Taking a leisurely ride along the River Styx

I debated whether or not to post this for a long time because it can easily be taken several wrong ways. I eventually decided that writing it out may help think through some things, and I guess you get to participate in that. Read further only if you agree to look for the right way I mean this to take.

I work as a freelance translator when I have a little extra time on my hands, and recently took a job translating at a multinational company's party of about 100 Russians and 30 people from other countries. The party was on a chartered boat-tour of the Moscow River, which I've been meaning to try for a long time anyway. I figured it'd be nice to get paid to be a tourist. Particularly since they promised on board entertainment and food.

The first hour of the trip went splendidly. Fantastic food, the live band was great, and we had a dance party (dance parties with old Russian people always crack me up, they are such awful dancers. But they either don't know or don't care because they really get into it). Anyway, it was turning into a great evening, and on top of it all, I was getting paid for it.

Great way to spend the night, right? Well it was, up until the evening show started up. I was translating for the host when  two  girls come up from behind the host and I, dressed, um...business casual: night shift. This is where my hopeless naivete kicked in. 'This is a company party, they can't do anything too crazy, right?' or 'Half of these people are women, this isn't going to go too far...right?' I foolishly thought as I continued to translate. As my gross misunderstanding of Russian propriety was shattered by the two strippers on board, I slunk into a corner, staring at my shoes till I could slink away. 

Luckily, we turned the word (sort of) over to the ladies of the night, and I slipped out to the buffet area to mull over what I was going to do about the odd turn of events. I'm morally opposed to strip shows, go-go dances, etc. so it wasn't really a question for me of whether or not to watch. I think it's a cheap representation and exploitation of a human's body. But the harder question of what I was supposed to do about translating for this filth when it's my job, and I can't really just jump into the Moscow River and swim away (really, no one should swim in the Moscow River...ever). This next video is full of my awkward musing, chuckling as I tried to figure out what to do.

Well, like I said, the evening was a variety show, so I just hid in the buffet room whenever they decided on one particular 'variety' of entertainment. I really found myself hating a large number of people on the boat. As the night rolled on, and the passengers got more and more drunk, they showed their ugly side. I don't want to get into the details, suffice it to know that it's disgusting seeing people reduce themselves to animals. 

I usually write about how I come to love Russia, because I honestly do love so many things here. But I couldn't help looking at the people on the boat (to be fair, there were people from other countries taking part too) differently after they'd indulged themselves in such an unsavory way (and I'm not talking about eating a whole thing of candy beans). I asked some of the girls on the boat what they thought about this sort of behavior and they said, 'They're just joking, it's fine,' or 'I don't know, I'm used to it.' 

It was also sort of interesting seeing the 'dancers' when they were just in a non-performing capacity. I've seen 'women of the night' before, and they always seemed to have a uniform look of hopeless, degraded sadness about them. But these dancers seemed fine with their career choice. I'm sort of still mulling that over. Thinkers better than I have spent novels characterizing sex traders by giving them hearts of gold or souls of black muck. Their clientele is usually glanced over as the cowardly, weak man driven by unchecked passions or the brutal abuser.  No one at this party fit character though. Everyone acted basically the same as when the musicians were performing, this was just another act for casual entertainment. Oddly, the whole time I felt like the coward, the timid little bird who had flown into a house and couldn't find its way out.

In the end, I'm likely going to look back on this with sort of an awkward humor...sort of the 'oh Moscow, you're insane' sort of humor.