Living In Siberia Lenin s Revenge

I n 1999, I moved to Chita,        wear. They didn't smell. In        a city in Siberia, Russia       retrospect, I have to give them    to teach for a year. After      an incredible amount of credit.    seven days of planes, trains and,     Upon seeing us, they continued to  well, more trains, I was ready to     smile, didn't roll their eyes and  experience Chita in all its           nobody grabbed their nose. Heck,   glory.                                I was holding my own nose.                                               Greetings were made and off we     Day 1 - Lenin's Revenge               went to promised food and                                                showers.                           Riding on a train for three plus                                         days does weird things to your        Being a San Diego local, I had     equilibrium. You tend to develop      often warned out of town friends   a natural compensation for the        about "Montezuma's Revenge" if     swaying. Unfortunately, your body     they drank water when visiting     doesn't just snap back when you       Mexico. There isn't anything       finally get on solid ground. As I     wrong with the water. It just has  stepped off the train, I did this     different bugs than ours. You      sort of forward, sort of sideway      would think I would be smart       shuffle. I can only image I must      enough to follow my own advice.    of looked like I had been             [Don't say it.] Yep, I was         investigating the better brands       suffering from "Lenin's Revenge"   of Russian vodka. On top of this,     by the early afternoon of the      I hadn't had a shower for three       first day. My hosts were kind      days. Things quickly got worse.       enough to leave me in peace once                                         they noticed my distress. If only  Awaiting Grae, a fellow American,     I had learned the Russian word     on the train platform and me were     for "Pepto!"                       our hosts Natasha, Oleg, Dima and                                        a few others. They were in formal     As seems to happen all to often,   I had made a less than stellar        I was only going to be living in   first impression! What the heck,      Chita for a year.                  About the Author: Rick Chapo is with http://www.nomadjournals.com - makers of travel journals. Writing journals are the perfect travel accessories. Visit http://www.nomadjournaltrips.com to read more travel articles and travelogues. Source: www.isnare.com