ДЖош = Джордж

The title reads Josh = George.  Here in Russia, I have been called George several times by Russians, and correcting them does not change anything.  It's quite the interesting experience.  Even in Turkey, I had someone think my name was George.  Well anyway, I haven't posted in a long time, so expect two or three posts (including this one) back to back in quick succession.

First off, Russian women are crazy.  The temperature can be in the 10's, and you can still see them wearing dresses.  The first time I saw this I was shocked because I was wearing Under Armour tights and jeans and my legs were still freezing.  Second, they love to wear heels all the time.  It doesn't matter that the sidewalks are covered in ice and snow.  All of the Americans are slipping and sliding wearing regular tennis shoes while the Russian women don't even have the slightest trouble walking.  These are just two things that have stuck out to me and several other people.

Next, I can't remember if I mentioned this already or not, but I stumbled upon an election protest one day.  I was with two of my roommates going down to Nevsky Prospect (pretty much the main place to be).  As soon as we walked out of the metro, there were two rows of people locking arms and chanting.  The only words that I understood as we were quickly rushing away were "We know...."  The thing with Russian protests is that the police lock arms and make a circle and arrest everyone that is in the circle whether you are just an innocent bystander or not.  This protest was only small, but there were about 7 or 8 police vans that they fill with the people they arrest and many police officers.  I can only imagine that that protest was going to get larger.  However, the protests over the election died down quickly after the presidential elections, and they are more or less unheard of now.  It was interesting to witness and I wish I could have stayed longer and watched, but between AIFS' and the U.S. Embassy's warnings, it was probably best to get out of that area as quickly as possible.  Also, Nevsky was rather smokey on that day which is unusual for afternoon, so I can only suspect that flares were being used in the protest.

To rally off of the protest flares, I attended another FC Zenit game a couple of weeks back.  It was getting late in the game and Zenit was down 1-0.  Then Zenit tied it up and someone close to where we were in the stands lit a flare.  The police next to the field started filming to have proof and to help identify the flare lighter ( I can only suspect), but they guy who lit the flare then proceeded to throw it at the police next to the field.  Bad idea...I think so. Within minutes, he got removed from the stands, but that did not stop other people from lighting flares.  Two more were lit before the game ended.  I have no idea how these guys got flares past three pat down searches.

Smoke from a flare!

Since I am currently drawing a blank, I will talk about what Russia is best know for...alcohol.  Before coming here, I remember being told that Russians love to drink, but you don't truly understand that until you actually come here.  It's not just like one drink.  It is several drinks.  It is illegal to drink alcohol openly in public, but that does not stop the Russians, they will put a can in their hat or any other way they can hide it.  Also, sometimes when I am at the store, Russians will just come in and only buy several bottles of alcohol and that is it.  One time when I was at the store, these two Russian guys had a shopping cart and the entire bottom of the cart with filled with bottles of vodka and beer and they were still shopping for more.  My political science/history professor, who is a former member of the Communist Party, told us a story about the time at the end of the Soviet Union when Gorbachev tried to enact prohibition on Russia.  My teacher said that because the lines at the stores were so long because alcohol was only sold at certain times that people would wait in line for hours.  Now to the actual story which goes something like this...these two guys were waiting in line outside of a store and one guy said, "save my spot because I'll be back" and the other guy asked, 'where are you going?'  The first guy said, "I'm going to kill Gorbachev."  When the first guy finally returned, the second guy asked, 'While did you kill Gorbachev'?  The first guy responded with, "No the line to kill him is longer than this line."  Just a fun little story.

On to my Russian movie theater experience.  I went to see a movie called "August 8th" which is about how Georgia attacked the Russian border.  It was a government produced film to show that Russia was only defending itself and not occupying Georgia.  The movie made me hate Georgians after because the main plot is that this family split up and the son is going to stay with the father who is a Russian soldier while the mother goes on a vacation with her new boyfriend (all this is what I got from the movie without understand the dialog, so I could be wrong), but the father gets killed by a Georgian tank while the son watches and then the mother goes into the middle of the war zone to find her son.  It was a pretty good movie.  Now to discuss Russian movie theaters.  When you buy your ticket, you have to pick your seat at the counter.  Then at the snack bar, you can purchase some cigarettes and beer for the movie.  Drinking and smoking are allowed inside the theater which is strange since smoking and public drinking are banned throughout the U.S.    

Also, if anyone has any hopes of going to Moscow, do not drink the tap water even if the internet says it is okay.  I check about five sites and they all said that the water was safe to drink so I took a little sip.  Worst decision of my life.  The next two hours were met with constant stomach pain.  Let this act as a warning to avoid all of the tap water in Russia.

Also, expect posts about my time in Moscow and Istanbul.  A lot happened in Istanbul, so it should be a good one.