Moving right along....

First the news. I bought a humidifier and have it running now. I’m hoping it will help with the dry Air in the apartment and the sore throats I sometimes wake up with. Paul and Jake both got one and they said they help them a lot. They even sleep better.
Next news flash. Russian men do not shake hands with women unless the women aggressively stick their hands out to make it known that they want their hands shook. I was at a meeting where two guys walked in, I stood up and started to put my hand out and they walked right past me to the men. They ignored the other women in the room too. I checked with my boss about it and he said Russian men aren’t taught to shake hands with women and I guess the women are taught not to expect it.
And last but not least, you might remember that I explained about mall doors last year. When you go to the mall entrance there’s a set of five or six doors, then you walk into the “decompression chamber” area before the next set of doors. I was always surprised that in the first set of doors, the door on only one end would be unlocked and then on the inside set of doors only the door on the opposite end would be unlocked. It turns out it’s what they do to keep the cold Kazan wind from blowing straight into the mall in winter. OK, that makes sense to me now!
So now on to my activities. Sunday morning I had a long breakfast with Anna at Beanheart’s cafe. It was so filling, I didn’t eat anything again until evening. Afterwards, I met Sonia for some shopping at IKEA. She was looking for some chairs and there was really nothing I needed, but I picked up another casserole dish and a birthday present for a colleague. Boy, that place has to be the most visited store in Kazan.
Then, Monday night the boss had tickets for me for the first international Tatar music contest. There were some absolutely gorgeous costumes and the music is very interesting. I definitely hear and Arabic influence in the music, both in the tonality and the way the people perform the music. The vibratos and the riffs sound very Arabic to me. The concert started late as usual and at 9:20 it wasn’t anywhere near over, so I just got up and went home. It was interesting, but enough was enough.