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Hello,

I was sick last weekend with a cold, and then I got sick again with a stomach thing this weekend, so I haven't been up to that much exciting.

The week before last, we went to the circus one night. We walked in and there were just wild animals sitting in the lobby like it was normal - there was a bear, cheetah, tigers, monkeys, it was pretty crazy. The show itself consisted of a lot of Russian acrobatics, which are really cool at first, but two hours of them can get tiring. There weren't that many animals in the show itself. some poodles doing cool tricks, and then lions. The lions were really sad actually - there were 6 of them and you could tell that their spirits were completely broken. I think we were all secretly hoping that they were going to attack the lion tamer for constantly making them do the stupid things they did.

This weekend I went to an electronics place called Gorbushka, which is kind of like the Ikea of electronics, but in a mall form. They have lots of movies and tv show vendors though that sell dvds that are legal (i.e. illegal in America) to copy and sell cheap. I found Juno and bought that.
Afterwards we took a bus to the MegaMall, where they have some giant stores from everywhere, and I bought some Ritz Crackers for 8 dollars at Stockmanns, a Finish store that imports a lot of American food. (yes, the Ritz were worth it =) just once though maybe )

Sunday night we went to a musical performance at the House of Music in Moscow, which was interesting because it was a traditional Russian orchestra. It consists of mostly strings and drums ( there were only two flutes and an oboe apart from strings) and the strings aren't instruments played with bows, but rather balalaikas, domras, etc, which are strummed. I don't know my musical terminology, so I hope this makes sense. Monday was a holiday in Russia, so I had no school, and there was an excursion to the ballet in the theater inside the Kremlin. Since it was a holiday and also the premier of the "Le Corsaire" balet with the prima ballerina in Moscow, it was incredibly crowded and tight security, so not everyone was seated until an hour after the performance was supposed to start. We had to find our seats in the dark, and since we were in a big group didn't even know what exact seats we were supposed to be finding in the dark, but eventually we just sat down. Most of the guys fell asleep, but I definitely enjoyed my first Russian ballet.