Traffic Galore in River City

Thursday, September 2, 2010

It is 5:15pm here in Moscow and I’ve been going non-stop since six.  I hadn’t planned on this being a really busy day, but sometimes surprises sneak up on you.  I had lots of things I wanted to get done in the house before they turned the water off at ten am. Not sure what they were doing but the water was off for six hours. It is back, it is brown and it is running in the tub to get all the gunk out.

I headed for the Embassy at 9:30 and got the adapters and plugs needed to finish the connection of the TV to the cable.  Got a few other things at the Liberty Store and trundled home with my bags full. Managed to beat the rain by a few minutes, but it didn’t last that long.  I tackled the TV issue with all of the documents in hand.  They took great pains to let me know that it only takes a few minutes and a couple of wires to be in business.  I got the wire hooked up and turned on the Cable Box and the TV and waited for the promised screen.  After lots of waiting I remembered that there must be a special channel that has to be on for the menu to appear.  Sure enough you have to be on channel Two and there, just as promised, was the menu. The real surprise was that it was in Russian and the slip of paper I had said it would be in English.

Off I went to get the alphabet sheet and sat there struggling to figure out what the English words like Frequency, Advanced Mode, Start Search Now, well you get the picture and it wasn’t pretty.  After an hour of trial and error, mostly error, I have the darn thing working. We got the basic package, which is still about $40 per month and we get BBC and a few other English language stations. Enough for me.

IKEA is a VERY popular destination

We need to get a new wardrobe that will accommodate long dresses; pants hung correctly and long winter coats.  AAS said to find the right one at IKEA and they would purchase it, assemble it and deliver it to our apartment. This was incentive enough for me to violate my pledge not to return to that shopping complex.  It took me thirty-five minutes to leave the parking area and travel two kilometers.  The traffic was insane - construction, accidents, and idiots - once again the same tragic combination.  An hour later I was there and ran around getting some groceries, so I don’t have to go again and Cindy won’t have to go there while I’m gone.  The crowds at Auchan were better than on Saturday, but still a mob scene.  I’m no match for these babushkas that can push their own carts while at the same time pushing mine out of the way.

I got all the stuff back to the car and then went to IKEA, which is a long walk from the grocery store.  I wasn’t fazed however, since I had brought my raincoat and hood, a lesson learned on Saturday. The rain held off and I was in IKEA without a drop.  If you have every been to IKEA you will know that it is like the Hotel California, many check in, few check out!  You have to go through a maze in order to get anywhere. NO shortcuts in this store as they have in others.  What should have been a fifteen minute job turned into an hour, but I got all the information we need plus a few lamps and knives. 

Might be late for the flight

Stepping out of IKEA with my arms full of stuff was like stepping into a Sauna. In the one hour I had been inside the windowless building, the skies had cleared, the sun was blazing and it was humid and hot.  There I am in my black raincoat, which doesn’t, by definition, breathe that well, walking the kilometer back to the car. By the time I got everything stowed and got my jacket off, I was wet from neck to waist. Thank goodness the AC works well in the car; I really needed it.  It took almost an hour and a half to get home.  Lots of stalled cars - maintenance isn’t a big deal here, and no one tries to push them out of the way.  The bridge over the Moscow River is still being expanded and that really slows things down.

It took four trips up and down the stairs to get everything in the apartment.  I unloaded and put most everything away and then headed to the local store to get some veggies and fruit. My timing was horrible and the lines were terrible so that will have to wait until tomorrow.  Timing is everything here and if the lines are really long at the weigh station in the veggie department, you can be sure that everything else is all jammed up.

Don't Block the Box isn't known here.

So, in all, not the most satisfying day I’ve had here but I accomplished most of what I had hoped to do, and that counts for something.  I’m too tired to add anything else so I’ll end here and see if Cindy has any tidbits she wants to share.  

From CC:  I earned my keep – or at least a day’s salary – today when I corrected a printing situation that has been going on for a couple of years.  Seems all the middle school faculty and students were printing wily-nily to a color printer for every print job whether it needed color or not.  Très expensive!  I got the MS principal to approve the changes and my tech guys did their magic so starting tomorrow all print jobs will default to a black and white printer.  It’s about time.

Wm is right about terrible traffic today – at the end of the shuttle bus trip home we all got out and walked the last 2 blocks because nothing was moving.

Love from the land of clogged streets and pretty flowers, Cindy and wm