Our Russian lessons last night were, to say the least, intense. I thought my head was going to explode with too much information. We had been expecting three others to come to our apartment for the lesson, but at the last minute all three cancelled so it was just Cindy, me and our tutor. Our tutor is a lovely older woman who we think finally understands that we just want to be able to get around in Russian. If she came every day, I’m sure I’d be speaking passable Russian in three to five years, but we don’t have the time or money for that. We drilled and drilled and Cindy and I had to have conversations with one another in Russian. There were times when I felt I should sit on Cindy’s knee since she was feeding me lines like a ventriloquist.
By the time the lesson was over we were both exhausted and as Cindy brought the tutor upstairs for the next group to have their lesson, I was pouring scotch and gin like there was no tomorrow. We both agreed that we have to stick with these, and even though we’ll be gone next week, we’ll bring our lessons and practice. What fun, practicing Russian in Nice when we should be speaking French.
I knew we wouldn’t be having dinner until late so I prepped the meal ahead of time. I made a salad dressing of mayo, Dijon mustard, olive oil, herbs and some balsamic and lemon. Once I mixed it all up, I added a diced tomato, a diced green pepper, two chopped eggs and a hunk of diced extra sharp white cheddar. I mixed it all together and let is sit for about an hour so all the flavors would blend. (This is a trick that Cindy taught me long before we were married and it is a winner when you are short of time.) Just before we sat down, I made some Poppenhagen Croutons (so named for Brent Poppenhagen who used to make them for his famous Caesar Salad) from a bunch of old bread that I had been saving for a few days. I cut everything into cubes and then added them to a pan that already had hot oil and lots of browning garlic. I threw in some herbs and quickly browned the croutons as I tossed the salad base with fresh spinach and arugula. When everything was tossed nicely, I added the hot croutons; tossed a bit more and sprinkled it all with Parmesan and served it up with some bracingly cold Sav. Blanc. Oh my, but it was a lovely way to end a very busy day.
This morning Cindy was up and out by 6:45 in order to catch a ride with the neighbors since I needed the car to bring Katy to AAS. Somehow wires were crossed and the neighbors left without Cindy. Luckily there was still an AAS bus in the parking lot getting ready to leave and Cindy jumped aboard. At about 10 AM I met Katy about halfway from her hotel to the apartment and we walked back and hopped into the car. One hour later we had traveled exactly one kilometer!! Traffic has just been paralyzed by all the construction and sheer volume of cars on the road. Once we finally got on the main drag we were at the school in twelve minutes flat.
Katy got a chance to meet with the Director, the head of HR, the Deputy Director, the principal of the elementary school and various and sundry others involved in elementary education and the elementary library. She loved the school and the people she met loved her so if she comes to Moscow and wants a job, she has one. She went off with her realtor at 1:15 and I headed home, which took another hour and fifteen minutes. I swear Muscovites leave work at 1 pm on Fridays and they all head to Beloruskaya for cocktails.
When I got back, since I was all dressed up anyway, I went to the local wine shop to try and negotiate some decent prices for Chardonnays for the upcoming wine event that I’m giving at AAS. Goodness, they get a lot of money for wine in these stores. He started by showing me some ‘mid-priced’ wines. Mid-priced to him was 500-600 rubles ($17-20), which is high end for me. I looked around and found a few in the 300-350 range that I would consider but I was only able to get him to give me a 10% discount and he wasn’t willing to give any freebies in exchanged for my promoting his store. Since I have no idea what the business culture is here, I was hard pressed to do any heavy negotiating, but I’ll try again next week.
Well what do they think the Russians do when they are setting records for the most smokers in the world?
Per capita alcohol consumption in Russia is twice the critical limit set by the World Health Organisation (WHO), an official said Friday. The present consumption is currently about 18 litres a year, which has prompted the government to declare an anti-alcohol campaign which aims to halve consumption by 2020. About 40 percent of Russians - or 57 million people - drink to excess, health ministry official Yevgeny Bryun said Friday. 'Economic, social and family troubles, come mainly from those who just drink to excess. They constitute about 30-40 percent of our population,' Bryun said.
From CC: remember me? I want to share a heart-warming little story about finances. Last week at the big grocery store our bill came to 2,799.93 or something similar so I handed the clerk 3000 and she wanted the 9. 93 in coins! I fully understand that if the bill is a little over a round amount they need the change – for instance, if it comes to 2,801.25 I should give them $3001.25. We learned that in Germany and it makes perfect sense. (Warning: Do not try this in the U.S.; they can’t understand it even if the cash register does the arithmetic for them.) Any-hoo, wanting to be cooperative, I opened my change purse for the 9.93 and promptly dropped a 5-ruble coin that fell through a grate in the counter and into oblivion. Now, 5 rubles is about 15 cents so we’re not talking real money here, but I was irritated at her request for change in the first place and then irritated at having lost the coin. Well, 3 days later I was running on a sidewalk near here and there on the ground in front of me was a 5-ruble coin! I felt so satisfied. Ha.
Have a lovely weekend one and all, Cindy and Wm
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