circus, soccer, red cross, professors, oh my!

During Charlotte and Walter's last days here, we went to the Russian circus here in Moscow.

Now, we went to the "new" circus instead of the "old" circus so when we arrived and I saw how small the ring was, I just naturally assumed that there weren't going to be any large animals. I was actually ok with that since the larger animals usually look really unhappy and I had thought that there would probably be poodles, who are absolutely adorable.

Anyway, the poodles came out and did their tricks, which are easy to enjoy because they are just jumping over things or running around or ducking under things. Basically they are still being very animal like so its not too distressing to watch. Plus their trainer seem to have a great relationship with them.

The bears were a very different story. They looked sickly and abused and were really upsetting to see. I was really happy when they left the ring. I hate it when the trainers make the animals pretend to be human, like riding motorcycles and things. yuck.

After intermission, Charlotte and I started to smell zoo animals... you know that smell... but we were unconvinced that large animals would fit in the ring. We decided between us that the animals must be some sort of small horses and couldn't possibly be anything bigger.

How wrong we were!

Not only was it an elephant, but TWO! They were amazing and didn't look as abused as the bears, although I'm still not really a fan of animals in zoos.

After that came six beautiful horses, although they were kind of frightening because they were circling so fast. It seemed like they would fall over any minute!!!

So that was the circus. After that we went to the Starlite Diner and Molly Gwens to eat and relax.

On Monday, I went to the "Liberty Bar" here at the embassy with my dad to watch the World Cup USA vs Czech Republic game. I still can't believe its not being broadcast on AFN!!! But I guess it makes sense since Americans don't watch soccer. But still, very annoying. And since we don't get Sky Cable (whats the point?) we don't have the right channels to watch all the games. We have to rely on "Channel 1" which we get without sound for some reason lol. It was a nice evening even if the USA did TERRIBLY. Sheesh.

My favorite part was the look of suprise on Koller's face when he scored the Czech Republic's first goal within the first 5 minutes. It was like he was thinking, "Well, that usually doesn't happen". Lol.

Tuesday I went to the Red Cross to see if there are things I can help them with since I can be their intern on a part time basis. It felt really strange to have people giving ME briefings individually. I mean, I had four meetings with very important people all by myself. Pretty cool.

When I got back to the embassy I did some work in the office before heading home half an hour early (not that anyone minded lol) so that I could get dinner started. We invited Professor Jeffry Rossman over since he is here in Moscow temporarily and I had taken a class with him at UVA.

It was a nice evening and dinner was pretty tasty if I do say so myself. You know, I'm on a roll lately with tasty dinners... first I made "Sicilian Chicken" which is baked crispy paremsan chicken. And then last night I made Farfalle Chicken and Mushroom in White Sauce. Thats Farfalle (Butterfly) noodles, Browned chicken, sauteed mushrooms, and a cream sauce made with lemon juice. REALLY easy actually.

Anyway, thats it for now. I'm going to create a new blog for my Oxford adventures. I'll post the link on here when I get it all sorted out.