So:

Zenit is playing in the UEFA championship; they are expected to win and all hell will probably break loose shortly thereafter. The team’s success apparently symbolize the country’s transformation from communism to capitalism. We watched the totally magical, if suspiciously high-scoring, victory (4-0) vs. Bayern in a packed sports bar with Dascha and Ljenja and I felt a little awkward about not screaming my guts out with every goal. But, I mean, i’m just not used to this kind of fanaticism.

Thursday was may day, which nowadays means all kinds of diverse things. In Moscow the Ruling Pary, United Russia, pretty much dominated the rally while in Petersburg Kasparov et. all made something of a dissident event of the thing. I was, rather unfortunately, indisposed in the morning and so didn’t make it out my front door and onto Nevsky until the very end, and this only thanks to Valerii, my neighbor, who woke me up at 11:30 insisting that the May Day march would be something of an essential experience in Russia. I snapped some crappy pictures of a woman with a Stalin picture and then, rather unsuccessfully, tried to get back to sleep.

Also on the holiday front, Friday is Victory Day (WWII) and I am definitely going to wake up early to catch the parade. This year the big hullabaloo has surrounded the Red Square demonstration which will feature heavy military equipment for the first time since the soviet era, but from what I understand there’ll likely be a similar display of tanks and rocket launchers along Nevsky. I’ve, of course, got some mixed and rather stomach turning feelings about all of this, Putin’s reassurances notwithstanding, but I’ll definitely show up for the spectacle. In Petersburg the holiday is particularly important owing to the city’s casualties during the 900 day axis siege.

On Friday Marina, Octavia and I made a small excursion to Vyborg on the Finnish border. Unfortunately we were disappointed by promises of crowds of drunk Finns, but the city was otherwise a rather nice place to walk around. Castles, strange parks, deserted and crumbling streets, and a whole lot of neat graffiti. We found a building from the 16th century, the ruins of something destroyed during world war two (probably) and a Kruschev-era five story monstrosity (“Kruschjeba” which combines the name and a word for slum) on one strangely quiet corner. Now that I’ve fixed the flat tire on my bike (acquired during an epic ride ’round the city) maybe I’ll make the next zagorod adventure to Pushkin or Pavlosk, something like 20km to the South. At any rate, the nice weather alongside slowly dawning realizations that my time here is draining away are kicking at my impulses to travel.

As I mentioned below, we’ve had an unprecedented streak of sunshine and heat, which ended, incidentally, today with some chilly temperatures and a quite decidedly overcast morning. The weather and the extended sunlight (we’re pushing past 10 o’clock) make a fellow want to do nothing more than take a walk, drink a beer, and read a book in some sort of park. Cases of the sun-crazies, on the other hand, are taking more and more of a toll.

Other than all that I’ve resumed my steady diet of pasta, I’m still listening to a whole lot of old Russian rock (send your hip music suggestions this way), and I’m trying to scheme a plan for my trip about Europe this summer.

And in conclusion, I’ll just say that the BBC world news service just used the word “Testicles.” It was in reference to today’s democratic primaries….