Starting the last week of my stay in Moscow, all of the international students began to return to the dorms. At first it was no more than one student a day, but as the week progressed, two, three, whole cliques of students returned, and all of us in the program were thrown into the gossip machine that was the dormitories. Seeking more people to socialize with, I started hanging out with the second largest group of bon vivant's from Sciences Po in Paris. Grasping the idea of having a good time more so than my fellow program participants, the French students were not above blatantly breaking the rules of the dorms when it came to drinking and cigarette-smoking in the kitchen, or pushing the limits of the dorm-wide curfew. Many of them went abroad for their break, traveling the Middle East or Central Asia. One student in particular had just returned from a month-long trip through all those countries that American's can't find on a map, or even legally visit: Georgia, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Iran and Azerbaijan topped off the list. After he explained his arrest in Turkmenistan for smoking a cigarette in public, I really had nothing to offer in my experience that would surpass that.
After getting acquainted and particularly intoxicated, we decided to take off for the night to Papa's Place (22 Myasnitskaya St., Moscow), a local expat bar, for some Latin dancing and vodka shots. Our Russian friends were preparing for a presentation the next morning, so it was just the mix of French, German, Italian, and American people. Having been to more than a few clubs and bars, none of us expected much face control at the door. Moscow is your oyster if you are white and foreign, or at the very least, not Caucasian. When I say Caucasian, I don't mean the politically correct rhetoric used in the US to describe white people; I actually mean from the Caucasus region in Asia. There had been a couple occurrences in the previous months in the city that had to do with rioting people hailing from this region in Russia and in the Caucus Republics—such as city-wide subway riots (resulting in the increased presence of armed police in the Metro). Safe to say there has been a little bit of a racism in the air if your skin is too light or too dark. I'm telling you this because when we tried to enter the club, all but one of us got in. Wearing a large fur hat and speaking accented Russian, the Italian in the group was quickly rejected at the door. Not knowing what was going on, we all went inside while one stayed behind to cab it back to the dorms. Apart from the setback, the drinks were cheap and the place was packed with people of various dancing skills (and sobriety) spinning around the floor to reggaeton and Latin pop songs. What was even more shocking was that the international students responded as if it was the Italian's fault, saying that he should have known better to have acted more European and have dressed nicer. In any case, when we sobered up the next morning, we discovered the news and agreed to try other, less strict bars in the future.