In the end the bear dies, but at a time, I wanted it to be the woman behind the glass

Often it seems as though everyone in your immediate path collaborate to just screw with you - nothing serious, just mess with your day. This hasn’t been the absolute best week I can remember, though it’s not the worst. This week’s combination took the form of falling throughs, no Ukraine, cancelations, bureaucracy, and screaming middle-aged women. But don’t worry - this particular week has a happy ending, in a very manly way.

As an illustration of my week, today I had a 45 minute heated argument trying to leap the bureaucratic hurdles that pop up oh so often here. In my defense the woman behind the glass started yelling at me right away. I will draw upon the 'she started it' excuse to weasel my way out of guilt on this one. Anyway, the newest Russian skill I’ve acquired – yelling. Honestly, Russians often won’t take you seriously unless you’re yelling at them, which is really hard for me. I’m not perfect at it yet, so I came home from today's skirmish defeated. Lightly spoken, I was a bit flustered with Russia in general, particularly the venal state of its organizational bodies.

To add to all my woes, when I got home to make dinner, I realized I had forgotten to pick up any meat. However, this is where the paths of choosing, and letting life choose for you diverged. A voice inside me said, ‘No, I’m gonna kill the bear.’

…my friends, I killed that bear. 

I got the bear meat almost a year ago in Estonia, and totally forgot about it. But then life threatened to destroy me, or make me hungry during class tonight, and under the intense heat of the fire of life - I became magnificent…

 You may be thinking, ‘Wow, Bryce really is pretty magnificent.’ Good point. You also may be thinking, ‘Wow, that meat looks terrible.’ Another very valid point. I decided there may be a reason people don’t usually eat canned bear.

It’s nice when something as small as bear meat can completely change the outcome of the day, even when it tastes pretty terrible.