«Дорогие друзья» [Dear friends], there has been a reason for my long absence. «На прошлой неделе» [Last week], a series of events converged to make me extremely busy. «Мне было надо написать письменную работу» [I had to write an essay] and I managed to acquire «приглашение на выступление Сергея Лаврова» [an invitation to a talk by Sergey Lavrov]. So, in this post I will tell you all about «Сергей Викторович» [Sergey Viktorovich (i.e. Lavrov)] and my tiring but exciting day last Tuesday. 

«Кто такой Сергей Лавров» [Who is Sergey Lavrov]? If you are a hardcore Russia watcher, you will probably know the answer to this question. «Сергей Лавров –– министр иностранных дел» [Sergey Lavrov is the Minister of Foreign Affairs (or you could simply translate this as Foreign Minister)]. «Он родился в Москве» [He was born in Moscow]. He received his university education at «Московский институт международных отношений (МГИМО)» [Moscow Institute of International Relations (MGIMO)]. He has worked «в МИДе» [in MID, i.e. the Foreign Ministry] for many years. No one (or at least very few) in the United States knew of him until the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, presented him with a “reset button” that had the wrong Russian word on it. (It said «перегрузка» [reload] instead of «перезагрузка» [reset].)

The talk was at «Лондонская школа экономики и политических наук» [the London School of Economics and Political Science]. «Я ездила в Лондон на автобусе» [I went to London by bus]. I had to take «Лондонский метрополитен» [the London Underground, or Tube] «в час пик» [at rush hour] and let me tell you, it was almost as crazy as Moscow.

The talk was about «российский бизнес» [Russian business] and «русско-британские отношения» [Russian-British relations]. The best part was that the audience was able to ask questions. I waved my hand in the air, but, «к сожалению» [unfortunately] the moderator did not call on me.

All the questions were interesting. One thing I noticed that amused me was when the British students asked questions, they addressed the Foreign Minister as “Mr. Lavrov,” but the Russian students called him «Сергей Викторович» [Sergey Viktorovich]. Hardly surprising being that Russian people address each other «по имени-отчеству» [by first name and patronymic], but it still made me happy.

After the talk, «я ходила по Лондону» [I walked around London]. I even went by «посольство Российской Федерации» [the Russian Embassy]. Then, I returned from London, very, very tired.