First post in forever

Hello blog, man, It's been so long... Youth Camp has come and gone, along with many other happenings that warrant a placement in your HTML halls. Sadly, I think I'll just go back to the Russian party and go up from there, I can't recount the past few months and do them justice you know.

Ahh, anyway. So, the Russians. First, a little back story: My Russian tutors son is a VERY active member of Rotary International, which sponsors business trips and whatnot for people to go to other countries and LEARN SOMETHING! For the past 3 years, my tutor' son (Vitalie)has been taking groups of Russians around Pittsburgh so they can learn from local economics and other areas of interest. For example, last year he had a group who really wanted to learn about the functioning of Non-profit organizations, this year it had to do with generating enough energy for such a large area. Now, formalities aside, these people were so funny and so different, I hope I can name them all, lets see...
Leonid: a man of unknown profession who hails from Lenin's home town, and he was the picture of the generalized socialist Russian. Funny guy though, he gave me tons of pins, most of which had lenin's bust somewhere on it. There were alot of jokes made that he was a spy and former member of the KGB, although it was all done in good humor. Couldn't speak English, but I talked with him alot anyway(tried to, in Russian that is)
Nikolai: I never got to talk much with him, but he always had some kind of camera or video recorder in his hand. didn't speak English.
Andrew: same as Nikolai, only minus the video camera.
I believe there was another Nikolai, who is a composer, who also didn't speak English, but played the piano beautifully.
Gresha: the translator of the group, aka the only one that could speak english. Gresha as an amazing soon-to-be professor of Russian-American relations at a local university. It was so wonderful to talk with him, he wanted to know so much, and I wanted to know so much too, so we basically exchanged knowledge for what seemed like hours.

There were two meetings, a welcome meeting and a farewell meeting. I'll see if I can accurately separate these two meetings into two narratives.

Well, we arrived just in time to join in the meal, although we were unfortunatly late. I indulged in Pickled herring with onion in vegitable oil, all of which was raw, but good, along with caviar and butter on wheat bread. Pork was the only "Normal" thing served, but there was also this great pockets of eggroll of some sort, along with some kind of cabbage dish and a beet and horseradish dish that I didn't sample. While I was eating, I met everyone, including a young lady named Jenna who is 20, soon to be 21. I'm still not sure exactly how she and her family are involved in all this, but it all worked out for the better. For the remainder of the night I mingled and had leangthy conversations with Gresha and Jenna about the policial structure of America.
Food and talk gave way to entertainment, Jenna sang, I played piano a bit, but the real highlight came when Nikolai played a beutiful russian waltz. I began to dance with an invisible partner, and Jenna asked me "Do you dance?" and so, I took off my boots and got a quick lesson in waltzing and voila! Jenna and I were dancing in the middle of the living room. Jenna, who is/was a ballroom dancer gave me the basic steps of the waltz. Kinda funny how life can lead so such things as dancing with a girl I had only met that night.

Ok, well, that's enough for now, check back soon to read more on the russians.

Simple(ton) thought of the day: "Orange Bandanas only look good on blond haired girls."
Someone interesting I met today: Barbra Haggardy

-Wes