Since I had said I was going to cook sauerbraten and red cabbage for our international Thanksgiving, i figured I’d better get hoping and get what i needed because Thursday is. To a holiday here, so I knew I’d have to have everything ready by tonight. Since it has to marinate for at least two days, I hopped on my bike after work and rode through a steady mist to a new different grocery store I’d heard about that was supposed to have red cabbage. I hadn’t seen any in the other stores, but I really hadn’t paid much attention.
Bachetle is only about a 10 minute ride from the apartment. And holy cow. Picture the Pittsford Wegmanns, but more upscale. It had lots of wines and all the fresh veggies were wrapped in cellophane. They had a deli that stretched the length of the store. It’s not like I’ll be doing all my shopping there, but I will definitely be going back.
After I got home, I started marinating the meat and realized I’d forgotten the brown sugar for the red cabbage. No problem, I thought. I knew I was going to go to the theater where they do the plays in the Tatar language on Tuesday, so I figured I’d just stop at the grocery store on my way to the Metro station.
And that’s exactly what I did. I met my friend outside the theater and when we went through the security check, the guard lifted up my backpack and made me open it. He wasn’t expecting a bottle of vinegar and an onion. We got in and checked our coats and then I went to get earphones. There is a simultaneous translation in Russian and in English. The play was pretty good. It was a comedy set about 600 years ago and was actually very clever. The translation left a lot to be desired. It took me awhile to realize that “The elephant has wilted our sewings,” was supposed to mean “The elephant has destroyed our crops.” The translator was either using a dictionary from Shakespeare’s time or google translations. In spite of that, the play was very entertaining.
Today we worked on our Mother’s Day gifts because Mother’s Day is this Friday. We made flowers out of salt dough and then painted them. I’m sure the moms will be thrilled. But probably the most interesting thing was a conversation I had with my TA. She goes to seminars put on by the school psychologists every once in awhile to get new ideas about how to deal with kids. Today, after she came back, she told me that we should tell all the boys how strong and brave they are and we should tell the girls they are fine young ladies. Otherwise, they will grow up to be gay. Say what?
That one just about knocked my socks off. I told her that I totally disagreed with her. If you are gay, it’s because you were born that way. No, was the answer. That was true of only about 1% of gay people. The rest are socialized to be gay. Holy crap. I had heard rumors that Russians were homophobic. This was the first time I had any real proof of it.
After work I rode to the post office to pick up a package that arrived then rode on to my bread store and the bank before I came home to start cooking the Sauerbraten. Oh, damn, it smells so good , even if I did have to tweak the recipe a little bit because of the different ingredients. Lordy, I will have leftovers for a month, because I know that everyone else will be bringing lots of stuff too. And you know what? I don’t care! I will need something spicy in the evenings after that bland stuff at school.
I hope you all have a happy Thanksgiving.
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