Or maybe I wouldn’t call it a “note”, since it is just a few tiny bits of conversations that I’ve picked up from people around me. The longer I live in Russia, the more Russian people surprise me. I thought it would be the other way around. I thought that I would grow to understand Russia and Russians more and more the longer I lived here. That this country would seem comprehensible and sensible to me after a couple of years. But no. It is still surprising. And I was rather surprised when I arrived here. Not to say shocked. I was almost shocked, as a matter of fact, but I thought it would pass with time. I was wrong – the astonishment I feel toward this country and its people has continued and will, most likely, never come to an end.
