Russia - Very short post today...

I think I'm sick, or maybe I've smoke too much... my throat is one big open wound and I sound a little like Dionne Warwick talking about Kenny Kingston. Its a sad state of affairs. After I wrote here I went to the brick for din din, tasty plate of grilled pork with potatoes all topped with onion and dill. To start I had a bowl of Xharcho... mmmm.... lamb...

The restaurant was filled with people, namely the Toms, Sarah, Masha and others. We had a couple pints and "po pedesat" then left the restaraunt and the people and moved to the mini hotel, my mini hotel. This is where we all discovered that we are still capable of behaving like college kids in a dorm, when you're in a dorm, and drinking massive amounts of beer while listening to my ipod...

(Bros, thanks man, these speakers are a major hit over here... Tom says he's gong to steal them, but I made some threats I won't repeat here, which has curbed his thieving ways...)

I woke up not feeling so very hot today... and decided to catch up on that sleep from the night before that I had been missing from Novgorod. One thing, Inga (a.k.a. the belly) mentioned this in an email to me... Novgorod is part of the golden ring, a ring of 5 medieval towns that comprise old russia known for their woodworking, churches and history. Ok... enough inteligent banter.

Today has been marked by a trip to the cafe for Chicken Kiev and mashed potatoes, great hangover food, tea with honey for my throat, a big multivitamin that James handed to me when we both woke up this afternoon and then 505...

I'm so happy we don't have 505 in the states, I would go broke. As it was I had to use the plastic, but what a trip... 505 is a music chain here in St. Pete's you can buy all of your MP3 collections, movies and software there at one stop. There are Kiosks at the metro stations, but the main shops are scattered about the city. There's one on Nevsky prospect on the other side of the Fontanka, this one is just a block away across from the Blini stand... its a great place. I'm staring at this huge bag of music, movies and software and thinking... yeah baby... I might need a new hard drive to hold all these MP3s... its so disgusting... is pure glutony and I'm ok with it.

Anyway, time to head on over to the beer garden to meet Skidan after class and talk abot Walter Benjamin and other foolishnes... tonight is the second participant/student reading/open mic... I thought abuot reading but with my voice on serious strike I think I will pass and just sit back and have an early night, I'm on morning duty at the office after which I'm heading to the hermitage and on the way back, we have a faculty reading, Jeff Allen and someone else, tomorrow at the Mayakovsky, I'm going to go shoot that roll of Infrared in Mar's field... there's an eternal flame there that should do interesting things on IR film...

Be well everyone...

paka...