sea of blue camo

it's sort of an odd feeling, saturday afternoon, sitting in this internet cafe surrounded by my classmates (shakespeare class canceled). we could be in the states. although the dance music that's being pumped in over our heads (and has the russians nearby bopping) features a female singer who, in English, is announcing 'motherfu&#er' and 'lick my a$$' in a nonstop loop.

theatre-going has been awesome since my coat check debacle at the satirikon. apparently, our complaints about the guy trickled down. tolya, our mentor here, is great friends with the head of the satirikon. the result is now, when we go, if they see we're american, they make us do our own coat-checking, way over on the side, at the empty coat check booth. pretty fun. can't tell if it feels like more discrimination or liberation!

i'm going there tonight to see shakespeare's Richard III, which several classmates have seen and said is really incredible.

normally saturday morning walks to class are great because the city empties out on the weekends as everybody goes to the country. but, this morning, in preparation for a protest organized by the communist party, we walked past 600+ police officers, military police, and soldiers. it was a sea of blue camo, and a little disconcerting. one troop of guys was much larger than the others. we're talking huge men. and they were following an older, grizzled general-type, complete with the big cigar hanging from his mouth. love it.

not much else to report- homesick, but still having a great time. missing everyone.