Russia, Moscow

Radigan Neuhalfen

Russia

Russia, Moscow

Here I could identify cultural misunderstanding.

Poland, Warsaw

band from Norway

"To the Heroes of Warsaw 1939-1945"

Russia, Moscow

I have a bust of Lenin on my desk and a flag of Deicide over my window. (“Behead the Prophet!”)

I’ve been asked by so many Russians if I was afraid to come here. Then they tell one of the countless stories of some friend travelling to the States, and after seeing the American news, calling home in a panic to ask when chaos erupted in Russia.

The biggest international news story of 1997 was the death of Princess Di. Meanwhile, try to find someone informed about the civil war in Tangiers.

Went to this Moroccan hang-out. Clean, bright, and packed, mostly African and Mid-Eastern expats. Soccer on the wide screen. Two big spindles of lamb’s meat getting sliced up for shuarmas. A tile brazier with a coal fire roasting shishkabobs of four different kinds of meat. A bar in the back with a big tattooed Russian bartender and his big-breasted sidekick. French, Arabic, Russian, and English diluting the air.

Russia, Moscow

“Watch out for the bulldozer.”

“Hello my friend, do you want to buy some army stuff?”

“Ostarozhno, dvyeri zakrivayetsya.”

Russia, Moscow

Today went to the Sporta Zal Mir. Guys playing ping-pong. But then I noticed they were really good. World champions have trained there.

Russia, Moscow

“Lenin. Rodina. Sotsializm.”

[“Lenin. Motherland. Socialism.”]

Russia, St. Petersburg

Was walking one day, the first week here, and saw a submarine. Just sitting on dry land. I’d seen the marker for it earlier on a map, so I knew what it was. But just all of a sudden, there it was. It’s a museum. So near our obshyezhitiye. Podvodnaya lodka.

Russia, St. Petersburg

Went to the banya today. It was on Nevsky Prospect. Went with Eric, my roommate, and Dyenic, who is a friend of Faruk, who is a friend of Muktar, who are both Nigerians studying in St. Petersburg. I met Muktar on the bus the first week we were here. Dyenic is from Nizhnetavorsk, a town of about 300,000 in western Siberia. I think the banya would be better next to a fjord or frozen lake. Eric and I went looking for Dyenic yesterday. Got off the elevator on the 11th floor of his building, he lives on the 13th (Faruk lives on the 11th; we’d gone to the wrong floor), and saw a gun. A man (20-something) was pointing a pistol at another 20-something man. Eric and I got off the elevator, the man put the small-calibre automatic in his jacket pocket and the two of them got on the elevator, the elevator doors closed.

Russia, St. Petersburg

This is a dirty town.

Russia, St. Petersburg

Second day in St. Petersburg. Walked on the Gulf of Finland this evening. Surreal. Had a bus tour of the city today. The rest of the town is exactly like Novosibirsk.

Netherlands, Schiphol Airport

Sitting at the gate, waiting to go to St. Petersburg.

Netherlands, Leiden

Netherlands, Leiden

House quiet. Cars passing.

U.S.A., Minnesota, St. Paul

Called Leonid and Galena. Hadn’t met with them for several weeks, because Leonid’s mother was sick. Talked with Leonid. He said, “Many things have changed,” and that his mother was dead. Told him I was going to Russia, leaving December 28. Then graduating. Probably won’t see them again for a long time.

U.S.A., Minnesota, St. Paul

Macalester College
rooftop
Radigan Neuhalfen

U.S.A., Louisiana

"Chateau des Cocodries"

"Le Premier Puits de Petrole"

shadow of 1986 Buick Century

"Mad Butcher"

U.S.A., Iowa, Anamosa

U.S.A., South Dakota

U.S.A., Wyoming

"The Sweetwater Valley is the mid-section of the 2000 mile-long Oregon Trail.... For a week emigrants plodded this stretch of high altitude, semiarid desert.... 'How I long for a timbered country' wrote one traveler. '...In a thousand miles I have not seen a hundred acres of wood.... These everlasting hills have an everlasting curse of barrenness....'"

U.S.A., Colorado, Rocky Mountain National Park

U.S.A., Colorado, Estes Park

U.S.A., North Dakota, Dickinson

postcard
Allosaurus
Dakota Dinosaur Museum
photo by Larry League

U.S.A., Iowa

I’m in Iowa now, doing archaeology. I was in NYC two weeks ago, visiting Hjalmar. He’s interning at a music company, living in Harlem.

U.S.A., New York, New York City

U.S.A., Ohio

U.S.A., Iowa, Clinton

Working for IMAC [Institute for Minnesota Archaeology Consulting]. Smokestacks pour smoke into the air over Clinton.

Spent the last weekend in the Cities, hanging out around Macalester with Nate, Darren, Chuck, Jesse, Cameron, Dan. James arrived later. Rick was there too.

The last ten-day, was in Iowa, in Clear Lake and Manchester. On the way from Iowa to the Cites last Wednesday, passed through Backbone State Park in Iowa. Caved and rock-climbed for a couple hours in a cave there. I was just driving through, because the highway suddenly turns into (becomes) the park road, and as I was driving through the park I saw a sign that said, “Cave.” So I did.

Before the last ten-day, which was my first for the season, had a few days. Got done with school on a Tuesday, left on Wednesday. (Started work on the next Monday.) Went to De Sotas’ in Wisconsin for a night. On the way back to the Cities, decided to just go straight to the Boundary Waters. Went up there. Rented a canoe. Went out on a lake. First day: paddled leisurely all day, explored stuff. Went through Bass Lake, Long Lake, and then down a long, winding stream to another lake, set up camp. Sundown. Fell asleep immediately. Awoke a few hours later; I could feel the storm coming. Just as I got the rain cover on the tent, it started raining. The storm was fierce. The night was cold. I was, and everything was, wet from the day of paddling. Shivered a lot; slept sporadically.

In the morning, only thought was to get dry. The day was long. It was cold, windy, overcast, rainy. I had to paddle upstream and against the wind. It was whitecapping on the lakes. I walked along the shore and pulled the canoe for a ways on Bass Lake. Sunup to sundown, the same distance I’d done the day before. I pushed it.

Got back, got dry, got to McGeachies’ in Duluth. Pat was there. Told him about it. It had been dangerous to go alone. The situation had been cold, wet, tired, hungry, daunting. I had thought, as I was there, wet and cold and tired, was this really where I would be if I could choose to be anywhere in the world? “I guess so,” I had to tell myself.

Stayed at McGeachies’ that night.

Next morning, went to the Cities. Arrived at Macalester, during graduation, just in time to see Kofi Annan speak. He began speaking as I walked up to James and Nate. Went to Iowa the next day. Spent one night out in Iowa City. It was the first time I’ve been in a bar legal to drink in the U.S. No, the first time in a bar legal Stateside was the bowling alley in Manchester, also that last ten-day but before Iowa City.

France, Paris

Netherlands

U.K., Scotland, Edinburgh

From Heathrow Airport in London, rode the tube for maybe 45 minutes to Kings Cross station and took the train from there to Edinburgh. That was on Friday. Got to Edinburgh, called Mike. Then I walked up to the street from the train station. Was surrounded by grand old buildings. Mike, his flatmate Chris, and a friend Jarred, met me at the train station. At Mike’s flat then, hung out a while, lots of foreigners dropping in, coming in through the window. Mike’s other flatmates are Inardo, a Spaniard from the Basque country, and Peter, a German forester. Went to a ceildh – it’s a Scottish dance, like Cajun dancing or square dancing. Traditional Scottish. Went with Christina, Peter’s cousin who’s visiting from Switzerland. Had fun.

U.K., Scotland, Edinburgh

U.S.A., Minnesota, St. Paul

1986 Buick Century

U.S.A., Minnesota, Minneapolis

Russia, Siberia, Novosibirsk

Russia, Siberia, Novosibirsk

Russia, Siberia, Novosibirsk

Pepsi trolley-bus

Ob River