PETA in Russia (or lack thereof)

So, many of you are undoubtedly aware of the harsh Russian winters and the furs they’re accustomed to wear because of them. Vegetarianism also isn’t a widespread custom, though like in many places, it’s a growing one. Anyway – I’ve seen a lot of really awfully treated – or at least humiliated – animals. I thought this picture and video might touch you, Alex, because they’re some of your favorites.

Here, in front of Red Square, are some hawks and monkeys (in dresses) that you can take your picture with.
And this is a link to a video of some tied up bears who were trying to rub off the collars around their necks – they were displayed in front of a huge marketplace I went to the other day.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FlLt8Tgh_ts

On a lighter note….Russian women. Hot bodies draped with the slightest of clothing. I can’t compete because I don’t have any provocative clothing. Fortunately, I don’t have such a problem with this because I haven’t developed an attraction to the mullet, not yet.

This is a picture of two girls from class and my peer tutor, Julia, who’s not only beautiful and very slender, but also met me in a white skirt and a black bra. Oh, and I think their was a white net covering up the bra, which is a lot more apparent in this picture than it was in real life. I liked her a lot though.

Here are some pictures of the Tretyakov art gallery we visited and Tostoi’s estate I checked out the other day.




And I found some really neat graffiti right after my last post, so here’s some of that, including some really well done matroishkas.





Also - our resident director, Alex, took Allison (the redhead in the picture with Julia) and I to his friend, Sergei's English class. They'd only been learning English two weeks, but they were really far along (because they've been so exposed to it all their lives, &c.). We each got to be in one of their groups and we did exercises and creating a short fairy tale skit, verb conjugations, and singing from a song book that included classics from "Barbie Girl" by Aqua, "I Want It That Way" by the Backstreet Boys to "Yellow Submarine" by the Beatles and, the one we sang, which was some random song he said was from Trainspotting - which I thought was odd.

And, lastly, I got to see the new Harry Potter AND I finished the series yesterday. Which doesn’t really have anything to do with Russia, but….it was perfect. Perfect.