Russian Independence Day

Today was the latest Russian Independence day. By this I mean that this marks the anniversary of the fall of the Soviet Union. Who knows when a new day of independence will present itself.

The day started off with Christina and I going to this really cute little bakery. Yes I used cute to describe it...it's Flynn's fault. But this place was so unexpected. Looked straight out of Paris. Bread everywhere....seriously. It was so great to just sit down and have a relaxing breakfast...albeit it was after noon when we sat down. Flynn had quiche and she wouldn't shut up about how good it was...and she even said it was better than Avalon Bakery's quiche. I know...had to be pretty damn good quiche for her to say that. My coffee was good too, though they only had brown sugar and i managed to spill it most everywhere on the table.

We did have class today despite this being a national holiday. We weren't supposed to, but in exchange for having acting today we don't have it tomorrow afternoon. I did another individual etude. This time we had to choose three professions and a simple task. The point of the etude was to see how each profession would do this task. My task was making a sandwich. The three professions were a chef, a dad, and a Subway Sandwich Artist. I'll spare you the details from the first two. I needed a person from the class to be my "customer" at Subway so I chose Jason. I needed two specific things from him: 1) Order a cold cut combo and 2) Order bacon, but i'll say we're out of bacon.

We start the etude. "Hello welcome to subway...yadda yadda yadda." Jason proceeds to order probably what he actually wanted at the time.

It was not a cold cut combo.

"I'll have a chicken breast sandwich."

Curveball #1.

"O....k...."

"Oh and I want it toasted."

Curveball #2.

"O...k..."

"Oh and I want bacon."

"We're out of bacon."

"No you're not, I see it right there."

Curveball #3.

"Uh........yeah we have it but it's bad and you actually can't have it. Sorry."

Awkward. Or as Jason would say. Beedy-bong. Despite the constant need to stay on my toes it was actually pretty funny and it was fun to do.

After class we went and ate at probably the coolest restaurant I've ever eaten at, FAQ. There are several tiny little rooms and they seem to spring up after every turn. The best part is that they have these little nooks in the walls about six feet up in the wall and you have to climb a ladder to get to them. They're meant for only two people and they looked terribly romantic...and of course there were some Russian couples making out in them on our way out.

The best part of the meal though was the fact that I had a White Russian in Russia. Loot at me I'm local!

Next was our opportunity to see the Russian students perform for the first time. It was a movement piece without words, but it was so engaging to me that it might even be my favorite thing I've seen here. So energetic and beautiful and radiant and....pretty much everything. At first I didn't think the quality was all that great because they didn't all move together like most professional dancers do...at least at times. I thought that this was because they were students and weren't quite experienced. But then i remembered that this wasn't a dance, it was a movement piece. And I began to enjoy the fact that everyone was different. I saw characters out of them. The lead male dancer was actually an American...lucky bastard...got into MAT!

It was pretty racey too. There was a rape sequence...or maybe even a few. Of course it was told through dance, so strangely it was beautifying this horrible act. But man they can move. Pretty darn sexily too. Yowzahs! Them Russian women can move!

To cap the night off we went and watched jazz at this little club that Ben and Christina went to the other night. It looked like a tiny little hole in the wall from outside, but we went in and all of the sudden we heard music and entered this spectaular club. There was an American jazz singer visiting, Nicholas Bearde. Is he famous? Let me check.

I don't see a wikipedia page, but regardless he was very jazz-y. He really liked Ben...him and the saxophonist, who was Russian and very cordial. He saw us come in and he put down his sax in the middle of the set and got us chairs at a table. And midway through the second set he waved Ben up onstage and Ben sang a bit with the band. I think that probably made Ben's decade. He was beaming the whole time...AND he rocked it out...or rather jazzed it out.

The Ying to this Yang, however, was the fact that a woman who I can best describe as "an advertisement for inebriation" also had a thing for ole Benny and she demanded she dance with him, which he not so willingly did. Her night ended with two Russian police officers (one carried an AK-47) escorting her out of the club with her screaming the whole way. Who knows what's gonna happen to her...

We had a big day. I'm pooped.