I walked out of the house to meet Sonia at 10. It was raining and frozen slush was on the ground so I turned around, walked right back in and put on my raincoat of my 4 layers of clothing. Plus scarf, plus hat, plus gloves. Sonia and I headed off to the subway. I showed her the shortcut and pointed out the larger grocery store for her. She’s only been here a week and does not have a background in the Russian language so we read a lot of words along the way and I could explain several things to her.
We took the metro to our stop and walked up the hill in the rain. It took us about 30 minutes to get there and we only had to ask someone once. He led us there and then tried to convince us that we needed him as a tour guide for the day. He barely spoke English and we barely speak Russian. I don’t think so.
There wasn’t really much going on at the market. I was really surprised at the lack of people. But it could be because it was church time. Besides meat packed in cellophane, there was one counter where giant cuts of meat were laid out on the open table. It’s the way things are done here.
We walked back down the hill to the pedestrian zone where we went to lunch at the House of Tea. It’s the second time I’ve been there, the second time I ordered stuffed cabbage rolls and the second time they’ve been out of them. Do they know I’m coming? What’s the deal here? So I ordered something else, which was OK and we both ended with cheesecake. Now, that was good. Actually, it’s more accurately called cream cake and it’s more like a custard pie. Still good.
After lunch, we walked around the corner to the Museum of Happy Childhood. It’s owned by the same guy who has the Museum of Soviet Lifestyle and you can tell. It’s a collection of a bunch of old stuff he gathered together and labeled with writing on pieces of cardboard boxes. It was a next relaxed atmosphere with lots of stuff out of someone’s attic to look. Good that someone is saving these momentos.
Then I took her into the nearby shopping center to show what was there. Her suitcase with most of her clothes still hasn’t arrived from England and she’s getting desperate for something warm to wear.
She needed some cleaning supplies for her apartment so she asked me to take her to my “Home Depot”. We found what she needed, went to cash out, and, would you believe, it was the same cashier I had the other two times. She remembered me and said, “This is the third time you’ve been here!” I certainl6 couldn’t deny that.
We took the tram back to ou stop with all Sonia’s supplies in our hands. As we exit the tram and start walking towards home, Sonia sees a sign for Amigo Miquel’s restaurant. The sign in English said it served tacos and burritos. The entrance goes down the stairs into wait looked like it might be a dungeon. But who can resist tacos and burritos? So we are going to try it tomorrow for lunch. Tomorrow I also want to go back to the library where they have tours in English. The are only on weekdays so I’ll see if I can’t get that in before I leave for Moscow on Wednesday.
Tomorrow night I will tutor my student at MacDonald’s. I’ll be able to enjoy their cappuccino while I correct English sentences.
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