The Miracle of the Lost Boot

Friday morning was very, very cold. My shuttle got stuck in traffic because a pipe burst on the main road and I had to jump ship and book it to the metro to be on time. Nika and I were just weaving in and out of these big busses stuck in traffic…I am thinking this is so Russian. I made it to the metro on time and met my teaching partner. However, apparently the whole city had gone mad. After our metro ride we take a shuttle to our school and again we were stuck in traffic for 45 minutes! By the time we finally got to school we were very late and frustrated. Kristen was bringing Olga’s boot back this day because she got hers fixed. As we were walking up to the school it popped into my head…she doesn’t have her boot. I turned around and asked her and she just got the worst look on her face and bolted back to the stop.  I started class while she waited for the shuttle to loop back around, but somehow it was a different driver.

We called our coordinator who speaks a little English and tried to explain what happened and she said she would help.  Her version of helping was telling Olga that we lost the boot and she would need to try to track it down herself! We were horrified. We were trying to keep the situation on the DL. So after class we took the shuttle back and found a not-scary-looking woman to ask if she spoke any English.  She did! Holy good luck. She talked to the driver for us and gave us very little hope.  She just kept repeating, this is not a good situation, this is not a good situation. We’re like, yeah pretty aware of that.  Our last hope was to wait for every shuttle that takes our route to stop by the metro and we would do a quick search before the pushy Russians boarded again. The shuttles come about every 30 minutes…so we waited and waited and waited, and searched really fast and then waited and waited and waited.  By the third van, the shuttle driver knew who we were and what we were looking for.  They had created this little communication between the drivers and he showed us the note he had about the dumb American girls who lost their one boot.  I can’t read Russian so I’m not sure those were the exact words, but I am sure it was close to that…or meaner.

The second to last shuttle came and I bolted in to do my quick search, before I got trampled by the angry mob clambering for seats. and I saw it: black, dirty and sitting all alone exactly where we left it.  I have never been more excited in all of my life. When I got home I was so excited to tell Nika and Julia about it and they just laughed at me. They’re like, “Russians would never do such a thing. We would have just bought a new pair of boots.” I’m like, wow what a letdown.  I will NOT be sharing any more stories at the dinner table if we can’t fake a little excitement.  Oh well, it was a stressful time but with a happy ending. Plus, now we’re tight with all of our cabby friends…perhaps not a good thing.