I'm Russian, Of Course I Play Chess

We were chatting about this and that and someone noticed a poster for a chess tournament so someone asked if anyone played chess. One of the group said: I'm Russian, of course I play chess. So what do you think their equivalent of mom, apple pie and baseball is.... I'll take submissions in the comment section. Actually a friend of mine has a blog and awards points for responses to various questions that are periodically posed. Then there is a running tally in the side bar. I think I'll do that for this question, so for 100 points, what is the Russian equivalent of mom, apple pie and baseball?

Another thing odd thing I've noticed is that Belgians often remark about the weather - my it is terrible weather today! - they seem to be genuinely surprised about this, although the weather is pretty much always terrible.

I have four exams completed. One exam I almost missed because they messed up the schedule and the prof was about to leave when I showed up. It went okay - it's oral, so I just had a short prep time. Another exam was scheduled for 9:00am. This was a written exam, and all the students were patiently waiting: 9:00, 9:10, 9:20... finally some of us went over to the office. Mind you this required running across the courtyard in drenching rain. We arrived at the office and the person who could help us was on the phone and signaled for us to wait. About 10 minutes later, we decided to jot a note for her and go back to class, in case the exam would arrive in our absence. So I wrote a short note, and the other student put it on the woman's desk. She immediately cut her conversation short. Our exam had been emailed to her office, and they had forwarded it to the proper office, but that office hadn't taken care of it. So she ran off copies and we trooped back across to the classroom and helped hand it out. It was about 9:45 by the time we started.

So I've completed 4 of 10 exams and have a thesis defense yet. Then I'm on my way home! See you soon.

Amy