Moscow - Trip 2 - Day 5
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Not much exciting to report today... We were on our own and spent most of the day at the apartment except for getting out to stock up on a few groceries. We did discover more stores across from our apartment. There are stores hidden behind the strip mall front stores and we found a whole mini-mall back behind there.
Grocery shopping is always a fun experience. Some things are not packaged like you expect them to be or on the aisle you expect so it makes it a little confusing. For example, some milk and yogurt are on a shelf, not refrigerated and toothpicks are on the aisle with toothpaste (this actually makes sense in a strange way). A tip for shopping is to prepare your grocery list ahead of time. I write the list in 3 columns: English, Russian & phonetic pronunciation so I can either say or show the list to someone in the store if I can’t find it on my own. This comes in very handy when trying to find lunch meat for sandwiches... it’ll save you from having sliced duck instead of chicken on your sandwich! Also, don’t stress too much over bringing shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste or other hygeine products — if you run out, they seem pretty easy to find in the grocery stores in brands that you’ll recognize. It’s nice to have brands familiar to you but you should also be open to trying a few Russian brands too; after all, how often are you going to be on the other side of the world? Tanya turned us on to a little tasty treat called Copok (pronounced so-rock) which is kind of like ricotta cheese covered with chocolate but that doesn’t sound as good as this tastes. You will find it in the stores near the yogurt. I’d like to bring this stuff home by the caseloads!!!
That’s about it for today so I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures that were taken on Monday after court. The first photo is of Svetlana (head of the Moscow CSS office) and Tanya (our guide/translator). The second photo is of Alusha (our driver).
Grocery shopping is always a fun experience. Some things are not packaged like you expect them to be or on the aisle you expect so it makes it a little confusing. For example, some milk and yogurt are on a shelf, not refrigerated and toothpicks are on the aisle with toothpaste (this actually makes sense in a strange way). A tip for shopping is to prepare your grocery list ahead of time. I write the list in 3 columns: English, Russian & phonetic pronunciation so I can either say or show the list to someone in the store if I can’t find it on my own. This comes in very handy when trying to find lunch meat for sandwiches... it’ll save you from having sliced duck instead of chicken on your sandwich! Also, don’t stress too much over bringing shampoo, deodorant, toothpaste or other hygeine products — if you run out, they seem pretty easy to find in the grocery stores in brands that you’ll recognize. It’s nice to have brands familiar to you but you should also be open to trying a few Russian brands too; after all, how often are you going to be on the other side of the world? Tanya turned us on to a little tasty treat called Copok (pronounced so-rock) which is kind of like ricotta cheese covered with chocolate but that doesn’t sound as good as this tastes. You will find it in the stores near the yogurt. I’d like to bring this stuff home by the caseloads!!!
That’s about it for today so I’ll leave you with a couple of pictures that were taken on Monday after court. The first photo is of Svetlana (head of the Moscow CSS office) and Tanya (our guide/translator). The second photo is of Alusha (our driver).
Labels: traveling
posted by Dede at 10:22 PM
7 Comments:
Dede and Rob - Glad you are managing in the Moscow supermarkets. We know first hand how hard that can be, as we lived in an apartment in Ekaterinburg, Russia for the 10 day wait in Luca's adoption. We ate mystery meat on more than one occasion :) Thanks for sharing the pictures of the agency staff - it is nice to put a face to a name. See you in a few days!
I am so glad to know that you are Liam's Mommy and Daddy. It is going to be so cool to finally have him with you.
Writing a list in both Russian and English is a great tip.
Joy
Sounds like you are getting along just fine. Not much longer now!
Those pictures are great! The first one just made me crack up. The Russian women all look exactly as you'd picture them. I love her makeup in that shot! ;)
Oh yes, I remember what else it was about you two that I always admired......bravery. Hey son, how do you say that in Russian (son)?
OH My Gosh, only you would have list in 3 columes! That cracks me up!! I wonder if Little Liam will be organized like his Mom or a little more like his friend Sladyn:)
ggh
It's so nice to put a face with Svetlana's name.
Do the supermarkets take credit cards or do you need cash there?
Susan - I think the stores do take credit cards but we have been very cautious with that and only used our credit cards at restaurant chains like Starbuck's, Hard Rock, etc.
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