Thoughts and Observations

Nothing really major has happened...I'm still not really settled - that would involve me getting off my tush and buying some cooking supplies, groceries, hangers, theater tickets, making it to rugby practice and finding some mainstreams (I'm also considering finding a Muay Thai or MMA club in place of a gym, which I have had no luck finding). So this post is just going to be a dump of silliness. Yay!

So in spite of not making it to a wild or exotic location (read: tropical) for study abroad - Russia is pretty wild...and kinda exotic...in a really trailer trash sort of way, but don't worry about that - the past few days have had their share of tropical delights. Most importantly the sun showed its lovely shining face again on Thursday and this morning. On Thursday I had set my alarm extra early to make it to a mainstream class at 8am (I woke up and went back to bed...that won't happen next week...honest), but when I woke up I noticed something special - the sky, normally glowing a rusty red was instead a dark blue...I knew that this could have but one meaning - hell had frozen over and Satan was too preoccupied to keep the clouds over Moscow. Today was different unfortunately, I woke up late and by the time I had gotten out of bed the haze returned, but I made up for it by finding the entrance (lord I hope so) to the rugby stadium where the Dragons practice and stopping by my favorite little coffee shop/bakery - Volkonsky not far off from the Mayakovskaya Metro station. On the other hand I didn't make it to the Dragons game today as I could not recall which bus to take from the metro station and was generally too disoriented to walk 1.5 miles to find it. In my wandering today I noticed something peculiar by my standards or at least curious - at all of the plazas from Red Square down Tverskaya there were regiments of militsioneriy, OMON, and some military...and nothing seemed to be going on. They weren't doing anything though...the were a few who formed a perimeter around the plazas (complete with metal detectors) but most were just idly sitting in trucks or old asian minibuses with the curtains drawn (I think this was only for OMON - largely considered the specops brute squad of the Kremlin). I wanted to ask an officer what was going on, but decided against it when I remembered that I hadn't renewed my spravka and still don't have my real passport yet...agh!

Yesterday, I had yet another tropical experience. I went to the Moscow Zoo in hopes of another hilariously depressing experience like Irkutsk's Nerpinariya (they have a delfinariya here David!) So, in my experience Zoo's are not typically open in the winter time...perhaps I'm a bit wrong, but I have very few memories of ever being at such a place during the winter, naturally many of the animals were not on display in the frozen landscape that is the incredible tacky Moscow Zoo, but enough were and were able to go indoors to see some others. Highlights include: Maxim magazine sponsorship of the wild boar exhibit, people throwing food to the animals in spite of signs insisting that they not feed them (right under signs that could be interpreted to mean that children are prohibited from dueling...or approaching the barriers...take it whichever way you want), tuskless walruses, interspecies relationships and the opportunity to feed and pet giraffes and tapirs (I have pictures - the tapir ones aren't so good though).

And now and ad hoc list of silliness:
1. Some little kid trying to emulate cartoon martial arts hit me pretty hard while walking to the metro...the rascal.
2. Yesterday the cold water in our apartment didn't work...the hot did, I can understand how this could happen, but it's very silly.
3. I bought a friend on Wednesday, he's kinda cool...I guess, he has decent taste in action movies if nothing else.
4. The internet has finally arrived for me now that I got some American-Russian power adapters and turned on the Beeline wifi. It works ok, but likes to boot me off whenever I start using lots of bandwidth...which is almost always.

Apart from all that not much else remains. Sunday we're going to the Banya. Monday is Day of the Defenders of the Fatherland...which from what I understand celebrates some sort of made up Soviet army stand near Pskov. I'll be celebrating by drinking myself silly and reading...or watching the telly. Next weekend is Maslenitsa or as the rest of the world that celebrates it on time calls it - Carnival, we're renting a cottage in the 'burbs and are going to barbecue and fight and make bliny and have a generally bizarre time. I'm still working on internship applications which I'm hoping to have completely finished by Tuesday...but I'll be happy if they're done by the weekend. Tuesday I have a meeting for my internship, which will force me to follow a normal sleep schedule.

Beyond that I just have to get my shopping done, get some theater tickets, and make some travel plans and I'll be set to go...oh and actually get my butt to rugby practice this week.

TTFN

I almost forgot, I have two theories:
1. Most males in Russia own PSP's based on the frequency I seem them on the Metro, but I have no idea why - seldom do I see a DS or some other such thing...is there one?
2. Women in Russia forget how to bend their knees after the age of thirty...why? I do not know, arthritis? All I know is that the majority of middle and old aged women shuffle and drag their feet, which is likely neither healthy nor efficient.