7

Best weather Moscow's seen in a month today. Around 70 degrees, with only a small band of clouds off to the north. And--rejoice!--no class on Fridays, so I went for a pleasant run in the park, even stopping to do some pull-ups on the bar that stands, for some reason, by itself in the middle. There were an unbelievable number of women with strollers out rolling around; sometimes it seems like women out-number men two to one here. The lingering mark of a violent twentieth century. I've been able to get quite a bit of reading done, probably to the detriment of my Russian acquisition, but I excuse myself: those bus rides are long. Just finished Natasha's Dance: A Cultural History of Russia, trying to educate myself a bit, and am working on reading Joyce's Dubliners closely. Also, a slower project, reading Gogol's The Inspector General in Russian. Tonight there are a few good concerts, so I'm headed to the center.