Valentines day

So I can't quite remember the last time I wrote an entry. This weekend we observed our valentines day because we were in valdimir on valentines day. Oh by the way vladimir was really cool, it was a bunch of super old churches, and they let us take pictures inside because some weren't still in use, so I finally have pictures from the inside of orthodox cathedrals. yay. We also celebrated some russian holiday where they eat blini(pankcake/crepey thing) and at the end burn a scarecrow. It's a week long fat tuesday like thing cause lent is right after it.
Back to the valentines day celebration.... It was very interesting. We entertained each other with skits. It was kinda hard to organize these skits because we were very disorganized after valdimir. Me and my roommate lipsank(?) to Mulan's a girl worth fighting for. It was fun. Me and my roommate also got all the girls chocolate and got each one a flower. It was fun. Also I cut my hand trying to make props for our skit, that was interesting, but there are nurses in the place where we stay. I dunno if I said this before but we are staying in a profolactory, where the sick recover, so there are doctors here. I also sprianed my ankle pretty bad getting off the bus. So Ima just recover for a while.

Snowboarding and otherstuffs

Snowboarding was rad. They don't really use chair lifts here. the first place we went was basically just behind a park, with one short somewhat steep hill. Basically not enough room to do much, but teach those who couldn't snowboard. The next day we went to a proper place. There WAS a T-lift, but basically only skiiers used it and we didn't want to pay. So we boarded there. I constantly overestimate my boarding skills, and I had some trouble on the steep run. I've got to learn to carve better. Either way we had a great time boarding. We are going to Vladimir and Suzdal today. Vladimir is a former captial along time ago. Should prove to be interesting. Other than that, everything is going fine. Just rocked out a 4 page paper for school. Wondering how well I did on that. Anyways I'll try to keep this updated. Later all.

Scholastic endevours

So I feel like we are actually diving into the language. I'm learning new stuff, and it actually takes some concentration now. I still don't feel like I can say too much to people in passing to the point of a full conversation, but I like that I can properly say small phrases of my own creation other than, I have, I want and so forth. Late tonight is ice skating, and tommorrow is snowboarding. I think I'm going both days, because we have to rent boards for essentially two days, but I'm the only dude going, so basically I go both days, cause no chick could fit into my boots. Bascially we are renting like 6 boards and having like 10 people go, like 5 on one day and 5 on another shareing boots and boards. W/e I needed to say I boarded in Russia and I needed to board this winter. Either way should be fun. I'm starting on some of the contemporary Russian literature that we need to know, actually it's a very chaming little book(master and margarita) and it's a fun read. Other than that, learning, loving, living, you know the usual.

After

So yeah really regretting that whole pushup thing, my arms hurt, and then I went cross country skiing for the first time. That's interesting but I still don't have it down. More strain on the arms. Then we played badmitton. See i forget that badmitton is a legitimate sport in other countries. I played against my american counterparts and pretty much rocked. Then they had me play a girl on the badmitton team and I got spanked so hard. I lost 1 -15 and the little girl was so ultimately shocked when I got a single point on her. That was an intense game regardless of how bad I lost. I was going to play a dude for Sushi, but I guess that'll have to be postponed. Went to a Banya, which is a russian sauna where you go in jump into ice cold water, maybe run into the snow, but like when your in the sauna they hit you with leafy birch branches. It's an interesting experience. I'm glad i went buy my arms are killing me.

before

ell today was interesting. Yesterday we went on a bus to a place that did Traditional
russia folk songs. Most of them were atleast 400 years old. This place is so much older
than anything in America. The first day here, Alexander said "this is a newer monastary, it was
built in 1820" Laura laughed next to me. It's just crazy, new in america is 40 years at most.
Anyways I captured a few of those on my camera, and they sound good enough. On the trip back
we crammed into a bus like sardines. I ended up bear hugging one of the shyer girls, and I hope
she didn't mind it. All the girls kept giggling and the Russian just kept glaring at us.
Today was interesting, we went to a "pedestrain street", wish is basically 4-5 blocks of a brick
road that basically only poeple walked on, no cars, and just one solid bock of storefronts
if the storefronts stopped there were market stands. I'll end up buying a few things from
this city specifically, but I think I'll do that later. I played some card game of manliness
with the Russian dudes. Each suit was a different kind of pushup and you had to do as many pushups corresponding with the hight of the card. I was first out. WE arm wrestled after that, and my roommate kept screaming german when he arm wrestled, it was hilarious. It was katya's birthday today.That was interesting. We had a good time, sweats everywhere. I feel like I'm on a constant sugar high in this country, and the girls wonder why I make fun of them buying chocolate.