Lost!

I was worried about getting lost in the forest.  I was worried the first couple times about getting lost running on the streets around here.  I should have been worried yesterday.  I took off at the chumly respectable hour of 8:40.  I didn’t even consider my route or how long I’d be
out because I didn’t need to leave the house for a meeting until 11:30.  I ran to my private student’s apartment just because I wanted to become familiar with the area and with the route.  Then…I forgot that I had run there.
What?  That’s right, I forgot my orientation.  Specifically, I forgot that Zelev street ran at an angle.  Running away from his place, I thought I was running directly back toward home.  Not true.  I ran around a pond, and then through some heavy industrial places—factories and storage yards and such.
At one point, I was running down what I thought might have been a dead end.  Some people reading this may remember my first jaunt in the forest when a 6-inch tall wiener-dog touched my foot.  Yesterday, I was touched again.  This dog was 2 feet tall, slim and looking tough with a full-sized mouth, and no smile—I’m sure that he could have destroyed my leg if he wanted to.  He didn't look like he was searching for trouble, but he certainly wasn’t going to put up with any ‘running-man’ nonsense, either.  He was more of a peace keeper.  I think I saw a blue helmet in his backpack. When I came upon this dog, he looked at me seriously, not meanly, but definitely devoid of humor.  I turned around.  He lopped along happily beside me, our legs tangled slightly a couple times.  I remember only two barks—not happy barks.  As soon as I got out of his territory, he went back to his job—keeping out the riff-raff.
Soon, I found I was terribly lost. In the back of my mind, something told me that I had become turned around.  That something was wisdom.  
Older woman: “Ivanteevskaya?  Never heard of it.”  My first clue that I was not in Kansas anymore.
Young woman, holding a crinkled scrap of paper that looked a lot like MY hand-drawn maps: “I’m lost, too.  Do you know where Otkritoe Shosse is?”
“I’m not sure, but that building right there has the words Otkritoe Shosse on it.”  Those who aren’t from Moscow may think that such a sign meant that I was ON Otkritoe Shosse.   No way, brother.  That MIGHT mean you are on the Otkritoe Shosse, or it might mean you are in the region where all the buildings have such signs.
A person standing near a small guard shack: “What?  I don’t know.”  He opened the door to find three more people and a bed.  I said, “What about Ulitsa Podbelskovo Metro station?”
A young woman leaps up and says, “Oh yeah, Podbelskovo is right down there and to the right.”
I make a lifting motion with my hand and say, “I have to go over the bridge?”
“Yes, right there.”
“Ugh,” I thought.  “How did I get over that thing without knowing it?”  Oh, well, you gotta do what you gotta do.  I ran over the bridge.
A man on the other side: “I don’t live around here.  I don’t know.”
I turn down another street and stopped in a shop.  “Ulitsa Podbelskovo?!?  Oh yeah!  You have to go up this street and over the bridge. Then—“
“What?!?  No, no, I just came over the bridge!”  I went BACK over the bridge.
Then I looked closely and I had been there twice before.   It was the exit from the metro station—not NEAR the station, but at the other end of an underground tunnel from the other entrance to the metro.  I had been there only once before, in the dark on the second night in the area.  I had been trying to become oriented with the area.

   The interesting thing about this run is that it felt like I was covering a lot of ground.  Now that I examine it on a map, I wasn’t doing much.
As I look back, I’m sure the person who told me to go OVER the bridge did not tell me to go over the bridge.  I can’t wait until I speak clearly enough and understand well enough that I don’t get into this trouble.
Though I usually run 25-35 minutes, this day, I ran 80 minutes.  I did 9 sets of 9 pull-ups each, and I ran 3 one-minute sprints. My legs were getting weary.  Luckily, I was not late for anything all day.