embassy and escorts

in honor of the conference and russian american workshop, there is a reception at the american embassy for workshop attendees. we are taking to this residence building, there is hor d'oeuvres and all sorts of alcohol being carried around. i find some older gentleman passing out a tray of booze and he immediately makes me his priority red wine recipient. steve leaves me adn tells to mingle--crap! but surprisingly i find myself talking to people, until i realize that i'm talking to older scientist gentleman and realize that i look about 18. right...i talk to a few people who;s research i'm actually interested. get cornered by some russian guy who also works with migrants, who brings me 2 (!) glasses of wine, breaks one of them, and insists that i have to go to siberia (why? because that's where migrants are. what kind? chinese...umm...no thanks). suddenly the buses back to teh hotel are leaving. it's only 9 so steve suggests we go out somewhere. sure. it's -2C outside in moscow, but it's not really because it's actually raining. we walk into the main tourist street and dont find anything interesting. suddenly steve remembers that last time he stayed at some hotel, the concierge told him about this bar designed by Phillip Starck, a famous french interior designer. we must go there. ok, but what's the name of it? steve doesn't know. where is it? steve doesn't know...but he think that if we walk into the nearest hotel we can ask tehir concierge. the idea sounds logical enough, but we can't find a hotel, so we walk into a restaurant (the most expensive one in russia) adn ask teh doorman to point us to the nearest hotel. he is eager to help and starts telling me which way to go but keeps saying things like, dont walk, it's raining so take a cab and really this hotel is expensive, tehy charge a lot for a night. ok but we're not staying the night. he understands, but still this is expensive. do you see what's happening here? young me, older looking steve, we're looking for a hotel..... we get nowhere so we get on the subway and steve finds a map from our hotel, so we call the other hotel adn figure out how to get there. it's a walk from the subway and we're slightly lost. did i mention it's raining? since i'm straight from the embassy reception i'm wearing heels and fancy pants adn i'm secretly cursing steve for his flair for adventure. we finally find this bar, i check out the bathroom and looking at the mirror realize that i'm soaking wet and look like a mess. the place is really nice, REALLY nice. the towels in teh bathroom are not paper but real. we order two mojitos which for sure are going to be ridiculously priced and the bartender puts it in front of us, winking at me...that's great. the place inside is actually really cool, gray and candlelit, with black grafittied saying ont eh wall. we have our drinks and leave, deciding to take a cab home. tehre is one outside so i ask teh driver how much he'll charge (because there are no meters in cabs). we get in adn i take 100 rubles out of my wallet (my last money) to give to steve to contribute to the cab ride and i catch the driver looking at me in the rearview mirror. he makes a sad face and says: "you still have to pay out of pocket for rides?" 'yeah?" he shakes his head. we're going to a hotel, clearly, this man, too, assumes i'm an escort. we get out of the car and i tell steve about this interaction. 'everyone in moscow thinks i'm a sex worker!!" 'i dont think you're a sex worker, alex." thanks steve :)