Conversation at a cafe on Monday night with the guys at the table next to ours:

Guys: Where are you guys from?
Me: Most of us are from America.
Guys: We want to congratulate you!
Me: Why thank you. (no real clue why we are being congratulated)
Guys: Do you know why we congratulated you?
Me: Nope
Guys: Because your team won their world cup match.
Me: Oh, thats right, I heard something about that... we were all surprised!
Guys: You shouldn't be, you have a great team this year.
Me: Thanks! (this time I know why :-)

So I wonder how the US is doing now? Anyways, last night I noticed the cops pull up in front of the big post office near my house and start pulling cars over for bribes. They never once wrote a ticket, just stopped all kinds of cars. Some cars stopped, some didn't, some screeched to a halt right in front of them, told them something (most likely not to mess with them) and drove on, and finally I hear a loud noise and tires screeching and look over to see a red Niva has nailed a pothole and stopped a few meters from the cops. The next thing I know, Ashod gets out! (you remember Ashod? he used to log here when he wasn't too busy and important for us!) He checks out his car which is in bad shape and needs repair, while the cops, not wanting to actually be helpful and get involved finally drive off from their "toll booth". By this time I had run down to the street and we decided Ashod should hunt down a mechanic rather than wait till tomorrow and a taxi driver volunteered to help him out. After an hour they arrived and drove the creaking car backwards down the street towards their garage...