Bistro

The word "Bistro" is of course commonly attributed to the French - refering to all their small, quick, cute cafes where you can pick up a sandwich or coffee or the like which have been assimilated to some extent into our culture in the States. But I learned that this word is actually not French. It's Russian. The French adopted this word, however, after Russian cossacks were "inhabiting" their terrority during the time of Napoleon, and not being able to speak French, they simply shouted to the waitresses in Russian "быстро!" - [bwui-stra] - which is the Russian word for "quick! fast! hurry!" and thus... we have the butchered version "bistro."

Yea for history and language lessons. :)

The ebullient Russian word

"As a numberless multitude of churches and monasteries with their cupolas, domes, and crosses is scattered over holy, pious Russia, so a numberless multitude of tribes, generations, peoples also throngs, ripples, and rushes over the face of the earth. And each of these peoples, bearing within itself the pledge of its strength, filled with the creative capacity of the soul, with its own marked peculiarity and other gifts of God, is in an original fashion distinguished by its own word, which, whatever subject it may express, reflects in that expression a portion of its character. A knowledge of hearts and a wise comprehension of life resound in the word of the Briton; like a nimble fop the short-lived word of the Frenchman flashes and scatters; whimsically does the German contrive his lean, intelligent word, not accessible to all; but there is no word so sweeping, so pert, so bursting from beneath the very heart, so ebullient and vibrant with life, as an aptly spoken Russian word."

-Ch. 5, Dead Souls by Nikolai Gogol

wowza, it's HOT

I rolled out of bed at 7:15ish, after one particular kitty woke me up repeatedly since 5:15am... and I noticed the thermometer outside read... 29 degrees Celsius... !!! WOWZA!!! I was pleasantly astounded!

The only sad news was that the night before a friend's dog ate my flip flops, leaving me without shoes that allow for toe breathing. And my toes must breathe on such a day!! *sigh* I was resigned to wear my saucony's (usually not a resigned action, seeing as how they are some of my favorite shoes, but all the same... socks on a hot day is just not something to look forward to).

I did, however, spend about 4 hours walking around the city with a pal. This was after, mind you, I successfully ran various errands around the city by myself, which necessitated speaking in Russian, without internally freaking out. (Yes, this is big for me. ;) haha.) What a lovely day it was.

Today the city was celebrating the arrival of Iran's president. (No comment...)

I'm running again.

I've also realized I'm really not that much of a cat person. Infinitely prefer dogs. But a cat is still better than no living animal to have around...

Might be going to Russia soon... (sorry Lauren!) But I don't plan on shelling out any money to look at some dead freaky embalmed... ok you get my point...

I had a thought when I got on here, and well, ... it flew away somewhere... there's always next time I guess...

Belarusians don't discriminate against dandelions

I think it's splendid.

Things I miss about the States:
Hymns and all things PCA
Good coffee houses where you can stay for hours
Convenient and affordable places to buy clothes and shoes
Bookstores
(Usually) Friendly customer service
Freedom of driving/Ease of travel
Having a real spring
Variety of good restaurants and good beers
Running in parks and around town, and it being normal
Backyards
College sports

Things I don’t miss about the States:
Hollywood gossip
Rat race
Fixation on time and being busy, living by the clock
Spending gobs of money on gas
Extravagance
Fast food
Malls
Parking lots
Cost of living
Lackluster appreciation of the arts (by a majority of the populace)
The advertising industry