GREAT BIG GAZONGABLOGA POST

Ok. So. Sorry about that. I am about to try to cover the past... two weeks? Two and a half weeks?

Vasnetsov's House
Vasnetsov is a Russian artist from the end of the 19th century. He painted a lot of Russian folkloric scenes. He is not the most talented artist, I don't think. I do enjoy looking at his paintings, though. He lived in a time where you could draw dragons all day and not be a complete weirdo. I liked seeing his house. It was a contemporary [to the late 1800s] take on a traditional peasant's house. Vasnetsov seemed like he was a pretty cool guy. Grammy, if you're reading this, I think you'd like some of the stuff he's painted.

Kruzhka
Kruzhka is a chain of sports bars in Moscow. I've only been to one, though, on Kuznetsky Most. We usually go at least once a week, often more. It's wooden and kinda reminds me of the Smiling Skull in Athens. Since we frequent it so much, we've made friends with one of the bartenders, Faruk/Fedya. Faruk is an Uzbek working in Moscow (probably 80 hours a week... I know he works from 8 in the morning until, I think, 2 at night. I'd like to imagine he has breaks.). He goes buy Fedya, though, because it's easier for Russians to say than Faruk. He's a cool guy, and always comes up to talk to us. He knows us by name, too. In fact, he even came out with us on Andrea's birthday party. I'll get to that later.

Abramtsevo
On Sunday (two Sundays ago from when I'm writing this), we took the commuter train an hour out of Moscow to a former artist's colony out in the middle of the woods. Vasnetsov was one of many artists who spent time living and working at this colony. The place was filled with Russian folk art. I think it's something Mom would really like.

Folk Art Museum
Have you barfed from Folk Art yet? Because I almost did. Last Wednesday, I had the pleasure of feeling ill while exploring a folk art museum. I don't really remember much, because it was hard to pay attention.  Nothing against folk art. Everything against barf.

Karaoke Night
Saturday night, almost the whole Russian class went out for Andrea's [belated] birthday party. We had planned on going out to a karaoke club. But, plans do not always go as... planned. Okay, I am barely paying attention to what I am writing apparently. Anyway, we get to the right metro stop and pop out to the street. Nothing seems obviously like a karaoke bar. We run into a few other friends, one of whom drunk off his ass and limping because he fell down an escalator. An escalator that was turned off. We heard him tell that story probably twenty times throughout the night. The whole group in tow, we go out to find the karaoke bar. We find a few things that look like one, but aren't. Eventually, we find a different karaoke club/restaurant, but find out the karaoke section costs 500 roubles! So instead, we sit down at the restaurant (as the ONLY PEOPLE THERE), and half of us order litres of beer. Escalator Man (identity hidden to protect the innocent) sang the Russian birthday song, replacing the lyrics he didn't know with "bli blya blu." It was a good night.

Yasnaya Polyana
Yesterday, we took a chartered bus three hours south to Yasnaya Polyana, Tolstoy's estate just south of the city Tula. It was pretty cool, although I was still feeling kinda blehbmeh. Apparently, each of Tolstoy's thirteen children were birthed on the same couch. It is known as the Birth Couch. I have a suspicion that each of Tolstoy's thirteen children also may have been conceived on that couch. Tolstoy was also a health nut. We saw his weights and his pull-up bar out in the yard. The idea of a shirtless, bearded Tolstoy doing chin-ups in the dead of winter is priceless.