Weirdest Phone Call Ever

This entry will be much more lighthearted than the past couple entries =).

Imagine you're a Muscovite, perhaps back from work, on a otherwise normal Wednesday evening. Then you get a phone call. You answer the phone to hear this:

Добрый вечер! Извините, но у меня есть вопрос. Когда я говорю по-русски, можете ли вы мне сказать, из какой я страны?

(Good evening! Excuse me, but I have a question. When I speak in Russian, could you tell me, which country I am from?)

After hearing that my accent in Russian was неизвестный (origin unknown), I was determined to figure out what other Russians had to say about my accent... except it wasn't always objective. Russian speakers have always known I was from the U.S. and those whom I asked in France randomly have only guessed "French" or "I don't know." Equipped with an international phone card, after receiving the country code and Moscow area code number, I set out to discover objective answers to my question.

Unfortunately, most of the numbers I attempted to call didn't even exist or no one answered the call. The handful of people who did answer the phone either laughed, reprimanded me, were completely confused, or engaged in a friendly conversation with me. Two people said they couldn't name a country I was from, of which one old woman laughed at my question saying she couldn't even guess since there were many countries where people spoke Russian. (This actually made me very happy since she didn't guess the possibility of me being from a non-Russian speaking country!!!) Some people sounded very confused... their confused responses and intonation forced me to stifle my giggles. One very old man was actually extremely upset and angry at me! He thought I was a Russian kid playing pranks since, through his angry, rapid Russian being pelted my way, I understood phrases like, "Что?! Из России! Что ты хочешь?! Где твоя мама!" (What?! From Russia! What do you want? Where is your mom?" The rest of what he said, I didn't understand until he angrily hung up. But this didn't really upset me at all, actually. He thought I was a Russian kid, which means my accent isn't that strong! Yay!

Thus far, the tally is: 

Canada - 1 person

Canada/USA - 1 person 

Russia - 1 person (The old man who thought I was a Russian kid)

USA - 2 people

Uzbekistan - 1 person 

"Unknown"/неизвестный - 2 people

Uzbekistan?! That was the funniest response of all, I think! I did manage to entertain a few 3 to 5-minute conversations with some of the people who guessed that I was from the U.S. After I said, "Да! Вы прав! Я американка" they started talking in English, at which I responded. One such random person said that the phone call was probably one of the weirdest things to happen to him. Hm... I guess he might be right. How would you react if you got such a phone call? Would you be angry? Annoyed? Surprised? Disgusted? Amused? Confused?

I still have some credit left on my phone card, about 5 euros or so, so I might try calling a few more random numbers tomorrow to get a better/more complete tally =D. I haven't done this (calling random people) since I was a child! I feel like a little kid again, except, what I'm doing now is very different from what I did when I was 7 or 8 years old, when my friends and I would call up random people in the U.S. and ask things like "Is your refrigerator running? Then you'd better go catch it!" 

UPDATE
Canada - 1 person
Canada/USA - 1 person
Russia - 1 person (The old man who thought I was a Russian kid)
USA - 3 people
France - 1 person
Uzbekistan - 1 person
Poland - 1 person
Africa - 1 person
S. Africa - 1 person
Yugoslavia - 1 person
"Unknown"/неизвестный - 5 people

I called a few more people and used up my phone card credits! Poland??? Yugoslavia??? LOL!!! There was an old woman, who guessed I was American, who gave me her cellphone number and said she'd show me around Moscow should I come to visit!!! Then there was a Russian student who studied French-Russian translation (the one person who guessed I was from France),  who also gave me his cell number and told me to feel free to call should I visit Russia. Sweet! This is why I love people.

Today's Random Cartoon: 

Person of the Year

Not surprisingly, Barack Obama is Time magazine's "Person of the Year." I remember following the election into the wee hours of the early morning back in Bamako, listening to his victory speech, and feeling like I was included in the celebrations. Obama's rise to politics is probably one of the most unprecendented and fastest rises to power in American history. He didn't take small steps to become president... he took leaps and bounds. It's pretty amazing, actually. I like Obama more than Bush, by far and he's lightyears better than McCain or Palin... but I do admit, I'm still rather skeptical about him. I am not exactly a "fan" of any politician - all politicians are corrupt and Barack Obama is no exception. After all, he DID approve the FISA, a piece of legislation that violates everything "America" is allegedly standing for - freedom, privacy, right to counsel... but no, he voted for the FISA and now, the government can arrest anyone without right to trials, invade our privacy freely, just on the premise of "terrorism." I was actually quite disappointed when Obama approved it but still, he was the best candidate in 2008. Hillary Clinton is a power-hungry, opportunistic bitch, McCain is a conservative old fart, John Edwards is a cheating, ex-malpractice lawyer with an annoying southern accent, and the other Republican candidates were all freaks (Huckabee is a religious nut who wants to include "God" in the constitution, Romney is a freaking Mormon who only won votes because the economy was doing poorly and because he's a successful business - just because you're a successful businessman doesn't mean you're going to miraculously improve the economy!). We'll see... he's going to be inaugurated in a little more than a week... he can't do worse than George W. Bush, right? *knock on wood!*

After checking out that article in Der Spiegel, I went to the BBC site to read up some news I missed out on during the past few weeks while I was still in Mali. I actually don't read/listen/watch American news anymore. All my news sources come from Le Monde, France 2, Der Spiegel, The Economist, Telemadrid, Rai, and BBC. Anyway, while reading some articles on BBC, I stumbled upon a particular article that surprised me. No, more than surprised, it appalled and disgusted me. Here's the article, and you can also find it online here:

Stalin voted third-best Russian

Stalin continues to be popular with many Russians

Former Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin was beaten by medieval prince Alexander Nevsky in a poll held by a TV station to find the greatest Russian.

Stalin came third, despite being responsible for the deaths of millions of Soviets in labour camps and purges.
Alexander Nevsky fought off European invaders in the 13th century to preserve a united Russia.
In second place was reformist Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin, who was assassinated in 1911.
More than 50 million people voted by phone, the internet or via text messages in the poll held by Rossiya, one of Russia's biggest television stations.
The voting took place over six months as 500 original candidates were whittled down to a final 12.
Rehabilitation campaign
Stalin - born an ethnic Georgian - was riding high for many months and was in the number one slot at one point until the show's producer appealed to viewers to vote for someone else, says the BBC's Richard Galpin in Moscow.
Stalin sent millions of people to their deaths in the work camps of the Gulag. Millions more perished in political purges or during the forced collectivisation of farms during his rule from the 1920s to his death in 1953.
Many in Russia do still revere Stalin for his role during World War II when the Soviet Union defeated the forces of Nazi Germany.

The poll was conducted online and by phone and text message

But now there is a much broader campaign to rehabilitate Stalin and it seems to be coming from the highest levels of government, says our correspondent.
"We now have to think very seriously, why the nation chooses to put [Joseph] Stalin in third place," said actor and film director Nikita Mikhalkov, one of the contest's judges, after the results were released.
Nevsky fought off Swedish and Germanic invasions to preserve medieval Russia. He also pursued a conciliatory policy with the powerful Mongol rulers to protect Russia's eastern flank.
He was canonised as a saint by the Russian Orthodox Church in the 16th century.
Stolypin is remembered for his attempts to modernise agriculture and stifle leftist revolutionaries as prime minister under Tsar Nicholas II.


How in fucking hell, heaven, and earth did Stalin get voted the "Third Best Russian" by Russians. Are they really that poorly informed? Or is Russia really that lacking in terms of "good" people. I don't understand. Voting Stalin as the 3rd Best Russian is equivalent to voting Hitler as the 3rd Best German (Stalin was actually an ethnic Georgian; Hitler was actually Austrian before he became a German citizen). Stalin was really just as bad, if not worse, than Hitler. He tortured and killed millions and millions of people (probably more than Hitler; historians estimate that Stalin was responsible for the deaths of about 10million people or more). Even during the war, he orchestrated the mass murder of thousands of Polish soldiers... and he's the 3rd Best Russian??? HOW??? It's preposterous! I'd even say that Czar Alexander II was a better Russian than Stalin, at least before he was assassinated he seemed to be the most promising of the czars in the last 300 years or so. Even Peter I or "Peter the Great" is better than Stalin, despite his policies being not-so-popular among many people and even though he tortured and killed his own son, Alexei. What about Sergei Witte? He was among the better "Russians" in History, despite his tariffs being unpopular, he was still the great reformer and the mind behind the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which still exists today! And Peter Chaadaev, Vissarion Belinksy, Alexander Herzen... among a plethora of other Enlightenment/post-Enlightenment Russian liberals? What about Katerina Breshkovskaia who was part of the "Going to the People" movement? Who said the best Russians were politicians anyway? What about Leo Tolstoy, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, and Alexander Pushkin; all famous Russian writers whose literary works had an impact not just on Russian literature, but is read throughout the world? Trotsky and Lenin were better Russians than Stalin!!! How could they have voted Stalin as the 3rd best Russian??? I don't understand. I don't understand at all. Do most Russians really think Stalin was such a great man? Если вы русский, не стесняйтесь сообщить неведении Американка.

Today's Random Quiz:

You Remember 90% of 2008

You were paying attention during 2008. And you remember what happened really well. You'll be able to talk about 2008 for years to come... Even when most people have forgotten what went down.

How Much Do You Remember 2008?