The weather here is amazing. it has been about sixty degrees for the past three days.
Everybody is happier, including me. I see people smiling on the streets. Oh yeah, the streets---the huge walls of snow and ice have befun to melt and as a result the sidewalks have become like rivers. People put boxes connected by plywood down in the sidewalk and everyone walks on that to avoid being soaked to the waist by five-month-old-snow-water.

This is funny though and not really that inconvenient. I think it should be like this al the time, even when there is no water on the ground.

Actually the weather is so good that I devoted two days solely to the substantial "Pleasure Boating" section of my Russian book. I learned about fifty words including: kayak, anchor, dinghy, inflatable raft, outboard motor, and most importantly of all: hook.

The terrorist bombings in Moscow are on everybody's mind right now here in Russia. We had a few minutes of solemn silence in my house to dwell on what had happened. Politicians are angry and have vowed to wipe out every last person involved in the attack. The metro is still fully operational; only the segments directly damaged have been closed down. The people of Moscow have decided not to let the attack affect their daily lives in any major way, because that is giving the terrorists what they want. Most people took the very same metro home the same day. I admire the courage and fortitude of these people.

The scary thing is that I almost went to Moscow for the holidays last. I would have been in the city at the time had I gone. There was a very expensive AFS camp and the few people who actually went said that they "heard the blast". Luckily they were in a different section of the city and they are fine, of course.

Things are going well--the holidays are nice, everybody here seems to be happier.
It has been about two months and the novelty of my foreigner status has worn off. My Russian friends still want to hang out with me though which is good. I might be going to St. Petersburg soon, which is also good.

Holidays are soon; they are going to be a much needed rest.

Unfortunately one of the other two NSLI-scholarship students in Russia has come down with a terrible case of food poisoning and is currently in the Russian hospital along with everyone else who ate lunch at that school. I don't go to that school but I have always had suspicions about the school food. God help us all.

I completely aced my recent Russian test. It was an oral test so I was able to branch out and show what I know while cleverly talking around what I don't know. I study fifteen to twenty vocabulary words every day. Ten nouns five verbs and sometimes adjectives. Also grammar, which is the hardest part--I have to study that a few hours every day also in order to learn it. I finally got to use some more unusual words which was very fun.

Only the NSLI scholarship kids were tested that day, we get tested alot, the US government wants to make sure it is getting it's moneysworth. Don't worry general public of America, your tax dollars will not be wasted on me!

The lady administering the exam came down to cheboksary from moscow---she is one of the cooler people I have met here. This other lady loved me until she saw that I had not worn a coat--then she freaked out. She seriously went mad with rage. I thought she was making a joke or someting at first but I quickly learned that she was not. I didn't catch all of what she said but it went something like this: "you are in Russia, you must wear a coat, you will catch a cold, you are like a small child, sometimes it is negative thirty degrees here and you must wear a coat."

All of this was said neglecting the one most important and fundamental bit of information: it was ten degrees celcius outside. That is warm. Unfortunately, she didn't seem able to concieve of any possible variations in temperature so I respectfully apologized and promised to wear a coat during the summer to make up for it, which seemed to satisfy her.

The way I see it, if it is cold I wear a coat, if it is not cold, I don't wear a coat.

That is the beauty of human intellect--we have the freedom to make such choices.

Ok I have finally completed my guide to the people of Chuvashia

Men under twenty five: all good, warm, nice, funny people. If there is a problem they will help.

Women under twenty five: beautiful, quick to smile, slow to laugh, are scared of men over twenty five.

Men over twenty five: ah, not nice people. Never smile never laugh unless they are laughing at you. If you are getting robbed, they will not even look twice unless they are the ones robbing you. Like to get drunk then start fights in the street.

Women over twenty five: Intelligent, sometimes smile, sometimes even laugh, will give you really good directions if you ask. They are also quite scared of Men Over Twenty Five.
************************************exceptions**************************************
This is important.
Bright coats--if they are wearing a bright color they are almost always kind. Of course this doesn't mean that those in dark colors are all unkind. IT is rare to see a bright colored coat

Children---if they have kids with them they are nicer, quicker to laughter and overall awesomer people. I see a lot less kids around here though.
This obviously is my opinion. I live in a little town in the middle of nowhere.

I came close to fighting for the first time in Russa today. I was waiting at a bus stop with my German friend Alex and this tiny lttle bald guy walked up and started staring at him in a really creepy drunken way. He did that for about two minutes then walked up and started saying ridiculous stuff that neither I nor Alex, who speaks fluent Russian could understand. Alex told th gentlemen that we didn't understand then the guy got really mad and stated freaking out and cursing at us asking why we didn't understand him. I thought it was really funny, because Alex is about my height(6'4) and over 200 pounds so I started to laugh uncontrollably. The guy was probably not even five feet tall and I think he was over thirty years old.
Any way the guy started pushing us screaming in our faces. (The pushes weren't really a problem because the guy was so small but it is the idea which is offensive.)Nobody nearby wanted to help and I learned that Alex is a pacifist so I pushed the guy and he fell over then Alex and I ran into a bus. That was an awesome idea because the gentlemen didn't have the neccesary fifteen cents. I think everything went well but I probably should have punched him because I bet he just picked new targets once we left.

Today I went to Kazan and that was very awesome. The city was stunning. It had all of these old colorful buildings and huge beautiful Churches and Mosques. The dramatic Tartar architecture and colors made for great photos. The city is also very developed, it is interesting to see two totally different lifestyles/lifetimes right next to each other, in each other's midst. There is something surreal about seeing a mega mall right next to a 900-year old Tartar palace.

I bought a guitar a couple days ago which I really had been wanting to do. It was about four thousand rubles including the amplifie, which is not a bad price at all especially for russia where everything except food is pretty expensive. I bought it from this awesome guy Sergei Zubov, who spoke absolutely perfect english with a california accent. I actually thought he was an American tourist for a second. He had spent a few years performing in America and i guess that's why his english is so good. He is sort of a celebrity in Chuvashia, which is the part of Russia I live in.

Two days after buying a guitar I got kind of annoyed at the Russian postal service because I still didn't have my care package but I had revieved other mail. I went over to the post office with my bro Dima and I didn't even have my passport with me. I gave them a photo copy of it and then I saw the contents of my package and I sort of got mad. I just screamed in Russian: "Why is my mail here and why is it open?" over and over again and then I accused them of theft. They eventually just gave it to me repeating over and over again that it was everything, that everything was there. I have learned a valuable lesson:
If you don't get what you want in Russia, just shout very loudly and look really mad--then you will get what you want.

Now I need to go buy a bunch of ten cent gifts because it is womens day tomorrow.