to Israel or to the States many surprising details in my life would not be that much different after all.

NEW YORK

When I got off the subway, I stared at the sign in front me with great disbelief. It took me a while to realize what was wrong and then it hit me: the word “pharmacy” was written in English AND in Russian! I looked down the road and gasped: cyrillic was present everywhere. A man passed in front of me.

“Excuse me!”. I asked, “What time is it please?”

The man looked at me, smiled and replied:

“Здравствуйте девушка! Почти два.“

It turned out that our friends lived in the „Russian“ part of Brooklyn. It had the cute nickname “Little Odessa” and no English was needed in that area.

Of course I went to see the famous Brighton Beach with all its Russian stores and restaurants. You had old women gossiping on the benches and old men playing domino in the parc – everything was exactly like in the good old Soviet times.
My hosts just confirmed the fame of Russian hospitality and everything turned around me all of a sudden. What did I want to eat? Where did I want to go? What were my plans for the next days? I already forgot what Russian care felt like and  these questions that were asked in half-English, half-Russian made me dizzy!  

In the following days I went to see a Broadway Show on Times Square, had a shopping tour on the 5^th Avenue, visited Ground Zero and Wall Street, dedicated a day to the MOMA museum and a night to the Pacha club.... My schedule was packed and the days kept flying by!

I remembered my first impression of NYC eight years ago. It felt so huge, so chaotic, so dangerous. This time I fully enjoyed the dynamic city life. It was not that much different from London, Madrid or Paris.

BOSTON

Speaking of ESCP: it turned out that one of my classmates was writing some kind of paper on solar energy at the MIT in Boston and he invited me to come visit him for a couple of days. Spontaneous me hopped on a cheap bus in China Town and off I went.

One of the things I love about my school is that it got a bunch of travel-addicted freaks collected into one class. You never know where and under which circumstances you will meet them. Who would have thought that one day Michele, a lovely Italian always up for a party and a blond girl, was going to pick me up at the bus station in Boston?

After New York, this city seemed very cozy and sweet. The student spirit was present everywhere!

As a true Italian, Michele had cooked me a delicious pasta dinner before we went out for drinks with his friends. They all turned out to be PhD and doctorate candidates in natural sciences. Even though they pretented to be simple beer-drinking students, their intelligence was quite intimidating. 

On the way back we got a bit lost and Michele had to ask someone for the way. This someone turned out to be the shortest skirt on the whole street! These Italians...

Next day we did a tour of the Harvard campus. It must feel weird to study in a place which is so loaded with history! Imagine getting the dorm of someone really famous. Matt Damon for example! :)     

NEW YORK

Back to the big city, I had only two more days to enjoy it. More shopping, more going out... Honestly, there was not much of a backpacker left after all this. It was quite a smooth and efficient preparation to what was awaiting me in Moscow.  

The night before leaving to Russia, I got some kind of poisoning from a mixture of Japanese food and gin tonic. I felt so sick when getting on my flight back to Europe...