Today was yet another interesting experience living in an urban setting. I had planned on making a nice big cassoulet for the couple with the new baby. I had to do some final shopping this morning since there wasn’t much fresh meat or vegetables in the market yesterday as a result of the long holiday.
Shopping had is own usual little problems. Because it was the first delivery day for the grocery store, all the aisles were filled with clerks and big boxes, which meant that you couldn’t take a cart down the majority of the aisles. The general rule in Russia is, “ If it is convenient for you, just do it.” This is why people are always parking on the sidewalk or in the crosswalk; it is convenient to do so. It also explains why stockers are more important than customers; it is convenient for them to block the aisles so they do it. One very, very large woman was stocking the chicken cooler and would not give way to anyone, not me, not Russian speakers, no one. She took her time, did her job and the heck with anyone who really wanted to purchase a chicken.
I finally got everything I needed, except a smile, and took my place in the checkout line. Only one person ahead of me with only about seven items so I think I’m in luck, “ how long could that take?” The correct answer is fifteen minutes! She had forgotten to get one of her vegetable items weighed, so she takes it and heads back to the guy that weighs and prices the vegetables. Now I’ve got two more people behind my cart and I’m trapped since all my stuff is on the conveyor belt. She returns and they continue to ring up her items. Whoops, she forgot to get a pastry weighed and priced so she is off yet again. Finally she gets all of her stuff rung up and she proceeds to pay with mostly coins! 335.54 Rubles take a very long time to pay with mostly coins.
So I finally get up there and the young ‘stan’ woman who is manning the cash register asks me the normal questions, do you need a bag, do you have a store card. I gave her a negative to both showing her my SDSU tote. She then starts talking to me and of course I have no idea what she is saying, but we figure out that she wants to see my tote. I thought she wanted to make sure it was empty and that I wasn’t stealing day old bread or something. Nope, she wanted to read it, until she realized it was in English and of course, she couldn’t read it so she asked me, I think, to say it and I did. She must have liked my voice because she gave me a big smile and then totaled up the groceries and I was off. I count today’s shopping as a victory!!
This has always been a noisy neighborhood what with two schools close by, buses and cars, a clinic with ambulances always coming and going, car alarms and dogs yapping and the ever present garbage trucks. But you get used to these noises and they don’t seem to bother me much anymore. Today however, there was a completely new set of noises associated with some major street work. There was heavy machinery digging up trenches, jackhammers and air compressors, generators and drills and a chorus of yelling and screaming associated with construction. It is a warm day and I had the oven on so I got the full effect of this cacophony since the windows were wide open.
Last night we went out to dinner to a chain restaurant called Il Patio. It is Italian themed and they had menus with pictures and English. The wine was really reasonable and well chilled. The food was good, if not hot, and the service was friendly and filled with smiles. They must hire foreigners. In the men’s room I kept hearing this guy say a phrase in Russian and then repeat it twice in Italian. I thought it was coming from one of the stalls, but it was being piped in to a loudspeaker. I thought it was hilarious.
Well the Bahraini government is once again proving that they are still operating under a feudal system of justice. They are arresting and trying 47 doctors and nurses because they had the audacity to treat the wounded pro-democracy protesters back in March. They are being charged with ‘acting against the state’ because they did what they were trained to do, treated wounded people brought to their hospital. And still, the USA turns a blind eye on this situation because of our vested interests in Bahrain.
Best to all, Cindy and Wm.
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