станция жулебино

This place, I will never forget.

This was the station where I went by myself with zero knowledge of Russian to meet my dearest friend and his russian family. It was actually a little bit further from the city and you would see that it was a newly addition to Moscow’s greatly designed metro line since it had modern features compared to all other metros within the inner city of Moscow. The adventure of finding this metro by myself, literally matching pictures (that’s what I call cyrillic writing) and the excitment of meeting russian family were overwhelming. I was early, so i went to Перекресток (Perekrestok Supermarket) nearby. I met my friend there and I bought flowers, which in my opinion were horrible flowers, but my friend said they were lovely, what do men know about flowers, but I followed his advice anyway, for his russian mom. Note that one should not give flowers in even numbers unless it means that someone just passed away. So, I had a bit argument with my friend when he was trying to figure out this ‘cultural’ rules of russian and explained to me, and anyway I got these not-so-nice flowers on my hands and a very-nice box of danish chocolade.

It was the first time I spoke to a real russian in intense, biblical and personal conversation. She was amazingly open, which I never thought she would. She showed and explained to me her entire life through all her photos, on facebook, USB sticks and albums! Now, talking about russian and their coldness. Of course, she asked lots of personal questions to me too, which I would not mind to share if my dearest friend was not the intepreter. ha! But I shared anyway, in an amount that is quite personal but still not that personal. We spend almost the entire afternoon and night there. I learnt how to make a rollie, is that what you call that food? I think my friend just making things up.

But what shocked me the most were two things. First, she asked whether she could pray for me. And when I said she could, she stood up and placed her hand on my shoulder. Whoa! There is only one person who does that to me (or should I say, I allow to do that to me) and she is my sister in Christ who is now living in Durham. So, I stunned while she prayed. It was not that bad. In fact, it was beautiful. And at the end, I am thankful that she did it.

The second one was when I was using my friend laptop in his room. It was nearly midnight and she spoke something to my friend. Apparently, she was asking whether I wanted to join their ‘family’ prayer. Ha! It has been ages since I was in one. So, I said I would. And it was the most intimate and beautiful moment that I ever had with my friend (and his russian mom, and his russian brother who came a bit late and joined towards the end of the prayer). This one was a big blow for me. It was like I was tasting a glimpse of living in christian family once more. Oh, dear God, how I long to have one. That is why I would never forget this place.