First, the story of three of the coolest people I know: Ivan, Irek, and Damir.
Through a person in our programm who randomly met these three at MacDonalds, my friend Colin and I have become close friends with three of the coolest Russians I know. Ivan and Irek are programmers with Fujitsu, and Damir is seeking employment after being layed off (the economic crisis hit Russia very hard). Ivan is Russian, and Irek and Damir are Tatar, so we get some awesome perspective on all aspects of life in Kazan. Plus, these guys are just awesome.
Almost every day Colin and I, and sometimes other members our group, hang out with them around Kazan. We go to restaurants, bars (which here are a lot more like restaurants: less drunkeness and more food), and walk around the beautiful city. They tell us about the youth culture, take us to the hang-outs, and have generally been great friends to us.
I don't know how we got so lucky; these guys are nice, polite, intelligent, and they're athletes (Ivan and Damir were city champions for the Russian Bells, and Kazan is the sports center of Russia so that's a pretty big honor) so they don't really drink, and Damir (and I would assume Irek since he's also Tatar, though I haven't asked) was raised Muslim, so it's just not in their culture. As a side note, the stereotypical Russian alcoholism seems to be much much less prevalent in the youth; I very rarely see young Russians drunks. Not to say they don't exist, but it seems to me that they've learned a lesson looking at their fathers and grandfathers.
Anyway, lately we've been meeting up with our big group at a bar to hang out (even our group of young Americans doesn't drink that much, just a few beers), and one night we decided to go clubbing together. Of course, our Russians know where to go, a club whose name translates to "4 Rooms". So we arrived at the club and found out that the cover was 300R, about $10. I've never been to a club, but apparently here that's expensive. So our group, about 12 of us, started to leave. HOWEVER, when they heard we were Americans, they let everyone in for FREE! Why? Americans bring the party, and everybody knows it.
The club was really cool; there were four rooms (go figure) with four different kinds of music. As soon as we got there and started dancing, everyone joined in, and it was really fun. REALLY really fun. Here a few things that made it really great. A) Our Russians are awesome, and made sure the whole night that everyone was ok. B) Russians don't dance at clubs like Americans do. A lot more actual dancing, a lot less...ick. C) Nobody was drunk, because who wants to dance drunk? No one at this club apparently.
We left late (2 am or so, which Damir complained was way too early) and went home, all amazed at how much fun it was. I think it all depends on the group, and the awesome Russians plus the fun Americans made a fantastic combination. Tonight we're meeting up to play "futbol" (soccer), and I'm already looking forward to seeind my favorite Russians. My only complaint is that my footies are a little swollen after dancing in heels all night.
Ivan, Irek, Damir, you guys are gems.
Jane
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