Conversation with a Taxi Driver

Today after school I was feeling kinda blah. I decided to go to McDonalds for a little American get away. I took a Mashrootka,a van that is called a route taxi, to the mall. When I arrived I looked around and went to my favorite American establishment here in Krasnodar. After lunch I went into one of the larger stores. I was on the look out for something for my very painful sunburn. Thankfully I found some cream that is helping tremendously. While I was at the store I ended up also purchasing some larger items so I decided to take a taxi home.
The taxi driver was very friendly and talkative. Most taxi drivers want to talk to me but this guy was relentless. He kept asking me questions about where I studied, where I come from, and what I want to do. He asked me if I was a believer and if I was Catholic. Eventually we settled on me being a Baptist, basically so I didn't have to explain any more. He asked if I cross myself and I said no. He asked why I'm not catholic and why I don't cross myself. Unfortunatly my spiritual vocabulary doesn't extend that far so I just said I don't know. I asked Him if he was a believer and he said yes, but he must cross himself in church. I'm sure he is Orthodox. We also got into a couple of arguments. He didn't believe me that America has mountains, he said Canada has mountains but America doesn't. After living in Washington, California, Wyoming, and especially Alaska I would say America has mountians. He also told me that he had fought in Afghanistan in the 80's and that a war veteran in America would never be a taxi driver. He seemed to think that veterans got payed a lot of money. I couldn't argue my way out of that one so I just let it go. I told him my dad fought in Vietnam and he said there were alot of similarities between Russia in Afghanistan and America in Vietnam. I supose he is right.
He did pay me some compliments. He said I understand a lot for having studied less than a year. He also said I have almost no accent! I know my language teachers would disagree. He said that most foriegners are hard to understand and he could understand me fine. After twenty minutes of conversation his closing words to me came as he saw the grandma's sitting outside my apartment. He said "talk to the grandma's every evening and you will learn to speak good Russian." Words of wisdom from a taxi driver.