I forgot to mention yesterday that the Basket-hall has squat toilets in the ladies’ room. It’s a porcelain hole with places to put your feet on either side. I’ve seen the, in other countries, but it was the first time I’ve seen them in Russia.
So, Skyping didn’t work last night, but we made a WhatsApp call. At least I got to talk to everyone. The next time I’ll remember to push the camera button however, so we can all see each other too. We didn’t make contact until about 4 and then we talked for half an hour. That means I slept in until 10.
After I got up and got going, I took my 5-liter water bottle out to the water Automat and filled it up. Then I walked down to my old bank, took out more money and deposited it in my new bank. It’s right near the subway station and my bread bakery. So I stopped and got bread and took the subway into town. I’ve got to take a picture of the bakery for you next week. It’s a little, nondescript gray building with no entrance. If you want bread, you wait in front of a little window tha5 the guy opens when he sees you and you tell him what you want. Sometimes the line is 10 people long. And when you’re standing at the window, you can see all the bakers patting the dough and putting it in the oven. You end up with piping hot flat bread. It’s phenomenal.
I had wanted to go to to the big bookstore that the guy told us about yesterday, but since I started out so late and had tickets for the 2 p.m. showing of Mathilda, I decided to push the bookstore off until next week and get tickets to The Magic Flute instead. So when I got off the subway I walked up The Hill to the opera house. I go to the counter and ask for tickets for Dec. 20 and the only thing they have left is standing room only. I tell her I’ll take two tickets and she tells me the price. I didn’t hear her correctly through her inch-thick plexiglass and and screechy microphone so I asked her to repeat. You would have thought I had asked her to sacrifice her first-born child. Finally, the lady behind me in line told me the price (less than a dollar a ticket. Take note, RPO, they sell out weeks in advance.)
It’s interesting that 99.9% of cashiers go out of their way to help you. The small number who don’t are usually older women. Maybe they are just pissed at the raw deal they’ve gotten in life and now have someone they can take it out on. Who the hell knows. But I got my tickets.
Then I walked down to the place where I saw the neat Tatar hats and, of course, they were all too big and I didn’t like any of them anyway. So I walked back to the mall with the movie theater and ate two slices of pieces at the food court. It’s important to know that it was two slices, because when you order two, you get a free cup of tea with it.
I went into the movie theater and took my seat. They have as many trailers and commercials as in the States. It was good that the movie didn’t have an awful lot of complicated dialogue and that I remembered some of my Russian history. I got the gist of it and enjoyed it. It didn’t feel like 2 hours and 10 minutes.
After the movie I caught the subway back towards home and stopped at the grocery story. I got what I needed and walked home. Then I had a nice long FaceTime chat with Mary Ellen. I was so glad she could watch me make my penguin project for school and critique it for me.
And now, since I’m still tired from the late chat with America, it’s about time to turn in. The only other thing of note today was that I noticed a Stockmann department store in town. It’s a very prominent department store chain in Finland.
Tomorrow I’m making binoculars out of toilet paper rolls with the kids and were going on a lion hunt. In the evening, I have tutoring. So enough for now.
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