A Few Things

1. I don't get this live blogging and I definitely feel left out. What gives?
2. I've seen Putin. At least I think I have. He lives on the same street as me, and I've seen a Rolls-Royce followed closely by a huge Cadillac stretch SUV. Medvedev also lives close to me, but he's in London. So it's probably Putin. Hells to the yes.
3. I have a hot professor. Yes. Seriously. She is the epitome of the hot librarian/teacher. She teaches our singing class (which is awesome) and she's unbelievable. Other members of the group agree with me, so I'm not crazy. And no, Elliot, I'm not going to take pictures of my professor.
4. We met a fellow English speaker on the Metro! She was from UT-Austin studying Russian. It was honestly the first time I was glad to hear someone say "y'all," so refreshingly American.
5. I just had the best night ever. I met a group of Carleton kids outside the Arbatskaya metro and we decided to go to a place called the Margarita Cafe. It's named the Margarita Cafe after the novel, The Master and Margarita. This novel happens to be one of my favorites. The Cafe is located on the Patriarch Ponds, which is where the book begins. So we set off, walked along New Arbat, which is filled with casinos and clubs, and made our way to Patriarch Ponds (honestly, just the fact that we went to Patriarch Ponds has me freaking out. The Master and Margarita is kind of a Bible to me). We got to Patriarch Ponds and walked around it and were about to give up on finding the Cafe, when suddenly it was right in front of us. We walked to it, opened the door, and it was full except for a table for 4. There were 5 of us. They almost turned us away, but let us stay and got an extra chair. As we walked in, we realized that the song that they were playing and that the entire cafe was singing along with was one that we had learned in class today. So we started singing too, and we immediately blended in with the rest of the restaurant. I'd write a review of the place, but that'd be lame and Cafe Margarita was beyond review. There were maybe 30 people in the restaurant, ranging in age from me to probably 70, all Russian except us. There were 2 violinists and one piano player, all extraordinarily talented. The female violinist was absolutely incredible, and if I were going to be a musician I'd want to play in this cafe. We ordered caviar and a bottle of Pinot Grigio, and both were superb. What made the restaurant was the atmosphere, the musicians obviously loved the music and the audience was enraptured, they passed out shakers to allow us to participate as well, but for the most part we just sang at the top of our lungs. The first two songs were popular Russian songs that we learned in class, and the rest of the repertoire consisted of Vivaldi's Four Seasons, a 1920s reel, Hotel California, and a few others that I had heard before but didn't recognize. The decor of that cafe was simple, it had several bookshelves and small statues, but it was also very small. We exchanged a few words with the group at the table next to us, they were mostly older Russians, dressed very well, drinking copious amounts of vodka. I'm definitely going to return there and make sure I get there earlier and eat a meal, the food around us looked absolutely delicious and the menu was not absurdly priced. In essence, this was the perfect restaurant, and its association with one of the best books I've ever read gave this night the added flair that made it truly legendary.