Friday Morning
It's Friday morning and we're just getting the day started. Our routine has Laura taking a bath while I try to blog. Then I shower while she tries (the tub has a shower in it). We are lucky enough to have our own hot water heater. Other couples we know are hooked into the public water heater and have had NO HOT WATER IN WEEKS.
You can see the public hot water system everywhere you drive; big silver and black insulated pipes parallel the streets, occaisionally dipping underground then surfacing along another street. The pipes then splinter and run into builings where I guess they are tapped into by each apartment.
Back to the routine. We then finsih getting ready, brush our teeth using ONLY bottled water (including washing the brush) and look to make breakfast. I haven't found an adequate substitute to Starbucks so I will ususally have hot (boiled bottled) water and Laura has tea. This is accompanied by fresh eggs (we cook) or local bread, pastries and crackers. There is a dramatic difference in basic diet here; a lot of meat, wrapped in dough or pasta. And eveything is cooked daily, not a lot of items cooked with the intent on lasting for days.
We have found, given our intestinal geography and sensativity, that a diet of bread, pastries, pringles, soda and water is a good foundation. If you are coming over don't be concerned that you can't eat the food (you can't drink the water,only bottled). There are MANY restaurants that have great food and ordering is an adventure. It has provided some of the funniest and most memorable moments we have had exploring.
There is a place here call Mario's Pizza, we have heard about from others that have made this trek AND have read about it. There is a big marquee in english that say's - Mario's Pizza. When you go inside you can tell it's a pizza joint, kind of. They don't speak english and the menu is in russian. The first time we went I noticed that the background of the menu has some pictures in it. So with some basic "da and nyet" tweaking, I used the background pictures to take a shot at something that might be familiar. HOME RUN. We got pepperoni and mushroom pizza (a little heavy on the oregano - we now know this is the #18 on page three).
We went there yesterday and my stomach was a little sensative so I figured on stearing clear of cheese. I remembered seeing the employees there eating soup during one of our visits so, as i approcahed the counter I gave my best, "I only speak english smile" and ordered. I put my hands in a cup / bowl like position and slurpped a little, saying "soup?" as if in a question. The cashier smiled and said "da, da". She started to get the menu to show me the options (there are many) but I can't read the menu. So, I do a little funky chicken type flapping and ad some "bok, bok, bok". She laughs a little and says, "da, da". 10 minutes later I got a fresh bowl of chicken noodle soup and two rolls. It was pretty good and my stomach was appreciative.
We have used this technique many times to order food, shop for something or talk with our driver (Vladimir - he speaks NO english). It works to get basic points across and the people here are SO generous in trying to understand us.
Well, I hear the water boiling and it's time to shower. We'll post more later as there is more to say about what's happening over the next couple of days.
You can see the public hot water system everywhere you drive; big silver and black insulated pipes parallel the streets, occaisionally dipping underground then surfacing along another street. The pipes then splinter and run into builings where I guess they are tapped into by each apartment.
Back to the routine. We then finsih getting ready, brush our teeth using ONLY bottled water (including washing the brush) and look to make breakfast. I haven't found an adequate substitute to Starbucks so I will ususally have hot (boiled bottled) water and Laura has tea. This is accompanied by fresh eggs (we cook) or local bread, pastries and crackers. There is a dramatic difference in basic diet here; a lot of meat, wrapped in dough or pasta. And eveything is cooked daily, not a lot of items cooked with the intent on lasting for days.
We have found, given our intestinal geography and sensativity, that a diet of bread, pastries, pringles, soda and water is a good foundation. If you are coming over don't be concerned that you can't eat the food (you can't drink the water,only bottled). There are MANY restaurants that have great food and ordering is an adventure. It has provided some of the funniest and most memorable moments we have had exploring.
There is a place here call Mario's Pizza, we have heard about from others that have made this trek AND have read about it. There is a big marquee in english that say's - Mario's Pizza. When you go inside you can tell it's a pizza joint, kind of. They don't speak english and the menu is in russian. The first time we went I noticed that the background of the menu has some pictures in it. So with some basic "da and nyet" tweaking, I used the background pictures to take a shot at something that might be familiar. HOME RUN. We got pepperoni and mushroom pizza (a little heavy on the oregano - we now know this is the #18 on page three).
We went there yesterday and my stomach was a little sensative so I figured on stearing clear of cheese. I remembered seeing the employees there eating soup during one of our visits so, as i approcahed the counter I gave my best, "I only speak english smile" and ordered. I put my hands in a cup / bowl like position and slurpped a little, saying "soup?" as if in a question. The cashier smiled and said "da, da". She started to get the menu to show me the options (there are many) but I can't read the menu. So, I do a little funky chicken type flapping and ad some "bok, bok, bok". She laughs a little and says, "da, da". 10 minutes later I got a fresh bowl of chicken noodle soup and two rolls. It was pretty good and my stomach was appreciative.
We have used this technique many times to order food, shop for something or talk with our driver (Vladimir - he speaks NO english). It works to get basic points across and the people here are SO generous in trying to understand us.
Well, I hear the water boiling and it's time to shower. We'll post more later as there is more to say about what's happening over the next couple of days.
posted by Geoffrey Horowitz at 9:47 PM
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