Last night was in the realm of bad. I stayed out later than I intended to. We went to "Sto Roochov" and I'm standing there with Merceds and Kristin and this girl walks up behind me and I hear (over the cacophonous din) "Are you American?" At first, I could only tell she had an accent because of the noise, so I was reluctant to say yes. She asked me again and I could tell the accent was british. Score.
She was there with these two Brittish guys who have seen me here in the internet cafe. You know, the ones I've mentioned wanting to talk to but not. Anyway, they hate being here and are going home on the 10th of December, but there's 12 of them. So I'm going to give them a call tomorrow. This wasn't the bad part.
Enter the bad. We left the club at about 2:40. Mercedes and I walked Kristin to her house, then walked towards mine. I gave Mercedes some cash to take a cab, got her in one, and then started down the street to my apartment. As I'm walking down the street I was quickly approached by two men out of nowhere. One grabbed my right arm and was speaking very quick and slurred Russian. I could only make out a couple of words, one of which was "10." So I pretended to be really really drunk. I gave them 10 roubles and when he took his hand off of me to accept the money, I started walking back towards the main street. They, of course, followed, and I was grabbed again. It was strange because it wasn't overly violent. I ripped my arm away and walked some more towards the street before they grabbed me. I gave them the other 10 roubles that I had on me. Told them it was all I had. They kept trying to reach into my front pocket where I pulled the money from, but I was making a fuss and keeping them from it. I figured, my passport and credit cards are in there. If they want it, they'll have to beat me up.
They didn't. I managed to get close enough to the street that they loosened their grip on me because they didn't want others to see. They let me go, and I'm only out 20 roubles and a bit of pride. I'm glad though, I'm fine, and wont have to worry about that again as I wont be coming home NEARLY that late again (this was my last weekend in Voronezh.)
Good, traditionally Russian experience for me, right?
Anyway, I've been sick to my stomach all day with a trip to a museum for class and everything. I'm gonna head back to the apartment and crash early so that I don't have to go to Grammer wanting to die tomorrow.
Don't worry about me, my family. I'm fine. Coulda been worse eh?
Till tomorrow
~J