You ate where?!?!

okay looks like this keyboard is free from defects, so
any mistakes made are mine. Firstly a small anecdote
again about our incompetence as a group. I expect
Jarrod and I to make mistakes I mean we're in remedial
Russian, but when I go out with a large group of
Russian majors I want results, today obviously wasn't
that day. We went to the open air market today in a
whopping -20 (although weather.com kindly pointed out
that it feels like -32) Fahrenheit. we were told that
the open air market is open 7 days a week till 7 at
night, if you call 3 vendors and a stray dog open then
I guess it was open. after perusing the goods and
making a whopping 0 purchases we decided to eat,
fairly simple eh?? I mean it's hard not to find a
restaurant, well we found one and walked in all 9 of
us, should have turned around as soon as we realized
our host was wearing a corset over her sweater, but we
didn't... yep it was a strip joint. Well I mean we
already have our coats off and it's fucking cold
outside might as well stay. It was by far the best
food we've had yet (must have been a high class place)
and the girls were only practicing striping in full
sweaters and jeans (unfortunately for them the dance
area is right next to the door) Just goes to show that
we have absolutely no idea what's going on at any
moment.
This week was the first week of elective classes and
I've gotten acquainted quite well with 2 of 3 teachers
(one of them seems to be stuck somewhere, maybe
Mongolia??) here's what I got.
Tatyana: my Russian teacher, or as a kid who had her
last semester put it "satanic babushka" she's tough
and seems not to like boys ,it also hurts the boys
case that the one girl in the class is a auditory
genius who picked up German fluently in under 12
months, can sing the alphabet backwards including the
inversed melody... and she taught her self these
things. Whereas Jarrod and I spend most of our time
trying to correctly pronounce "ochin preyatna" only to
have her laugh at us. that's right for 3 hours a day I
deal with this cruella de ville.
my literature teacher (didn't catch the name) seems
very nice and relaxed no real deadlines just read
Eugene Onegin, crime and punishment, Anna Karenina and
A hero of our time by the end of the semester and we
should be fine. Very nice Babushka I sure wish she
taught a class of mine that didn't meet just once a
week.
"The General" Igor Dimitrivitch amazing man, possibly
ex KGB and certainly rocking a fake leg. he's teaching
my Kievian-revolution Russian history class and my
communist era history class. was quoted today "The
Norman’s are the yeast to the Slavic dough" If you
don't laugh at that I don't know what to tell you
cause I'm not about to talk to you about the Norman
theory, which he also said that if he had taught
during Stalin era "I would not be here for next
class". These Russians take their history seriously.
Tomorrow I've decided to skip Tatyana and head to see
fydor in his grave, seems like a good decision to me.
A word about the cold (I think I've included one of
these in every email, but shit it's cold) there is a
difference between cold at home and cold here at home
when it's "freezing" it means that the usual coat and
hat isn't quite enough but you bear it out, here it
means when you look outside on a nice sunny day you
can see the water particles floating by in ice form,
it means you can see your breath in the hallway. And
it means that everything you have... is one layer too
few. again a good quote on staying warm from the
general "it's not so much what you put on top of you
as what you put beside you" you gotta put the warmest
layer I.e. long johns and thermals right on your skin
man, if there's any air there it's gonna rock at about
1 degree. you can't really blink for too long or
you'll open your eyes to eyelash prison, and it's
beginning to get to that cold point where your scarf
is just a block of ice after a block (keep in mind I’m
never outside for more than like 9 minutes) those of
you who have heard Keith’s story of being the coldest
and hottest in his life in the same place within 6
months of each other... I have officially destroyed my
chances of that unless I catch on fire between now and
May. Do me a favor and go outside and turn on your
cars and leave them running, if this global warming
thing is for real I want to jumpstart it. Now I've
gotten some excellent emails back but some of you are
slacking, I'm looking towards the chimney sweep
department, you know I like a good update (or perhaps
they have already changed their email to avoid further
email updates) Tomorrow we go to the engineers castle
where Dostoevsky studied in his youth and tsar Paul
was murdered by his guards, luckily there are no
gardens really like Tsarkoe Selo, so I won't feel
wimpy when i choose the indoor version. More info as
it strikes me ell