So. One of the many things that ceases to amaze me are American cultural influences I find over here. It is SO much bigger and more amusing than just McDonaldization (although, I haven't eaten a McDonald's hamburger in the US since I was six and started caring what I put in my mouth, but I had one yesterday and... AMAZING). For example, since I've been here, I have heard:
a. Chuck Norris Jokes
b. Blonde Jokes
c. How Many.... Does it Take to Screw in a Lightbulb... jokes
d. "Epic Fail"
and, what has to be my favorite:
e. Sitting at a bar with two Russian men making lobster claws of our hands and mouth tentacles and quoting Zoidberg from Futurama
Well, some of the American boys went out the night before last and had too much fun, i.e. Spent like $15,000 p between them, came home at 6am, and missed their classes. As a result, nobody wanted to go out last night. Which sucked, because I haven't class until 2:30 today, and I have class at 10am on Saturday (so no going out tonight). So, I got home from Ashan and took a nap. I woke up to a call from Nikita, asking if we could meet up. So, I got dressed and went to meet him in the cafe. He always seems so concerned that he is keeping me from something important... as if I actually have anything important to do. So, we chatted over tea, and then retired to his room for awhile. He showed me pictures of his camping in the Crimea and of St. Petersburg, and and I showed him pictures of the moors of England. Luckily, he is a Sherlock Holmes fan, and I was able to tie in the Hound of the Baskervilles story.
Camping in Russia is fucking hardcore. Essentially they go out in the woods, in big scary mountains, with no food or water. Hence every tenth picture was a picture of cute wildlife ("aww... frog" "aww... lizard" "aww... hedgehog") and his response would be "yes, very tasty."
So, then we called Chris, and went to a bar in the mall near Ashan. It was pricey, but the beer was supposedly good. Well, I forced myself to drink the beer. Ugh. I try, and I try, but I simply cannot stomach beer. Nikita asked Chris about American politics, as in, why we have a two party system. After about 8 minutes of Chris giving a very enlightened and detailed explanation, with Nikita sitting there glassy-eyed, probably understanding every third word, I tried to explain it in two sentences. Chris was upset, as he has written papers on the subject. But when you start bringing numbers into bar conversations... it is time to give up and get back to talking about hedgehogs.
On that subject... Nikita has eaten some odd things. Namely, a lynx they caught in Siberia fighting their dogs. And a dog in a Korean restaurant in Siberia. Apparently it is a delicacy there
: (
So, after that, we went to two bars by our facultet. Unfortunately, they were both closed. So, we went to the cafe, ate business lunch, and went back to Nikita's room to drink and watch horribly-dubbed Futurama.
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