but they're such manly tights...

It's been almost two weeks. Or more. Actually, I don't know.
But regardless, what's important is that I have finally broken radio silence and am writing to you, yes, you, dear reader, once more.
There are so many things I could tell you about. And in the interests of establishing a tradition of poorly organized and unified writing, I'm going to open this episode with a totally unrelated anecdote.
So. I was talking with one of the girls in school about our dogs. Her dog, she explained, is a hunting dog. But since he lives in the city, he just goes around hunting for rubbish and then brings it proudly back and strews it about his home. Lovely.
I shared that my dog (as a poodle) is also a hunting dog, but he's extremely cowardly. "One time," I explained, "there was a meeshka in our house, and our dog would just bark--he wouldn't even go near it!" What I was unaware of is that the word for "small mouse" is actually "meehshka," a difference I can barely hear, let alone say. "meeshka" means "small bear."
"There was a small bear in your house?!" cried my friends. Ah, the misinformation I must unwittingly spread about America. No doubt this will have catastrophic inter-continental repercussions, but I let it go.
So, right, about those manly tights.
Anyway, yesterday I was trotting (in the cold. in the rain. in the wind.) from my accordion lesson to the rotary meeting, and I got a call from my host parents. They were taking me to a figure skating show in about 20 minutes--so I steered a new course to the Palace of Sport (no, really, that's what it's called.)
Well, I have to say first of all that it really is weird what shows up in little backwoods Siberian cities. This time, what showed up was literally the best figure skating in the world. I'm serious. They were all Olympic and World champions, and we even had the man himself, Plyooshenka. What? YOU DON'T KNOW WHO PLYOOSHENKA IS? I didn't either. He's the best figure skater in the world.
This gave me an opportunity to comment on some random culture differences. 1.) Why plush toys? So. After the more amazing displays of skill, the audience would throw flowers or plush toys onto the ice. "They're gifts," explained my host mother. Why on earth would anyone want stuffed animals? Let alone so many? When I tentatively asked, "Why stuffed animals?" My host mother explained simply, "Because they need to be soft--it's on the ice." But why stuffed animals?
2.) Russians clap in unison. The first time I saw it, I thought it was unique to dancing (the curtain call for Otello involved a traditional Russian dance.) The second time, I just thought it was odd. Now I know the truth. Russian's just like clapping in unison. I don't get it, but I'm at peace with that fact.
3.) They know who Plyooshenka is here. Plyooshenka skated. He flew. He glided. He swooped. He blew kisses to the crowd. Girls swooned, and the air was thick with stuffed animals.

Oh, and part of the musical program was focused on Mary Poppins. Not only do they know who Mary Poppins is, but it was translated and sung in Russian. Now I want you all to think about Supercallifragilisticexpialidocious in Russian. Chew that one over for a while.