Too Friendly/Collective Occurrences

more russians wanting to take their picture with me. the guy wearing my yankees cap is the Russian sniper that insisted I hang out with him.
An Armenian. and huge fan of snoop dog and he wanted to throw up the west side like snoop. I obliged.**
brand new BMW convertible. one both sides of the car it said "MICHAEL JACKSON IS KING. GOD BLES MICHAEL JACKSON."

I just finished a night that I did not want to be this long. So this post will just be a summary of things that I must catch up on. I'll expound on them later. It's good though cause I've experienced more in the past 72 hours than I have in the last 21 years of my life.

Eurotechno music is great. There's a part where the DJ just holds the beat and lets it ride and build for a really long time and when you vibe with it and ride it all the way out until the end when the beat drops again you literally lose yourself.

I call my host moms father the Old Russian Master. His house does not smell like smoke (a first) and it's kind of nicer. He is a certified medical doctor but he's also one of those great people you meet in life. That know and do many things and have a genuine admiration for the life of the mind. He told me out of all the houses in Russia that I was in the least racist house. He explained to me that he was also a writer and he gave me the Russian version of Mother Goose rhymes to learn. He's a very smart and kind person. You don't meet people like him much anymore.

I played basketball with him and his sons and then we played soccer. The looks on the kids faces...

More amputees.

I leave for Moscow tonight.

In class I thought the word for a "short person" was midget lollipop.

I talked to my mom about Russian politics in Russian. She's not a fan.

I got ripped off by another cab. 200 rubles for a barely 100 ruble ride.

Ana's sister is a party promotions manager for one of the most posh, expensive lavish clubs in Petersburg. There weren't many people there tonight but I don't think there are many clubs in the world that top this. If there are you can't get into them.

She also invited me to this all white (attire) party. A variant of the P. Diddy version. It's held on one of the islands and goes up until early the next day... The invitation that you needed to enter was so sick.

I met a bunch of Africans yesterday. Sif took me to this club Revolution. Which is actually only a few blocks away from here. He explained to me that they were trying to start up having "Black people" night again. Once again Sif has proven himself to be cooler than ice cold. We walk in and go through the metal detector. And when we get to the ticket booth the guy is like you can't come. And Sif tells him in Russian that he wants to talk to the owner. The guy let's him go back. 3 minutes later the phone in the ticket booth rings and I'm allowed entry FREE without delay.

The guy is Cameroonian and he's just as tall as me and he works under white club owners o promote parties. He had a really fancy office inside the club. The club itself was sick and of course I had VIP. And I got to pop champagne.

I have a Michael Jackson tribute that will leave you dumbfounded. I'll upload the picture tomorrow.

I will send out the post cards tomorrow. That's my plan.

I met these central asians dudes yesterday that loved me. They considered themselves to be Black. They loved 2Pac.

And I just got in from hanging out with this Russian war vet. He was very drunk and in a nutshell we sang songs, talked politics, US-Russia relations, he thinks Russia is the only country that won WWII, very proud that his grandfather is a high ranked Russian war hero, he was a sniper in the Chechean war, bought me and Sif big and tasty from McDonalds (literally actually big and tasty), and we arm wrestled before I left. I got beat. 3 times. He's not the biggest fan of the United States and their politics and is delusional about Russia's strength as a world power. but he likes me for God knows what reason. I honestly just wanted to go home tonight. cuddle up in my bed and sleep tight. Instead. I'm here. Blogging. Just getting in at 4:30. He's not the kind of guy you want to turn down. He was slightly tipsy and had I disagreed with anything he said it would have caused more problems. I held my ground and beliefs when we talked but I just ended up hanging out with him and his friend with Sif. And we met these Ukrainian women who were out at 3 in the morning so their drunk husbands didn't beat them when they got back in.

Russians like me too much. (knock on wood) Just say hi. Take a picture. And let me move on. Thanks.

**I in no way shape or form endorse, represent, or claim the West coast. The above photographed photo is for entertainment purposes only.

Stay Tuned.

Decode and Learn/Germans and Dostoevsky's Hood

Sprechen sie deutsch? Ja! I still do! But not much. Anyway, this is one street down from my apartment in the direction AWAY from the Canal. When Petersburg flooded the waters were this high.

My Russian Professor from Brown (in purple) she's incredible. And our tour guide the old guy in the vest. And the Students with Professor Левенцкий in the back.

Russian Grammar Table. And it's actually more difficult/complicated than it looks.

Essentially. I am trapped in a Russian Language Matrix. Currently decoding and liberating myself from the prison of grammar rules and syntax that has torn asunder my illusions of a simple one to one correlation of how Russian language functions.

Last night I pulled my first all nighter here. I came home napped and then from around 10 or 11 pm until 5 am I employed the help of a Redbull (only my 2nd or 3rd time drinking it in my life) my Russian tutor Ana back home via skype, and my Pocket Russian Dictionary. I got the work done and slept for a couple of hours. Got up told my host mom that I didn't need breakfast went to Sadovaya and had shvormak and then hopped the metro. Took a shower the gym and actually...

Strangest thing just happened I was writing this and then I got "invited out" by some people and I'm just now getting back to it. I'll have to stop here and continue later.

Sorry for falling off on that post earlier. So I went to school right after the gym and I showed up early. I was actually the first one in class. My teacher (the young one) was surprised to see me in class so early and I told her that I wanted to do better in class. I was amazing in class! Best Russian I've spoken yet! I paid attention and could understand 85% of what she was saying and I was really doing well in the class. We were learning about computers and different computer parts and functions.

Anyway, after class we had the Dostoevsky excursion. Which is basically: the neighborhood where Dostoevesky lived and wrote many of his great works including Crime and Punishment. We walked to all the places and on the exact path that Raskolnikov walked at the beginning of the book. So I actually saw where he killed the pawnshop lady and her sister his escape route where he kissed the ground all of those places. The guy who took us on this tour was this old Russian guy who seemed to be very wise. Almost like a sage. Anyway, for all those Crime and Punishment fans out there I just lived your dream. I walked everywhere Raskolnikov walked. I feel like one of Dostoevsky's characters living here though. Knowing that he lived and wrote in the apartment literally right across the street from me. I feel like the novel would be entitled "The Negro of Sadovaya"

A long time ago a lot of Germans lived in this neighborhood too. So there's like some German inscriptions in various places. Plus a few German business are still here. There a STIHL chainsaw and tool store not too far from here. The guys I met later I think one of them were German... That invited me to go out and I knew I shouldn't refuse. You know those Germans. If you don't join their party they'll come get you.

So the tour was great came home and took a nice long nap and had every intention of doing homework when I got up. But what happened was I went to go take the trash out. Met the Russian and I think half German guy and they wanted to hang out with me. So I ran back up and put on some jeans (cause I was wearing my Texas Longhorn shorts) and I grabbed my grammar homework! I was thinking. I'll hang out with these guys and get them to help me with my homework. And we did! We hung out! They helped! Then some girls came. Then people wanted to go into the bar (the one literally on the first floor of this building). One thing led to another... And yeah... So I got back in at an ungodly hour and I realized that I just had a very good cultural practice. I spoke a lot of Russian. Made friends. Took pictures. Cause at the bar I unveiled a few dance moves that I usually keep on reserve for my own personal usage when I'm alone in my room. But the Russians thought I was the King of the Dance floor. And then they played Michael Jackson... I was the only one that knew English... The only Black person... And only American... Do you see where that is going?

Anyway, I'm in tonight though! Mama and anyone else reading this feel free to call me. I'll be here studying away. Not going anywhere.

Strangest thing last night too. The half German kept asking where I was from in Africa and how my family was doing. He was pretty drunk... I explained to him many times that I was a student and I didn't have a wife or kids and that the last time that my family was in Africa was roughly 400 years ago.

Stay Tuned.