Unexpected Conversations

The internet at school has been down all last week and still hasn't been fixed. My sitemate Jing, who was my other source of internet has left for Kiev. So I had to bite the bullet and ask my old landlord if I could come over to use internet. Our last meeting was tainted with some bitterness that I need not expound on. I called him this morning to see if I could come over and everything seemed fine.

Less than an hour later I was over at my old building and my landlord's mom and one of my old neighbors was sitting outside lounging on a bench as they normally do. They were glad to see me for I'd been away most of the summer. They knew of my departure and we reminisced about my time here a bit. Tyotya (тётя - “auntie”) Tamara and Vera (my old landlord's mom) began planning a good bye party for me at the place where I live now. I said, “did you talk to Valya about this?” and they waved me off as if it were of no consequence. They will have their way. Then while petting me, Vera began telling me how much of a good boy I am and how I left Sasha's apartment so clean when I left. Mid-sentence she began to tear up and bawl. About a minute later it was Tamara's turn: she would say some words about me and did the same. I was not expecting this.

Tamara went inside the building and called some of the neighbors from the building and they poured out of the entrance. Soon we were taking pictures amid heavy serzhik (Ukrainian-Russian hybrid) banter. They were jokingly telling me to take some of the children with me to America. I said, “do you have a suitcase?”. Laughter ensued. Tamara said to me, “did you leave any потомик (offspring)?” I promptly answered no. I don't know if she was joking or not.