These are really starting to lose cohesion.

Another week. Lovely. I know it's only Tuesday, but I've had my fair share of adventures already. Whenever you study a foreign language, you expect a couple awkward vocab blunders. Today was my good one for the week. I was talking to one of my teachers, and had a little ADHD moment and zoned out. Next thing I know, she was asking me a question, and I was answering yes. Turns out, I spend my free time smoking in the library. Whoops. Fortunately the verbs for “eat” and “smoke” are close enough that I was able to come up with a decent excuse. Guess I'll be remembering the difference for a while.

Real highlight of the week has been picnicking though. A few friends and I (I won't name Stephanie, Rhys, and Erik) decided we needed to go relax. Soon, we had 1.25kg of chak-chak, a brick of cheese, a communal supply of sausage, and enough juice and kvass (fermented bread sold as a soft drink, don't worry grown-ups its usually less than one percent alcohol), and we were in heaven. Throwing honey-drenched fried noodles to birds, trying to explain where the bathroom was to a drunk, and watching our group's manly-man squeal as falling seeds pelted him, what else could you ask for on one of the season's few nice days?

The language thing is starting to go better, or at least I'm getting better at pretending that it is. I'm at the point where when strangers approach me, I try and fail to answer their questions rather than brushing them off with an “I don't speak Russian.” A few of the FLEX alumni have offered to help me out, I'll probably take one up.

Tatar wrestling was this weeks biggest learning experience. I learned that I'm out of shape. I learned that people smaller than you can still make you very sore. I learned that elderly Tatars can throw sizable Americans (no, I'm not calling myself sizable). I learned that chairs can fly, without anyone there to throw them. I learned that I've completely lost my spin kick in Russia. Sadly, I don't think I learned much Russian there. Oh well, it was worth it.

I'm saying a lot on here. Wonder how long until I start posting things on here I don't want the world to see. Hrmm. Well, it was created to be a blog about my random thoughts. Maybe I'll put out another post unrelated to Russia sometime soon. We'll see.