Hannah and the furry hat

That's right, the biggest news in my life this week is my latest purchase - a nice warm furry hat (well, fur lined anyway), complete with earflaps, to keep my ears from falling off this winter. The weather's not getting any warmer; I have no illusions in that department. But it's not entirely uncomfortable. As long as I'm bundled up just right I'm fine. The only that has been bothering my was my ears - and that's not a problem anymore. And hot chocolate does wonders for a cold body.
I also managed to follow up my success in the kitchen (taco meat from scratch) with an even better creation - a big pot of Texas-style chili. I even managed to find some chili powder (though it wasn't easy - not even Misha the spice man had any in the market). I think I'm going to have to repeat that creation this Friday for the big birthday bash. If I have to celebrate my 21st birthday in a foreign land, might as well have a little bit of home around for the occasion (though I don't think I'm going go so far as to purchase the bottle of Sauza I saw at the market the other day - they wanted 1000 rubles/40 dollars for it!).
I can't remember if I mentioned it or not, but I found the phantom class. And it sucks - one of the worst classes I've ever had to sit through. And that's in addition to it being on Saturday, which ruins all of my weekend plans for the next two months. I think what makes it so aweful is the fact that I don't understand a damn thing that's going on. It's not what I was led to believe it would be. I'm hear to study Russia - its culture and people, how people live and have fun. I'm not interested in learning economic theories - especially not in Russian. And what's even worse is it's not taught for foreign students but for the local Russian students - which means the instructor talks at about a million words a minute and it's impossible for me to take notes. We had a quiz yesterday, and I had to turn it in blank, with an explaination that I had no idea what I was supposed to write or even where to begin looking. I think the odds of me surviving this course are pretty slim. I hope Natalya Alexandrovna will help me get out of this mess. The class were her idea to begin with.
Okay, enough ranting. I'm going to go get some blini. Mmmm. I can taste them already. Then I'm going to snuggle up with my Harry Potter book (in Russian) and enjoy my day of rest - before all hell breaks loose once again tomorrow.