At the meeting for the Roadtrip to Russia they handed out an extra form to all the American men, and only the American men. The form asked some pretty spooky questions, such as: "Do you have any skills or training including firearms, explosives or nuclear, biological or chemical experience?" and "Have you been in an armed conflict, either as a participant or a victim?" Now, if I say yes to the first one, do they not let me into Russia or do they instantly accept me then kidnap me and lock me in a mountain fortress?
And why aren't Australian nuclear scientists even worth considering? Or female American demolitions experts?
Another reassuring tidbit was, "Every now and then, the Russian police, militia, military, special police or frontier police (armed police) make surprise checks of our buses." Great...

One of the feminist essays we were assigned to read made me wonder if feminists realize how crazy they can sound at times. The essay dealt with sexual imagery being used in the military. I don't mean the Marine Corps, that's a no-brainer, she was insistent that the defense analysts, nuclear strategists and the like were using sexual references to military hardware and tactics. Her examples included the description of a Harrier jet which had "an exceptional thrust to weight ratio" and "vectored thrust capability that makes the...unique rapid response possible." heh heh...they said "thrust." She also claimed that the acronyms for things like submarine-launched cruise missiles, SLCMs, sounded sexual (slick'em, get it?). Ironically, with her fixation on sexual acronyms and references to male genitalia she overlooked the title of one of the people she was studying: SAC commander. If I started snickering anytime someone said 'thrust' or 'missile' when talking about rocket propulsion, people would tell me to grow up, but apparently this essay was taken so seriously it made it into an anthology. 'Made it'(snicker).

I always wondered what the story was with the The Tootsie Pop Indian.

And lastly:
(explaining aikido)
Me: I'd say the best example of why it's important to relax is what happened to my Marine friend.
Feifei: Is he a dolphin or something?