“Russians, we know of long waits. My friend, you stand in line for meat when Brezhnev is premiere, now that is long wait. Ninety-five years, that is nothing! NOTHING! My mother and grandmother wait 95 years just for potatoes at marketplace. And when they reach end of line, they are told, ‘No more potatoes! Come back tomorrow!’ COME BACK TOMORROW! And Cubs fans talk about long waits? I spit on Cubs!”

It was announced last week that for the first time ever, Russian TV will carry the World Series in October…read this hilarious article on World Series broadcasting…Russian style.

…but it rains a lot here in DC…LIKE EVERY DAY!  OK, so maybe not every day, but it sure seems like it.

The weather here isn’t that horrible right now, but it will get worse…much worse.  I’m not looking forward to November and December.

I need some sun, palm trees, and waves.  I miss you California, but if Arnold becomes Governor….ack, I don’t even want to think about it.

Due to school, work, and extracurricular activities I haven’t had any time to crop and upload all 240 pictures I took while I was in Moscow.  Maybe I’ll get it done after I graduate.

I’ve uploaded a few, though, mainly those of my Russian friends.  So without further delay, here you go:

Myself and Slava – Slava is an awesome guy.  He works as a security guard at GUM, the mall that borders Red Square.  He speaks English very well, and I met him at GUM while I was searching for a “Russian Santa Claus” to bring back for my mom.  We hung out a lot during my time in Moscow.

Myself and Roma – Roma is a one of Slava’s friends that came to Moscow for a few days.  He lives in Smolensk and plays basketball for the Smolensk Bulldogs.  Slava and Roma are HUGE basketball fans and know more about the NBA than most Americans I know.  Oh yeah, they don’t like the Lakers

Myself, Vanya, and Nastasya – Vanya, like Slava, is a security guard at GUM, and Nastasya works at one of the stores in GUM.  In this picture we are posing in front of the Kremlin.

Group picture – This is a picture of myself with Slava, Ira (Slava’s girlfriend), myself, Vanya, Alena, and Roma in front of the gates that lead to Red Square.  We would usually hang out in Alexander Gardens near the Kremlin or at the Karl Marx Monument acrss from the Bolshoi Theater.  I enjoyed hanging out with my Russian friends…I learned a lot about Russian culture and had the opportunity to practice my Russian language skills (which are still very poor).  I still keep in contact with Slava via email, and he sends me updates on everyone…I can’t wait to go back to Moscow and see all of them!

Myself at the Space Monument – This is a picture of myself posing alongside one of the walls of the Space Monument.  Like every monument built during the Soviet era, this one has a huge relief of Lenin leading the way…because even though Vladimir was long dead when the Russians sent the first man into space he still had a lot to do with their success!  Riiight.  Also notice that the collective farmers (along with their wheat) are at the forefront of this achievement, while the scientists that worked on the space program are relegated to the back.  Ah, I love socialist realism!

So, we had this hurricane in Washington, DC.  It was the first hurricane I’ve ever experienced, but by the time it got to DC it was a tropical storm, and a wimpy one at that.  Part of Tracy’s window fell off so we spent some time duct taping around the window edges because there was water leaking in…I went outside for like 3 minutes just to experience what a hurricane felt like…rain and wind, and that’s about it.  GW canceled classes for Thursday and Friday even though there was really no need to, but hey, no complaining from me!

Last night a group of us saw Step Into Liquid, the new surf film by Dana Brown, the son of Bruce Brown of The Endless Summer fame.  You MUST see this (preferably not at DuPont Circle 5, though…that theater is horrible).  It was an awesome surf movie – surfing scenes from Hawaii, Maverick’s in NorCal, Tahiti, Vietnam, Cortez Bank (100 miles offshore of San Diego) and believe it or not, Great Lakes surfing in Wisconsin and oil tanker surfing in Texas.  Amazing.  Unfortunately, I’m still stuck far away from a beach….not for long, though.

Well, I am finally back at GW…don’t know if that’s a good thing or not, but on the bright side of things I only have one more semester left (if all goes according to plan).  I flew in Friday and the storage and moving company that held my stuff over the summer was supposed to deliver it on Saturday, but since they are a bunch of morons I didn’t get it until Tuesday.  My room is still a complete mess, but oh well.

Classes are alright…I’ve got Basic Russian (don’t ask me why I am taking SLAV001, because I’m not really sure why), International History of the Cold War, Russian Literature: Revolution to WW2, International Organizations, and Globalization and Intellectual Property. 

Tonight Liz, Laura, and I watched the Democratic Presidential Candidate debate.  So yeeeeah, I don’t like any of the current candidates.  I am still holding out for Retired General Wesley Clark…he is AWESOME.  He just needs to declare…come on, Wes, let’s go!