4-23-10
Today, we had our excursion to the "Ostankin" TV Tower -- this is the TV tower that all of the TV signals in Moscow come from, and it's quite impressive as far as size, and security to get *into* it goes.
It's something like every other ginormously tall building in the world, in that, somewhere towards the very top, there is an observation tower, with a killer view of the city, and that is really what we went on this excursion for, I believe.
Unfortunately for us, the weather wasn't really all that great today when we set out. In fact, it was freezing cold, and rainy, and windy…!! What miserable conditions!!
I was also more than a little miserable, and heartsick, because the rain had driven all of these earthworms out of the ground, so there they were, drowning everywhere, on the sidewalk. And then, of course, most people don't watch where they are going, on account of worms, and so a fair amount of them had been stepped on, too… Poor earthworms!!! = ToT= I know it's a distinct possibility that most of you don't care about earthworms to any extent, but it breaks my heart to see them in that state.
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Earthworms aside...
We arrived at the tower, and once we reached our summit, it was still a pretty impressive view, even with everything being grey, and rainy. It actually rather reminded me of my attempt to finally get to the top of the Washington Monument! (The weather was exactly the same, as you may or may not remember.)
We enjoyed seeing the birds'-eye-view of some of our most-frequented locales (some people lived in the area), and had fun messing around with the "see-thru" parts of the floor.
We even got lucky -- Fortune, and the Weather, decided to be nice, and let the sun come out!! I got some *beautiful* cloud pictures out of that deal. =^___^= *loves on her clouds*
Still, as nice as it had looked when the sun came out for the observation deck, the temperature hadn't changed for the better at all; and in fact, it felt even colder than it had been before!!!
It was to that end, as we left the TV tower, that we got HAILED on. In APRIL. I have video. I am not kidding.
Granted, the hail wasn't HUGE, but it was definitely NOT just snow. = @_@ = Wowee. This winter really does not want to let go!!
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Tonight, I also *finally* had a dance lesson! I was getting worried that Vitaly wouldn't get back to me before I had to leave for Sochi. Thankfully, my fears were misplaced, obviously.
Tonight's lesson was pretty good, actually. There is progress!! Vitaly even said as much -- he seemed pretty happy, all these things we were working on were better -- but of course, now he wants more! Ha ha ha ha!
He also seemed slightly puzzled as to where the improvement had come from -- keep in mind, I have been trying to practice as much as my schedule has been able to allow! But I also showed up in lower, practice heels today (as he'd told me he wanted me to wear lower heels anyway) -- so he told me, "I don't know if it's the [lower] heels, or what -- but every time I see you, you are getting a little bit better, and a little bit better, and a little bit better."
The underlined part, obviously, being the most important thing that I heard. I told him I didn't know if it was the heels either (but they probably didn't hurt), but that I had been practicing. Vitaly seemed pleased about that, and we continued on.
Of course, not everything goes smoothly in a lesson, and so the summation/situation of tonight's work is contained in the following phrase/emotion, coming from Vitaly's POV --
'Good… Good… What was *that*???'
[The last line can also be read as, "What (are) you doing???" -- Which should sound very familiar to some PBDT members… =^_~=]
Ha ha ha ha ha! -- Whether it be good or bad, I knew EXACTLY when I'd just done something that belonged in the last category; and subsequently would hang my head right away, with a quick, "I *know!* I *know!* -- I'll do it again!" Nothing like laughing over abysmally bad attempts at dance to bring a smile to peoples' faces!!
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I ran into Nastëna when I got to the Studio, and we made plans to hang out tomorrow, once she finished her tests; and then I practiced for a little bit. Afterwards, I went to go hang out with my Marines!!!
Actually, I'd only intended to go briefly, and finish watching the movie with Mulzoff; but we distracted ourselves with some online videos first, and then I kept hearing music from another room. Now, this music was pretty good, so I finally said, "Can I go check out where the music is coming from?" Naturally, Mulzoff agreed, and we went out to see a few of our other friends there, also hanging out! Thus, we became something of a party, and even more of our friends showed up soon afterwards!!
Amid the socializing, someone stole Chris' Fedora, and brought it to me -- which was a BAAAAD thing for Chris:
1. Because I ADORE Fedoras.
2. Because this Fedora happened to be one of the few that looked good on me, and I promptly stole it for the night!!
Somewhere betwixt the Socializing and Fedora stealing, I got to witness the Magnificent Mulzoff doing Parcour (sp?) -- aka Free Running, aka - "Doing really fancy flips, rolls, jumps, etc. on top of, through, over, and around everyday objects" -- through the playground.
It. Was. INCREDIBLE!!!!! And he was completely sober, too! I don't think I've ever seen anything so fantastically impressive in my life. I adore Mulzoff! We basically all bowed to his awesomeness as he returned to us.
*****
After we came back inside, some of the Marines, and especially Tom, tried to get me to go out to a club with them. I hadn't *really* wanted to go -- I still had to go home and get my dinner!!! -- and I said as much, albeit with regrets. Tom, displeased with my answer, seized on it, and about killed me by throwing some "Oliver Twist" at me, à la the following lines:
"'Please sir -- I want some more!!' -- I will BUY you something to eat, you poor, starving orphan!"
and
"Come out to the club with us -- look, I will get you a bowl of gruel when we get there, just, come on!!!"
Ha ha ha ha ha… I was definitely doing the, "I've laughed so hard, I can no longer breath, and the next time I do manage to inhale, it's going to make a very, very high-pitched noise," laugh -- and certain members of our party, who were unfamiliar with the fact that I do that, when something is really funny to me, were trying to see if I was ok. *laughs* What a night.
*****
I *did,* in fact, go out to the club with them -- a place called "Zhara," and it was actually pretty fun!! Tom especially was teasing me, "And you didn't want to come out!!!! See? You should just have listened to me in the first place!!!"
Thus, I got to dance the night away, and laugh with the guys about the girls dancing on the bar. They kept changing outfits, and it was funny, 'cause I'd look up and notice before the rest of the guys did. (Something I found infinitely amusing.) After one such episode, Tom teased me, "You want a job like that?? I could get you one!" I just replied, "Honey, I don't have enough color in my skin to wear what they are wearing, and dance like that!" We just laughed and laughed.
-- There were some downsides to going out, however.
Namely, that I now know what it feels like to be burned by a cigarette's business end, and that I didn't get home until 4 AM.
The former happened as I was bringing my arm up, while dancing; and while Tom was bringing his arm down, while smoking. You can see where this leads. I saw it coming, but unfortunately, I just wasn't quick enough to completely dodge it. If you want to find a fortunate side to all of that, I suppose it's that I *was* fast enough to get my arm dropped before he *really* burned me, as well as the fact that the brunt of the ember hit a scar that I already had.
[As of the present, all that remains are 2 or 3, little red dots on top of the old scar.]
The latter happened as a consequence of waiting to be picked up after having agreed to go out to a club with my friends. (Duh.) But the 4 AM part wasn't awful, so much as the part where my host family's dog decided that she should announce my entrance into the house at 4 AM. …. I felt SO awful…. And was basically cursing Bonnie to the ends of the Earth for a little while. = O_o =
Then, I finally got my dinner.
Also, I'm supposed to wake up at 7 AM, so that I can get out to get some internet to send in some photos for my school program's photo contest, just before the deadline. This was something I'd intended to do tonight -- but you can see how that went… Ha ha ha…
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