No More American Corner

On Sunday afternoon I made the 5-minute walk to the library for our weekly American Corner meeting. When I got there, two of my friends (Irina and Nastya) were standing outside. They immediately broke the bad news: "It wasn't convenient for us to meet at the library!" They further explained that the library was "under renovation" and that all of the books, videos, etc. that had been donated by the U.S. government were already gone! I had to see and hear it for myself, so I went inside alone.

They were right, all of the books, shelves, posters, etc. had been removed, and the door to the computer lab where we usually met was closed. When I asked what was going on, I heard what seemed to be the week's catch phrase: "We're sorry, but it isn't convenient for you to meet here anymore."

Then it hit me... where were the others? No one had called to tell me they were going to miss the meeting, which they usually did. One of the club members had told me that the KGB keeps a list of who attends and that our meetings were always monitored. Could they have been warned not to come?

All of a sudden I felt very, very alone...