under the big top

somehow, in my twenty-one years of life, i had never been to the circus until a few weeks ago.

i daresay that i have never been as entertained as i was on that night.

there were acrobats, eerie dancing poodles, juggling ladies with the underside of their bum cheeks slightly exposed, bad-a guys riding a treacherous hamster wheel in nice silky shirts, roaring lions, a long-haired ringmaster, a lion tamer with spiffy diamond studs, flying russian men on stilts, lots of too-tight leotards, and delicious cotton candy.

and a partridge in a pear tree.

 

and because we are in russia, where everyone and everything is behind on the times

i felt a little bit like we had stepped back in time when we walked into the circus tent.

i'm pretty sure the show, the set, and probably a couple of the jugglers are the exact same as they were in the 1930's.

holla.

a weekend in moscow

i'm officially a million years behind on blogging. 

so i've just made a goal to myself that before i can post about my recent jaunt throughout europe 

i have to get caught up first.

why do i feel that i start every post this way?

so, about four score and seven years ago 

we hopped on the train and headed to moscow for the weekend.

first of all, it was my first time on a train and i'll tell you what,

i did not expect it to be such a sweaty place.

the temperature was pretty much equivalent to the inner core of the sun.

it was also hilariously awkward as the sweaty russians that shared our car with us watched us down a few blini each. 

the highlight of the trip:
red square, the kremlin, and seeing st. basils in real life.

it was seriously beautiful. and so surreal to see something so famous in real life.

we were just out wandering with our group when courtney and i accidentally got separated, 

which led us to stumble across st. basils.

it was breathtaking, and even moreso by night.

it was like a christmas dream my friends, a true christmas dream.

secondary highlight:

our hostel ended up being an old people convention.

seriously though. there was not one person under the age of 50 there.

who knew that za za zoo's would attract such a crowd.

moscow wasn't as friendly and didn't have the same energy as st. petersburg.

it was a fun little weekend trip, but we were all happy to be home after the weekend was over.

 holla.

swaaans, swimming down a lake at night

a couple of weekends ago courtney, marci, and i went to swan lake.

we felt real legit seeing an actual russian ballet in actual russia. 

i just felt like penelope from the amanda show: "amanda please".

just a quick 90's flashback for you.

it was a great time to be had by all. plus it inspired us to watch black swan.

there were a lot of tutu's and spinning and a little too much tightness on the junk region.

we may or may not have snuck out just a little bit early.

don't judge us. 

we all lean a little to the ADD side. 

that coupled with our hunger led to us sneaking out the back door.

the workers kept trying to tell us that it wasn't over so i gestured that i had to throw up.

pretty sure that they didn't buy it for one second seeing as how i was laughing as i pointed to my mouth and then back to my stomach repeatedly.

all in all we felt pretty cultured,

even if we did use the "i have to puke" card to ditch out early.

holla.

jumping off cliffs like there's no tomorrow

so this has been the equation of my life as of late:

work + living at home + saving money for russia = no social life ever.

hence me never blogging about my fruitless existence.

okay, so maybe that's a little dramatic.

but the other day i did something super hard core 

to try to compensate for my recent lameness.

 seriously though.

this is possibly the number one coolest thing i've ever done:

Rope Swing from Sydney Gillman on Vimeo.

and in case you can't tell, or if this high quality video isn't doing it justice, 

let me explain.

that folks, is a ginormous rope swing that some friends of mine rigged up.

and in case you can't tell it's like 200 feet high.

so i just jumped off a cliff willy nilly like it was no big deal.

and i apologize for the "bloody hells" that slipped out of my mouth.

it was a little high.

holla.

ps. go here. it's a super fantastic blog.
f'reals though, it's one of my favorites.