Tim and I have been in Russia for about a week now. Things are getting better, culture shock is wearing off. I do wish I had brought all my cash to pay for classes like tim did and then exchange the money at a bank, but instead i have to go to an atm machine and get out 10,000 rubles at a time. i need 131,000. whatever. Last night was friday night, so before tim and i went out my host family had a guest over, he brought a bottle of champagne. we drank the bottle. russians don't sip champagne like we do. nope, they drink champagne. two sips and the glass is finished. so we did that and then tim and i proceeded to go play billiards at a bar. i didn;t know that there is a russian version of billiards. we played that for two hours and had some beers and listened to a mix of french trance music, russian electronica, under my umberella, and other great hits. the other day on one of my runs i found some sweet graffiti, i laughed instantly because the writer obviously doesn't know english very well. on the wall is written "fuck of" of what? ill be taking a picture of it later. crossing the streets in russia is a very delicate matter. on some intersections there are crosswalks, but these intersections are small ones. on big ones, there usually isn't a stop light. so...we usually wait for someone to start crossing and then follow suit, but sometimes you wait for a big group of people and charge out into the street. or you just follow the local babushka (grandmother). later today, tim and i will be going to a chinese festival hopefully it'll be a nice!