Super-Duper Wacky n' Tacky Euro Adventure

I found this cute little poof on the Metro. Why are Russian just so cute when they're all bundled up?

So I'm back at my usual wannabe Parisian cafe checking mail and such. We found out a little while ago that Legato (as it is written in cyrillic) does not refer to the musical adjective, but rather the French "Le Gateau" (the cake). Ok, that actually makes a lot more sense. Anyway, I only had 3 and a half hours of class today. Thank God. Yesterday I left the apt when the sun was coming up and then came back many hours after it had gone down. I think this will be more and more common as the quarter progresses. Today the sun was out in full force and I must say it was fun to mozy about in my overcoat and aviator sunglasses. Very fashionable if I do say so myself. Quick weather forecast (since that is the most popular topic whenever I talk to anyone): Got to a very balmy 8 degrees today (I'm trying to work in metric people!). Low of -7 tonight. The weather will stay sunny and beautiful for the next few day. This weekend temps take a dive again as the chance for rain and snow showers increases Saturday through Tuesday. Or as some say it, from subbata through ftornik.

That was just BS by the way. My Russian is still terrible. My latest valuable language lesson outside of class (most of them come from outside of class) is that when ordering, one should shamelessly abuse the accusative case. Or as Josh would put it accusative the f*** out of you beer. A good one to know.

This Friday is some new Russian national holiday. Actually it's not new at all. November 7 was a very famous Soviet holiday that has just recently been completely phased out. But of course you can't just take a holiday away from 130 million people, so they found a convenient little battle that took place November 4 a long time ago against Napolean. They call it cultural day or something like that. Most, however, are still referring to it as the holiday of the Great Revolution. There are two very common themes in Russian monuments around Moscow: How they kicked ass in WWII (or the patriotic war as it is called here) and how they kicked ass against Napolean way before that. So we know that Nazi ass was kicked under Stalin, so this November 4 is really nothing more than just really convenient. Tak, Rossiya.