The Circus

One beautiful day in Vladivostok, a group of Americans went to the circus.

 

...And do you know what they have at the circus?

POP

CORN!!!

I mean, they have other things there too I guess. Including, but not limited to:

• The "Tanzania Boys," a slightly racist and oddly provocative group of four African acrobats/dancers. They were very good at stacking themselves on top of one another in various combinations.
• A strong man whose feats were not so much strong but more painful... For instance, he bent a piece of rebar by resting one end against his chest and the other end against his two assistants, then ramming it with his whole body.
• Seven of the saddest camels I've ever seen. I almost cried.
• A beautiful pair of trapeze swingers.
• The oddest act, where a man emerged from a stage/box made to look like a pair of bell bottoms dressed like Elvis. He juggled those juggling sticks, but the stick he tossed was decorated to look like an electric guitar. This strange man also did a crazy balancing act on top of the pants/stage, during which he fell off. It was mildly terrifying. But in the Russian circus you have to try, try, again until you get your trick right. He tried twice more before he perfected it. 
• An act comprised of a couple who blew giant bubbles under rainbow lights. It was more entertaining than you think it would be. They blew some really big bubbles. Then they got a little girl from the audience and blew a bubble around her. She freaked out. In a good way. It was cute.
• Two clowns who were mildly entertaining sometimes. The best part of the clown acts was one gig where they pantsed each other, and one clown had on underwear that said "Любовь" on them, which means love in Russian. I turned to Danielle, who's just learning to read Russian, and jokingly asked, "What does that say!?" I always ask her to read things. She took it very seriously and stared long and hard at the clown's butt trying to sound out the word. 
• Two very well-trained elephants who did some cute tricks. Whoever said elephants don't have knees lied, I saw them climb up and down off their little elephant pedestals with my own two eyes!

It definitely wasn't the biggest circus, like we'd heard rumors it was. But it was pretty entertaining. And I made friends with an elephant, so that was neat.

Here's Danielle and I with our new elephant friends. The one to my left is named Jenny. She rubbed her trunk against me as we were taking this picture and I could feel her trunk hairs prickling me through my sweatshirt sleeve. Weird!