You'd be proud of me, so you would, I went to a Russian restaurant and ate real Russian food, something that I haven't done since the whole 'dog meat' conversation. We met a British man, who is here to work as a chef in a soon-to-be-opened-should-have-been-opened-in-March restaurant, who told us that this particular restaurant was where he hangs out and so we figured the meat would be of a safe non-canine variety. So instead of the customary pizza slice in a summer tent we had Russian food in an indoors eating establishment. We confused the waitress with our bad accents and inability to decide what we wanted to eat, and were happy with the bad service because at least we got cold beer and a smile (although I think she was smiling at us not with us). So this was how we sent the American and the English girls off, in Russian style, onto their next adventure.

Meanwhile, back in the real world of Tyumen day to day life, we have a new addition to the family. Yes, apparently it's a dog, but it resembles a black and brown rat, and makes attempts to bark which result in loud crying noises that wake me up frequently during the night. He's cute, in a rat-like way, and likes to play chase the human, which is quite dangerous as I've almost trodden on him several times in the excitement. I thought he was a miniature rotweiller until I looked closer and saw that he is in fact one of those really small big-eared rat-like dogs that bark at everything.