Weekend in LA

I've had a very eventful weekend, it is endless excitement in the [I'm still working on a name for our flat]. I've decided that I will from now on write my blog entries at home offline and copy paste them later (did I say that in a previous entry?) Anyways I am currently sitting at the kitchen table listening to the Killers on our “kitchen stereo” (an old computer Orlando finagled from a neighbor) watching Orlando stab at the glacial ice accumulations in our fridge/freezer with a giant foot long knife- our fridge got so much ice that it will no longer close and is dripping water everywhere. And though this is not innately that humorous, it is of great amusement to me. Less amusing, or maybe more depending on how you look at it, but of great excitement was Friday night. First I walked into the bathroom to brush my teeth before going out (the door was open) and while brushing I hear someone talking to me from behind-it was Orlando relaxing in a bubble bath-I almost choked on my toothbrush from surprise and uncontrollable laughter. Then later I went out to a bar with the French and Karsten(the German) where we met up with the French girls, but had to be back in the dorm by 1am, so we moved the Party home to our kitchen. It was me, Gui, Orlando, and Karsten, with 5 French women: (I'm sorry I butcher their names both verbally and in spelling) Virginie, Juliet, Amandin, Celine, and Natalie. At about 3am the building's security women burst into our flat and busted us (the French) for smoking; saying absolutely nothing about the loud music, vodka, beer, drunkenness, etc. As a result we had to go before the Commandant and apologize, promising to behave better in the future, and Celine (a most interesting character: very dark, always wearing a scowl, drinks heavily, chain-smokes, but is extremely warm and friendly when you get through the rough exterior and befriend her) must write a letter explaining herself and asking forgiveness-absolutely hilarious. In all there was no real trouble, just a lot of fun.
Saturday was the “Day of Moscow” festivities and celebration, in which there are all kinds of performances, ado, events; Moscow closes some streets so that people can walk around everywhere and stuff like that. So yesterday I made my first trek to the city center, had my first glimpse of the Bolshoi, the Kremlin, Lubyanka, St Basil's, etc, but not a great look due to the crowd and festivities. We got down there too late for the big party (we were playing football(soccer) and got a late start, but we still got to walk around, see the decorations (being taken down) and could stand in the middle of a 6 lane street drinking beer. It was truly incredible, all of the people, all of the excitement, the atmosphere and everything. Karsten and I were possibly the coolest guys in the whole city; it was the two of us with 5 beautiful French women. We met some Russian soccer hooligans who were disappointed that I was an American that hated all war, and that Karsten was a German that did not like Hitler; then when I explained why explained to them why “nigger” (their favorite word) was bad, they only liked it more. It was a rather disheartening experience. But for the most part the night was very good, drinking with the French girls and doing “Metro gymnastics” (where you do flips and shit using the Metro's handrails). I was also reminded of one thing I love about the USA: bathrooms are free and aplenty, I really don't know what Europe has against letting you piss.
I have also been given a new job: I 'translate' (explain) the slang in American music for Karsten and the French, they will seek me out or call me and ask stuff like, “In the Red Hot Chili Pepper song... he says 'cop a feel' what does that mean?”; and I have taken it upon myself to teach them some slang such as “sausage fest” and “pimping;” as well some good Deezian slang such as “lurking nasty.” I play off the Deezian slang as if it is common, yet the one French girl Juliet seems to know the difference and doesn't care to learn the Deezian, but Karsten on the other hand loves my turns of phrase and is beginning to use some!
As for school and my Russian, things are getting better. My teacher has realized that I do know stuff, and it's just a matter of not being able to understand spoken words yet, and me being timid to speak because my accent is so bad and nearly uninterpretable by the Russians. So far I'm having the time of my life and am feeling 5 years younger-I feel like I'm in the Little House in the Ghetto again, only with stranger characters (maybe) and more/prettier women always around. Celine and a few Russian girls even invited me to go out tonight, but I'm not quite recovered from the last two nights. It's as Mike Kerner once said of Lexington: “it must be some parallel universe, people actually think Joe Dees is cool.” Or maybe I'm just a novelty-but either way I like the attention.