Russia: Smoke

First of all:

In nice, big, in yo' face letters: SMOKING KILLS.

Russians love to smoke. I smoke. You smoke. Host papa smokes. Hell, even host baby lights up every once in a while.

OR SO I THOUGHT.

It's odd, but smoking is slowly but surely losing its appeal here in Russia. Or at least that the way it seems to me. Maybe Vladimir is different from its capital cities of Petersburg and Russia, but a lot of the youth nowadays are going straightedge. I.e. no smoking, no drinking.

WHAT!?, you might ask?

Well, it's also no surprise that Russians love to drink. And those who love to drink, especially men, tend to go too far. Actually, they always go too far. Speaking from experience of having drunk with a number of Russians, the majority of the young 'uns who drink like to force themselves onto women and trash shit like it's their prerogative. *sigh*, Russian men. Not to mention, there are a lot of families that have had alcoholic fathers, and it seems that the youth is finally beginning to understand that perhaps drinking is not all it's cracked up to be.

Oh, also, moderation is out of the question. I've told Russians "Well, just do it in moderation." Response? "Our country knows no moderation."

Same for smoking. Russian teeth are kind of like British teeth. REALLY BAD. And now the connection between tea every day and cigarettes and bad teeth is finally starting to sink in as well. We'll see where that goes. Also, let's see where that gets us in the winter. The one thing that kept me warm on the way to school in Moscow in November was cigarettes. Beautiful, caring cigarettes. Really, it was the only thing that really loved me or understood me at all that fall...

Speaking of smoke, holy hell. Russia's going up in smoke, kids. State of emergency has already been declared in Moskovskaya Oblast' (that's where Moscow is) and Vladimirskaya Oblast' (guess where that one is...). But please, don't let me be the one to tell you. See for yourself.

Isn't this gorgeous? It's like a nice, early morning fog in San Francisco, right?

Wrong.

It's Vladimir. At 4PM. And that's not fog. At all. It's all smoke.

Katarzyna too famous to be taken photos of by the paparazzi.

Masks. Delicious.

Don't... really... know what Megan's doing there...

Awww, biffles fo' life! And then smoke.

Anywho, there are rumors being spread that we may be evacuated back to America. I don't really know if it's going to go through, but I kind of hope it doesn't. Granted, it's crappy here right now, but there's only two weeks left! That's like, not even a lot of weeks! But some people have already been dropping like flies, using laaame excuses such as "I can't breathe" or "I can't see where I'm going." Pfft, amateurs.

Man, I miss California.

So yeah, the smoke is being caused by peat. Who knew that that still existed? I thought it had gone extinct. I thought we killed that eons ago. But no. It's back. And with a vengeance. That stuff burns underground, so you can't just pour water on it. And if you dig it up to put water, oxygen gets in there, making the situation worse. So... there's not much you can do right now with it, which sucks. But let it be known that papa Medvedev is doing his best to keep the situation under control.

Man, I miss California.