Coyotes, Rabbits, and Bears Oh My!...and Stag.

Of course my last night in Moscow had to be unforgettable. As advised, I've completely stayed out of trouble so far. Haven't been drinking, haven't gone to night clubs, etc. It's been a classy, sophisticated trip. We went to the ballet last week, the opera this week. I didn't particularly enjoy the ballet, though. It was a modern ballet of The Little Mermaid, and I would like to have seen a classic. The singing and the music in the opera was beautiful. We watched the Opera Eugene Onegin. It's about a playboy who leaves his socialite life to care for his dying uncle in the countryside. Here's a run-on sentence that will make my mom cringe to sum it up: Onegin comes to the countryside, he meets Tatiana, she falls madly in love him, he kinda likes her too but says he wouldn't be good for her because he likes to fool around, he flirts with her sister, his best friend is in love with said sister, he gets super jealous, challenges Onegin to a duel, his best friend dies in the duel, Onegin leaves, comes back years later, visits a general friend of his, turns out this general married Tatiana, Tatiana is gorgeous and rich, so now Onegin wants her back and is madly in love with her (go figure), she stays loyal to the general despite still loving him, Onegin is miserable, the end. I really want to read the book. Since we were all dressed up for the Opera, Berenice, Andy, and I decide to try this great restaurant that we heard serves bear meat. Bear meat is soooo great.

Anyway, back to my last night. So we started off the night by going back to Чемодан (Chemodan). I started off with the white mushroom soup with Siberian Stag. Wow Stag is great. Russia really does meat well. We had the Macedonian wine, too. Yummy. Andy invited an old family friend and his wife to join us. They have lived in Moscow for three months. His wife knew some great places we could go after the restaurant. However, Berenice and I wanted to go to White Rabbit (a rooftop bar/restaurant) first to get a picture of the sunset. The sunsets here are absolutely beautiful. So we wandered off while they finished dinner. Unfortunately, we didn't quite make it in time for the sunset, but we still got a great view! The cocktails weren't half bad either. After, we met up with Laurel, Andy, and his friends at Bar Coyote. Yep, a coyote ugly bar in Moscow. What a fun place!!  It is so hilarious hearing all the Russians yell out the chorus of popular American songs, knowing they have No clue what they are saying or what it means. I met some pretty cool people there, too. I met two really nice girls, who completely lit up when I said I was from Los Angeles. They "dream" of visiting California. I swear, they all say the same phrase, "I dream of visiting America!". I got to practice my Russian, they got to practice their english. And...remember how I said I'd kept it classy? Well...it is a coyote ugly bar and it was about time to let loose. So, yes, Berenice, Laurel, my new Russian comrades, and I went on the bar and danced. It's a perfectly normal thing to do in such a place!! And so much fun. The men were very respectful and polite, too. I'm really going to miss that when I get back to America... We danced and talked and all of a sudden we left the bar and it was bright outside. Oh, why hello there 6 in the morning. Time to go home. It was truly a great last night in Moscow. That memory is going to make me miss it here a little bit more than I originally would have.

The ballet...pictures weren't really allowed obviously.

Ballet again...I couldn't get a good picture of the opera. We had pretty bad seats and an awkward angle.

Also forgot to mention that we went to a student recital at the Scriabin Museum. Really brought back the memories of all the recitals I performed in...