This Poll Excludes Me

So none of those poll answers apply to me. This makes it 2 polls in a row that I haven't voted for. Which means the only poll I have voted in, I voted for myself.
Anyway, today I went to a city to the south of Moscow called Tula, which is best known as the hometown of Lev Tolstoy. It is also known for it's samovars (crazy Russian tea kettles) and pryanchiki (delicious honey ginger cakes). It has a small kremlin in the center of the town, as well as a big Lenin statue.

The center of the town also has wooden houses from before the Revolution. Some of them are burned down, some just look like they're about to fall down.

It was also interesting to go on a road trip and see the Russian countryside. It consists mostly of birch forests and lakes. Very similar to US scenery. I actually was shocked at one point to see an onion dome church because I wasn't thinking about being in Russia. There are gas stations everywhere too. Gas is about 60 cents a liter here. I don't know how that converts to gallons. I went into one in hopes of getting a Coke, which I did, only they don't refrigerate Coke. The only refrigerated beverage is beer. And then I went to the bathroom and it cost me 30 cents. Russia.

awkward family photos

Once again, not original. But worth looking at nonetheless.  Some of them are actually awkward... others go above and beyond.

Here's to hoping my family never ends up on this illustrious list.

You heard it here first: Oscar for Best Screenplay

The People Have Spoken

BK,

The residents of the blogosphere have made their voices heard. Post the pictures that the citizens have demanded. I know you are going to Siberia soon. Post them before you loose contact with the rest of the world.

The consequences for not posting these pictures will be dire.

A Dictation on Drunken Blogging in Russia

So Free-Ho requested more drunken blogging from the motherland, which frankly I'm all for, but there are a few issues that I have to get around. Here they are:
-Getting completely shitfaced. Many problems here. Now of course, your reaction is, "BK, you're in Russia, it's what they do there." Exactly. I have seen my fair share of people kung-fu fighting walls and passed out in doorways. However, I have also seen my fair share of fights, and heard more than enough stories about people getting mugged. Which makes wandering home hammered a bit less appealing. Another problem is the cost of alcohol in Moscow. In St. Petersburg it was cheap, because alcohol vendors make bank in Moscow. The cheapest you can get a cocktail in a bar is 7 bucks. And then you're probably getting a rum and coke. A beer, 5 bucks. And let's not even discuss wine. So why not just buy a bottle of vodka and drink it somewhere? Because we all live in homestays with old Russian ladies. Somehow I don't think, "hey I'm having 10 other American college kids over to get completely wasted and then wreak havok on Moscow" will work. And drinking liquor on the street is illegal. So it's either throw down 50 bucks to get hammered, or 20 bucks to get a semi-decent buzz.
-Getting to a computer. So, if I do get hammered, my thoughts are not on getting home to write on the blog, my thoughts are: "Club." The Metro closes at 1. I go to clubs at 12. The metro opens at 6. Drinks at clubs cost much more than at bars. So I usually get one at most. If I decide to leave early, I have to take a cab, which is for the most part sketch city, and one is advised to be fairly sober. So I either come home at 6 and go to bed, or around 3 after I've sobered up enough to say enough Russian to get myself home.
So that's the jist of it: drunken blogging will be difficult. But I will do my best to overcome these obstacles. So far, I think that the drunken blogging from Stadium has been quite sufficient.

To Address Some Issues...

So first, I haven't posted on Petersburg yet. I'll keep it short.
I got drunk every night in Petersburg, except one. But I did drink every night. It was wonderful. I could buy a half liter of Smirnoff quality vodka for 3 bucks, and a bottle of decent wine for 5. Life was good. I also got to see many of the buildings that I've wanted to see since I was first learning about Russia in high school. Most importantly, this one:

This is the Church of Christ on Spilled Blood, and it was built on, you guessed it, spilled blood. But not just any spilled blood, no, that wouldn't be good enough for Jesus. You see, Jesus only accepts churches that are built on the blood of Tsars. Tsars that have been grenaded by anarchists. So when Tsar Alexander II was blown up by anarchists, his son Nicholas I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to build a church. And he did, even leaving the exact stones upon which Alexander II met his demise so that they could be seen by coming generations. So here they are:

I also got to wander around the Winter Palace, the largest palace in Europe, which is now occupied by the Hermitage, which is one of the best art museums in the world. It's got pieces by Da Vinci, Raphael, Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Picasso, Renoir, Monet, and countless others. Also wandered around the Summer Palace (in which is the famous Amber Room) and Paul's Palace.
Saw just about every major monument in St. Petersburg. Also ate at Subway, which was actually quite different than in the US. It doesn't have real lettuce, the pepperonis are tiny, and it was just more Russian. Also ate at a Georgian restaurant (the country) and drank Russian wine, which was surprisingly good. Had a very busy but very pleasant weekend.
Saturday was Victory Day. Saw Russian tanks, ICBM launchers, SCUD missiles, etc., plus all of their latest copies of our aircraft (the AWACs was especially funny to see fly overhead).
We go to Siberia in a week. I can't believe I'm so close.
As to posting pics of my Russian friends, we'll see. First I have to take some.

WolframAlpha

Now I wouldn't be at all surprised if some of you have seen this already, but thought it merited a blog post. Apparently Stephen Wolfram, the genius behind our beloved (most of the time) Mathematica, has created a search engine. You can ask this search engine any question and it will compute the answer for you. Of course, it must be objective. You can read about it more thoroughly here. Frankly, I'm pretty excited to start testing it once it becomes available.

Welcome To The Bronation

The above image is of Tom Bro....Broage.


On behalf of Brodysseus, Super Brova, Brostradomus, Brose Einstein, Broses, Potassium Brohide, and of course Brogamemnon, we would like to welcome you to the bro nation.

This is not your averge nation. We are a nation of bros. Not the bros of poped collars, and sorority hoes, we are classy. Our Bro names indicate a more sophiscated level of broage.


No of course, I am not sober. What would be the point of sober blogging about brodom. We are in essence the anti bro's of bros.

Interesting Fact. BRO is Brown and Brown on the New York Stock Exchange. It is currently worth 19.10. Not so good.

Iz A Brand New Poll

Hey All,

Its that time again; time for a poll. Now where many of you are certainly chuckling at the sexual suggestive word "poll", the rest of you are probably pissing your pants with excitement. So do yourself a favor, click an answer, get results, see what BK has "been up to".

I'm Down With Tim's 12 Step Program

So I think yesterday was one of the greatest days of my life.

Just putting that out there.


What made it so great? Well we all woke up, planning to watch Lord of The Rings because its fuckin awesome, but then realized it was way too nice out to be inside staring at a screen for even more than an hour. After Alfredo found various types of currency in my L. Ron Hubbard book (more about this at some other time), we decided that the best thing to do was use our new found fortune to buy some burritos. So Toto, Dave, Ted, Annie and I headed over to the mexican market for some yum yum. We decided that since it was so nice outside, we should eat them on the bleachers.

Did I say bleachers? I meant pirate ship. We hoisted the jolly roger as any good pirate would.

We then pretty much spent the entire day out there.

For further analysis, let's take a step back and review a post made by our dear friend Tim at the beginning of the term. Tim provided 12 Steps to The Best Spring Term ever... Let's go through them and see how many applied yesterday.

1. Good music - We had The Decemberists playing on a iPod player until batteries ran out and after that, we got serenaded by Johnny V (aka Buster/Viggy Stardust/JV)'s soothing banjo playing.

2. Outdoor cooking. We BBQed on Friday so it counts, because this weekend is one big ball of fun.

3. Outdoor sports. The Vortex, 16in Softball, and an IM Softball game. Nuff said.

4. Minimal studying. Let me just say this: Tim and I told ourselves the day before we were going to work on our final paper for our 5 week Diplomacy class... and at the moment I am at the library trying to figure out a thesis.

5. Good weather. BAM!

6. Rotblatt. Doesn't apply, but will be awesome.

7. Spring Concert. Same as above.

8. Baseball Challenge. Same as above.

9. Plenty of Ocho parties. We haven't been having as many people over lately, but we have had what I consider the only two things I ever need for an enjoyable evening: good company and good music.

10. Live blogging. Toto watched me as I drunkenly blogged about those damn murderous egyptians. Does that count?

11. No inhibitions. We ate free Cheese/hoisted a pirate flag/watched Top Gun AND Tropic Thunder and have been giving 100% at everything we've been up to lately.

12. Beer (or other booze). This is a given. Although the decathlon (10 different drinks throughout the course of an evening) failed, we did a powerhour and also drank a lot and drank well.

So by my count, we succeeded at 9 out of 12... Sounds good to me.

Best Mid-Term Break ever? I mean its all relative, but to me, I had the fuckin time of my life...