So we had an excursion to the Russian circus. It was by far my favorite excursion since i've been in Moscow. I absolutely loved it. GETTING to the circus was the difficult part. Ok, me and my two friends, Sam and Liz were meeting up with the rest of our group at the Kuznevsky Moct metro stop. Unfortunately, it was raining and the mashrutka (the little Russian bus) took FOREVER to pick us up in front of the University. SO..... we were late. When we got to the metro stop where we were suppose to meet, I went to call and ask our group leader, Dasha, how to get there. OF COURSE, my retarded Russian phone had 1 and a half kopeks worth of credit. For those of you who don't know, a kopek isn't even worth the metal that is used to create it. One kopek is worth like a 10th of a penny. So, yeah- i had no credit on my phone, and we had no idea where this DAG FRICKING GOM circus was. We decided to just pick a direction and look for a big tent- all circuses are in Big Tents, right? Um, not in Moscow, Russia. We walked around for about 20 minutes with no luck. Finally, I asked Sam (who speaks the best Russian of the 3 of us) to ask someone where to find the circus. He didn't know the word for 'circus' in Russian (which NOW we know is tsirc). BUT................ he DID know the word for Tiger. And the tiger part of the show is the most famous. You guys know me; I have no shame. I am the girl that on a Russian metro where NO ONE TALKS, will blatantly practice my elementary Russian, asking my humiliated friends thing like "My friend, would you like to put your red pencil in my purple purse and then go to the store and buy bread with me?"  I've been here over 2 months, you'd think I'd learn to blend in. Anyway, so Sam knows the word for tiger in Russian (which is just 'tiger' said with a thick sexy Russian accent). SO.....I spent the next 20 minutes wandering around Moscow asking random Russians if they know "where to find the tigers." hahaha! You should have seen these peoples' reaction. Most of them, despite the brutality and harshness of their culture could not help but straight up laugh at me. To get a Russian to laugh was well worth my humiliation. Finally, some stern old Russian man (who i made laugh, of course) knew where the 'tsirc' was. We went and had an amazing time.

I have 3 days left in Moscow.........lets see if I can survive them. Even worse, if I can survive my week with the British after this. :)

I'm going to England again! :) I got my flight changed so that the last week before I go home, I will get to spend in England. And I don't have to pay for my flight because Nicholai (you know, the artery boy who's life i saved) INSISTS on paying for me. I am really excited because 4 of my British friends are going to be at Heathrow to pick me up from the airport and they said that for the time I'm with them, I'm not only going to London but all OVER England. They are from all over the country- Cambridge, Esteridge, Nottingham, and they want to take me to all of their homes.

While I'm excited about that, I am sad that my time in Russia is coming to a close. I only have a little over a week here! I can't believe how fast it has gone. Today was one of my favorite days- we went on a tour of the Kremlin and Red Square. I have been there many times but I haven't a guided tour into all the breathtaking cathedrals etc. I saw the coffins of Alexander I, Peter II, Ivan the Terrible, and I saw many of Catherine the Great's outfits. It was awesome. I also went to Catherine the Great's favorite cathedral in Russia. Many of the places I went today were built in the 11th and 12th centuries. It was unbelievable. After being here I'm kind of embarrased that the states even HAVE places that we call 'old historical landmarks.' Here, almost every building I see is older than our constitution.

I'll be honest though, I'm getting weary of travelling and having to THINK in Russian all the time. I'm excited to go home for that reason. I can't wait to go up to a cashier at home and say, with no difficulty, "CAN I HAVE A FRICKING BIG MAC, PLEASE?" I greatly anticipate that moment. Oh, and I can't wait to be around fat Americans again. That's awful to say, I know. But here, I feel obese compared to these anorexic/belemic Russian girls.

Well, more later. :)

My story today has nothing to do with MY drama, but one of my crazy friends here. I haven't really posted much about my friends in Moscow I don't think- they are SO much different than in Petersburg. First of all, most of them are American- at least I live with all Americans (except for one Australian) I'll be honest, i miss the Brits SOOOO much and I wished I had all British friends here again. But i guess Americans will do. :)

Ok, so we went out the other night to Red Square and St. Basils Cathedral....it was beautiful. We had just gotten done watching The Bourne Supremacy and we were trying to go around to all the places where Matt Damon was kicking Russian butt. I think I stood in the exact place that he stood in one of the scenes of the movie. It's so crazy to be seeing all of these places EVERYDAY....i need to take more advantage of it because I've become comfortable just living here and forgetting how lucky i am to be going to these amazing places everyday.

ANYWAY, back to my friend's crazy story. SO we were going around the city and it was pretty late...like 1 or 2. (But there were guys with us so it was OK.) A major problem in Russia is the FRICKING bathroom. They don't have them...and if they DO have them you either have to pay for it (its like 15 rubles) or you just resort to contracting AIDS because the bathrooms are so disgusting. Oh, and Russians don't use toilet paper. SO...needless to say, often we just try with all our might to hold it til we get back home. So this night, my friend Liz REALLY had to go. She wanted to try and hold it til we got home but she just couldn't. So she gets this great idea just to go behind some building somewhere. Yeah....I would never do it, but I'm not in control of her (plus you all know what its like to have to pee really badly, you honestly don't care what happens to you no matter where you do it). So she goes behind this building and we all were on the other side of the building waiting for her.

The next thing we know is we hear yelling and see Liz walking out with the Russian 'malitsia' (police). We failed to realize that the builing that she chose to pee in front of....The Russian Police Station. To her defense, alot of buildings don't have signs on them. This one definitely didn't. So we spend the next hour looking at Liz through bars........yeah- she got thrown into JAIL!!. As much as it was horrible, it was probably the funniest thing I have ever witnessed in my life. What made it even more funny, was that the Russian police were completely amused by the entire situation. We were all struggling with our broken Russian to do whatever we could to get her out of jail. But did they let her out? No. Instead they kept trying to feed us CUCUMBERS!! Yes, cucumbers. For whatever reason, Russians love cucumbers; Saturday we even went to a cucumber fest. I honestly don't really understand this Russian fettish. It's so weird. But I guess the 'malitsia' thought that we would feel better by eating cucumbers...it was so funny!! My friend Oliver (who speaks the best Russian) was just like "No!! We don't want to eat Fricking cucumbers! We want to get our friend out of jail!!" Liz, of course, was humiliated. It wasn't one of those situations where we were scared; we were mostly humiliated because I guess the Russian police had a slow night and wanted to take some time to 'mess with' some crazy Americans.

Finally, we got her out of jail. We didn't have to pay,  but we did eat all the cucumbers he offered us.

Well, thats all for today. Tomorrow is my birthday and we are having a Russian party in class. Oh- Another strange Russian tradition: For birthdays, the person WITH the Birthday prepares the meal, the cake, the celebration, EVERYTHING. So much for getting pampered on your birthday. :) Well guys, I have to go home and make myself a cake. :)