Super Bowl Monday

You joke, Carleen, but I was going to post about the toothpaste after I opened it last night. First I have to tell how you go about buying toothpaste here. We looked in the grocery store the other day – they have food, they have household items, they have laundry soap and cleaning spray but we could not find toothpaste! So we stopped at the corner drug store yesterday – there is one every few blocks. You go in and EVERYTHING is behind locked glass cabinets. You can see the selections but cannot help yourself. So I walked to the clerk and said "Colgate" (as those commercials are on TV all the time!) and used my finger to "brush" my teeth. So she led us to the toothpaste display. There were a few kinds of Colgate and some other ones there but she's just standing next to you to indicate what you want…a little pressure there. So I pointed to one that I actually thought was orange or citrus – I like some flavor in my toothpaste. It cost 74rubles – about $2.00. Once I looked at & opened the package tho I said to Brian – "I think we got HONEY flavored toothpaste!" It has a honey bee and honeycomb on the packaging so what else could it be?! It's ok, really not much flavor but not objectionable.

So we watched the Super Bowl in Russian this morning. Good thing it's something we can understand without a lot of dialog but we would hear the referee calls in English and of course all the screen writing. It was the NFL Network broadcast (nflnetwork.uk). We even saw the halftime show! The only thing we didn't see were the commercials – the screen would just freeze or local commercials would be shown. Some of them are cute!

During the end of the game I couldn't watch anymore so I started making lunch. So by the time the Cardinals let the Steelers make that final drive down the field I was distracted in the kitchen and we ate our brunch during the post-game festivities. It was an exciting game – that last Cardinal touchdown I was jumping around the room!

Then we needed to get outside for awhile. We went for a walk to the mall. I know some of our nieces are wanting to know what the mall is like so we'll explain a bit. First of all there is A LOT of repetition in stores – women's clothing, women's clothing, hats & scarves, hats & scarves, women's clothing, etc… Every store is individual but similar stores are arranged by floor – so today we were looking for some household items and went to the lower level; women's and men's clothing is on the 2^nd floor and shoes and coats on the 3^rd floor. (This is one mall I'm describing, I'm sure others are laid out differently). We also had stopped into a children's mall and it was all individual stores with children's clothing, footwear, toys, strollers, cribs, etc. They seem to segregate the shopping somewhat like this. It's not "one stop shopping" like you might get in the USA and elsewhere – but it works and we enjoy windowshopping! Today we purchased a garlic press for the apartment. I had bought garlic (4rubles) for our spaghetti dinner the other night but pressed the clove with a spoon for the garlic bread – sort of left chunks LOL – so I was able to do the word for garlic (chesnok) and indicating a "press" with my hand – she got it! So now I can season up the food a little bit! Otherwise just using some salt for flavor and a little of the Onion Onion mini-packet I brought along! We then walked back to the apartment via a little longer way – walking around the stadium. They were clearing the ice (picture to follow) so we watched that a minute and resumed our walk. Talk about adventure! It seems that everyone uses that as a shortcut to somewhere and races around the place! No speed bumps to slow them down either!

So we decided to go back to the apt for a bit and warm up. It's nicer here today but still a bit of a wind when walking. We just hung out for about an hour and then went outside again. Took a stroll down some now familiar streets and went to the café where they have the English menu on the board. The gal was the same as the other day and remembered us :) We both had tea (Brian's acquiring the taste and doesn't even sweeten it as much as the Russians do!) – Brian also had a "meat pastry" and I had the "Apple pastry" again. Both were good and it was a nice 85ruble treat. The exchange rate has gone up since we've been here – it's a little over 35r to $1.00 right now – when we were here in 2004 it was right about at 30r to $1.00 and was lower than that in 2007. So some positive for the wait LOL! So after our treat we had to do a little shopping for dinner. Stopped at the market by the stadium again. While walking there we saw all sorts of uniformed guards – we speculate (I think rightly) that there is an event at the stadium tonight so they would be security. We saw a few speed skaters out on the ice and a young girl was coming out of the store when we went in. Also with all these guards around the people were driving better around the stadium – we felt safer! We bought a different salad for tonight's dinner (last night's salad was excellent by the way) and then we each got a pastry for dessert. Yes, we're becoming dessert people over here but the temptations are very great! The Russian's make great looking and good tasting dessert items so we'll indulge. They're pretty inexpensive – one was 27r and one was 19r. Then we stopped at the market across the street to get eggs and bread. Speaking of eggs, Tami Jackson called me last night and explained the eggs come in 10 because everything here is metric – well, DUH! Kids, that's why you pay attention in math class!! LOL We got back to the apartment and remembered we forgot to get water – so Brian went back across for it. I wrote the words down in Russian for him (vada biz guzza). Here is his account of his shopping:

"I walked in and stood in line but didn't stand real close. A lady in a long fur coat and butted right in front of me (somewhat typical). So I made a gesture like "whatever" and the saleslady who was in the store winked at me. So then when customer in front of the lady who butted in line was finished, the clerk walked to the side and asked me what I wanted! Then after I got the water the clerk and the saleslady asked me to say the amount in English – so I said "thirty four". They were much more flirty with me than when Deb was with me!"

Dinner tonight is oven baked chicken, potatoes, salad and our yummy looking desserts. Day one of our wait starts tomorrow when the judgment becomes official!

Pictures in the following post!