Russians

Every now and again something happens that is so strange you wonder if it even happened. Case in point, the Russians I just played hockey with. At Vilas Park here in Madison are 2 public rinks with metal goals the city maintains. My roommate and I went up there to skate around and maybe get in a pickup game, certainly unprepared for what was about to transpire. We started warming up and the guys on the ice asked if we wanted in the game, to which we said yes. "Cool, you're on our side. We're playing the Russians over there." I then looked over and it all started to come together -- skating while smoking a cigarrette, while wearing a full adidas jumpsuit was one player. The others weren't as stereotypicaly Russian, aside from the Russian they kept barking at each other over the ice. I became worried immediately and must have shown it. I saw Red Dawn -- I know what can happen. "Don't worry," the guy said. "They don't play like Russians."

So we played a great game at a very low skill level. The Russians skated about as good as we did. It couldn't have been better. We outscored them (for as much as we were keeping score), I got a goal, and I also ended up dropping a Russian at center ice with a nice hit (it was unintentional, really). We unquestionably helped foreign relations tonight.

A great, yet completely surreal time. I'll be back every weeknight for that kind of fun when I get back up here after Christmas. I'll be living on vodka within a few weeks...

USA!!!