Oy.

Russia does not believe in signs, or notifications to the public of any kind.

After class today we went to Lev (Lion) for lunch. The waitress was determined to speak English, and we wanted to practice Russian. It was frustrating. Lunch was good, but not much food for what we paid, and I stupidly paid a dollar for some ketchup to go with my fries. The tea was amazing, because it was the first time I've had cream or cinnamon since I've been here. After that we walked allll the way over to the Cruiser Aurora on the other side of a different island. And it was closed to the public. But there wasn't a sign, and no one was talking about why it was closed. There was just a military guy guarding the entrance, which was chained off. So we looked at it from the dock. And sat down for a few minutes, and came back. It was annoying, but nice to be out for a walk, because it was the first genuinely sunny and nice day in a while. It was also quite neat, but I forgot my camera so someday when I get everyone else's pictures I will post them.

I got some ice cream when we got back, which I've been avoiding until today. Not the ice cream - but this particular ice cream. Because it's just a brick of ice cream, wrapped like an ice cream sandwich. Not convenient to eat, but John's been getting them so I thought I would try one. And it's really, really, really good ice cream. Definitely worth the trouble.

Another cultural observation that we made today was that at home there's a big difference between a day look, and a night look. And generally people follow the rules. Tons of makeup, runway hair, mesh, tiny dresses with flapper fringe, and three inch platform heels are generally reserved for evenings at home. Here, it's normal to see all that (and more) at 8 in the morning. It's hard to tell if people just haven't been home since the night before, or if they get ready for clubbing early. Or maybe they just go to work like that - it's definitely possible.

Now I'm watching X-Files, which is called "Secret Material". I always had trouble understanding it in English, and it's not going very well in Russian. I'm going to go try and figure it out, I think a lady just got sucked into the earth by something with scary fingers.