Provincial Observances

Hot water is in the bathroom, cold in the kitchen. We need to pass through to the outer chambers to get to the bathroom and the hot water. As needed, hot water is carried into the kitchen and cold water out with buckets. I have instituted a couple of my own buckets, newly purchased, for the occasion of carrying kitchen only water and one for holding bathroom only water. There is also a bucket, which is Nikolai's, that is used to scoop questionably clean bathwater out of the tub to flush the toilet. I observe this demarcation of bucket usage strictly. After briefing N8 on all the purposes of the buckets, I was appalled to find out that he had used the toilet bucket to rinse himself and the babes off while taking a bath one evening! Gross! And then a couple of days later, I noted that Nikolai used the same grimy toilet bucket, that always rests on the floor of the bathroom, to bring in hot water and add it directly to his soup pot to begin to boil his potatoes!! How O.C. are You?

Bread is left out on the table all night long and there is most surely mice (I've heard them) but it seems that it is never nibbled nor have i seen any mice tracks (poop) anywhere. What gives? nyc mice are so in your face!

The milk tastes like hay. Which leads me to question what the cows in the US are fed . . . corn? Soybeans? The eggyolks are a pale yellow, very subtle. What makes the eggs in the US such a brilliant yellow/orange? Again, the food the chickens eat? Nevermind . . . eat your heart out organic disciples! I get hormone free milk and free-range organic eggs for free! (And when I pay for a ½ gallon of milk or 8eggs it's only about a dollar! I know, I know stop rolling your eyes LaurieB and quivering with envy L&NMc!)

Children's morning cartoons on the standard TV channels here in Podsosnovo are over by 8am! What's up with that? Give me another hour at lease on weekends, please!

The snow is melting and now its mudmudmud and massive puddles to navigate with a stroller and one puddle-loving 4yearold. Most people's driveways are currently complete ponds, impassable. Some have created stepping stones with bricks or rough bridges with boards or ladders. Nate and I had to balance along a narrow line of bricks once while carrying the stroller, he holding the front and me at the back, with Zoe in it! [I've posted some photo's to the right].

Nikolai often sets a plate of lard on the table that has been dusted with cayenne pepper and spreads it liberally on his bread. I noticed, when his granddaughter Yulya was visiting, he took a piece of bread and rubbed raw garlic on it and gave it to her. She'd been sick and I wondered if it was another preventative flu cure, similar to the eating of raw onions which we've seen at the preschool.

At Desi&Zoe's school, each class has its own 'bedroom' off the main classroom filled with soft yummy beds where all the babes sleep for about 2 ½ hours in the middle of the afternoon. Everyone strips down to their skivvies and the funny thing is, Des&Zoe have so far refused to do this. Those who know them know that they love to get 'naked' all the time!!! Most puzzling.

At all the shops here the shopkeepers expect to fetch everything for you – even if it's in a freezer case right in front of you and it would be so convenient just to get it yourself – it's still expected that I point and grunt my fledging Russian to try and get what I can reach myself.

Russian's love to sing – there have been concert events every week we've been here. Some sing with there own accompaniment (I love the accordion tunes!) and some actually lip-sync to popular tunes swaying like they were on Lawrence Welk. Nikolai once asked Nate to check with me and see if I would mind if he sang around the house sometimes.

Law and Order (Russian style) has been co-opted – including the opening music and the in-between text placement update chime – along with all the grisly murder scenarios. It seems I can't escape that franchise! They regularly filmed in my former NYC hood and whenever we travel to see family the TV seems to always be tuned to it. I still don't get the appeal.

Nate and I agree that television commercials aboard have a certain appeal and we enjoy watching them. Whereas it's the complete opposite in the USA, in fact that's one of the reasons I tune to PBS (and public radio!) so frequently.

The banya (Suana) has got to be the coolest invention EVER and I have to figure out how to have it in my life on a regular basis post Russia/Kazakhstan.

I love having a slop bucket accessible for all perishables. I've decided that it's got to be one of my favorite ways to recycle. Strangely, it doesn't bother me having it as close by as in the kitchen.

I think I must have to live with a cat while here. I have not wanted to go near them since childhood. I am not a pet person. But there is much to adapt to that is foreign to me and a lot of it I am welcoming but there are some things I am resistant to and foreignmice are one of them. Whats the difference between nycmice and siberianmice? still processing. . .

Nikolai has a granddaughter, Yulya, that we see quite a bit. She is 6 and really sweet. It's nice to have another child around that is not yours, adding to and legitimizing the general child atmosphere here in this house (that our babes have loudly imposed.) BTW, LaurieB, if you're reading this, she looks sososo like your Julia – the Russian equivalent seriously – and to further the similarity her name is basically the Russian counterpart to Julia! It's crazy!

We are such consumers and are contributing greatly to a big rubbish heap at the back of Nikolai's house. Nate took me back there the other day to show me what the chickens were up to and they'd pecked their way into most of the neatly tied bags and strewn it all over! It was devastating to see what we were responsible for! N8 has asked what is done with the garbage and as far as he can understand Nikolai buries it from time to time (or perhaps burns it!) Zoe has been going through quite a bit of diapers due to her little body's difficult adjustment to all that she's been eating. DIAPERS DON'T BIODEGRADE, RIGHT? So ashamed!