Neuen Mitbewohner

I have no idea if that is correct grammar. We didn't really talk to much about grammar in class. But anyways, my new roommate showed up today. I wasn't expecting him until the 1st of March. This doesn't bother me, though. I don't want to make it sound like that. Anywho, he's Turkish - from Istanbul - and speaks very little English. This will be a challenge for me, but it should be fun. Unfortunately, I didn't quite catch his name. I keep having this problem. Someone will tell me their name, and I'll have no idea what they said. It's like they're speaking a foreign language.

Anyways, I realized that I'm going to be here for a decent amount of time. I needed some speakers for my computer. I figured, "Well, I'll look but they're probably going to be 15 or 20 euro and that's just not worth it." I found a pair and decent speakers - they're much better than my computer speakers - for 9 euro. Awesome. So now I have a pair of speakers. I originally bought a pair of 6 euro speakers, but they were actually worse than my computer's speakers. Returning them was sort of fun because the cashier didn't speak English, but it worked out pretty well.

Also, I learned last night that in Russia it is bad luck to poor your own drink and that people who whistle will be poor. Just some Russian superstitions. I listened to the Russians - *Eugene, *Kate, and Olga - who live in my building sing Russian songs. A Russian man named *Arthur played guitar. It was really cool. I had no idea what they were singing about, though. They'd explain it to me. One song was about a Russian pilot shooting down a US pilot from Texas during the Vietnam war. Many were about nostalgic love or something along those lines. We also listened to a lot of Red Hot Chili Peppers. And Placebo apparently has international popularity.

Sometimes I'm asked to explain English sayings. For example, the term "hung up" as in "I'm hung up on you." Apparently, there isn't an equivalent expression in Russian. Or the difference between a pickle and a cucumber or the difference between "organize" and "organise." All very good stuff.

*These aren't their real names. I can't pronounce those very well except for Eugene's but I can't spell what his real name is. I'm not even sure that Arthur is the accurate translation of his name.