Anyway. We had a "press conference" with a couple of local media outlets, Channel 6 in Vladimir and the Vladimir Information Agency (radio). We sort of roundtabled about this and that, our impressions of the country, Why are you here?, What do you do?, etc. We were in the backyard of the American Home. The guy sitting next to me is Oleg from Channel 6. He was actually an emcee at the 4th of July shindig... He lived in the U.S. and attended the U. of Missouri for a year, so his English is pretty good!
A unique event occurred as we were wrapping things up before lunch. Oleg grapped this big microphone, put it in my face and asked me to answer a question or two IN RUSSIAN. Then the other guy (I can't remember his name) put HIS mike in my face... So. To all of my fellow countrymen and countrywomen, I apologize for any reaction to comments, should they be broadcast publically and set U.S.-Russia relations back 20 years! ;)
(Actually, I secretly approached Aleksei to ask him if I sounded like a blithering idiot and he said my Russian was good... It's most definitely a weird feeling to speak to another country's press in their language, ESPECIALLY in front of Americans. How ironic that in my own country, few people who know me would turn me loose in front of a live mike!) :)
Talk to you from Murom, hopefully... We leave in an hour (3pm).
Пока!
