Monday, August 26, 2013

Eagle is for the Libertarian Party of Russia.


August 18 was my 18th happybirthday. It was also the day I officially joined the Libertarian party of Russia (LPR)*. Actually, I was already a member of this party however a state law prohibits those who are underage from joining any party. So, here is the story.

Eagle is the official
symbol of the LPR

* Please, make sure you read this article first not to take me to a sectarian freak, because libertarianism is the most beneficial thing that can happen to you in this world.


That day started in Misha's apartment where we spent our fist night together, the night when I didn't come back home for the first time in my life, almost two years ago. I woke up early in the morning (as I didn't have enough time to get over my jetlag from arriving from Tokyo) to find that Misha wasn't sleeping since 6 am. Idk, but it makes me somehow happy to wake up near Boyfriend when he is already awake (don't misunderstand me, I experienced it only two times in my live).


As it turned out, this day was also the important day for the LPR in the process of its registration, the day when all the documents were finally formally ready. It's a pretty hard process to register a political party in Russia as the state law requires to have at least 500 members from at least 50 regions to be officially registered. Moreover, after this requirement is archived at least a half of members should attend the constituent assemblies in each region. The assembly in my city, Moscow, was planned to be exactly on August 18, 12:00.

Vera, Paul and their cat Marseillaise. Libertarians.

We decided to meet Boyfriend's friends before the party conference, but we woke up too early and the friends were too sleepy. It meant that we had to occupy ourselves with smth for nearly two hours, so we looked through some albums in Misha's library, I read some Ghost World, then we looked through some more albums and then it was time to leave. Actually, the plan was to intrude to the friend's appt a little bit earlier than we were told but luckily for them Boyfriend's albums were too interesting. So technically, we were even late. But really, nobody was waiting for us. On the contrary, it looks like we came somehow unexpectedly as Vera was having breakfast, Paul immediately hid in the bedroom and Marseillaise hadn't enough time to realize that to hid with Paul was a better idea before Misha started to squeeze it. And I? I behaved in accordance with the ideal scenario for me – I was sitting in the corner..

observing.

In half an hour, though, we were already on the metro platform where we met one more friend and headed to the meeting place all together.


Daria and her fluffy backpack. Not really
 a libertarian but she agreed to join us
to help the party with the registration.

Attention. Not so important information. Feel free to scroll it down.

1. Boyfriend and others bought some confections in a nearby bakery and I got a cup of chopped watermelon (they had smth like a watermelon themed week. they were selling even a watermelon soup!) and a straight black coffee (at least I don't use Instagram to picture my lunches, can you please excuse my food flood for a second in here).

2. As we walked towards the meeting place Misha had an argument with Paul (who is a student of a historical faculty) about some interesting historical/architecture stuff but lost a bet and it was so cute to look at.

Then, was the assembly, where I finally was officially registered and given a membership card and a stupid photo capturing the moment.


And then, someone brought lots of propaganda stickers which I decorated my macbook (and the membership card too) with.



All in all we met a lot of people that day, were chatting a lot, fussed a lot.. For a moment, I didn't want it to end to such an extent that I didn't want to leave Moscow, not so soon at least. Now, it's already 26th and I still hesitate if I want to return to Tokyo, although I still don't have any friends here in Moscow but I started to feel happy to be with Boyfriend's.

The truth is, that we came back to Moscow only because of Boyfriend's holidays, the first half of which we wanted to spend at home and the other half hiking in Bhutan. However, I'm writing this post from Georgia (country, not a state) where we unexpectedly arrived to participate in Bazaleti Summer School of Economics which starts today after we finish our breakfast.

Yesterday, I had a great chance to meet even some more people who were also libertarians which calms me down a lot. But for the time when new people came to our table and it was my turn to introduce myself there was already fifth cup of coffee inside me, so I was all shaking and barely managed to say a few of sentences. But I did it! And continued to shake.

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