Full-fat yogurt

Sorry for the delay folks. I haven't fallen off the face of the earth, I just have jet lag!

After a nearly sleepless night on Thursday/Friday, I woke up in time to settle my lease with my landlord, Sergei, and go with him to the local registering office, so that I could get certification that I may live in his apartment. This involved going back and forth between several lines in the office and of course filling out many forms. It also involved me forking over the equivalent of $50 to the city government for the privilege. Sergei is quite nice though, and pointed me to several less-expensive food stores and drug stores in the neighborhood (which are hard to come by since I am living downtown). After that, I stopped by the IREX office to make my presence in Russian known, and to get instructions for the further registration of my visa. Olga, the woman I talked with is very nice, and I'm looking forward to meeting Natasha Petrovna, the head person in the office.

So I trekked over to the company which provided my visa, and after another $20 or so, they took my migration card, and I will be able to pick up my registration on Monday. Then I will officially be legal for 3 months (after which point, I have to pay another $20 and register all over again!)

All day I felt like crap and was really really afraid that I was coming down with something from the lack of sleep, and from hurtling through the air for 10+ hours in a heremetically sealed metal tube with hundreds of other people and their germs. Maybe its just allergies.

So I bought some Thera-flu, just in case, came home, had tea, prianiki (my favorite Russian cookies) and watched TV, a lot of TV. And now I no longer feel the need to be apologetic about it, because watching TV improves my language skills. :-)

I mention full-fat yogurt, because if you've never tried it, it is amazing decadent. I think its even more decadent than whole milk yogurt in the states. Its like dessert. I love Russian dairy products. I'm also working on building a nice, insulating layer of fat for the winter, in part because its already quite cold, and although Sergei and the news keeps saying that "bab'i leto" (Indian Summer) is coming, I'm not convinced. The apartment does have a space heater though, because the heat is controlled city-wide and isn't on yet.

Soviet-style apartments - Nowadays, when real estate companies describe apartments for rent, they distinguish between western and soviet style decor and furnishings. Its hard to describe Soviet era furniture, but once I get the picture thing figured out, I'll post photos.
Today I'm going to go pay for the cable modem, so I'll have internet at home. Whoo hoo!

Thanks for reading! Fire may have been a more important invention than the blog, but this is more fun! (Laura may disagree here) Frankly, I freak out everytime I have to light the stove here (which is every time I want to use it).

poka! (Russian for "later")