You're welcome.

Boy, you could tell it was Friday yesterday. The kids were off the wall.
They were not in the mood to listen to any language.  The high point of the day, however, was when I told on kid, "Good boy!" And he answered in English, You're welcome. Right sentiment and right language. I'll take that after two weeks of class. And this came from one of my incessant criers.

Went home yesterday and spent the entire evening watching old Stephen Colbert monologues. I laughed out loud.

Today I got up and just hung around the house till about noon. Then I took the new shortcut I learned to the MacDonald's near the subway station. I actually ordered the shrimp and it was very good. So also plan to try a hamburger sometime soon, just to compare.

From Mickey D's, I took the subway to the end of the pedestrian zone where I went into one of these large 3-4 story buildings that house all sorts of stores. They are actually multilevel malls. I found the bookstore "Read World". It has a decent collection of English language books and not just the classics for school kids. In any case, I ended up buying a book about Kazan with one page in Russian and the next page in English. I bought two copies, one to give to my colleague whose birthday party I'm going to attend in an hour.

Then I mosied down to the theater where the entire staff met to see the play "Hotel Vegas". Of course I didn't understand everything, but I got the gist and the dancing and singing we're terrific. It rivals anything I've seen at GEVA. It was so well directed and entertaining.

After the theater I headed back to the pedestrian zone to my internet cafe where I ate mushroom soup and a Greek salad. Now I'm just hanging out until I go to the birthday party. I didn't feel like going home and then coming back to the city after a couple of hours.

More fun facts. Sales tax her is 18% and is included directly in the price. You also do not have to tip here. If I'm figuring right, gas is between $2.20 and $2.40 a gallon. But he careful with that. Remember, I also figured that public transportation cost less than a penny. OK, I'm on my way to the party.

Tomorrow I'm planning on hitting the trails in the forest on my bike.