December’s “WTR” Moment

In the fall there was the rain, and with December came the snow… and lots of it. The snow fell steadily last weekend and has kept on going. But this is Russia. They’re used to snow*, right? Apparently not…

We went to visit a friend who lives in the south end of St-Petersburg. It was something else to see how slow the traffic was due to the snow, which several days later was still unmoved from where it had accumulated! A pleasant winter day: sunny and cool without much wind – having to climb through the snowbanks that had overgrown the sidewalk proved to be true sport! Just when I think that Russia can’t surprise me, I turn the corner to find the latest WTR** moment. On Saturday, I was struggling to move forward down a side street when a young woman on a horse casually trotted past. Not something I would expect to find in the city!

I would also like to take this chance to wish everyone very happy holidays and all the best for the New Year! May 2010 find you healthy and happy and may the year be filled with joy and adventure!

_____________

*The link is to an article published in the St-Petersburg Times, which explains how this is the worst snowfall the city has seen in over 100 years! Thousands of soldiers and civilians were hired to help clear the roads and the sidewalks.

**WTR = Welcome to Russia. Our phrase when dealing with unusual things or frustrating moments that you have to hope of changing, much like the ocean’s tide

A weekend in the Russian countryside

The majority of city-dwelling Russians live in small apartments – small enough to compare with Parisian standards. As a result, they take advantage of the weekend to escape to the countryside. When one of our colleagues, Artëm (pronounced Ar-ti-um), invited us to visit the Vologda region where he is from, we jumped at the chance. A fishing museum would be opened in one of the neighbouring towns that weekend, which was the deciding factor for the timing of this trip. The adventure actually started straight from work: from the office we headed to Artëm’s so he could get a few things, we then went to pick-up some food for our overnight ride on the train (and the mini-bus actually broke down on our way there – WTR!!) and then it was off to the train station. The station (Ladozhsky Vokzal) is new and modern, very different from our fist trip out of the city from Ploshad Lenina. Artëm, Nataly, Matvei and I had a 4-person sleeper cabin, so we had a great time on the 9+ hour ride. We shared a cooked chicken, some raw veggies, and washed it all down with a mix of cognac and cherry juice, which is apparently quite popular in Russia. We arrive at the train station in Шексна (sh-ek-sna) at 7am. From this point onward, the only English-speaking Russians are our two travel companions. We wanted an “authentic” experience, and this was certainly it! We were greeted by Artëm’s parents: Alexander and Irma. Alexander was the one who took us around town – a hilarious man (even if all his jokes had to be translated for us). Irna is a doctor whose passion is music – so there would be much singing and dancing on this trip! That day was spent exploring the country fairs. Neither city has more than 30 000 inhabitants, and were not used to getting visitors from as far away as Canada! First stop: Сизьма (siz-ma), where we spent most of the day. The fishing museum was opening here. Sadly, we couldn’t gain access to the museum since the official unveiling was being held up as they waited for the mayor of St-Petersburg and other public officials to arrive. It was a wonderful place: lots of small stands with traditional Russian food and artisans practicing their different crafts, from metal forging and wood carving, to pottery and hand embroidery. There were also singers and folk dancers. The Russians love to dance (in restaurants, in bars, in house parties, etc.), so it did not surprise me to be taken by the hand to dance to a traditional folk song (the song was actually about a beautiful girl named Nadiehzda, which is Nadia in the short form). It was only appropriate. We wandered around for a bit and finally sampled some of the local fair. This is where we would be introduced to the first of many “Russian traditions”. There was supposed to be a traditional (Russian tradition #1) fish soup, Уха (pronounced uk-ha), but they had run out of bowls to serve it in so we couldn’t have any. (Irma would right this wrong the next night at supper). In France it’s common to drink wine with meals, here is it vodka. The “traditional” way is to have 100g, which is close to 2 oz (Russian tradition #2). A member of the group will offer a toast, and the whole 100g are drunk in one shot. This is fine if you are only having one drink, but the Russians seem to have a lot to toast to!

The second stop was a relatively brief visit to the Шексна fair. There was techno music that could be heard pounding as we walked towards the site. We were all disappointed once we got to the first area to find the DJ spinning for a handful of kids that were jumping around to the music. We made our way to the main stage, where there was a group performing. The highlights came from the crowd: Artëm who decided that he would go on a horseback ride around the site and the female police officers walking around in the “standard” uniform. How can you tell if the uniform is for a Russian female police officer? Because the navy blue skirt is worn with calf-high boots that have 3-4” heels. Stylish? Yes. Practical? C’mon! How are they supposed to run after people if they have to??? (this certainly has to count as Russian tradition #3, because I haven't heard of female police officers incorporating anything other than sensible shoes into their uniform anywhere else.)

We stayed in for supper that night. We were staying at a place that roughly translates to the Hunter’s Lodge. There was wood paneling everywhere and actual bear and lynx hides decorating the walls of the central dining area, which was also graced with a brick fireplace. We had smoked duck, bread and red caviar (I did mention that I like this place, right?) and some colbassa (Russian dried meets) in front of the fireplace. That’s where a few more of the “Russian traditions” were revealed. #4 - You never leave an empty bottle on the table – it’s bad luck. Once the bottle of wine or vodka is finished, the empty bottle is placed on the floor.

#5 - Only the man of the house, who in our case was Alexander, can pour the drinks. It is the man’s responsibility to ensure that everyone is looked after. Pouring in his place is almost an insult.

#6 - The ritual of the toast speech before each drink is taken quite seriously. I have to say that I enjoyed this one the most. It is a time to give thanks for the good things in one’s life, to welcome guests around the table and to be able to tell stories of the past. It can go on for some time or it can be a few well thoughout words. (say it together please: kak jahrkim!) We had a long supper that night, sprinkled with an occasional song by Artëm and Irma, and it was wonderful. I was already fond of the Russian people beforehand, but meeting this family certainly sealed the deal. They are very down-to-earth, caring and friendly people. We spoke a mish-mash of Russian and English that night, naturally being helped by Nataly and Artëm for

translation more often than not.

We drove to Vologda on the Sunday morning and would spend the day visiting Artëm’s hometown. We started with a tour of the Vologda Monastery. The majority of Russians are Orthodox and they have maintained strong traditions around religion. Because this is a working monastery, the women must wear skirts and cover their heads when entering. In order to ensure that the dress code is followed, there are 2 bins at the entrance, one with wrap skirts (one size fits all) and the other with head scarves. The boys laughed at us so much! They called us the cute grandmothers for the rest of the visit. The grounds are quite beautiful. One of the buildings was mage entirely of wood – no nails. Get 4 engineers together looking at this - you that were were fascinated by this construction method!

The next stop was Vologda’s main square. The principle attractions are the Belfry Cathedral (which has stairs all the way up to the top, offering 360 deg. views of the city) and St-Sophia’s Cathedral, which has some rather impressive frescoes in its interior. The Vologda River, which runs through the town bearing its name, is home to over a dozen cathedrals and monasteries, several of which are being reconstructed. The climb up the constantly narrowing wooden staircase of the Belfry Cathedral was daunting at times, but certainly worth the effort. Strangely enough some of us weren’t entirely comfortable with the idea of leaning against the wrought iron balcony… A visit of old was followed by a little bit of modern: there was a travelling carnival in town, so we spent some time playing on the bumper cars and going on the rides (even if the flying boat got the best of me and I was a bit green afterwards…). It was funny to see our companions try their hand at the firing range. Many of the men here have served in the military, so we had to encourage the father-son rivalry between Alexander and Artëm to prove who was the better shot. It was Nataly who surprised me when she walked away with a teddy bear. We named him “y a rien là”, which was only appropriate since she was the one that taught us the equivalent Russian expression (не за что, pronounced nyé-ze-shta).

In the meantime, Irma had decided that we could not possibly go back to St-Petersburg without having tried this famous fish soup (Уха) that we had been promised, so she prepared a lovely supper for us. Alexander and Irma live in a very modest one-bedroom flat, and I was asking myself how 8 of us were supposed to fit around the small kitchen table for supper. I was even more surprised to see how easy it seemed for Irma to prepare a lovely supper for the 10 people that finally sat around her beautiful table – as a lot of Artëm friends hadn’t seen him in a while and stopped in to say hello. It’s easy to say, but one has to have such a supper to understand how important family life is in the Russian culture. It reminded me of a supper around my nonni’s table, where 4 people could stop in at the last minute and my grandmother had some magical way of making sure that we would still have enough (if not too much) food for everyone (Russian tradition #7). The non-city Russians are some of the most down to earth people I've met. It was so touched that everyone did their best to try to talk to us in what little English they knew – and they were patient enough to let us stumble with our “survival” level Russian. Ivan, who is the husband of one of Artëm’s long time friends (Anna), was really fun. Once he got comfortable enough with us he had us in stitches laughing! He kept saying how he couldn’t wait to tell everyone that he’d been out drinking with a couple of Canadians – apparently there aren’t many that make their way through Vologda. Such a shame because we certainly had a great time there!

What could have been a never-ending evening around the table was brought to a close when it was time to go to the station to catch our train. I was getting ready to say goodbye to everyone, but they kept telling me that they were coming to the station with us. Ok… So the 10 of us piled into a few cars and off we went. Artëm, Matvei and I hopped into a cab – even that was an adventure! The cabbie was this young guy who was doing 100 km/h on the residential streets and had some heavy techno music blaring so loud that we couldn’t hear each other speak. No problem – why swim against the stream? We made sure that our seatbelts were securely fasted and rocked out to the music on our ride to the train station.

I guess that the security officials at the Vologda train station are used to seeing families come to say goodbye to their children as they head back to the bigger cities for school or work, because they didn’t bat an eyelid when everyone got ONTO the train with us. They came into our 4-person sleeper cabin for one final toast before me left. It was great! We apparently were adopted: we now having a standing invitation to return to see Alexander and Irma anytime, with or without Artëm!

Our trip to Vologda was our first weekend outside of St-Petersburg and it was wonderful up until the very last minute. Some wise advice from a friend back home comes to mind often: “never turn down an invitation”. This little weekend off the beaten path was a perfect example of why you should say yes to such invitations – it has certainly been one of my favourite Russian moments so far. Спасибо за всë, Артëм и Наталию!!

The same, but different...

It's been almost a month since I arrived in St-Petersburg, and yet I'm still fascinated by the all the things to discover in this city. It's very much what I expected on many levels - a European-feeling city rich in history and culture. And yet there are times where I am all too aware of how far away I am from home.

The single hardest thing to get used to is the language barrier: having grown up in a multi-cultural city like Montreal, where the majority of people speak at least two languages, I find it very hard that once I leave the office I cannot communicate easily. I look forward to the day that my spoken Russian will be good enough that I will walk into a store and ask for something, once, and that item turn up on the counter because I was understood. We have been lucky in that we have met some wonderful people who have been nothing but kind and patient with us, but I must admit that I never thought I'd see the day where I couldn't ask for something basic knowing that I speak 4 languages!!

I have to admit that I have grown quite fond of the Russians I have met in St-Petersburg. (I've vowed that I would not have an all-expat circle of friends here. If I wanted that I would have chosen a different country to move to...) They are very kind and welcoming! On the "feels like home" front, there was a day trip to Komarovo, where a BBQ by the lake was planned for the office. I felt like I was in the Laurentians! And I was pleasantly surprised to find myself surrounded by a young, outdoorsy crowd at the office.

I have learned that some things are universal, no matter where you are: BBQ is a national sport (in Russia it's referred to as Shashleek) and there will be debate about the Aussies and South Africans playing each other either in cricket or rugby.

Things I didn't expect to see... 1) A Papa John's pizza chain - or to be more precise Папа Джон'с. Matvei and I have a contest every time we travel to find the most quétaine thing in a foreign country. This place won in Costa Rica, so I nearly fell over laughing when I figured out what the sign of this little restaurant at the end of my street read!

2) drinking on the street. Yes, yes... I've been to New Orleans so I'm aware of the fact that this is legal in other cities, but it is still a fairly new concept to me. It seems strange to see people walking around drinking beer on their way to the metro at 4pm. What's weirder, is seeing people do that at 8am... The boys felt that they would try this out on our train ride to the lake - after all it was 3am back in Montreal, so we should have still been at the bar partying!

3) Tabasco sauce that costs over $20 CAD. I did the math once the groceries were home and I couldn't believe it! It was the first time at our now-favourite grocery store (I never thought I'd be so happy to find peanut butter and soy sauce on the shelves), and we were so excited about finding all these goodies that we didn't think to do the conversion before throwing it in the shopping cart...

Planes, trains and automobiles

I've already mentioned the St-Petersburg airport in my first blog, so I won't revisit it here. What I do find very interesting is the metro system in the city. I haven't tried the trams or the buses yet, but the metro is an integral part of my daily life. Most metros are built on the same concept: a single, LONG escalator that transports you from the surface to the metro landing. The escalator moves quickly and yet it is still a 3 minute ride down (and I'm not exaggerating - we timed it!). Some metros are as far as 300 metres below ground! The metro cars remind me of a 1960's diner: yellow walls with frosted glass light fixtures. It makes me laugh that at every stop, just before the metro pulls into the station, the lights in the car flicker off then back on. The first time it happened I was afraid that I would find myself sitting, metres from my destination, in the dark waiting for the power to come back on. But fortunately that didn't happen. Some of the metro station have ornate murals and others are very simple in decor and yet are still quite beautiful. Cameras are forbidden in the metros - this picture was taken before I noticed that little hyrogliphe on every entrance door. Apparently the metros in Moscow are even more impressive, but I'll have to wait until my first visit before I can comment. The train ride outside of the city was also a lot of fun. The train ride from St-Petersburg to the lake was about an hour - I'm sure it would haven taken half the time had it not been for the frequent station stops. There are people who walk through the wagons selling various things: from ice cream to mosquito net hats.

There is a strange habit in St-Petersburg that I can only attribute to leftover habits from the communist days: random people will give you a ride home in lieu of a taxi. I'd never hitch-hiked in my life, so the idea of this was quite peculiar... Sketchy? That was my first impression, but it is VERY common in St-Petersburg and about as safe as taking a cab. For those that don't know, St-Petersburg is a collection of islands. At night, the bridges lift to allow larger ships to travel down the Neva River. The first bidge separates at 1h30 every morning - then another one every 15 minutes. They stay open until 4 or 5am. So if you find yourself on the "wrong" side of the bridge, you're going to be there for a while! So here we were on our 2nd Friday night in the city: the last metro had already passed us by and we were finishing supper near Nevsky Prospect. Seeing as the corporate apartment was on one of the other island, we had to get moving before the bridges opened. We make our way to the main strip with one of our Russian colleagues, hoping to catch a cab across town together. We looked for a cab, but instead, a random driver pulled to the curb. Alexi chatted with him for a minute and then indicated that we should get in. I had read about this so I knew what was happening, but I would have never dared to do this without the local sitting in the front seat with us!!

Hot chicks vs. revenge of the Mullet

Hey everyone, Nadia has kindly offered me to do this section of blog!!! I got to admit that it was a hard decision, but I accepted after all, I will try to keep an objective view and incorporate the most comments Nadia usually would do on the pictures :-P

To do so, I've establish, of course, a scale on which you will be able to give your input!!!!

HOT CHICK Definition : the term refers to any "female" gender we incounter that for XYZ reason is wearing near to nothing on a nice sunday afternoon!

The Mullet!!

Definition : Well let's just say that is why I'm fearing my first haircut in Russia!

N.B. Eventhough we are having a blast doing this section, please note that unfortunatly most picture will be back shots, since we are still a little bit shy to take out our camera and take them live. Sorry for the inconvinience. This is why there is no criteria related to beauty of their face or personnality!!! BABY GOT'S BACK!!

Judging parameters :

The girls :

- Height of there stoleto (HS): 0 = flat ; 5 = Crazy stripper shoes!

- Lenght of skirt (LS): 0 = OLD USSR standard for pants ; 5= ah! nice "Victoria's secret" underwear

- Location or day the outfit is worn (LDO):0 = Da! Da! we were at a strip club ; 5 = Geez, come on it's my nephew baptisim ......

OVERAL points = HS + LS + LDO (couldn't help it, engineer geek) The boys :

- Lenght of the mullet (LM): 0 = baby/wannabee mullet ; 5 = Jesus Christ, thank God I brought my clipper, Nadia please shave my head.

- Mullet Power -thickness of hair (MP) : 0 = come on your about to be bold shave it off ; 5 = that is some race horse thickeness power! Bravo Champion!

- Overal clothes (OC) : 0 = At least your clothes is nice (not going to happen folks) ; 5 = Geez, is it the clothes Canada shipped 30 years ago to help out, yep that's Grandpa sweatpants!

OVERAL points = LM + MP + OC

WTR (welcome to Russia!) You will quickly notice that as much as the girl were incredible dearing clothing, the guys on the other hand are still in the USSR regime!!!

Enjoy, and let's begin!!

OKAY! OKAY! All the category could be in this photo!!! but if you look closer you should notice one person standing out!!! I got to admit, I volontary started hard core!!! To her defense it was the Navy thing that day, but still can I hear it for some bonus point on the nice head gear!!!!! (not sure where to add those bonus point to the formula :-P)

<--- (1)

HS = 4 (height is good, but flat in the front, what the hell was she thinking)

LS = 4 (I can really complain, but she does have 1-2 in under her butt, that's kind of long for here!) She would score points on thighness of dress!

LDO = 5 (Well like mention that's more than okay to go to church with! she had a small black vest :-P, it was in a touristic place with kids !!! ) Total = 13 , but i'm giving her a extra 2 points for the hat!!!

Okay we didn't get much guys on camera yet, but like they say it's not quantity but quality!!!! The other side, the girl was haging with our big CHAMPION here! must have money or related!

<---(2)

LM = 4, we saw longer but it's well defined!

MP = 5, Enjoy the profile lady, doesn't look like a solid Mullet!!!

OC = 5, just love the pink t-shirt on guys!

The fact that he was beside the girl (3) makes his style stand out!!!

Total = 14

(3) ------> HS = 4, they are high but come on, they are full instead of a small steleto!

LS = 3 , we are talking of 3-4 in lower than butt!

LDO = 4, It's still sunday (we got lucky on the picture taking) , but at least she is wearing white for god's day!

Total = 11

Okay, back to serious contenders!!! We have the perfect barbie in the next one!!! you can also get a special two extra chicks for free in the back ground (they were coming out of work)! As for Barbie, she came inside our building to get ....... I don't know maybe she finish her stripper jig early and she wanted to suprise her boyfriend!

(4) ------------>

HS = 5, this is the perfect example of what we mean, please notice the 1-2 inch height in the front of the shoe!

LS = 5 , I believe this one was 1 in over her butt line! :-P, do notice eventhought the lenght she still have space for a pocket, and her hand fits in it!!

LDO = 5, it's 5 o'clock, we are in a working district , not on the main, or the strip club!!!

Total = 15 +2 points for the bleach blond look or her fake breast!, but I like the fake breast :-P!!!

There so much women here that they even put them on the building!!! Incredible!!

This is a other classic example of what we are seing here most of the time! A nicely dress lady we a guy wearing sport wear or something not up to the level!!! <---(5)

HS = 4, It's got good standard height, in her case it's were she is wearing them that counts! LS = 4 , Believe it or not, this is the standard height of skrit here!! LDO = 6, This was taken on a Saturday at Petergof (summer palace, 45 min boat ride, all dirt road, but still she stick with her saturday nite club outfit!!! That's dedicated to the cause!

(6)---> HS = 5, she is worth it, setting such a good example for her girl, plus they look so stable in the dirt to run around with her "dochka"!!

LS = 3 , Believe it or not, this is the standard height of skrit here for mom's!!

LDO = 5 , same has before plus what a role model for the kid, what do you want to be when you grow up, a hooker like 'mommy'! Total = 14 Hey all the guys "entrepreneur" out there, why haven't we started this concept in montréal, which guy wouldn't pay to get sushi plus a schoolgirl waitress!!! Nice concept this restaurant also have 'Japananimate' everywhere on the walls!!! Plus they have nice business lunch menu, serve quickly!!!

Extra points for the socks !!!! This is one of our waitress that is really really nice!!!

It's the most confusing thing to have a oriental girl speak russian to you!!!!

She started understanding our point technique for ordering!!!

<------- (7)

To her defense at least she's on the main street so it's normal to dress up!!! HS = 4, Nice height and thin!!! all we look in a good shoe! LS = 2, kind of long for the main street!

LDO = 2 , on neivesky prospeckt, more than normal! We got use to it!

Total = 8

Okay let's finish with something to convince all the guys to come to see us in St-Pete!!!

We went about 30 min out of the city to a cool lake where we had a cool BBQ with the Russian and all their family! It's in the woods, nothing but campign around!!! Small beach, you can look at the Facebook photo!!!

This girl out of no where is dress for a catalog picture shoot or a playboy party!!!

HS = 0, I got to admit that it would of been superb to see her with stoleto! They are probably in the car!

LS = 5, well for a bikini, it's pretty short!

LDO = 5, Saturday in the camping zone!!! Bravo!

Total = 10, if only she cared and would of worn shoes!!!

To bad!!!

YOU CAN STOP LOOKING FOR MORE PICTURES!!! FOR NOW!!!

A culinary adventure

How can you tell that someone has Italian heritage? They talk with their hands and they love food. I am guilty of both these things. What comes to mind when we think Russian cuisine? Borsh? Yes, that's important but there is so much more! Before I get to the food, let's back-up one step: groceries! This seems trivial, but grocery shopping isn't the easiest task when you've just arrived... Once Matvei and I moved into the corporate apartment, we had to sort out where to buy groceries. The first night we wander around a bit and finally discover a "producti" on the other side of the bridge, which is a small store with different counters, each run by an independant vendour. As is commonly done in Europe, you must ask the vendor for what you want, they bag it, weigh it and then hand alll your purchases over once you have paid. All this is fine if you can ask for what you want!! This was the point where I realised I was coming up blank on all the Russian I had learned and quickly discovered that very few people out side our office actually speak English. It tooks us about 20 minutes of walking back and forth up the aisle of this little store before we actually built-up the courage to ask for something! We started with "the fruit lady"*, who was very nice and found us charming as we tried to ask for things in Russian. The next two vendors were not so nice... But the "bread lady" who we spoke to last was great and we managed to leave with enough food to make a few meals. We then walked 10 minutes back to our flat lugging all our stuff, which for Matvei also included several liters of bottled water since you can't drink that tap water here. Much to our dismay, the next day we found out that there was a grocery store with actual aisles and shelves that you can take things from yourself right DOWNSTAIRS from our apartment building. (**insert us feeling like idiots here**) So what do the Russians eat? There are these wonderful things called Blin (ьлин) that are like crèpes and are filled with anything and everything. We went to a Russian fast-food chain and had blin filled with red caviar. The picture is from our night at the Ukranian restaurant when we went with our Ukranian colleague). There are two things that come up very often: sour cream and dill. A large dollop of sour cream (сметана) is added to soups just before serving, or as a side for pelmeni (= something similar to ravioli that are delicious). As for the dill, it comes with everything. If it isn't one of the rare times where it is not part of the dish, a large sprig of it is added as decoration. They have even added chopped dill to an inside-out roll at our local sushi shop! If you do not like these two things and find yourself here, you are S.O.L. Getting back to the topic of caviar, Matvei and I made a sad discovery: we'd been eating imitation black caviar!! We came across the jar of black caviar in a super market for only 77 Rubles (~$3 CAD) and we thought it was too good to be true. We found out a week later that indeed it was... We have since seen caviar at the markets and grocery stores for more than 100 times that price. The good thing to come out of that discovery was the mix between salty and fresh. We've often been served kolbasa sausage with a piece of pickle or salted herring with cucumber, which makes for a nice mix. We had also done this with the (imitation) caviar. Then there are some familiar things that are just slightly different to cater to the Russian market... The Feta cheese here is excellent, though with a very different texture - more like solid cream cheese. I loved the instructions I found when I opened the package! As for the Lays chips, there are all sorts of unusual flavours here (except for "regular" it would seem). We first tried the Caviar flavoured chips, which tasted more like butter than anything else. But the шашльык were a different story... Chips aside, actual шашльык is yummy and we took an instant liking to it. It's basically marinated meat that is grilled as brochettes, much like shishkabobs. So whenever one of us is craving meat, we head out for some шашльык! On the weekend, Matvei and I visited a few farmer's markets (Рынок) that are close to our future "neighbourhood" (we should be settling into our long-term apartment next week). Markets are always an intersting place - lots of colours, smells and flavours. The second one we visited we really enjoyed. We found spices!! "The spice lady" was lovely - she spoke zero English but was still very talkative and keen to help us. We must have spent half an hour with her smelling the various spices at her kiosk. I have a feeling we will be paying her another visit soon... I know it's not exactly food, but I don't think I can end this post without mentioning vodka. Yes, vodka is popular here and, yes, it is great - a lot smoother than what we find on our shelves overseas. The Russians drink vodka straight, which is why I got some strange looks when I ordered a "vodka soda" at the bar the other night. It arrived as a plastic bottle of sparkling water (for the soda) and a shot of vodka in a large shot glass. The other fortunate discovery for this cosmo-drinker is a little something called морс (pronounced like "Coors", but with an M), which is a sort of cranberry juice here and is very typical Russian. We had home-made морс at the restaurant the other day and it was really good. So my favourite drink has become vodka морс. My luck with wine here hasn't been great, so I needed to find an alternative!

*the X lady term should be trademarked by our Australian colleague. He has a "bank lady" contact, the "apartment lady", etc. We thought the term was adorable so we've started applying it to everything! BTW - we met the "bank lady" today, so we now understand why he made such an effort to keep her as a contact!