The Russian team won a soccer match last night. Actually, it's kind of a bigger deal than that. The Russian team, which I'm told was in last place going in, beat the Dutch team in the quarterfinals of the European championship, sending Russia to the semifinals for the first time ever ("ever," by the way, is 17 years). I was watching this in a restaurant with a group of people. Nobody scored for a really long time, then both teams scored at the last minute, so the game went into overtime, during which Russia scored twice, for a 3-1 result. It was pretty exciting. One of my students was actually at the game, which must have been really exciting.
People on the streets last night were crazy, but in a peaceful way. I've been here twice for New Years' and I have never seen such excitement. Everybody was cheering. Some people had fireworks. I saw one guy who had climbed onto one of the WALK/DON'T WALK lights and was just sitting there waving his shirt. Like I said, crazy.
Naturally, I did not bring my camera.
Anyway, I'll do the first Friday Five in a long time (for some reason, I just forgot about it). But first I have a question of my own.
Why didn't anybody *tell* me that Viggo Mortensen was hot!?
a) "It always seemed like stating the obvious."
b) "I did. Several times. You said he needed a haircut."
c) "Did he show up somewhere wearing glasses?"
d) "He's not hot."
e) "If this is about 'Eastern Promises,' I am revoking your visa."
Okay, now on to the (kind of oddly phrased) Friday Five:
1) what is one thing about you that you hate?
One? I'm going to go with my lack of social skills here.
2) what is one thing about you that you love?
Trivia-brain!
3) if you had to change one thing about you what would it be and why?
I would be much, much better at dealing with people. I would never put my foot in my mouth or worry about doing so. I'd make eye contact with people, including but not limited to, attractive males. And I'd be able to manipulate people, but I'd use it for good rather than evil. Like somebody would tell me their problems and instead of saying "you really need to get over that" I could manipulate them into feeling better! And I'd be able to do that bitchy thing where you make fun of somebody but you do so so subtlely that they don't realize it until a few hours later, or they realize it but can't say anything because you're so subtle that they'd just come off as really defensive. That ability is like a hairdryer. I wouldn't ever use it, but it's weird to be a female without it.
4) what is one word that you would use to define yourself?
Polite.
5) imagine what you would look like in a perfect world...what do you look like?
In a perfect world, I wouldn't have to look any different. That said, I'd like to be able to change my appearance at will. I would mostly use this for changing the color of my nails without having to wait for the nail polish to dry.
If I weren't who's to say
14 years ago
4 comments:
I choose letter f: "It would be creepy coming from your mother, especially because she figured this out after seeing him in Eastern Promises and A History of Violence." I've been curious about your reaction to Eastern Promises, since he actually went and lived in the village he was supposed to have come from and one of his co-stars said, "He came back moving like a Russian."
I love how you would only use your magical dealing with people skills for good and not evil and then you go onto tell how you would use it to make fun of people in a subtle way. I don't think a Genie would grant that wish! Your hairdryer analogy was hilarious.
I have to think a bit before I answer this Friday Five, if I do. One of the problems with my age is that it is really, really boring to still want to change things about yourself, and the physical things are so obvious that it would be stupid to state them. I would sure like to have my 30 year old memory back, though.
Marin: You are hilarious.
But I'm wondering where you and your mother were when the LOTR trilogy was released and everyone was raving about Viggo M.
You know, diversity awareness training may not be the big thing in Russia that it is in American corporations, but there's always a mention of a Hispanic woman who won't make eye contact, and we're lectured that we should hire her anyway because that is an expression of her culture, and I always wondered if that woman actually exists, and now I find that she's you! It's like meeting Bigfoot, only, you know, more petite and attractive, and with a better shoe collection. So you should just move back to America (only if Obama wins, of course), change your name to Marincita Baker-Buendias, and turn those lemons into lemonade.
By the way, I was very amused by the shout-out to Portugal.
It wasn't my shout-out as much as it was Homer Simpson's (Portugal had already lost to Germany in the quarterfinal). Russia lost 0-3 to Spain in the semi, and tomorrow the final will be Germany v. Spain. Spain is undefeated, and Germany is apparently very good, so it's supposed to be an interesting match. I think most Russians will be supporting Germany out of spite.
Actually, I wrote a couple of those answers with my mother in mind, since I thought she had been on the Aragorn bandwagon.
I really liked Eastern Promises, though I was mostly paying attention to the accents (his was very good, and the other guy's was a normal fake Russian accent). As for moving like a Russian, I'll have to watch it again and pay more attention. But his character comes from a part of Russian society that I don't deal with, so it would still be hard for me to say if he's portraying it accurately.
That said, the nurse's uncle, the most stereotypical character, looked and sounded exactly like one of my students.
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