My Thanksgiving Dinner

Thanksgiving 2010:

Location: Russia
Ethnicity of restaurant: Uzbekh
Ethnicity of food ordered: Japanese
Ethnicity of person eating the food: American (last time I checked)
Ethnicity of person singing music over the speaker system of restaurant: Jamaican

Happy Thanksgiving.

Weekend in Moscow

I went to Moscow for the weekend two weeks ago. There were five of us from St. Petersburg that went and we had a great time. The train ride to Moscow takes 8 hours so almost all of the trains to Moscow leave at night and arrive early the next morning. We rode in "sleeper" cars that don't have any private cabins--just 50 or so bunk-bed style beds in the car. It's kind of a fun way to travel. On the way to Moscow, we unfortunately were assigned the beds at the end of car right next to the entrance to the toilet. This meant that people were walking by us and opening the (very loud) door all night long. The train itself was rather old as well and I barely slept at all on the way to Moscow. The train back to St. Petersburg was VERY nice but unfortunately the passenger sleeping directly below me had a massive snoring problem and once again I didn't get much sleep.

I didn't go to Red Square this time--I'd already gone there on every other previous trip to Moscow--but I did go to the very first McDonalds restaurant in Russia that opened up in 1990. At the time it was the largest in the world and apparently they served over 35,000 customers on the first day of business. If you don't believe me, just watch this video.

Here are a few other pictures:

Subway: Not always promoting a healthy diet...

I was trying to be sneaky with my camera on my Macbook while I was eating at Subway with some friends the other day. the result wasn't exactly what I was hoping for but I decided to post it anyways.

What this picture is trying to point out:

-that you can buy beer at Subway restaurants in Russia. You can also buy it at KFC. McDonalds is holding strong though and still only serves soft drinks. (If you look at the family sitting in the background you will see a single plastic cup with a brownish-looking liquid inside--that's not Ginger Ale.)

What the picture ends up pointing out:

-that Sveta always wears a bib at Subway (or that she had some hilarious split-second timing as the picture was being taken--you decide)

-that the Subway found on Nevsky Prospekt, 20 was the busiest Subway in the world for the months of May, June, July, and August. (that's what the sign behind the tipsy family is announcing)

Officially Official. I'm a PRO!

View from the 14th Floor