Booskaya!

No time can't talk gotta go bus is here.

Last day! Yesterday we had our finals in movement and acting which went pretty well. We also got a quick 3 minute response from our teachers about how we did during the month and what we could improve on.

We then had a "fun" party to celebrate our time there. We had a quick champagne toast and then our instructors had to jet so it was pretty uneventful....and there was no music. Flynn got drunk off of 8 bubbles of champagne...lightweight!

Partied for the last night and then went to bed.

Now our bus is here to take us to the airport! Woohoo! USA!

The Comeback Dog

Second to last day...I'm ready for this to be done!!!

Somewhat of a standard day considering that we were leaving in two days. We had our Ballet final in the morning, which was pretty anticlimactic. We began we by practicing our dance in front of the other group as a warm up. Then for the final, two other people joined us and that was it. Rah!

I spent my last lunch time in the yard of the Kremlin and I was writing in my journal when a bear ran over to me and picked up my pepsi bottle and started to play with it. I then realized that my peripheral vision is terrible and it was actually a doggy.

Now I've been comparing pictures and I still can't tell, but this looked EXACTLY like the dog that followed Jason and Annabelle back to the dorm earlier in the trip.

Either way, he was a cute little pup and he really wanted to play. Sadly though he was really dirty and I didn't want to get fleas or some random dog disease from him. But man, he sure did try...he tried to snag my Pepsi bottle again, along with my journal and then took to licking my face...gross.

After he got done with that, he then repeated the same activity with the girl sitting a little ways away. He must've gotten tuckered out though and decided I was much cooler, so he came back to me and plopped down for a nap. So cute!!! I wrote in my journal for a bit longer and then quietly snuck away to avoid the heartache of leaving him.

We also got to see our LAST RUSSIAN PERFORMANCE!!! This was mostly good in my eyes cause I am theatred out right now...looking forward to a little break before school starts back up in August. It was a student show we saw though and it was pretty amazing. It was actually their final exams and I thought they were phenomenal...but they all probably got C's and D's as they are much MUCH tougher on their students.

Again it was one of the hottest 3 hours of my life! The Russians apparantly haven't found the happy medium between hot and cold as it's either balls ass hot or cold as hell in the rooms.

I likened this session in the audience to a 10 hour International American Airlines flight. Yay...

Flea Market Madness

It's that time again...where I start giving up on the blog. I come home in two days....so ready to come home!!!!

Ok, Sunday was good times. Went to the Flea Market and got some really cool gifts. I doodled a little picture on an American Airlines napkin so I already had my mom's gift taken care of. Maybe I'll frame it, maybe I'll wrap it...hopefully she likes it.

The flea market was pretty crazy though. It seemed to go on for miles. Felt like the Iowa State Fair in some ways...there was even smoked meat smell in the air...AMAZING!

I had a tough time getting my head right for the flea market. I knew of a few gifts I was going to get, but others I bought on the fly. To make it harder, there was EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE. Very bad day for ADD.

On the way out Brian and I remembered that we needed to buy shot glasses, so we took to haggling for the best price possible. We were told not to pay more than 150 roubles and the guy said 300, but after Brian and I got done tag-team haggling, we walked away victors and only paid 200 roubles...though he did try to take 20 roubles out of Brian's wallet. Gotta love markets.

It was a bazaar day. (Brian's joke...I stole it...then told people about it....damnit!)

We saw ANOTHER Chekhov production also...Three Sisters. I didn't know it at the time but it's been running for about 20 years. I don't understand why they keep productions around for so long? Undergrad productions here run two weekends.

Did I just compare Russian professional theatre to American undergrad theatre?

The show was pretty good though...a lot of interesting choices and concepts. They had a rotating stage that was almost like a silly silo. No puking though, so that was good.

It was also the hottest fuckin' theatre I've ever been in. We were in the top row of the balcony with no AC. And it was the standard 3+ hour Chekhov show, so it felt like I was back at the banya a bit...except without any pleasure.

US soccer was playing perhaps their biggest game ever and I managed to find it at the sportsbar. US was up 2-0! They were on the verge of their second major upset in a week! I had to run home, but I made it back for the final 45 minutes, which was also the worst 45 minutes of soccer I've ever seen. They ended up losing 3-2, but it was still the best they've ever done.

Oh well....we're still Americans playing soccer I guess.

This is a picture of a dog that had stolen a purse.
This is a picture of a man being wheeled around playing an accordian...awesome!

PS...Matt Foss, in all his wisdom, alerts me that the Seagull was a huge failure in ST. PETERSBURG, not MXAT. It was actually a big hit at MXAT.

Da Svidanya, Seagull

Tonight was a pretty special night. We were able to see the final performance of a 30 year run of the Seagull by Anton Chekhov. Yep, that's right....30 years! It was first mounted in 1980 under the direction of the former leader of the MAT, who died in 2000. He was an amazing man. He was pretty much THE guy, the bridge, from Stanislavski to the modern era of the Moscow Art Theatre.

The show itself was pretty stale....how could it not be after 30 years? The characters have had many different actors come through, so it's not like it's the original cast, but the concept was still the same. The fact that it was directed by the former MAT leader was why it was held over for so long. But it was interesting to see this prodcution.

For those of you that don't know, the Seagull is THE production of the Moscow Art Theatre. It was the first play they ever did there. It was directed by Stanislavski himself and was a huge failure. This also marked the shift in acting philosophies of Russian theatre. This new realistic brand of theatre that Stanislavski was introducing was in stark contrast to the much more presentational acting of generations past.

Feel free to correct any of my horrible historical errors, anyone who knows better than I.

Oh yeah, we also got to go to Stanislavski's house today.

That's right...STANISLAVSKI'S HOUSE!

No big deal really...tons of people have been there right? WRONG! Everyone should instantly find me more attractive for having seen this.

It was the house he lived in up until he died. He was placed there under house arrest after he had been cannonized (which lead to Meyerhold's murder remember?). In the house he staged many plays and even would listen to rehearsals of the MAT theatre over the phone. The man loved theatre. Funny enough he wanted to be an Opera singer at the age of four, but his voice inevitably changed and he wasn't able to achieve his dream. His work and gifts to the theatre world were pretty good consolation prizes I'd say.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Ate McDonald's for the third time over here. All of the other quick places to eat around the school make me want to barf, so I'm stuck with the lesser evil, which ironically enough is McDonald's. Vladamir would be so happy to hear that I'm eating that.

He actually sat in on our acting class today as well. All of the girls instantly got dreamy eyes when he walked him...which is ok cause I had them too. VLADAMIR!

Tomorrow we go to the flea markets, so I gotta get my bartering sleep in. Night for me, good afternoon for everyone else.

The Day Michael Died

I'm the best kind of drunk right now. In fact, only one person that I know knows what kind of drunk I am right now....that person is Scott Lawrence Siepker. I managed to find this German restaurant (ala Hessen Haus) and they served Augustiner, a beer that Scott and I had in Munich. Man, this beer is amazing. I didn't think they served it outside of Munich, so I was EXTATIC when I found this place that had it!

The restuarant itself is really cool...felt very much like Hessen. I ate there alone, but it was probably best because I had time to just be by myself and enjoy the atmostphere. The meal itself was only OK, but the beer and my surroundings made it a very enjoyable meal.

The big news of the day is that Michael Jackson has died. I really don't know how to react. Michael Jackson is my childhood. My mom and dad would blast that while us kids would dance to it. It's so surreal....I almost don't believe he's dead. I haven't thought about him much in the last 10 to 15 years, but when I heard it just hit so close to hom.e. As my brother pointed out, it's a lot like Heath Ledger...you feel like you lost someone that's closer to you than he actually is.

A Russian student at the MAT came up to me, Christina and JT while we were eating lunch at said he was so sorry to hear about Michael's death. I thought that was such an incredible gesture....a Russian guy telling giving his condolences to us simply because MJ was our countryman. I don't know how to react, but either way Michael was an amazing performer that I will miss very much.

This now brings the total of celebrities that have died while we've been over here to four: David Carradine, Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and now Michael. I'm afraid to ever even think about coming back to Russia for fear of losing other people. It's been a very weird month.

So I missed a day of blogging...big whoop. Not much happened. We went to see Cherry Orchard at the MAT. 22 of us went, 6 of us stayed until the end. It wasn't the most amazing show we've seen here, but it was nice to see something a bit closer to home. The acting was much more text driven and subtle, a lot like it is in the states. The coolest part of the show is that they used the actual MAT curtain as the set...the reason being that this was the only place left in the world that was still around when the play was born in the late 1800's. A very original concept.

I did my "given circumstances" etude, which is where you are yourself in any sort of circumstances, real or fake. I chose a Chiefs playoff game that they lost on a controversial call...not too far from home.

Today was a pretty good day though. We had our singing final which I am so glad is over. Working with Marina is pretty stressful, but I survived and it wasn't too bad...always worse beforehand. But now it's over and I feel like it's smooth sailing until we leave.

Truth be told I'm pretty excited to be coming home for a variety of reasons. I miss people and can't wait to get back to American food and culture. Sometimes it takes being away from home to realize that.

The day nothing happened

We had ballet this morning and Larissa was in no mood for our sloppiness. She was particularly hard on Justin, but she did tell him she loved him so it's ok. The thing about Larissa is that she comes down on us for not doing the steps in order....but every class she changes the order so what are we to do? Well I guess just take it...this is all we've come up with. She's such a nice lady and you can tell she cares so there's really no reason to complain. Also she speaks only 13 words of English so we would never get our point across.

We had a good acting class again. The fun exercise of the day was reading random bits of War and Peace by Tolstoy aloud as the text for a certain character. The text was unimportant...the point of the exercise was to get your point across with actions. The different characters we saw were auctioneers, football coaches, men professing love to old translators, and informercial personalities. I have yet to go and now have to think of a new character...Brian stole my football coach!

JT escorted us to a theatre to see Lady with a Lapdog, which is an adaptation of a short story by Chekhov. JT also mentioned that the actress we would see in the play was on his "list." That's right...our 60+ year old teacher (gosh I hope I didn't overshoot that guesstimation) divulged part of his "list" to us. For those not picking up what I'm putting down, this "list" is a compilation of people one can sleep with in the highly unlikely event that one of them would actually like to sleep with you.

Um, I think that's all that's interesting that happened today.

I made pasta for dinner.

Flynn just burnt her sinuses with salt water.

I took a cool picture of Rob with his crazy goggles on.

Rob bought a bootlegged copy of Wolverine.

I'm drinking from a mug with pigs building a brick wall on it.

Whoa, that's messed up...I've never noticed that before.

Back to the Grind

We were back to our normal schedule today after the St. Petersburg trip. I was the first to go for singing lessons today and it went ok. There's something about Marina that makes people tighten up I think and I'm definitely in that category. I sqeaked out my song and I was glad to get the work in. I was also fotunate enough to get to work again towards the end of class on a duet with Kerianne, but sadly it was at the expense of Justin getting to work. What really sucks is that our next class is our final, which I don't think Marina was aware of. If we don't have another class it's gonna be pretty messy for our performances.

Movement is probably my favorite class here. There's something about Vladamir that makes everyone want to work harder and smile while you do it...the smiling is usually cause he tells you to. He's got a very relaxed and carefree way about him when we're doing the exercises. But he couples this with a serious side that teaches us the importance of doing these exercises and to do them correctly. He pointed out our four day break from class and how it not only effected us physically but mentally as well. Our minds were the bigger problem and that was the reason we failed at some of the counter balancing exercises.

Both etude groups had really good etudes today. The first group (that I wasn't apart of) portrayed flowers in a garden that were being attacked by weeds, only to be rescued by gardener Brian. The second group (that I was apart of) was a human heart that was going through a heart attack. I felt like this was far and away our best day of etudes as it was the first day that both groups weren't humans putting themselves into familiar and predictable situations.

We all raved about the etudes during response time only to have Sergie bring us back to earth by saying he didn't like it. As disappointed as we were, this is exactly what good teachers do and what I truly want from our teachers back home. We did some good work andtook a few steps forward, but if we were to simply be patted on the back I think we all would have settled with where we were at. Good teachers always keep pushing you forward.

He did have a good point about the etudes though. The "flowers" in the etude were children's illustrations of flowers. Each one needed an individual personality and a need for something. Same with the weeds...there needed to be a reason they were attacking the flowers. Why these flowers? Were some flowers more delicious than others? And for our etude, it was a bit unclear with what we came up with for Rob, who was the guy having the heart attack. It wasn't exact enough, and that is what the theatre loves...precision.

We saw Shylock at Etcetera theatre where we saw Ubu Roi. It was pretty much just Merchant of Venice with a different name, but I didn't know what the heck was going on cause I don't know the show. Got in a little cat nap though, this time against my will...damn warm theatres put me to sleep.

This was the first time we were on our own for transportation as well, which was exciting in a lot of ways. I kind of took the lead in getting us around as I was the only map carrier in the group. And I ended up riding the metro by myself the night before after an excursion down south.

I followed the Moscva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the Winds
Of Chaaaaaaaange

I literally did the first verse of Winds of Change by The Scorpions...it was awesome.

But back to tonight. The Metro wasn't all that hard to navigate around once you've done it once...just as long as your map is up to date and has all the freaking stops! But everyone made it home safely, so i guess it was a success.

Russia Fun Fact: A word about Borsch. Borsch is a very popular soup in Russia. Made from mainly cabbage, potatos, and beets, it doesn't sound like it might be all that appealing. But damn is it good! Tomato paste is also used as one of the main ingrediants...add some sour cream to that and baby...you got a stew goin'!

Drowning in Swan Lake - Day Three

Another busy day with little relaxation.

Started by visiting St. Isaac's Cathedral today. It's the fourth largest domed cathedral in the world behind St. Peter's Basillica in Rome, St. SomethingorOther in Florence, and St. Paul's Catherdral in London...all places I visited but only saw one. Whatever, they're churches...you get the point. Walked up on top of the dome though and got a great view of St. Petersburg.

Next we visited Peter and Paul's fortress...have fun with the Mary cracks, dad. A tiny headed statue of Peter the Great was there because of some weird reason having to do with taking a casting of his actual head post-mortem and sticking it onto an already made body. Did I just make that up? Who knows...

We were able to take a boat tour down the canals which was well worth the 260 rubles. Nice to relax in the sun and get a different perspective of St. Petes.

We then "got to" see Swan Lake, which is an ancient ballet about a swan and a dude who loves it. Act II was the best nap I think I've ever had. I even got into the heavy breathing of deep sleep, which prompted Flynn to nunge me in the side to wake up...much appreciated.

The show actually started an hour later than we thought, so Brian, Rob and I went and sat on a park bench. Once I sat down I instantly turned into an 85 year old man. I stared at the pigeons, watched a young couple neck, and dozed off before gingerly getting up a bit hunched over and heading out of the park. It was a glimpse of what's the come in my life I guess.

Going to this ballet brought back Vietnam-like flashbacks about going to my sisters dance recitals from the age of 2-13. Sliding out of my chair, bored to tears, looking around, begging mom (in this case, Marianna) to go. I actually did ask her if we could leave early and sit at a restuarant nearby, like we did with Midsummer, but she made us stay. Luckily we HAD to leave during the second intermission (that's right, SECOND intermission) because we needed to eat before we got on the sleeper train to head home.

This train was much nicer...made in this century at the very least. Not as much time to party on the train because it was around 1 am, so I actually got a pretty decent nights' sleep in our smelly man cabin.

The joke on the way home was from the Three Sisters by Anton Chekhov. "To Moscow," yelled Annabelle, in reference to the three sisters wishes to leave their small town and go to Moscow. The subtext was, "To Moscow...where the weather doesn't change every 20 minutes and you can flush toilet paper down the freakin' crapper."

So we made it back safely. Only one pick-pocketing instance, though it still really sucks that it happened. But everyone is alive and well.

I've pooped like three times already and the day's not quite done...it's good to be back.

Infiltrating Peterov, Camera Ninja Style - Day Two

This day we traveled to Peterov, the Summer home of Peter the Great. It was burnt down by the Germans as they left Russia in World War II. Gone also was most of the valuables stored within. But you really wouldn't be able to tell by how it looks now. Rebuilt over 30 years it looks very similar to how it did before it was destroyed. Very stunning!

You weren't allowed to take pictures in Peterov, which I've come to learn is a blessing cause then you don't have to worry about taking pictures. But we actually tried anyway. This prompted the invention...nay, discovery of the Camera Ninja. One became a Camera Ninja upon successfully taking a picture of a room that was monitored by Camera Haters...old Russian ladies who yelled at you for taking a picture. Once you secretly took the picture without being seen you would whisper "Camera Ninja." Not to anyon in particular, but to yourself and the room, so it KNOWS it just got Camera Ninja-ed.

This then gave birth to Master Camera Ninjas. One acheived this highly respected level of Camera Ninja upon successful secret picture taking of the Camera Haters. Brian Sage and I both achieved this coveted level.

This THEN gave birth to Brian and I trying to Camera Ninja eachother for the rest of the day. So now we each have about 150 pics of the other person in various odd angles. But it was probably the best part of the day.

After a brief half an hour break we grabbed some food and then headed to a four and a half hour production of A Midsummer Nights' Dream. Yuck. It turned out to be a student production, which was unfortunate for them after we've seen Russia's best actors on Russia's best stage. The first half wasn't too bad actually, but a group of us wouldn't see the end as we left at intermission and head to a bar. Classy I know, but I just wasn't in the mood to sit for that long in a theatre.

We went to this American feeling bar...or at least a bar that was trying to feel American. Food was ok, their beer was great, but the best part was the dance party. We were all just chillin' around a table but then the greatest song in the world came on, Twist and Shout. Like a bum on a hogey I lept to the dance floor and broke it down, white man style. It was so nice to just cut loose from our rigid itinerary and have some time to relax. Such a great time!

This was followed by our second trip to Subway in as many days. A quick word about Subway. it is Subway only by name, not at all by taste. Their turkey tasted like lunchable turkey and don't ask Jason about his steak and cheese sub. Not good.

There were also drones of people out for the Scarlet Sails festival, so we had to plow our way through to get to the Metro and back "home" to our shitty hostel.

St. Peetz - Day One

(sigh)

I really don't want to write about everything we did in St. Petersburg, but I'll try to hit the important parts.

We took the first sleeper train to St. Petersburg. Not the first one of the day, but the original train. It wasn't all that nice, but we had a good time and enjoyed a few beers before Marianna demanded we go to bed.

When we got there, Chris Tucker (not THAT one) left his wallet on the train. Marianna was not happy. "It seems to me I warned you guys to REMEMBER YOUR THINGS!" I felt bad for the kid, so I volunteered to run back to the train with him. It pretty much played out exactly like the scene in Willow when they are forming a party to go to the Daikini crossroads and unload the found child. Marianna was Burglecut, Chris was Willow, and I was Meegosh. YES! We found the wallet too, so it was a double bonus.

We then made our way to our hostel...again, not a very nice place. The sucky thing about St. Pete is that you're not supposed to flush any paper down the toilet. That includes TP...so yeah, it smelled. AND the tykes on our floor pissed all over the seat. Bastards!

There was no time to rest as we were rushed onto a three hour bus tour followed by a visit to the Hermitage, a really beautiful museum that no one was in the mood for. The sights were pretty cool yadda yadda yadda.

St. Petersburg is pretty much Paris and Amsterdamn mashed together. They have a bunch of canals and a lot of great architecture, but they don't quite capture the magic of either city. But it's got an energy all it's own, which Christina and I found out that night.

We ate Uzbeki (sp) food for dinner. It's ok....lamb cooked in various ways, usually with a lot of fat. The meal took about 3 hours, which killed the night pretty much. But Marianna was in good spirits, which is always a nice site. Her and I had an artistic photo shoot with a rose at the table for about 45 minutes, quite a long shoot but it was good times.

Flynn and I headed out on the town after unsuccessfully trying to find internet (thus no blogging in St. Petes). Figured out where North was and then followed the map around the canals and drones of people at midnight. This is the period of white nights in St. Petes, so it was still pretty bright out (it actually did get dark for a few hours but not completely dark I don't think...I don't actually know...I was sleeping).

I always enjoy cities at night after Scott and I experienced London at 4 am. All the buildings were lit up and really beautiful to see. There was a special electricity in the air as this was the eve of the Festival of the Scarlet Sails or something like that. Basically there's a myth about a woman being locked in a tower or something waiting for her prince to rescue her in a scarlet sailed ship. The fortress of St. Petes had a bunch of spot lights shooting out in all directions which made for great picture taking.

This was the first day that really reminded me of Eurotripping. Trains, hostels, tourists...brought back some fine memories.

Oh and before we left Moscow we saw a bad ass demonstration of the MAT stage and how it can morph from one setting into another. It really does seem like it's alive. I have a seven minute video that I'm not about to wait to post on here, so let me know if you want to see it.

Superman wears an American Flag

Saw one of the most amazing performances I've ever seen last night...again. Had a feeling I would write that a lot while I was over here.

I just didn't know it would be about 20 year old students.

Sergie arranged for us to see his class of third years give a performance of somewhat of a conglomeration of scenes that they've been doing since joining the MAT. But oh my God...they were all just so incredible! All of us left the theatre so energetic and motivated to start working at that very instant.

The first act was the most inspiring...it showed me everything I want our theatre to be. They did object and animal etudes just like us...only not at all like us. One kid was both a wolf and a beach ball and I'll be darned if he wasn't actually both of them. They have such control of their bodies and they do everything, even the smallest thing, with such life and energy and 100% commitment.

One of the skits was called Sky Jumping...sky diving as it's known in the States. So two actors are shaking their heads and their bodies sitting in the "plane" and some crazy guy throws them out. They cut the lights so they can get into place and when they came up they had their bellies on these stools simulating falling. The guy then pulled his cord and moved back to a table and sat like he's parachuting. The girls wouldn't pull. Neither would the emergency one. So duder mcdude takes off his parachute, rips open his shirt and exposes the Superman 'S'. Hilarious!

What made it more hilarious was when he took off his shirt, he unfurled his cape. Not the red cape, but an American Flag. HILARIOUS-er! It's so funny to see their interpretation of this American icon, but he had it down pretty well. After he saved the girl he got back on the table, this time in the traditional Superman flying pose. Just as the lights were cut, he looks over at the audience with his All-American grin and gives the audience a wink. HILARIOUS-est!

The Second Act was a showcase of caricatures and impressions that the students were absolutely perfect on. It was also a showcase of insanely hot the women were. Hot...I man HOT! Brittany Spears impression....HOT...and accurate as all Hell! Enrique Inglesias impression...pretty damn hilarious. His backup dancers wearing nothing but bras and underwear....I don't wanna talk about it.

Just such an amazing performance!

PS We're going to St. Petersburg by sleeper train tonight...awesome!

PPS No pics cause I couldn't whip out my camera in the middle of their show and start snappin' away from the front row.

Man Chocolate and the Case of the Follower Dog

My days are becoming monotonous. If we don't go to a show at night then I pretty much live the exact same day. Class...lunch...class...dinner...dorm...bed.

Luckily today something did happen. We ate dinner at FAQ, the really cool restuarant that we'd already been to, but his time for one of the guys' birthdays. So we're walking home and there was this big black stray dog that was running around outside of the restaurant. Strays are pretty common around Moscow, so it wasn't a big suprise.

But then it started following us home. In particular, it started following Jason and Annabelle.

It was kind of wierd dog...it had a bit of a limp, like it had hip displasia, and it also liked to chase cars. Mind you, we walk home on the busiest street in Moscow, so we were all terrified that he was going to get run over right in front of our eyes. We tried to pick up the pace so we wouldn't know his fate, but he kept on following us and barking and chasing cars. Christina made a good point that he probably just liked the fact that we were paying attention to him because of it.

This dog was glued to Jason and Annabelle the whole way home. He only stopped to drink from dirty puddles of water and to take a huge dump...but then he'd always sprint up ahead to them.

We got back to the dorm and those two quickly snuck inside cause they didn't want to have him see them leave. Christina and I paused and waved goodbye until he turned around. He knew we were leaving and he gave probably the saddest little bark I've ever heard in my life. "Don't leave!" he said. HEARTBREAKING!

Christina and I were going to go sit with him in the park and we managed to tear him away from his Jason-watching post outside the dorm. We walked down the street and were about to cross this intersection when three dogs took notice of our dog from behind our dorm. These dogs guard the crappy construction site next to us, so I didn't know how big or tough they were. Before I had time to do anything like call our dog to us, one of the guard dogs attacked our dog! I was so dumbstruck by this that I didn't even notice that I was in the middle of the intersection!

A million thoughts ran through my head, wondering what was going to happen, wondering what I should do. But our dog kicked the other dogs ASS! It got up behind it and started biting at it's head until the other dog ran off into the junkyard. It was AWESOME! I didn't even think that this is a "street" dog and he probably knows how to take care of himself. Thank God!

We lost our taste for the park and decided that it would be difficult to part with this dog no matter when we did it. We went through the door and climbed the stairs and went on with our lives.

Only the dog wouldn't leave! He knew Jason was in there and he wasn't leaving! He just wanted to be loved and taken in so he could devote his life to a master. Poor little pup. He stayed out there until an old Russian lady yelled at us to get off our balcony and get inside (we think...it was in Russan) so she could presumably shoo him away.

Christina and a few other girls went to the park about a half an hour later and he apparantly found them there where he playfully tossed around a plastic bottle, gnawed on Christina's journal, and stuck his head between Annabelles legs.

I love this dog. We want to take him home with us...except maybe give him a flea and tick bath about five times first.

I'm trying to upload a video of the pup barking outside of Jason's window...here's hoping it works!

I ended my night by eating chocolate that's...get this...JUST FOR MEN! I hope I don't become sasquatched with hair or grow another pair of testicles...hell what am I saying, OF COURSE I want another pair of testicles!

Uh oh...I should probably remember my audience when writing things like that. Oh well....

Fuckin' blog

Man I don't really wanna blog today, but I've come so far. I'm a slave to it most of the time. But i gotta keep up, right?

Ya know, nothing really happened today. Nothing. Nothing! We had class. It was a bit different cause acting and movement switched places, so we had ballet followed by movement. So that was weird...

Gah! Am I done yet?

I really think this is all I got.

OH I know! YESTERDAY we saw a pretty cool play called Don Kihot. Not Don Quiote, but Don Kihot. But it wasn't performed by actors...it was performed by designers. No words, just actions and very crazy designs, but they did it all on stage just like any other performance.

The most amazing part of it was when they put up this sheet across the stage and they had a single flashlight behind it to cast silhouettes on the two actors performing an operation on a giant skeleton. They would do part of the operation on the foot, for instance, and then on the head. But the interesting thing was that the guy holding the flashlight would do the moving for the most part. So while the actors were doing very small movements, the shadows were dashing everywhere...it was one of the most inventive and creative things I've seen!

Man that story didn't capture this at all. Screw it...my day wasn't very interesting. Deal with it...I did.

Here's a picture of a bird.

Russia Fun Fact: So Tverskaya, which is the street we walk down everyday, is so busy that you can't cross the street above ground. They have these little walkways underneath the street. but these aren't just walkways, they have little shops on one side of most every tunnel. There's a particularly long one that we walk through on our way to class and Rob pointed out that you could buy a phone card, donut, watch, tights, flowers, replica revolver and a katana....all within about 15 feet. They're crammed into these tiny six foot wide shops that hold all these goods. Them Russian people are CARAZY!

Russian Banya

We started our day off today by getting up earlier than we ever have...awesome. We went as a group to see the Kremlin and we had to leave early to avoid the long lines. Naturally it rained only once yesterday and that was while we were in line. And to top it all off, by the time I got to the front of the line the security gaurd motions to me that I can't take my bag in cause it looks like "luggage." So I had to walk all the way back to the other side of the Kremlin grounds to put my bag in a locker and then come back to the security point...luckily we had a guide with us so we could cut right to the front of the line.

The Kremlin really didn't have much to do. It's not a very big area....felt like maybe five square city blocks. Within the wall (which has 2o individual towers) there are several churches and the government buildings, like the senate and congress. But then thing about the churches is that they all look the same, inside an out. They were beautiful, but I had the feeling that if I had been in one, I had been in the them all. The grounds were pretty nice though...very beautiful. Reminded me of a few other places I've traveled.

A feel like I'm writing like a fifth grader today. We saw the Kremlin. It was good. I liked it a lot.

Alright, so next up was the Russian Banya. AMAZING! Probably the coolest, most Russian feeling thing I've done so far. There were only five of us total that went...all dudes. Marianna was gracious enough to take us to the Banya, though she did add what felt like a few miles to the walk as we traveled around in a complete circle at one point. But alas, we arrived at the Banya.

Ok, so the Banya is this incredible Russian bath house...this was the most famous one of them all where Stanislavsky and other famous actors used to come every saturday. We bought the historical Banya ticket, which is the most old and beautiful but also it's most expensive. You come into the first room which is this exotic change room/restaurant. You put your clothes on hooks behind these tall leather benches where you get butt naked in front of a bunch of sweaty, old, hairy dudes. But this is also the space where you can have a beer or eat a meal and just relax watching TV or chatting.

So you're naked, but then you rent a sheet from them and wrap it around like a towel. Next, off to the actually bath house room which has a giant sauna, showers, tubs of cold water, a massage area, and a swimming pool. We did the sauna thing first to work up a good sweat. Went in, disrobed, and sat there with a bunch of naked Russian men.

Yeah, lots of swingin' dicks in the banya, but it doesn't matter. It quickly becomes locker room mentality...everyone's naked but who cares. So you work up a sweat and then you can either have a giant bucket of cold water dumped on you, sit in a tub of cold water, or jump in the swimming pool. I pretty much stuck with the swimming pool, though I treated it as a swimming pool and swam around, whereas the Russians just pretty much wade around. What're ya gonna do?

We repeated that about four or five times. The sauna was easily the hottest places I've ever been in. I remember doing saunas with my dad when I was young, but this time it seemed excruciating! Just when i couldn't bear it any longer a Russia would come by, open up the furnace and throw water on the coals. I thought my hair was gonna burn off....I didn't buy one of those crazy hats to protect it.

The rest of our time was spent relaxing with one of the best beers I've ever had. Everything just felt so luxurious...you paid for it, but you felt like a million bucks afterwards. One of the best experiences ever!