Super-Duper Wacky n' Tacky Euro Adventure

OK, this is actually half a kilometer away from where I took the first picture on a completely different street! I swear they were following me!
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This man strives to be like Comrad Lenin so much, he even imitates his pose.
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If I were more culturally astute, I would remember the name of this religion that goes around singing, but for the sake of my mom, I will know them simply by their lyrics: Hary Krishnas.
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This one is for Stan: You would not believe the amount of G500 benzes here! I liked this one for its especially p-i-m-p color.
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DJ HotRusky?
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This one is for Schwig: Randomly found this random graffitti fetival sort of deal. The Russians were enamored with this stuff!
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More cultural insensitivity.
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Hehe, I'm not even going to explain what's going here. Just use your imagination.
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Don't worry Josh, not everyone can be from the great state of Texas.
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Why is Micha so proud of this shirt? Well, I wuppose we should all be proud of our roots. J/K
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Lovely intellectual ladies. What could be hotter?
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Quick, she's not paying attention, take a picture!
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Ok, so most of these pics are from a place called Americanski Bar and Grill. I know. Quite shameful. But honestly, where else can you get cultural bastardization and eggs and hashbrowns at 4:30 am?
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The cultural insensitivity here is mind-boggling. So instead of trying to change it, why not join it?
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Hey guys, we arrived in Santa Fe! Hmm, something's different here. Can't put my finger on it.
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Yes! It has finally arrived! Gin and Tonic in a can. WARNING: This beverage contains 9% alcohol and tastes EXACTLY like Sprite!
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Love the current Russian text books we're learning from! Wait, doesnt CCCP mean...
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That Moscow is some sleepy ex-soviet city from nay-sayers back in the U.S.? Honestly. So many times it was "You should have gone to St. Petersburg. It's much livelier there." Screw that! I love this place! It is incredibly lively, colorful, eventful, fun, and (something that Paris won't be able to touch) generally cheap!

Last night was something else. Never, and I mean never, have I gone out for a night on the town, and gotten back when the sun was coming up. The bad news: I think I might be starting to annoy my host family more and more. The good news: If you stay up long enough, the Metro starts running a 5:30 am and there is no need to pay for Taxi cabs!

Ok, I'm gonna post some pics and try to piece the last 24 hrs together.

Crazy Frenchman Thomas displays the high styles that are taking Paris by storm these days. Crazy Drunkman Eric seriously ponders adopting his style.
"WE WIN!"
OK, this picture deserves an extra special caption for the sole and wonderfully ironic fact that we have here Thomas the Frenchman eating a hamburger and "freedom" fries. Oh yes, we definitely win. W would love this pic.
What Irish pub is complete without and Irish flag! Too bad this flag won't be flying at the World Cup any time soon. Ooh, sorry, low blow to all the Irish out there.
Micha, you are so crazy and sideways!

The hella fun croud at Silver's Irish Pub last night. Look at Iris getting her game on in the background!

We got some good pics of the very drunk Stanford alum from last night. Some of us met up with Josh and Micha and about a bagillion of their international friends. Josh was of course the life of the party as he knew every one there and spoke almost all of their languages.

OK, I have to butt in the story telling really quickly to let you know that I just had a full two sentence exchange with a stranger in Russian! Yay me! She wanted to know ifthe internet at this cafe worked well. I told her it did. She then rambled off something I completely did not understand and I felt sad. So I went back to the: "I'm sorry, I don't speak Russian" bit, and as usual for the elite here, they spoke perfect English.

OK, back to the story. So one of Josh's many languages is "Irish." I thought this meant he spoke Gaelic Irish, but as I found out later when Fiona and Anna, two very nice ladies from Dublin, joined us, we find out Josh actually just speaks a form of Hollywood/Boston Irish accent complete with utterly incorrect diction. We had a great time to say the least.

So then Iris, Josh, Micha, Anna, Fiona, and I tried (meaning mostly failed) to go to a place that was playing hip-hop. Needless to say, this was the only reason we were really out on a Wed. night since hip-hop isn't a common occurence here in Moscow. The club was, um, empty? The plus side is we had no problem getting a VIP table in the back where we drank a bottle of bubbly out of a bucket on ice. Totally not kidding. On the down-side, when we got our rap requests through to the DJ, he was playing them at way-too-fast techno speed. Oh, I desperately wanted DJ HotRod at that moment, but alas, he is in California. So the night didn't end as well as we thought, but I still had a good time, and I think everyone else did too. Oh Josh, when I say you're freaking insane, you know I mean that in the best way:)

I just had a damn good day. Everything seems to be working out. Except for the whole learning the language thing. But I’m sure that will come later. For now, I’m just gonna listen to Nick Drake, finish this wonderfully insightful book by Jeff Sachs, and fall to sleep gently, ready for school tomorrow morning.

Gracias a dios que estas bien. Estaba tan preocupado, pero acabo de hablar con papi y dijo que te estas durmiendo con calma. Se que agradezco todo que tu has hecho para nosotros, tus hijos.

...and the worst part it is, it really in fact hasn't even begun to poke its ugly head out. Highs are struggling to reach 60 here and I sure look goofy as hell with my huge snow jacket, gloves and beanie when some kids are walking around in their t-shirts. But you know what the real test is: If in fact I am wearing the same Under Armour under shirt I used to wear on cold nights in Oregon with nothing other than a football jersey to protect me, and I am wearing that same undershirt today, inside, with a jacket on and I am still FREAKING FREEZING!

Ok, so the real bad part about the whole cold thing is that we are enduring some of the worst of the season right now. What's that you say Beto? I thought it hasn't even frozen over or snowed yet for that matter! Well, son, you're right but my true meaning is that there exists no central heating at the current time. Yes, with some glorious leftovers from the broke-ass Russian Federation of the 1990's, it is now city law that natural gas will not be released to homes and businesses for another few weeks. Yes you read correctly, I said there is currently no heating. So it turns out the state will not release gas until there are five consecutive days below 10 degrees celcius. For us non-human calculators out there, that means when it does not reach above 50 farenheit for five days, only then will Moscow be allowed to be comfortable. OK, I could be completely over-reacting as I ususally mis-interpret many things from Russians that hate articles and non-active verbs, but I'm pretty sure that's what the deal is. From what I understand, this was a measure put in place to prevent shortages when the fuel price was artificially low. It could still have a price cieling on it; that I haven't been able to figure out. But regardless. Prices most def need to be liberalized and let me have my damn heating! It's not like there is any shortage of natural gas in this country. Ask Putin, he loves his energy revenues. Now let my love my energy useage and please let me thaw out!

OK, it really isn't that bad, but one thing is sure: I have gotten way too spoiled at Stanford. The picture, by the way, isn't from this season. But have no doubt, once it snows I will be all over the city with camera in hand. Can't wait!

I just skipped a little more class today. So I actually had a legit reason this time! I was racing against the clock to update my CV and finish a cover letter for the World Bank which is offering Stanford two positions this fall. I don't wanna get my hopes up a lot, BUT IT'S THE FREAKING WORLD BANK! Oh man, I would die if I actually got one of the spots. The bad news: I'm competing against other amazing Stanford students that have a lot more experience and mad resume skills that I might be lacking. Oh well, guess I'll just keep my fingers crossed for now.

The light at the end of the tunnel that is intensive Russian is barely beginning to be seen. About a week left and it couldn't sooner. The bad part about the class isn't the number of hours spent on one subject or the amazing amount of homework for one language; it's the fact that when we get into the real Russian-speaking world, we seem to have progressed nowhere. That stars to wear on a person ya know?

Can't wait for the other pimpskis to get here! Seepan will be the first coming in this Wed. Yay other people that I can communicate with! For all I know, however, he'll steal my internship position. No good.

The pic from above is from Fri night. It was taken by the amazingly drunk guy that somewhat resembles a campaign-era Bill Clinton. He literally could not see the screen in front of his eyes, he was so drunk. That being said, it's an amazingly good picture! Just look at Iris basking in her Asianess!

Oh drunk Russians, why do you make me laugh so?!

The license plate on this limo, says New York, USA with an American flag in the background. Ah, home. Sort of.Hehe, this faucet is for both the tub and the sink.

This guy was so drunk it took us five minutes just to convince him to take a picture with us. He was not as calm as he appears.

So I’m sitting here at this very trendy internet café where there are very trendy novi Ruski people and the damned internet just plain doesn’t work. I remember living in Mexico and my dad had a common phrase for situations like this: Ay, Mexico. As if personifying the culture and the attitude in general served any therapeutic purpose. And so I am now coining the phrase: Tak, Rassiya. Meaning So, Russia, what’s your latest problem?

In other news my internal clock, after just barely attuning it to Russian time, is now completely thrown off thanks to the local night life. Friday was a bit of a bust as Iris and I walked literally for hours looking for a club that we thought would be playing some hip hop, but when we finally got there, they were closed and weren’t even playing hip hop in the first place. So we had a pleasant chat at a place called KAФE XAYЗ (pronounced Coffee Haauus! (emphasis required)), a twenty four hour coffee chain that could possibly have more stores per capita than Starbucks. Seriously. We also met up with many a drunk Russian who absolutely love talking to random people, and we absolutely love indulging them, taking their picture, and laughing at AND with them.

Last night Micha and I lost Iris so we decided that we could perhaps take one more night of Euro-Electronica crap music. We found a place called Fabrique that is very Russian. From the VIP tables with hookahs and ugly men, to the super model-type women one the dance floor with way, way too much make-up on. We found two very drunk twenty-something Russian ladies before entering the club who were visiting from far away and in town to have a good time. I was successfully able to teach them the Pa’rriba Pa’bajo toast that anyone who knows me well, is very familiar with. They even took the time to carefully place their fifth of cognac on the ground and write down the full toast so that they would remember it later. Very cool. After they started dancing a little too close in the club, however I had to drop them like a bad habit. Finally got home at around 4:30 after playing one gypsy cab off of another so that I could get my best price.

Today I meet up with Iris at a place called Albian bar and I find her with no other than the only two black men in all of Moscow. Turns out they are training for the upcoming Russian basketball season where they will represent a team in Siberia for the winter months. You can take the Iris out of New York…